How does one explore 'millions of cases of ill health'?
Yes, it is somewhat 'archaic' to have a medical viewpoint to actually investigate the causes of 'non-specific' symptoms rather than just putting them down to some fake illness like adrenal fatigue.
Patient: 'I feel very tired all the time, I have been gaining weight, I feel light-headed all the time, I seem to be forgetting things all the time.'
James L Wilson: 'This sounds like adrenal fatigue to me. Here take these supplements that I sell.'
Patient: 'I feel very tired all the time, I have been gaining weight, I feel light-headed all the time, I seem to be forgetting things all the time.'
Archaic Traditional Doctor: 'How have you been sleeping'. 'Are you waking up during the night'. 'Is your sleep refreshing' -- more archaic questions follow until doctor suggests a simple sleep apnea test to start with.
Wilson has failed to demonstrate that 'below optimal adrenal function actually results from stress'. What is natural healing? Natural healing of what? If Wilson were right and stress causes below optimal adrenal function that results in all these non-specific symptoms, wouldn't it be more appropriate to remove the sources of stress rather than to take a supplement?
The difference between ME and adrenal fatigue -- one is a neurological illness accepted by the World Health Organization, the other is a illness made up by a naturopath to make money.
If you were to talk to recently graduated Endo's you find the same thing -- adrenal fatigue is a made-up disorder.
Again, ME is a recognized medical condition with a set (or two) of consensus criteria that defines it and lays out how it is to be diagnosed -- re: what has to be present for a diagnosis and so on. AF seems to have the criteria of whatever symptom you are having is down to AF.
Where is the consensus criteria for adrenal fatigue? 'Chemical masking' -- of what? What is 'true healing'. You seem to be throwing these words around but what do you mean.
The bodies ability to maintain homeostasis is not just down to the adrenal glands.
According to Wilson, the purpose of the quiz:
But adrenal fatigue isn't a real illness. How can you indicate the presence and degree of something that doesn't actually exist Can you name some 'real illnesses' that have been cured or put into remission by vitamin and supplements (other than actual vitamin deficiencies)?
You are missing the point adrenal insufficiency is a real and serious medical diagnosis. You are erroneously conflating adrenal insufficiency with adrenal fatigue.
Again, ME, CFS are defined as real illnesses by the WHO, AF is not considered a real illness.
If a disease isn't real then a supplement can't heal it. This is pointless because you seem wedded to the idea the AF is a real illness.
You go on and on about pharmaceuticals and the financial element. What about the supplement industry churning out supplements that have little or no research to back up what they are said to do. The supplement industry is worth billions. What -- "once healed from AF, you may never need a supplement again". How so? If AF is caused by stress, then wouldn't it follow that AF would recur over and over again based on stress level? You aren't making a lot of sense with your comments and they aren't very logical either.
If a supplement can cure a mass of unrelated symptoms as you are suggesting -- why isn't it all over the news, the new treatment for the masses etc? I can think of many reasons.
ME and CFS has a lot of research behind it. You might want to attend an IiME conference -- the amount of research discussed there is mind blowing.
Couple of questions if you may..
1. In the say 1940's how was CFS/ME explained?
2. What are the lab tests used to determine CFS/ME? (please dont include speculative elimination tests)
3. Was it not the World Health Organisation who told us that eating sugar/carbs was good and eating fat was bad?
I appreciate you seem fairly elderly from your comments and lack of an open mind, and have probably grown up with the belief in Western Medicine (much like my parents and grandparents)
As the poster above mentioned very well, there are a lot of semantics involved in the term Adrenal Fatigue, and what you have mistakingly done is used the word 'fatigue' to 'hone in on', much like many of the general public 'hone in' on the fatigue aspect in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - but is CFS all about just fatigue, of course its not. So please, try to stop being one of those very same people that ridicule and misunderstand the sufferers of CFS, it isn't doing you any favours in terms of respect.
