Has Your “Get Up And Go”, Got Up And Went?

Welcome to the Fibromyalgia Summit 0:00

Hi. Welcome to the freedom from Fibromyalgia Summit. I'm doctor Roger Murphy, your host, and I'm delighted to have you join us today. Has your get up and go got up and went. That's what a lot of my patients share with me is. They feel like they just don't have any energy. They just can't do much of anything. Some are bedridden. They're so energy depleted.

Fatigue as a Core Fibromyalgia Symptom 0:31

And this is a very common theme in fibromyalgia. Why the diffuse, achy, sometimes disabling pain is a symptom that everyone fibromyalgia has. Oftentimes patients will tell me that the fatigue is worse than the pain. If they can get the fatigue under control, they felt like they had more energy. They can handle the pain. And one of the common triggers, one of the common things that's generating this fatigue is a thing called adrenal fatigue. Your adrenal glands are your two stress coping glands that sit on top of your kidneys and release stress coping hormones, including norepinephrine, cortisol and DHEA.

When we're under stress, our adrenal glands are releasing initially norepinephrine or adrenaline to help us deal with the stress. So we get in this this thing called the flight or fright or fright or flight response, where we get under an acute, stressful situation where our bodies are gearing up to handle whatever that that threat is.

Understanding Adrenal Fatigue and Stress Response 1:35

But once that acute situation is no longer being faced, then we start to go into chronic fatigue, chronic stress and chronic fatigue. And that can deplete cortisol and DHEA, these chemicals that we need to be able to have stamina and resiliency to stress things. With fibromyalgia, you're already at a low, energy state anyway. Your metabolism is oftentimes compromised from low thyroid, poor sleep medications. You may be taking just the oxygen of stress that your body's under from different toxins that you have accumulated over the years.

But when your get up and go has got up and went, what you start to see is that stress becomes more magnified and you see that little things that didn't used to bother you really bother you. Loud noises, bright lights, the changes in the weather, any kind of stress, any kind of stimulation, real or imagined, can really set you off into a fibro flare. Some individuals with fibromyalgia have lost their ability to handle stress to such a severe degree that they find they can't even go out of the house.

They become basically like hermits. Their energy is so low that that oftentimes they have to decide what's the one thing they're going to do that day. Sometimes it's it's that they have to say, what, one day of the week are they going to get a shower? Because after they get a shower, get cleaned up, that's if they're done for the day. And that's not exaggerating. Those of you that are watching this, you there's many of you that can identify with that are certainly have days where you feel that way, where you do one thing and that's it.

You're done. Big reason for that is your body's not able to handle that stress. You've depleted your stress coping chemicals. You depleted serotonin and dopamine and norepinephrine. Pantothenic acid, magnesium, vitamin C, these chemicals that your body needs to be able to operate correctly.

How Stress Depletion Worsens Fibro Flares 3:40

But when you develop adrenal fatigue, now you are in this vicious cycle to where stress becomes more magnified. You get under stress and you and the stress is magnified, and you can generally are depleting the chemicals and hormones that your body needs to be able to handle. The stress. One way to know if you have adrenal fatigue is a self-test. Or actually, I'm gonna share two of them with you today. So one of them is an easy test to do where you take your blood pressure lying down, and then you stand up and take your blood pressure again within 30s of standing up.

Now you want to make sure when you take your blood pressure, when you stand up, you want to take it in the left arm and it should be out in front of you, perpendicular at heart level. So you take your blood pressure line down left arm right arm closest to the heart. And what you should see is your blood pressure. You know, it's 120 over 81, ten over 70, whatever it is. But now, after you take that, you stand up and you take it again standing up. And what you should see is that top number, that systolic number should go up by ten points.

Now, the reason that is, is your adrenal glands should be releasing norepinephrine or adrenaline to get more blood and oxygen to your cells, in your muscles, into your brain so you don't feel dizzy when you stand up and you've got the support of your supporting supporting muscles. But if your blood pressure drops, that's a sign of adrenal fatigue. Now, another way you can test this if you don't have a blood pressure cuff is go into a dark bathroom so the lights off. In the bathroom, you cover one eye while you're looking in the mirror, and you shine a pin light or a little flashlight into your eye.

