Book review: Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L Wilson (Smart Publications, 2011 [2001])

Do You Have Adrenal Fatigue?

• Tired for “no reason”?
• Having trouble getting up in the morning?
• Need coffee or colas to keep you going?
• Feeling run down and stressed?
• Crave salty or sweet snacks?
• Struggling to keep up with life’s daily demands?
• Can’t bounce back from stress or illness?
• Not having fun anymore?
• Decreased sex drive?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, you need this book!

With clear, easy to understand directions, Dr. Wilson shows you not only how to find out if you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, but what to do to feel good again.

Once you start poking your head into hypothyroidism, it won’t take you very long before you come across the term “adrenal fatigue”. The two conditions work together to screw you over health-wise, and the basic idea is that you generally need to fix the adrenal fatigue before you can fix the hypothyroidism. And from what I could tell by what I was reading online, I really ought to look into adrenal fatigue a bit more.

And we are talking about this not in the terms of having adrenal glands that don’t work or that sort of extreme, such as Addison’s Disease. We’re talking about when they aren’t fully functioning but still in the “normal” range, or when your body doesn’t respond the way it should to the hormones being produced. Basically, the stuff a doctor would dismiss because their tests don’t show there’s any particular problem, and yet you’re still feeling tired for no reason, wake up without feeling rested, have dark circles around your eyes, feel as if you’ve been given sleeping pills as soon as it hits 3pm, and you keep getting ill all the friggin’ time. When you know there’s something bloody wrong with you, even if doctors won’t help you.

There’s a questionnaire in the book to give you a general idea of if you do or not, how big the problem is and what’s making it worse, and thereby what you should address to get better. I came out on the very verge of “severe”. Oh.

The book itself – that’s why we’re here, after all – is a fairly easy read. There are humorous drawings to keep you amused as well. It’s not too difficult to read, despite it being of a medical nature (it’s written by a doctor with several acronyms behind his name), because it’s aimed at the general, stressed-out and/or tired public. It also features a number of stories about various people and their struggles with adrenal fatigue.

Now that I’m reading another book on the same subject, I would say that this doesn’t go deep enough, if that’s the right way of putting it. I don’t recall having any particular “OMG” moments, even though there were plenty of “yup, I can totally relate” moments.

Overall, it’s a good introduction and tells you what the problem is, why things are happening and what you can do to help yourself get better. It might be lacking in depth in places, compared to the other book I’m reading, but it should set you on the path of feeling better, and that’s the main thing.

4 out of 5 dietary supplements.

P.S. Since reading the book (autumn 2012), I have actually been diagnosed as adrenally fatigued (and hypothyroid) by a holistic health practitioner. So yeah. “Told you so.”

P.P.S. Look here for a useful guide to adrenal fatigue.