So while you keep repeating, like a skipping stylus on an old beat up record, AF, is a real illness (illness and disease are also two different things in some respects so please use the correct terminology to avoid confusion)
While you may believe that pharmaceuticals are the way forward - how is that working out for you? How long have you been ill now? Ever thought that maybe you could try something new and see how that works out? How many stories do we read of people harmed by pharmaceuticals, especially in the ME/CFS world? I agree, both industries are multi billion pound word of corporate, and this is a sad fact. But the Pharma industry is built on 'repeat business' and therefore it is in their interest to keep you coming back for more.
You also mention how supplements cannot heal illnesses? I find this very archaic and such an outdated view point, it is 2017 you know? You have to look back to early medicine and all those herbs and plants that where used to treat disorders - well they where mimiced by the pharma companies, for example say Lemon Balm and and it's effects on gaba receptors - then we look at Benzos - similar action (but with huge long term side effects), so what came first? Nature or a lab? We can also look back to when Addisons Dieease was treated with Adrenal Cortex Extracts, but it couldnt be patented, so the industry moved on to synthesized steroids. In fact , Thyroid extracts are still used in tradition medicine aren't they? So, as they are classed as supplements, but used to treat an illness - did that lightbulb just come on?
At no point have I ever said the bodies inability to keep homeostatis is solely down the adrenals, but in AF, it is a huge part.
Also, if you understand the recovery from AF, it is about 20% supplements - used to nourish and support the body, and the rest lifestyle, beliefs, rewiring the neurological pathways through yoga and meditation to rewire the 'stress response'. It seems yet again, you have focussed on the semantics of the phrase , without actually taking time to fully understand the disorder, yet you seem to want to continue to argue the validity of the illness, without fully understanding the symptoms that make up the disorder. This is quite arrogant to be fair.
Dr Lam has actually progressed quite a lot in his understand on this illness from Wilson, and his work is very detailed. Granted, he uses supplements, and he is expensive for consultations, but no more than seeing a specialist and paying for scripts. So instead of targeting in on Wilson, you can study some of lams and Hans Seyles work to further understand the illness/syndrome.
I find it comical almost that you are telling me about Adrenal Insufficiency, when 1, you do not suffer from it, and 2, I do, which was brought on by years of chronic stress exposure. In those years prior to SAI, I would be off been classed as AF, now, because of mistreatment and misunderstanding, I have Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency. If you want to argue that with your Wikipedia and Quackwatch quotes (editable by anyone those sources btw), please give Professor Arlt and Queen Mary University Hospital in Birmingham, UK a call - please transcribe the call for me, as I'd love to hear that. While she dosen't like the term Adrenal Fatigue either, she completely understands the stages of Chronic stress, and how that can eventually lead to damaged adrenals (one may say fatigued, one may say damaged - semantics).
So I retract back to my previous comments that you have avoided MANY times now. ME and CFS were once described as hocus-pocus illnesses, and in fact still are by many many GP's, but times are changing and thankfully in the past twenty years more work has been put into it and its becoming more acceptable as an illness. We will eventually see the same with AF/GAS, once they accept that treating it with sSRI's does not work in the long term - (but again we reply on Pharma companies for research so if that will happen who knows). Even Burnout is now a recognised illness, which is a big part of AF, so we are getting there, in the 80's it was know as a 'yuppie flu'. So eventually hopefully, like ME and CFS, we may see further progress in understanding it. Fingers crossed, would help so many people.
So please, you DO NOT understand the syndrome, and because of that you are not qualified or experienced enough to make a judgement on it. It seems you have a bee in your bonnet trying to disprove someones illness, when in fact twenty years ago, you would of had to prove your own illness. Whats that all about?
Theres probably a few points I've missed, but I've definitely given way too much of my precious time to you already and beginning to lose focus a bit as Im kinda bored, we get it - you aren't a 'believer', thats fine, and we will have to agree to disagree on what is real and what is not .- I have to ask you though, are you Religious? I'll leave you with that. x