Do I have Adrenal Fatigue Stage 3?

[lulabell1983]

Hi

I am having some horrible symptoms at the moment and I think I might be in late stage adrenal fatigue. Here are my current diagnoses and symptoms

I have POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)

Symptoms
1. Crippling fatigue, I struggle to get out of bed and just cleaning for half an hour causes me to crash. I will shake and go totally dizzy and have vertigo and then will get runs of tachycardia.
2. When in bed I feel like I cannot breathe properly (oxygen sats seem find on a pulse oximeter). Then when I eventually fall asleep I will be jolted back awake almost immediately with tachycardia and sometimes PVCs are felt. This happens throughout the night. I only ever sleep for maybe 2 hours at a time
3. My blood pressure is low (I recently had a 24hr BP monitor and it averages at 99/60 but drops to 75/50 at night).
4. I experience constant adrenaline rushes, feelings of impending doom, cold sweats, tingling.
5. My hands and feet are always freezing.
6. I have become intolerant to lots of foods but am not allergic according to tests.
7. My symptoms get a lot worse from the point of ovulation up until day 1 or 2 of my period.
8. I am now getting a lot of skipped beats (I have had an echo, CT angiogram of my heart and several ECGS and am told my heart is structurally normal).
9. Constant dizziness and vertigo type feelings. Feelings of falling sideways even when sitting down.

Does all of this sound like adrenal fatigue? There’s probably loads more but I can’t remember what I go upstairs for any more so…

Thanks for taking the time to read this

Lisa xx

[Annabel]

Hi Lisa, I’m really sorry to hear about your health problems.

First of all, do you have a good doctor? If your heart is in good shape, it sounds like this may be a hormonal problem. A good endocrinologist or integrative doctor can order a full thyroid panel, a 24 hour salivary cortisol test, and other tests to find out what is going on.

Things like dizziness, low blood pressure, poor circulation can certainly be related to adrenal fatigue (which your doctor might know better as HPA Axis dysfunction).

Have you been under a lot of stress for the last few months or years? Are there any other existing health issues which might be related?

Don’t give up, ask for lots of advice, and try to find a good doctor who can run some tests for you 🙂

[Author]

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