James L. Wilson (1) (1944–)

I’d never heard of adrenal fatigue until a friend bought me a copy of this book on the basis that she felt I may have this condition.

Having read the early chapters that determine if you may or may not have adrenal fatigue I was immediately interested. I recognised most of the symptoms, read on, and found plenty of good advice on how to recover.

In short, a build-up of anxiety from numerous sources, which grew from mid-2012 onwards, are the main cause of my adrenal fatigue, and the same or similar scenario applies to most people.

The book features various tests/exercises, of which not all are necessary to undertake, as it depends on each individual. The important one is the questionnaire that diagnoses your level of adrenal fatigue. This ranges from slight, to mild, to moderate, to severe.

I expected mine to be mild but it actually crossed the line into moderate by a few points. This gives you something perceivable to aim for in that by following the advice you can retake this test every few months to see if the points have reduced.

I can’t fault this book on its content and will continue to reference it in future. The only negative aspect that I will state about it is that the lack of good grammar makes it feel something of a rush job.

As a copy-editor & proofreader, seeing so many errors makes me cringe. At times I had to re-read a sentence, owing to the absence of a hyphen, or other lacking punctuation.

The most common grammatical offence I encounter not only when proofreading, but every time I browse the Internet, especially on Facebook, also occurs in this text, namely the insertion of an apostrophe between the “0” and “s” when referring to decades. For example, writing "1970’s" when it should read "1970s".

But grammar issues aside, the book is written with enthusiasm and is a useful guide, thus I feel it deserves five stars.… (more)

According to this guy (Naturopathic Doctor, Chiropractor, PhD) your adrenal glands can get slap worn out. Too much bad food, too much work, too much negative thinking and your adrenals just get worn out. He says that it usually is cumulative and not just one thing that had stressed your body.

Worn out adrenals can even affect how well you react to and/or handle stress.

This book contains self tests to determine what state your adrenals are in and guidance on how to rebuild them. Of course one of his recommendations is to take the supplements he has formulated. But he only mentions it and it isn't as if the book is written to sell his products.

This book is full of good information that is in line with what I've read in many other sources and makes sense to me!

REST IS YOUR FRIEND!… (more)

I have some problems with this book:

1- The author says repeatedly that salt is good for you and potassium is to be avoided. He seems to think that sodium deficiency is a problem, but in fact it is rare. Salt is toxic. I know this from my own experience. Charlotte Gerson said that salt promotes cancer. Dr. Albert Schweitzer said the same. Dr. Max Gerson put all his patients on salt-free diets and gave them potassium supplements; he said that on this regimen sodium deficiency was rare. If sodium depletion is a problem in adrenal fatigue, how can salt be the solution? Salt is not bio-available—the human body cannot assimilate it or use it. The body needs organic, bio-available sodium from living plant and animal sources. Life comes from life, not from dead rocks; salt has none of the attributes of life. This book is not clear on the differences between salt and sodium; they are not the same.

2- He says to "be very careful of fruit consumption," presumably because of its sugar and potassium contents. But fresh fruits have more than acceptable glycemic indexes. (Pages 325 and 328 of this book give fructose, or fruit sugar, a harmless glycemic index of 32.) Fresh fruits are not problematic. Our digestive systems are similar to those of the anthropoid apes, designed to thrive on fruits and nuts. There are good reasons to fear salt; there is no good reason to fear fresh fruits or bio-available potassium.

If there is such a syndrome as adrenal fatigue, how can it reverse our natural dietary needs so radically? If it is caused by stress, how can a toxic irritant like salt be beneficial? How can something be good for the adrenals and bad for the rest of the body? Are the adrenals not part of the body?

On page 165, this book cautions against chlorine in water. On page 146 it recommends washing produce in a bleach solution. Is this a contradiction?

There is some good advice here about lifestyle changes but it is not new or exciting, in my opinion. It might be new to you. There is also a discussion of cognitive therapies and an attempt to simplify some very complicated endocrinology. But until I get some issues resolved, I am going to be wary of this book.… (more)