Too much stress weakens the adrenals
Adrenal fatigue is a term used by alternative medial practitioners such as naturopaths and chiropractors and is regarded by the scientific and medical community as unproven or just plain nonsense. Egos are at stake here, because how could a “natural therapist” possibly have the gall to come up with a medical term that was not “discovered” by a registered medical practitioner. Putting egos aside, adrenal fatigue is regarded as a condition where the adrenal glands become weak and insufficient glucocorticoid hormone is produced. The list of symptoms is vast and include nearly all of the modern day common complaints.
What are the symptoms of adrenal fatigue?
This includes such symptoms as tiredness, low libido, food cravings, need for stimulants, emotional problems, weight gain, low immunity, concentration difficulty and thyroid problems.
One can easily see why the medical profession are cynical about the term adrenal fatigue. It pretty well covers most problems that all people have.
The fact that the treatment for adrenal fatigue is nothing more than cleverly marketed vitamin combinations, sometimes with a few herbs thrown in for good measure, and then for example called “Super Adrenal Stress Formula”, unfortunately doesn’t give the term adrenal fatigue much credibility.
So let’s forget what the naturopathic physicians and doctors think about adrenal fatigue and look at the adrenals from a Chinese medicine perspective and how acupuncture can help this problem.
Did ancient Chinese physicians know about the”adrenals”?
Mr Mark Crain, a specialist acupuncturist and Chinese herb practitioner from Brisbane explains it in simple terms. He said “The most revered Chinese medical physician Li Shi Zhen, was the first person in the world to anatomically describe the adrenals. He did this is in the late 1500’s, hundreds of years before the modern doctors wrote about them. But what is most interesting, is that Li Shi Zhen described what their function was and it is almost the same as the modern day medical textbook description of their function.”
Further comments from Mr Mark Crain revealed that “Naturally Li Shi Zhen didn’t use the term adrenal gland, but he called it the mingmen which means Gate of Fire. The mingmen is like the furnace required for all other body functions to operate properly. Without mingmen the body would simple burn itself out. This equates to the modern medical concept of the adrenal producing cortisol acetate to deal with stress.”
Mark Crain sees many patients who over work and are subject to stress and lack of sufficient sleep leading to a myriad of symptoms, many of which get lumbered into to the adrenal fatigue label. “Unfortunately, taking expensive vitamin supplements has little effect.” He said.
Acupuncture and moxibustion can help adrenal fatigue
A common acupuncture treatment to strengthen the mingmen is to use moxibustion on the acupuncture point Governor Vessel 4 otherwise known in Chinese as mingmen! This can be done easily at home using a moxa box such as the Daniel Deng Patented Pyramid Moxibustion box. If you were look at a Chinese medicine text at the functions of the point mingmen you would find a lot of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue listed there. To mention a few… craving for salt, tiredness, low immunity i.e. catch colds easily, low libido, arthritic pain and so forth.
Modern day naturopaths did come up with the term “adrenal fatigue” but the symptoms and problems asciated with weak adrenals has been around for centuries and Chinese medicine tackles the treatment in a different way. The smell of moxa is a common phenomenon at The Acupuncture Clinic – Hastings. Contact Heiko Lade, if you think you are burnt out!
