Your body has two adrenal glands located just above each of your kidneys. As part of your endocrine system, your adrenal glands secrete more than 50 hormones, including aldosterone (which helps regulate your blood pressure and blood volume), cortisol and adrenaline, the latter two of which can become overactivated by stress. Indeed, your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the system responsible for the management of stress. This includes stress from every conceivable source, be it injury or disease, work or relationship problems, lack of sleep or poor diet. Exposure to chronic stress from overwork, chronic inflammation or long-term illness, for example, can result in HPA axis dysfunction, commonly — although perhaps somewhat inaccurately — referred to as “adrenal fatigue” or “adrenal exhaustion.” Adaptogens for Adrenal Support A more recent hypothesis is that most so-called adrenal fatigue cases are not really due to the adrenal glands’ reduced ability to make cortisol. More …