Exhaustion and menopause

Mattingly Chiropractic is happy to continue to release a series of blogs from St. Louis author, Carolyn Carter, regarding menopause and women’s health.

Not so long ago, I was so tired that just thinking of getting off the couch made me tired. I mean, I felt tired in my bones. Sitting down made me tired. Standing made me tired. Sleep gave me little relief. Even when I would lie down, I thought about how tired I was. It was awful. Even talking on the phone made me tired . . .

I was actually worried about myself. I thought maybe this was how old people felt. That maybe I was suddenly “old” and that menopause had brought this on. I had never experienced this kind of exhaustion. I was eating well. I hadn’t altered my routines. I didn’t know what the problem was. I forced myself to exercise thinking that if I just moved more, I would eventually feel better. If you’ve ever seen that scene in Liar Liar with Jim Carrey—the one where he beats the crap out of himself in the men’s restroom in order to avoid court—you’ll get a good idea of how I beat myself up about exercise. (Believe me, it wasn’t pretty.) I told myself it was all in my head. I doubled up on my vitamins. Nothing worked. I was at my wits’ end.

Then I told my chiropractor about it. And I told him again. I told him I was so tired that I was tired of talking about it. Basically, I reiterated paragraph 1 to him. He had me do a health assessment and then he told me my adrenals weren’t functioning properly. He gave me some whole food supplements, continued to adjust me, and about a month later, I started to feel like my old self again. Boy, what a relief!

After he told me this, I looked online and saw that there are a lot of people with this issue. It’s something called Adrenal Fatigue. I took their little quiz and I had most of the symptoms. They were silly things like—when you wake up, do you not feel awake? Do you often feel awake after 6pm? (Weird but true—I had that one, too.) People with adrenal fatigue are usually cold (even in the summer.) They often get compliments from their doctors about their “low” blood pressure. According to what I read, adrenal fatigue is a new phenomenon. Dr. James L. Wilson wrote a book about it called, “Adrenal Fatigue—The 21st Century Stress Syndrome.”

You don’t have to read the entire book if you don’t want that much information, but sometimes the things we think are caused by menopause may not be the case. If you’re experiencing this crashing fatigue, talk to your chiro. I’ll bet he or she can help you out. It won’t cost you a fortune and it won’t  require a dozen tests to determine the problem. Your body talks to you. Listen to it. I promise you’ll feel like yourself in no time.