GlutenAway Blog: Adrenal

Showing posts with label Adrenal. Show all posts

So you've already gone gluten-free. You may have been gluten-free for a month, 6 months, a year or more, but fatigue is still an issue for you. Some people, and probably most people, experience tons of relief after going gluten-free. Your immune system begins to restore, your energy gets better, you don't have as much GI problems. But other people, like myself, still deal with tons of symptoms daily that don't seem to go away! This can include fatigue, brain fog, digestion problems, trouble concentrating, and the list goes on. So you're probably asking yourself, "why do I still have all these symptoms if going gluten-free is supposed to make it better?" The biggest reason that most people don't consider is adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue occurs when the body goes under tons of stress. So you can imagine, having gluten after all those years you should be avoiding it causes a major stress on the body that takes more than just a gluten-free diet to recover.

I decided to do this video and post on an important topic many aren't aware of. The adrenal gland plays a vital role into everyone's life and how they live. I wanted to share with you some things about it and how it can cause you to have many symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, GI issues, and so much more. Many people are not aware of the adrenal gland and I hope to make much more aware to show you what you need to know with this post.

Out of all the things I write about and express on my blog, the thing I talk about the least is my Adrenal Disorder. I know that my blog is called GlutenAway and is meant to be about the gluten-free lifestyle, but I feel like maybe you could get to learn a little more about me and my lifestyle each day as a 16 year old. I'll admit that most of the things I'll explain aren't easy and probably will seem hard to deal with. The fact that I'm physically unable to go to school, play sports, or go to a friends house any time I want may seem like my life wouldn't be enjoyable as a teenager. But really I've just learned to change my priorities over time and still find a way to be truly happy by the end of each day. Hopefully I can give you a better idea of my life as a 16 year old with a rare type of Adrenal Disorder and show you what it's like to live in my shoes each day.

Even though my adrenal issues are a little more extreme, Adrenal Fatigue is something that I believe many people that have Celiac Disease or are gluten-free deal with each day. It's not some crazy rare disease that you may or may not have. No, it's something that's proven to affect everybody in some points of their life, especially those with Celiac. This is a great post about how people that are gluten sensitive are more likely to have adrenal issues throughout their life. I got to share my input as well as a little bit of my story in this post on Glutenfreeschool.com.

You an read this post, Here!

I wanted to thank Jennifer Fugo for sharing part of my story in this post and for shedding more light on this topic. I truly believe that there are many gluten-free individuals that are suffering from adrenal fatigue symptoms each day that they can easily fix. I hope you enjoy my input in this post and I hope you learn a little more about Adrenal Fatigue as well!

I've been dealing with trying to fix my diet for a while now and I'm not going to sit here and talk like I'm the only one. But trying to figure out how certain foods affect my body, energy, and workouts has honestly been one of the hardest things I've dealt with each day.. I know a lot of people go through this, but right now I'm looking at it as my number one priority. It's pretty simple for me to avoid gluten, dairy, and all those foods us with Celiac know will wreck our body. But it's a lot harder when you have to experiment with foods not knowing if it's going to give you nothing but fulfillment and energy, or give you adrenal fatigue and complete chaos. This is something I'm going through right now and have been trying to manage each day.

Changing your diet is one of the hardest things many people have to face after getting diagnosed with Celiac Disease. For a lot of people it's the solution to all their problems and fixes almost everything! But for others, like me, it's only one piece to the puzzle of finally starting to get better. My Adrenal Disorder is probably the one thing I have expressed the least on my blog but is actually the hardest thing I deal with each day. Some of you may know what the Adrenal Gland does but a majority of you probably do not. If you're thinking none of this information will really apply to you because you don't have an Adrenal Disorder, you're wrong. If you ever get a reaction from accidentally consuming gluten, then this can all apply to you in something called, Adrenal Fatigue. Hopefully I can give you a better idea of Celiac Disease and your Adrenal Gland and possibly give you some tips that can greatly help you when you get a reaction in the future.

Even though this blog is mainly based on disorders and diseases involving gluten intolerances and Celiac Disease, I felt like that I should share my entire story since discovering Celiac Disease was only one half. Most of you probably do not know what an Adrenal Disorder is and what it affects. Before I got diagnosed I had no idea what it was either and how critical it was to living your every day life. This is the other half of my story and journey on getting back to a healthy life style, and being lucky to be alive today.

After about 1 month of being on a gluten free diet and discovering that I had Celiac, things seemed like they were starting to get better and back on track. My stomach pains seemed to be fixed, my headaches were not as consistent, but the one major thing that wasn't right was my energy. I still noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to wake up in the morning and I was starting to get worried. I didn't make that big deal out of it and thought it was still just apart of the recovery stage from my Celiac Disease. I was wrong. One day in school close to the end of April in 2011, I completely lost vision in my right eye, I got very sweaty, nauseous, dizzy, had trouble walking, memory loss, and at one point couldn't even communicate what I wanted to say. With out knowing, I blacked out in the school bathroom for 45 minutes and was taken to the hospital.

Doctor after doctor, test after test, I was never given an answer. I was told I was fine even though I knew this wasn't true and the symptoms continued to happen. My entire life I have been active and played sports. It got to the point where I couldn't physically play sports and do the things I wanted anymore. Being as active as I was, this devastated me. I was tired of dealing with theses symptoms day after day without receiving one possible answer. Although this disorder has caused me to forget most of the summer of 2011, what I do remember is how miserable I was. It's a feeling I can't even explain besides feeling dead. All I remember was feeling this way, inside and out, and not being able to go do a single thing that entire summer. That summer to this day was the worst summer of my life.

My Mom and I!

Living with this rare type of Adrenal Disorder is something I have to manage and deal with every hour of every day. Looking back there are so many things in life I took for granted before I found out I had this disorder. Being able to breath, being able to see, being able to move, being able have your heart beat steady, and most of all being able to remember memories. These were all things that were almost taken away from me in those 3 months and I never realized how a broken gland so small can take all that away. Most people that have an Adrenal Disorder have their gland still working but not working well enough to live normally, this is called an Adrenal Deficiency. But with me, my gland is completely dead and doesn't work at all, which makes it physically impossible to live without medicine. My disorder doesn't officially have a name since I am the first discovered to have it in this form. But the only reason I am somewhat glad to be the first is that I know I have a chance to help the 2nd.

You an read this post, Here!

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