How long to recover from adrenal fatigue?

[nummytummy]

I had an adrenal fatigue-induced burnout in early December of last year (2009). Since then I've started taking supplements, taught myself how to sleep at night and completely changed my diet (easing into raw paleo since nearly a month ago, only returning to some cooked bone broths/liver because of digestive issues, now going back to raw). My sleeping is generally improved (no more 2 am awakenings), my hypoglycemic symptoms are pretty much gone, my body temperature has stabilised and my energy is improved, but still unstable (ups and downs if I'm not careful), and I am still quite easily exhausted.

My question is how long until energy levels improve and stabilise? I'm probably functioning at around 50-60% most days, which is an enormous improvement considering I was probably hovering at about 10% in December at my worst. I would say I probably had Stage III adrenal fatigue, but I never got a proper diagnosis.

I'd like to be functioning at 100% someday, but I'm wondering how long it will take before I'm there. I know it took me a long time to get here (was in stages I and II already for years before the full-blown crash), so I know that I can't expect an overnight cure. Just looking for a reasonable timeframe.

Also, when healing, does the body go through the stages of Adrenal fatigue in reverse order? It seems like as I'm getting more energy (especially from eating raw meat), I'm also getting a lot more jumpy and irritable and having more trouble falling asleep at night. Anyone else experience this?

And does it matter that I'm not taking desiccated adrenal glandulars? I seem to be improving already without them, and I'm also quite sensitive to medications of all kinds, even natural and/or herbal. Also I'm trying to eat a lot of fresh organ meat--so far liver, and I have heart and kidney (probably with the adrenals attached in the fat) waiting in the fridge. I'm thinking this will help.

Thanks in advance for your insight.

[ForTheHunt]

I'm also getting a lot more jumpy and irritable and having more trouble falling asleep at night. Anyone else experience this?


This is due to lowered carbohydrate intake. I'm not sure why this happens, might be a withdrawal symptom, might be that your brain actually wants more carbs.. I guess it might a lot of things.

[nummytummy]

So is the solution to eat more carbs? I do seem calmer when I eat more fruit.

Or is there an adaptation period? I don't know is I should be sacrificing good sleep for any longer period of time though. Today for example I woke up after only about four hours of sleep and couldn't fall back asleep. So now I'm eating kidneys. 

[TylerDurden]

It's a good idea to take raw dessicated adrenal glandulars. The only good one I know of is Dr Ron's stuff on his website drrons.com,, albeit horribly expensive.

Adrenal fatigue recovery varies considerably. Even if one follows the standard advice re eating foods as little processed as possible, one often takes a minimum 2-5 years for a full recovery(assuming this is an extreme form of adrenal fatigue, ie adrenal burnout).

"High-meat" might well sort things out re energy. At least when I first started on this diet, trying to recover from adrenal fatigue, eating slightly-aged raw meats made me feel even better. Took me a lot longer to try real high-meat, of course.

[nummytummy]

It's a good idea to take raw dessicated adrenal glandulars. The only good one I know of is Dr Ron's stuff on his website drrons.com,, albeit horribly expensive.

I'm pretty certain the butcher's I go to for lamb and beef will give me whatever internal organ I ask for. The last time I was there and they cut out the fresh liver, kidneys and heart for me out of the entire connected piece of lamb offal.

So I'm assuming it would be healing to eat the adrenals as well? Would it be better to dose it out (eat only a small amount per day rather than eating a whole adrenal gland or two at a time)? And how do I know which part is the adrenal? All I can tell is that they're sort of triangle-shaped and sit on the kidneys, but I don't know what colour or texture they're supposed to be.

I'd rather be eating fresh food than supplements, and $50+ per bottle of desiccated adrenals plus shipping seems like a lot.

[TylerDurden]

True, raw food is better than any supplement, however minimally processed the latter may be. A few have complained after eating genuinely raw glandulars so eating only parts of raw adrenals at a time might be a good idea. Just as long as they come from grassfed animals. AV likes to claim that toxins more readily accumulate in the organs than in muscle-meats, so I agree with him that raw grainfed organs are not worth the risk.

[miles]

Could your jumpiness etc be from too much fat & carbohydrates..?

[nummytummy]

maybe too much fat? but actually increasing the amount of carbs and decreasing the amount of protein i've been eating in the last few days has helped my sleeping a lot, but on the other hand has maybe contributed to making me feel a bit tired? though i think that's more related to a copper overload in my system, which i posted about in a different thread.

[RawZi]

    Xanax, are you a health care practitioner?  Why are you selling that stuff?  It's dangerous, very.

[TylerDurden]

RawZi is right. Xanax and similiar medications are heavily frowned upon on this site, for a number of reasons. Please delete it from your signature.

[cherimoya_kid]

RawZi is right. Xanax and similiar medications are heavily frowned upon on this site, for a number of reasons. Please delete it from your signature.

I banned the spammer.

[nummytummy]

haha. good job c-kid. i'm glad i missed the spamming. too much excitement for my overloaded adrenals to handle.