For over 20 years in my practice I have witnessed the impact of helping people recover from adrenal fatigue, not just in terms their health, but also in their ability to feel happy. Happiness may be a “choice,” as far as popular thinking goes, but for those whose adrenal glands are “running on empty,” this choice seems almost out of reach.
Talking with other doctors in the United States and abroad, I realized that adrenal fatigue is a common and growing problem of modern life. Although I had suspected it, my conversations, research and clinical experience lead me to believe that we are dealing with a problem of monstrous proportions that is largely unrecognized by the medical establishment. This has left millions of people suffering from an untreated problem that interferes not only with their ability to function but also with their capacity to enjoy life. It is difficult to assess exactly how much money is lost by corporations due to worker absenteeism, poor or clouded decision making, alcoholism, drug abuse, “nervous breakdowns,” burnout, employee conflict, acute and chronic illness, loss of employees, and a host of other costly problems that stem from the effects of overstressed adrenal glands. It is also not possible to estimate the personal cost to people who have to switch to a lower paying job to avoid a total collapse, or to the chronically ill who just do not have the energy to get back on their feet. People suffering from adrenal fatigue are much more likely to develop a host of other common diseases and syndromes in which fatigue is one of the primary symptoms.
Many of us who see this syndrome in our practices, time and time again, knew that a book like this one needed to be written, but I did not really want to be the one to write it. I waited and waited for someone else to do it, but despite my patience, no one did. Then one day, just after I had finished giving a lecture on the adrenal glands at the American College for the Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), a friend and prominent doctor stopped me on my way out and said, “Doctor, when are you going to write a book on adrenal fatigue?” I responded that I didn’t have time to write it, but if he could tell me how to do it with my schedule, I would be interested. As he had written several books himself, he put me in touch with a publisher who said he would get someone to help me write the book. However, after going through 5 writers, for various reasons, I finally admitted what I had intuitively known all along; this was my book to write.
My first orientation to the book was to produce a book that documented all the facts to the hilt. It was to be written for physicians and would document once and for all the significant and ongoing problems of adrenal fatigue, first described over 100 years ago. With this intent, I hired a Ph.D. student from the University of Arizona and together we compiled over 2400 scientific references. After collecting these references I began writing.
During the writing of the first few chapters, however, I realized that as deep as my commitment is to physician education, my real commitment is to the many, many people who are suffering from this invisible epidemic of adrenal fatigue. These people often go from doctor to doctor complaining of various signs and symptoms that are frequently ignored by the physicians they consult. Even worse, they find themselves unfairly and inappropriately branded as hypochondriacs, chronic complainers, neurotics or worse. Many have given up, accepting their plight as something they must learn to live with. Others have found ways of coping, to minimize their symptoms and limp through life. At the moment, it is a bleak picture for the person who is experiencing symptoms of what is probably the most widespread, yet unrecognized, health syndrome today, adrenal fatigue.
For these reasons I decided to write this book for the person suffering from adrenal fatigue. It is designed to be a self-help book, both in the diagnosis and the treatment of adrenal fatigue. I write it with the hope that it will provide you with the information, guidance, encouragement and tools you need to recover from this sometimes subtle, yet debilitating, health problem and to be able to make happiness your choice once again.