Adrenal Fatigue: A Generally Unrecognized But Pervasive Syndrome

Original Internist, Dec, 2001 by James L. Wilson

Historically and in many modern clinics, preparations using adrenal cell extracts have been used extensively and are considered to be the most important aspect of the therapy. The first physician to use an adrenal extract in this way was Sir William Osler. In 1898, he used a crude preparation of adrenal cells in an unsuccessful attempt to keep a person with Addison's disease alive and functioning. Since adrenal cell extracts first became commercially available in 1918, they have been used successfully by thousands of medical doctors in the treatment of non-Addison's type of hypoadrenia. By the mid-1930s, adrenal cell extracts were produced by several companies in liquid and tablet forms. As recently as 1968, they were being made by some of the leading pharmaceutical companies (Upjohn and Parke-Davis, among others).(6)

However, use of these cellular extracts declined in the early 1950s when synthetic cortisol became available. Because the initial effects produced by the synthetic hormone cortisone were so much more dramatic and immediate than the effects of adrenal extracts, many physicians switched to cortisone and its synthetic version to treat conditions they had previously treated with adrenal cell extracts. The profit margin of the synthetic corticoids was many times greater than that of the cell extracts. This quickly made the synthetics the unquestionable favorite of the pharmaceutical industry. Within a few short years, the many detrimental side effects of the synthetics started appearing, but the pharmaceutical industry had made its profitable choice and never turned back.

It is important to clarify the difference between adrenal cell extracts and the natural and synthetic corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are replacement hormones; they replace only the hormone they are fashioned after but do not function exactly the same as the natural hormone. Upon entering the body they suppress adrenal function, shutting down all hormones secreted by the adrenals. If used in excess, which is often done, the side effects can be many and far-reaching. The natural form of the hormone (hydrocortisone) is safer than the other corticosteroids, but even the natural hormone shuts down the adrenals while it is being used and for several weeks to months after it is discontinued.

The cell extracts are not replacement hormones, but contain all the components of the adrenal cell in the proportions in which they naturally occur. This means that they contain only a tiny amount of actual hormone. The liquid extracts include the complete cell constituents, fresh frozen after being sterilized by ultrafiltration. Their action supports, fortifies, and restores normal adrenal function, enhancing adrenal activity rather than suppressing it. These extracts rarely have side effects and have been used orally and as injectables since the end of WWI.

The usefulness of adrenal cell extracts in infectious disease states was dramatically illustrated during the flu epidemic of 1918. While this flu was debilitating, even killing, thousands around the world, a few hundred of its victims were given a formula containing liquid adrenal cell extracts combined with a small amount of thyroid and gonadal extracts. This formula was found to be unusually effective in overcoming many of the asthenic, hypotonic, and depleted states that were so common in those afflicted with this deadly flu. It also effectively reduced the serious sequelae that usually followed this particular infection. The quick and uneventful recovery experienced by those taking this adrenal extract contrasted to the long period of recuperation normally seen in this flu epidemic.