Hi Nina

eating right for your adrenals means no sugar, alcohol or caffeine. Sugar - both refined and sugars produced by carbohydrates (potatoes, white pasta, flour, etc) - stresses the adrenals, because they control blood glucose. If you eat a lot of sugar, your adrenals get stressed because blood glucose gets too high, they signal to the pancreas to produce insulin, the pancreas produces too much insulin to deal with the sugar spike, and blood glucose goes lower than before and you become hypoglycemic. Which stresses your adrenals again.

The aim is to keep blood sugar as level as possible, which means eating low glycemic index foods. Protein (meat, eggs, fish), low carb vegetables, good fats, some people do OK with a small quantity of complex carbohydrates like brown rice or oats - I steer clear of those for now.

Eating low glycemic foods will not give you low blood sugar. Your body produces glucose from everything that you eat, not just the sweet things. Making glucose from meat and vegetables is less stressful to your body than making it from sugary things. Your brain needs glucose to function, and it will wake you up if it hasn't got enough. This is what happened to me, and still does on occasion. This may be why you wake up at night and can't get back to sleep.

Your adrenals produce cortisol, which is a hormone that is essential to life. Without it, you die. Cortisol controls blood sugar, the immune response, the stress response, and drives thyroid hormone into the cells.

You probably have some level of adrenal fatigue. Most people with mercury toxicity do. There are seven stages, ranging from mild fatigue to severe, near death. I think in the first few stages of fatigue the adrenals increase cortisol output, to deal with the stressors in a person's life, but their cicadian rhythm is disturbed, so a person may have too much cortisol at the wrong time of day, ie at nighttime, so s/he can't sleep. As adrenals become more fatigued, eventually their output of cortisol falls, and becomes too low to meet the body's needs. When you have severe adrenal fatigue, you are debilitated, shaky, hypoglycemic, stress intolerant, very depressed, and prone to infections. That was me two years ago. Total adrenal failure is called Addison's disease.

In the early stages of adrenal fatigue you may get away with good diet (= no sugar, as above), lots of Vitamin C, Vitamin B5 and sea salt. Some people take licorice, and adaptive herbs like ginseng, or ashwaganda. With more serious adrenal fatigue, you need to replace the cortisol that your adrenals cannot make, to help your body function, to use thyroid hormone properly, and to give the adrenals a rest, so that they can heal as far as they are able. Some people do OK with Isocort, most people with serious adrenal fatigue need hydrocortisone. For people who are really bad (that was me!!), they need something longer lasting than hydrocortisone, which only lasts 3-4 hours. I take 6mg of prednisolone every day to get me out of bed and functioning with my three children. I would be bedridden without it.

A good bedtime protein snack would be a bit of cheese, peanut butter on oat crackers, a bit of chicken, an egg. This will bring up your blood sugar without causing a glucose spike and subsequent over-correction from the pancreas.

It does not surprise me that your thyroid tests are normal. Most hypothyroid people have 'normal' test results. You can have the right level of thyroid hormone in your blood, even high levels, but your body cannot use them it if your adrenals are not producing enough cortisol. The best way to test thyroid and adrenals is the 4x saliva test, and preferably a clinical assessment. I see Thierry Hertoghe in Belgium (where I live) and he gives me a clinical examination every time I see him to assess my thyroid / adrenal status. He is one of, if not the best, thyroid doctor in Europe.

You may do OK on just good diet, vitamins, lots of rest and no stress - if that is possible. The events of the last few weeks may have been an adrenal crash, and you may need stronger adrenal support than herbal remedies. This is why testing is so important. It would definitely be worth exploring the testing opportunities in the UK, for example. I know of a lab in the UK which takes samples from Europe.

I have had to become an adrenal expert out of necessity!! My adrenals were so weak by the time I realised what was going on I don't think they will ever heal properly. I expect to have to take cortisol for the rest of my life. Bummer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> That is why I urge people to treat their adrenals before things get really bad. That way you have a chance of healing them and getting back to normal. That is why you need to get that tooth sorted asap.

Hope this is helpful NIna.

Nicola x