Supplements to Repair Metabolic Damage and Adrenal Fatigue

[Crystol88]

Scott Abel posted some thoughts on this topic on Facebook:

And too much scientific reductionism misses the point and often becomes merely the “rationale” to claim ‘victim’ or ‘passive’ status – or to think swallowing a bunch of supplements is “self-corrective.” It’s more often than not utter nonsense – which is why I try to avoid discussions of “adrenal fatigue” and other such misleading descriptions and worse – their supposed “solutions.”

Because what is at issue here is healthful “self-regulation” -> mentally and emotionally. Despite many accomplishments, so many of people lack basic and mature skills in emotional and psychological self-regulation – which means you lack the ability to turn down the emotional volume and cope with feelings and pressures adequately and effectively. It becomes easier to filter these things through body-image or food and weight-control. And then this means it’s also easier to “buy into” answers like “adrenal fatigue” and the rest of it, which only describe but do not explain the actual and true issue. You can’t just swallow a bunch of “adrenal support supplements” and reboot your adrenals – when you do absolutely nothing about what is causing the fatigue to begin with.

This is the error of scientific reductionism – trying to reduce everything to one-dimensional biological explanations and solutions – even when they don’t fit. The truth for so many who want to believe in this stuff is a lack of emotional intelligence and emotional maturity and awareness. (as in Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence) You don’t know what to do with or how to process feelings like anger, sadness, loneliness, emptiness, fatigue, anxiousness, and yes, even hunger – and so you internalize them – and you do so with cultural pressures as well.

When you don’t recognize or know how to pay proper attention to processing feelings and stressors – you often find other filters to do so – like body-obsession, food and weight. But eventually these filters become stressors of their own. True self-regulation is about letting go of these filters and working on emotional awareness and maturity. Without these skills, you will find it nearly impossible to understand yourself, take care of yourself and love yourself.

It’s easy to fall prey to the scientific reductionism of “adrenal fatigue” and other simplistic one-dimensional fancy labels. But these do not address the true issues at stake 99% of the time. And thinking you can just “supplement your way to wellness again” – distorts a problem that is emotional and psychological and compartmentalizes it to a biological plane that never ever properly addresses the true and real issues. These things become little more than “placebos” so you can think you are taking better care of yourself, only the problem, the real problem is never addressed. You end up treating the results of the problem, the physical effects of the problem – but never the actual cause of the problem.

Furthermore, what does it say then that 90% or more of people who are diagnosed with “adrenal fatigue” are female? Are you somehow ‘the weaker sex?’ – Is there something inherently more ‘sensitive’ about your adrenals vs. men’s? Or is there a cultural psychology in play here that explains this so-called “phenomenon” is more real terms than the medical model could ever do?

Not everything boils down to “biology” – psychology and sociology are just as formidable. But it makes for great marketing strategy to market a ‘sickness’ to you – like “adrenal fatigue” complete with “blood panels” – and then sell you “solutions” in the form of diets or pill-popping that make you a ‘passive’ participant in your own mental and emotional health – and always focusing on something being “wrong” with your body – rather than how you process thought and emotion.

It’s pretentious at best – fraudulent at worst – and it doesn’t ‘empower’ or ‘fix’ any of you – only in your own short-term placebo beliefs does it appear to do so. Then eventually you end up right back to “burned out” where you started.

[Siouxcountry]

Glad you brought this here.

[foxieroxie007]

BOOM!

THANK YOU!

He's spot on.

[sassy69]

Sort of along the lines of all the questions like "What can I take to accomplish <x> faster?" Where <x> usually = 'lose fat" or "kick start" something... and then you look at the protocol (diet, training, recovery, cardio) and its usually sort of general stuff like "I eat clean" - and no one wants to spend the time just getting the every day foundation stuff established. Just like almost everything else in this sport - it is a LIFESTYLE - its not a "season", its not "as fast as possible", its not "for my next show in 2 months", etc. Its as fast as your body takes to line up all the shit you are throwing at it and letting it sort things out. Consistency, Common sense, patience, peristence (aka trust in your program) and no mixed messages.

Its not sexy, its not fast, its not dramatic - but Goddammit, when you work w/ the way your body was designed to work, it is AMAZING what it accomplishes.

[Crystol88]

Originally Posted by sassy69

Sort of along the lines of all the questions like "What can I take to accomplish <x> faster?" Where <x> usually = 'lose fat" or "kick start" something... and then you look at the protocol (diet, training, recovery, cardio) and its usually sort of general stuff like "I eat clean" - and no one wants to spend the time just getting the every day foundation stuff established. Just like almost everything else in this sport - it is a LIFESTYLE - its not a "season", its not "as fast as possible", its not "for my next show in 2 months", etc. Its as fast as your body takes to line up all the shit you are throwing at it and letting it sort things out. Consistency, Common sense, patience, peristence (aka trust in your program) and no mixed messages.

Its not sexy, its not fast, its not dramatic - but Goddammit, when you work w/ the way your body was designed to work, it is AMAZING what it accomplishes.

Yes! Our bodies are not the problem... they're actually a bit of a miracle when you look at things objectively.

[redhead75]

This was on the blog Go Kaleo. She is pretty awesome. Her posts really get you thinking.

[vancouverchick]

I worked with a naturopath for 2 years -- and over $10,000 later in supplements (used to take over 30 pills a day!), consults, tests and other non sense.... still wasn't CURED....

Hired Scott.... and ... well, let's just say my medicine cabinet is EMPTY!!!!!! And my belly is FULL!!! And I am BALANCED AND HEALTHY!

[andrealianne]

Originally Posted by sassy69

Sort of along the lines of all the questions like "What can I take to accomplish <x> faster?" Where <x> usually = 'lose fat" or "kick start" something... and then you look at the protocol (diet, training, recovery, cardio) and its usually sort of general stuff like "I eat clean" - and no one wants to spend the time just getting the every day foundation stuff established. Just like almost everything else in this sport - it is a LIFESTYLE - its not a "season", its not "as fast as possible", its not "for my next show in 2 months", etc. Its as fast as your body takes to line up all the shit you are throwing at it and letting it sort things out. Consistency, Common sense, patience, peristence (aka trust in your program) and no mixed messages.

Its not sexy, its not fast, its not dramatic - but Goddammit, when you work w/ the way your body was designed to work, it is AMAZING what it accomplishes.

If this post doesn't knock some sense into some ladies I don't know why will!!! Love this .