And what you should see is the pupil should actually get smaller. It should constrict if it dilates, if it gets larger within 30s, that's a sign of adrenal fatigue. Now these are really basic ways to see if you're adrenal glands or at optimal levels, or they're able to handle stress or not. Ideally you'd have a four sample test to show you how well, how poorly your cortisol is being released throughout the day.

Self-Tests for Adrenal Fatigue 5:47

So cortisol, the stress coping hormone, is that it's highest first thing in the morning. And as the day goes on it, it goes down and you want your cortisol level to be at its lowest at bedtime. Because if it's elevated, it suppresses your natural sleep hormone melatonin. What a lot of people will witness, you know, what they'll see is that the cortisol level will be low in the morning, and then throughout the day it'll stay kind of low. And then it spikes up at bedtime because they get their second wind.

How many of you have a problem with tired all day. And then getting closer to bedtime? You kind of get a little boost of energy. Maybe not a lot, but just enough that allows you to be able to do some things that maybe you hadn't been able to do during the day or maybe you've been waiting till late in the evening to have that quiet time when all the kids have gone to bed or whatever. We can actually have some quiet time so you kind of push through. Maybe you're tired and you push through that to stay awake so that you have some alone time to, for whatever reason.

Right. And by doing a four sample cortisol test, you can see what the level is. First day in the morning where it is mid-morning, what is late afternoon and what it is a better. And then once you know what that graph looks like, you can then strategically start to correct any problems with this pattern. Most people fibromyalgia mentioned are going to be low in cortisol first thing in the morning, and typically what you see is that people would like to skip breakfast. So you want a lot of people that doesn't like to eat breakfast.

Maybe not hungry first thing in the morning. And oftentimes it's because what you're doing is by fasting, you're you're raising your cortisol level. So even though it's really low, you've found that if you don't eat breakfast, your cortisol level will stay up higher for a little bit longer. And many of you actually get even nauseated thinking about eating so you don't eat breakfast. Now some of you are practicing intermittent fasting. It's a it's a, a very healthy thing to do. But a lot of you don't eat because of this adrenal fatigue issue, and you're trying to keep your cortisol level spiked up in the morning to give you a little more energy.

But as soon as you eat, you start to crash. And one of the things that is really helpful in preventing and helping you get out of fibro flares is fixing this adrenal fatigue issue,

Cortisol Patterns, Fasting, and Energy Crashes 8:20

because this is what really starts or initiates the Phaedra flare. For many of you, you've witnessed this. You've had maybe you've had a good day. Maybe it's the first good day in a long time. Maybe you got finally got a good night's sleep. Whatever it is, you have a good day. And because you're feeling better, you commit to going out with friends. Or you you maybe do a little gardening, or maybe you stay a little extra at work if you're still working or whatever it is, but you overdo it over and above what you normally do, and then you have a fibro flare, right?

You have the symptoms are are magnified, and it may be so bad that you're in bed for 2 or 3 days because you overdid it, but the fibro flares generated because you've lost your stamina and resistance, the distress stress is magnified and it really generates unwanted health problems and unwanted biochemical physiological reactions in your body that then cause your symptoms of fibromyalgia and be worse. So big key in helping you overcome fibromyalgia and preventing those fibro flares is to fix your adrenal fatigue.

So over-the-counter supplements that allow you to do that. And some of the speakers today we're going to talk a little bit about some things you can do to boost your stamina, reduce your stress to help you have more resiliency to stress. But I would encourage you to do this little self-test to see do you have adrenal fatigue? And, my guess is you probably do. So there's the blood pressure test and then there's a test where you shine

Reducing Flares by Supporting Adrenal Health 9:53

the penlight in your eye while looking in a mirror. Remember, if your pupil constricts and stays that way, you're good. If it if it dilates gets larger, that's a sign of adrenal fatigue. And you need to really start working on this issue of too much stress and not having the stress, coping hormones or chemicals that you need to deal with that stress. Ideally, you get tested, but this is a just a simple little way to see if you have this condition called adrenal fatigue, which most people with fibromyalgia do.

So, I look forward to sharing some more information with you over the next couple of days of the summit. But this is your homework. Do your homework and see what you find out and self-test to see if you have adrenal fatigue.