Posted by Larry Hoover on August 28, 2004, at 8:57:54
In reply to Re: One question on CFS, adrenaline and NE -Larry » Larry Hoover, posted by KaraS on August 22, 2004, at 15:16:20
> I was "counting" on that!
<Spock eyebrow>
> "One" more question:
>
> I still don't quite understand why stimulant medications or supplements are so bad for you when you have adrenal fatigue. Stimulants effect mostly dopamine, right? Why is that so bad for you with AF? I would think that the noradrenergics would be the ones that would tax your adrenal system????? What am I missing or not getting here?
>
> - Confused in LATo restrict your thinking of the effects of stimulants to dopaminergic activity is what is limiting your comprehension, here. What does the dopamine do to other systems? It causes enhanced output of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, via sympathetic nervous mechanisms.
Adrenal fatigue could well be compared to type 2 diabetes, in some respects. Over-stimulation of the pancreas (due to decreased sensitivity to insulin) eventually weakens the pancreas, and it sputters and fails. Over-stimulation of the adrenals also weakens them, and they begin to sputter and fail. If you stimulate them even further (as with stimulant drugs), you will get an increase in output (if they're working at all), but the response will be brief, and the subsequent collapse in function will be all the more abrupt. You'll be flogging a dying horse.
The treatment that works is to rest the adrenals, not to flog them.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:380500
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040815/msgs/383272.html