Adrenal Fatigue Causes Clinical Depression

Depression is the state of diminishing mood and activity aversion leading to loss of interest to a person’s usual activities, withdrawal to society, inability to work, anxiety, loss of appetite, diminishing sleep and concentration, false judgments and self-destruction. Depression is considered a normal reaction of human beings to traumatic experiences such as fatal accidents, loss of loved ones, and failures. Usually, this kind of depression will just subside in time approbatory after about 3-4 weeks as the person eventually learns to accept and forget those traumatic experiences. However, there is another type that stays and becomes chronic which requires medical intervention. This type of depression is known as Clinical depression.

Clinical depression is the severe and pathologic type of depression where the symptoms alleviate and become severe. If left untreated and misdiagnosed, it often results in psychosis and suicidal tendencies. Clinical depression is said to be a complication of certain abnormalities or malfunctions in the body’s system. This type of depression results from a malfunction of the body’s system which led to either hyper secretion or hypo secretion of certain hormones that regulate the mood center of the brain. The most common system that affects the brain is the Adrenal glands.

The adrenal glands are a pair of glands located just above each kidney. It is has two portions, the adrenal cortex and the adrenal medulla. The adrenal cortex is responsible for the production of steroids namely the cortisol, corticosteroids and adrenalin. The Adrenal medulla secretes epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones play an important role which is to regulate the function of other organs in the body including the function of the brain. That is why Adrenal fatigue results to Clinical depression.

Adrenal fatigue, also called Adrenal burnout, has been pointed out as one of the causes of Depression due to the changes of Cortisol and the catecholamine levels in Adrenal fatigue that will cause a significant effect to the function of the brain and other organs in the body. Adrenal fatigue disables the production of cathecolamines. Dopamine is one of the major neurotransmitters of the brain. The low dopamine levels paralyze the activities of the brain causing mood changes like depression. A test was taken from a group of patients suffering from Clinical depression that compares Cortisol levels from the day of admission and the time when the depression is gone. The study showed abnormally low levels of Cortisol in most of the patients during the onset of depression then returned to normal when the patients were cured from it. The explanation for this is that during Adrenal fatigue, the adrenal glands produce less Cortisol. Cortisol is essential for the response to stress inhibiting the hormone responsible for stress in the brain called Serotonin. The absence of Cortisol will lead to susceptibility to emotional stress which leads to depression.

Adrenal fatigue is only one of the many causes of Clinical depression. As the Adrenal glands shutdowns and malfunctions, the different organs in the body including the brain, also suffer malfunction.

Depression is considered as one of the leading causes of death in the world. It is also a leading cause of disability in both men and women around the world. Early diagnosis and proper management of the disease will prevent its tragic outcome.

Dr. Wilson – AdrenalFatigue.Org

Pacific College & Chinese Solution

Medcenter