Can Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome happen in adolescents?
I'm Dr. Carrie Lam. This is Dr. Michael Lam.
We are nowadays seeing more and more children and adolescents in our coaching program
so we hear this question a lot.
Have you seen and have experienced with the children or teenagers having Adrenal Fatigue?
The answer is, unfortunately, much more than I like to see.
Oftentimes, there is a familial history, almost
like weak mothers give birth to weak child
and these events don't show up
until much later. Oftentimes, the parent doesn't know,
the kid doesn't know until they come to the teenage years
and that's when the first signs and symptoms appear.
What are some of the signs and symptoms of maybe a child or teenager having Adrenal Fatigue?
The most common is the lack of energy,
inability to concentrate,
sleep issues,
appetite issue is not too bad.
These oftentimes can be worsened after exercise
especially if they're in an intensive sports type program,
so we see that quite often.
Teenagers nowadays are exposed to a lot of stress,
especially high achievers
and we see that quite a bit in people with straight A students doing well in school
and then kind of over time, fall apart so to say, which is very concerning
because these are teenagers that on track
to become very excellent students in college, you see what I'm saying?
Also people like teenagers or high schoolers that are competitively in sports.
They really strive to do well in their competitions and that high stress can also
lead more to the fatigue and irritability that they might be in.
And the sad part is that this is seldom not recognized
by regular pediatrician
and, you know, after exhaustive, exhaustive studies and laboratory tests, they are often sent home
and say there's nothing wrong with them.
These adolescents, because in that age group, the peer pressure is so great,
so they're always torn between having to,
you know, see their friends, go out and then they kind of stuck at home,
Etc. So it can cause a lot of emotional turmoil
and if the family doesn't understand these ramifications,
things can actually be very negative, you see what I'm saying.
What can a parent do if they suspect or if they really think that their child has Adrenal Fatigue?
The first thing is obviously to see your pediatrician and make sure that from a medical perspective,
that there's nothing uncovered. You don't want to jump to conclusion.
But if your pediatrician has given a clean bill of health,
then if the teenager still have these issues,
the question is why and you have to start looking,
history, what is really going on? Is it food driven, activity driven?
I mean, sometimes teenagers are trying so hard
but yet at the same time they are not able to match up to their peers.
These are all things that a parent,
if you are astute and pay attention, you will figure out that something is wrong
even though you cannot put your finger on it.
Something is just not quite right.
We see a lot of the parents that call me
for that reason and then you'd be surprised how often these things happen,
but the good news is that because adolescents tend to be young...
They're moldable and...
they have a lot of reserve
so they tend to bounce back relatively quickly if you do the right thing.
But I always tell the parents that the danger
is that if you have this type of issue, you can bounce back but you have to do it right
because you have the plan for the rest of their life
and if you're not careful, they can always relapse back and that is a danger and that's not fun.
If you are concerned about your child or your adolescent having Adrenal Fatigue,
you do need help and you should find someone who knows what they're doing
in order to help them through the Adrenal Fatigue.
We're here to help you and empower you on your health journey
if your child or your adolescent might be dealing with this Adrenal Fatigue.