Results of: 36 Hours of 'Salt Tonic' for Adrenal Fatigue

Warning: Please do not take copious amounts of sodium if you are being medicated for High Blood Pressure.  Check with your Medical Practitioner first if you think you have symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue.  The simple blood test to ask for is: Cortisol reading.  

So the elusive mystery of the 'Electrolyte Crisis' that possibly caused my migraines, has in all probability been revealed - answer - sodium deficiency??

I've been taking 1 teaspoon of Sea Salt every 12 hours.  This serving is SPREAD OUT across my entire water intake for that day.  I do NOT drink water on its own now, as this will further dilute my Adrenal Electrolyte crisis and lead to Dehydration.  This post is a report of my symptoms whilst taking this drastic action.

I call it drastic action because Salt is viewed by all of culture and beyond, as the devil these days.  

I for one had NO IDEA that I was so low on Sodium and how bad my health is as a result.  In his book Dr James Wilson says "Our salt-phobic society has deprived many people struggling with Adrenal Fatigue of something that would decrease their symptoms and speed their recovery."

OK here goes, this is what I noticed is happening to me in the 36-short-hours since starting this regime:

1.  My central temperature control mechanism - which is poorly understood by the medical profession, but has a lot to do with your Pituitary, Hypothalamus, Endocrine system and Circadian Rhythm has CORRECTED ITSELF!  

This improvement in my condition is miraculous in itself and makes me wonder if hot flashes are actually just an outcry for more salt by our stressed adrenals?  

I checked my blood work from last July and my Serum Sodium reading was normal, so I know I did not have this low sodium crisis before.  

In fact, you read many times that 'women in unindustrialised societies don't have the menopausal problems that we do'.  

Well it doesn't take a kilo of brains to work out that these are people who tend to eat more salty fish than we do, and in more cases than not, use salt as a food preservative.  

Well, all I can say is, no wonder they're having a better time of it, because in the last 36 hours I've discovered that all that perspiration, all that hot and cold switching, getting up in the night, changing my bedclothes rubbish, was in all probability my poor adrenals crying out for more sodium!  

We're always told 'hot flashes are associated with sugar intake', and yet no one ever tells you that if your sodium levels are correct, or more to the point, your adrenals are not stressed, then eating a doughnut will not have to leave you drenched in sweat!

And let's remember the quote I shared last time about 'Menopausal symptoms presenting essentially as those of stressed adrenals'.   

2.  I don't have to get up at night to pee anymore.  In fact last night I slept through the ENTIRE night!  This is amazing too, because I haven't done that for about 18 months - could I have been adrenally compromised that long??  

3.  My appetite has returned, even weirder is that my tummy rumbles again - which it hasn't done for about 18 months!  Obviously the rumbling has a lot to do with the ph balance of my Hydrochloric acid being restored?  (OMG, why is 'normal' so difficult these days?)

4.  My taste buds have reawakened !  This may sound too subtle to be of any consequence but honestly, I couldn't taste anything between what was obviously salty/sweet/or bland.  I remember tasting a huge strawberry about 3 weeks ago and thinking it was just 'acidic' and had no appreciative strawberry taste?  That was strange in itself, because the rest of the family remarked on how good that batch of Spanish strawberries was.  

5.  My urine volume output is normal again e.g. about 6 times a day instead of 25.  Can you believe that?  These last 2 months I've spent half my life on the lavatory! 

In fact, I remember visiting a friend and actually pushing past her as she stood in the doorway of her own house to get  urgent access to her toilet, after a mere 40-minute car journey!!  It was so embarrassing.  Even my DH was praying those symptoms would subside as he couldn't cope with so many stops on the motorway!  I tell you, you can't plan to go very far with poly-u-(damn)-ria. 

6.  I can stand up for long periods again and not shake.  This I am very grateful for, because so much stuff has accumulated while I've been ill - like this enormous pile of ironing.  

7.  Pupil dilation responsiveness has equalised.  I think I mentioned some time ago that one of my pupils did not react to a change in light as quickly as the other.  This is indicative of adrenal stress and I should have fixed on it earlier.  I did tell the optician but they just checked my optics.  (My blood has never been analysed in this context before, well not until I asked the GP to check for Cortisol a month ago.  I suppose next time I see him, he'll insist on taking all the credit for detecting my underlying problem...)

8.  Only my left hand shakes (instead of my whole body).  Considering I'm left-handed, this is a bore.  It will shake first thing in the morning and if I have stressful thoughts during the day.  It doesn't last very long though.  

9.  I've noticed that my stress response is different now.  My heart doesn't pound at the merest suggestion of a 'problem' and my thoughts don't spill over into extreme anxiety at the least little thing.  

Like, if the dog coughs: that doesn't automatically mean he'll be sick everywhere and I'll have to spend the next 3 hours scrubbing the carpet.  It just means the dog coughed!  

