Re: Sleep and adrenal fatigue

 I'm new to this forum but after scanning old posts I see that this might be a place where I can get some advice. I've been on Dr Lam's protocol for adrenal fatigue for about six months already, I'm 25/f and have been up and down since with the only significant improvement being that my mood swings, anxiety and depression are almost completely gone (which I am very, very grateful for). My symptoms of AF were moodiness, depression and anxiety and bursts of rage (I felt like my mind was out of control), weight gain, VERY bad dizziness in the summer, low blood pressure (and have had this all my life), incredible insomnia (my no.1 complaint), heart palpitations when trying to relax at times, feeling drained after a workout, and more recently after I started the protocol, weird digestion problems - cramps, bloating, diarrhea, which I thought I might want to take care of with a parasite cleanse as I had eaten some questionable things.

First thing is that you have multiple things going on.  These are NOT all related symptoms.

Anxiety may or may not be related to the adrenals.  The most common cause of anxiety/panic attacks is a lactate build up, which is not adrenal related.  The second most common cause is excess epinephrine and a lack of acetylcholine.  This is an adrenal issue since the adrenals are over reacting to allergens or stress by secreting excess epinephrine in response.

Depression has numerous causes including low dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, prostaglandins, cholesterol, adrenals or thyroid or high prolactin levels Other causes include nutritional deficiencies, medications, drug abuse, etc.

The moodiness and burst of rage sound more like hormonal issues, in particular high androgen levels (progesterone or testosterone).

Weight gain also has numerous causes including hormones, low thyroid, diabetes, PCOS, overeating, hypothalamic dysfunction, etc.

Dizziness, especially upon standing can be from adrenal dysfunction leading to drops in the blood pressure.  Although inner ear disturbances or even misalignment of the neck can also cause this.

Low blood pressure is most often from adrenal dysfunction, but can also be from medications, dehydration, etc.

Insomnia can be hormones, low thyroid, overuse of stimulants or simply an active mind.

Here is an old post I did explaining heart palpitations:

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1509535#i

Feeling  drained after a workout is most likely adrenals.

Cramps, bloating and diarrhea can be a few things.  If suddenly occurring then it is likely something you ate.  If it is an ongoing problem then it sounds more like a lack of intestinal flora.  It can also be from "cleansing herbs" such as psyllium, cascara sagrada, senna, rhubarb root, etc.

One thing that it rather interesting is that some of your symptoms sound like they are due to excess epinephrine secretion, but epinephrine also raises blood pressure and yours is low.  This is another reason I do not believe that all your symptoms are due to adrenal dysfunction.

So throughout this whole protocol my sleep has been dipping into what I call "rock bottom" - 2-4 hours of sleep a night. Usually I fall asleep exhausted only to wake up a couple of hours later and I never get back to sleep when I am at rock bottom. At best, these days, I get 8 hours of sleep. I feel like I need 10 or more (oh, to get back to those days when I couldn't pry myself from the bed and could sleep all day - which DID happen right before the insomnia. NB I have never had insomnia before in my life before the last 6 months.)

Is your mind racing?  Is your heart racing and pounding?  Or are you simply wide awake?

Lam's protocol hasn't visibly helped me but of course they claim it's because I went ahead and did a humaworm parasite cleanse in February without their approval, which toxified my system further (and they may be right here?)

Detoxifying the system should not make any difference.

In fact I felt so good at the beginning of that cleanse, and SO bad after that I thought i had to detox my system and did a liver flush (hadn't read your info on flushes yet).

The so called "liver flushes" using olive oil, lemon juice and magnesium do not work.  I have some posts on here about it as well as I did a series of videos explaining why:

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1679049#i

I slept great the night of the flush but unfortunately back to rock bottom sleep since. Am now considering taking humaworm herbs for a kidney and liver flush as humaworm advised me to.

I don't know what is in these but you may want to run the ingredients by me first since some herbs can cause problems.  For example, many kidney formulas include uva ursi, which can lock up other herbs combined with it rendering them useless to the body.  Uva ursi also should not be taken for more than 4 days in a row without a break since it can irritate the kidneys.  Uva ursi also lowers blood sugar, which can be an issue for people with adrenal dysfunction since chronic hypoglycemia results from adrenal dysfunction:

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1610489#i

I thought that my liver might be sluggish and that is why sleeping pills keep me up all night AND the next night these days. Also in Chinese medicine the gallbladder is connected to sleep.

Most sleeping pills are notorious for causing hallucinations, sleep walking, sleep eating, sleep sex, etc.  I would not recommend them for sleeping.  Here is more on these:

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1659664#i

I apologize for the long post. I am seeking alternative advice as Lam tells me one thing, humaworm tells me another, and the only person I really trust is my acupuncturist but in specialized matters like this I think she and I don't know that much about it.

I read what you said HV about the synthetic vitamins that Lam prescribes and I feel like it's only too true. I've been waiting to feel a positive effect from them but nothing. They say that recovery is gradual but of course I'm desperate and can't tell, no matter what i do, if it has helped or not. I am clueless as to what I should even do next... take the herbs for my liver? Abandon that plan? Focus on my adrenals?

Cleansing the liver will help with balancing your hormones.  But again the so-called "liver flushes" are bogus.  The most effective way to really cleanse your liver is with digestive bitters.  Actually I have a write up on balancing the hormones that will give you a number of suggestions:

http://mountainmistbotanicals.com/info/Hormone_Balance.htm

Working on your adrenals will help with some of your other symptoms.  Nettle leaf and ashwagandha would be especially helpful.  Both support the adrenals and nettle leaf will also help lower lactate levels to help counter the anxiety.  Ashwagandha supports the adrenals and thyroid as well as raises gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) levels, again helping to counter anxiety.  Glycine and anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium also work by increasing GABA levels.  But ashwagandha and glycine are much safer and more beneficial than pharmaceutical anti-anxiety drugs.

I also recommend focusing more on natural vitamin C and pantothenic (B5) sources instead of the synthetics, as well as other adaptogens, such as licorice root, schisandra berry, astragalus, etc.  More on building the adrenals:

http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1527351#i

I am looking into glycine as you wrote before and see if it will help.

All the other aspects of Lam's protocol, which in fact is quite broad (breathing, yoga, stress reduction, small snack before bed, cut out all sugar and simple carbs) seem great to me. Just the supplements are questionable.

I'm so confused about what to take care of first, detoxing my body (if it in fact needs detoxing) or my adrenals, as apparently my adrenals won't get better if my system is toxic, but if I detox my system it will hurt my adrenals!

The adrenals are adversely affected more by stress, stimulants and steroids than they are by toxins.  And you can still detoxify your system even with weak adrenals.  Starting out slowly with digestive bitters will cleanse your system as well as increasing your water intake.  Increasing your fiber intake also helps with detoxifying the system, especially hormone metabolites.

Same goes for sleep - I won't sleep until my adrenals are better but until I sleep, how can my adrenals heal?

Again there are various reasons for insomnia.  It may  or may not be adrenal related.  But stressing over it is not going to help your adrenals.