Dealing with tiredness, discouragement, fatigue and difficulty concentrating are some of the daily challenges of those who lead a very stressful and intense lifestyle. Generally, these people do not get enough sleep, have a long and strenuous workday and little or no time to practice physical activity, in addition to emotional problems, such as anxiety and depression.
Despite the symptoms being directly related to fatigue and stress, many patients are being misdiagnosed with adrenal fatigue. Some even receive guidance to take corticosteroids in order to solve the problem and alleviate the signs of the condition. However, the endocrinologist and president of the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Regional Metabology of São Paulo (SBEM-SP), Felipe Henning Gaia, warns that adrenal fatigue does not exist.
Henning explains that we have two adrenal (or adrenal) glands located in the abdomen, above the kidneys. They are responsible for producing some hormones, such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, aldosterone, masculinizing hormones and cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone that has several roles in the body, and one of them is to help mobilize energy so that the body can carry out its daily tasks. In times of urgency, such as trauma, infections and accidents, the adrenal glands release a greater amount of the hormone so that the body has more energy to deal with occurrences.
According to the endocrinologist, there are opposite situations, in which the adrenal glands cannot produce cortisol properly, as in the case of fungal infections, lesions of the pituitary gland and congenital diseases. This defective production of cortisol is called adrenal insufficiency, and it is classified as a rare disease.
“There are no isolated clinical symptoms, such as stress, that might cause this diagnosis. In case of suspicion, it is necessary to measure cortisol in the blood, and this adjustment must be subtle so that the causes of the problem can be thought of. When we understand the situation, then it is necessary to replace cortisol using drugs from the glucocorticoid family”, says Henning.
The endocrinologist complements by saying that, if cortisol replacement is done unnecessarily, it can trigger the appearance of metabolic problems, such as diabetes, hypertension, changes in blood fat (triglycerides), loss of bone and muscle mass, among others.
“Be very careful when someone tells you that you have the diagnosis of ‘adrenal fatigue’ and, especially, that it only gets better with the use of a special manipulated hormone (bioidentical). You may be being deceived”, warns the president of SBEM-SP.
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