Thinking problems through is obviously much easier if my body can, again, recognise the difference between a big problem and a little one, as opposed to how I was before, which was: ALL PROBLEMS WERE KINGSIZED!

This inability to cope with any kind of stress is classic adrenal fatigue.   

10.  Now this one is going to raise a few eyebrows, and honestly I'm still testing it out.  MY EYESIGHT HAS IMPROVED - CONSIDERABLY.  There, I knew no one would believe me!  People, it has.  First of all I went into the sunshine today and did not SQUINT.  

This was incredible, because bright light has been hurting my eyes for about 18 months!  Photophobia is a classic symptom too and might indicate that I've been ill for ages?? 

Then as I was out in the sun, I noticed all the details on a blade of grass that I wouldn't normally be able to see without my reading glasses.  

I thought no more of it then came back in the house and picked up my cell phone and found I was able to read my text messages without my glasses too!  

Then I picked up the newspaper and found I could read that (normally spiteful) print WITHOUT READING GLASSES too.  

Does this mean that adrenals are involved in eyesight?  or does it mean that low sodium had caused my temporary deterioration, that is now restored?  Funny how temporary amounted to about 4 years!!  This subject is still under review...

Anyway, I'll leave you now with a link to a great website:

www.adrenalfatiguefocus.org

Angie xx

P.S.  I'm now taking Vitamin B5, as deficiency of its linked to this condition and is essential for your recovery.  Plus, just today, I started taking Liquorice Root, as advised on the website linked to above.  

* Note: Liquorice Root does not cause you to manufacture more Cortisol from your already depleted Adrenals, it merely prevents you destroying it as quickly as you otherwise would.  

Turns out I may have been panicking about my neck....

After posting a couple of days ago and feeling quite depressed at my painful neck artery, I decided to run some quick checks on what other people are experiencing.

Now it turns out that my right side Carotid artery is probably a little distended due to all this blood pounding to the top of my head during migraine headaches.  (I should mention, I'm in my late 40s.)

This 'excessive dilation', that eventually leads to there being a distention of the Carotid artery, is more than likely the result of the long term nature of my migraines.  

So I was relieved to learn that pain from this excessive dilation (and eventual distention) of the neck artery during and after migraine is apparently quite normal, and a survival mechanism that results from whenever there is any experience of pain in the head.  

This is how we are made: to flood our brains with blood at the least sign of threat to cranial survival.

I found a great article on this very subject that is really helpful: Vascular Neck Pain by Leonard  L Lovshin M.D.

After I read it, I sat and thought hard about the progression of my headaches over the years and recalled they were always as a result of a kind of 'nervous exhaustion' scenario, typically striking after I'd tried to pack too much into my life and not taken time out to relax.  

(Before I even had full blown migraines, I had pre-migraine symptoms that consisted of episodes of Vertigo that lasted for about 3 long and horrible days.  I used to get terrible nausea for no apparent reason, at least once a month, or more.  I'm only now discovering the significance of those symptoms.  

I had my first, really awful ice-pack-inducing migraine about 8 years ago, while I had pernicious anaemia.  The anaemia was so bad, the migraines were not that important by comparison.  Plus I always managed to get rid of them after say half hour with an ice pack on my head and some paracetamol.)     

So today, after a very restful night's sleep, I went food shopping.  I felt fine, my hair was OK and my complexion was back to normal.  The bright lights in the shops, my hot overcoat, and all the crowds, surprisingly, didn't have any adverse effects on me.  

Then, in the aisle between the pasta and the coffee, I remember turning round (too) quickly to go back for something, and suddenly I got this awful whooshing sensation in the top of my head and I felt that I was momentarily losing my balance.  I slowed down and waited to feel better.  It was nothing really but it showed I wasn't totally out of the woods.

Turns out, I might not bother to have the Carotid artery scan after all (?), as I really don't have the time and I would rather keep an eye on our dear dog.  

New Medicines

I decided to buy some more pills today.

This time I bought 5-HPT, which is supposed to be really good and I hope it will work in conjunction with Rhodiola Rosea, as I really like that.

The other thing I'm going to start taking is Potassium.  The reason for that is, its another in the group of Electrolyte process minerals and it has a bearing on salt intake.

Because I'm pretty certain of one thing, Sodium is somehow a part of my migraines.  As, so often they begin in the night, when I'm too hot.  I don't have a lot of salt in my diet, as we're a household that is very anti-salt.  But the fact is, salt is really important to temperature control and what I've noticed in the last 3 years is that I don't really perspire like I used to.  I get really hot, hot enough to have caused me to perspire say 5 years ago, but now a rising temperature is not the trigger for perspiration, in the way it used to be, at all.  I'm going to have to look into that, because that too is a survival mechanism and mine seems to be up the creek? 

I'll make sure I provide relevant links to what I've read about Potassium next time.

Have a great weekend !