Adrenal Fatigue or Wilson's Temperature Syndrome? How Dr. Wilson Tells Them Apart

Search for your symptoms and you will meet both of these names within a few clicks: adrenal fatigue and Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome. Both describe fatigue, weight gain, low mood and brain fog. Both are rejected as diagnoses by mainstream bodies. And Dr. Wilson has written about both, sometimes in the same article. This guide puts his passages side by side so the difference — and the overlap — is clear.

What each one is, in his words

Adrenal fatigue:

Adrenal fatigue, or dysfunction, is a condition (group of symptoms) that occur when your adrenal glands are having trouble keeping up with the demands being made on them.

Adrenal fatigue is not full-fledged adrenal insufficiency, a serious medical diagnosis that is accepted by mainstream medicine. But it is a milder, much more common version of adrenal insufficiency and shares less severe versions of many of the same symptoms: fatigue, especially in the morning, disrupted sleep, body aches, low blood pressure, light-headedness, salt and sugar cravings, brain fog, and trouble recovering from both physical and mental stress.

— What is Adrenal Fatigue and Why is it Such a Controversial Diagnosis?

Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, from the doctor’s manual:

Low body temperatures as well as other signs and symptoms of low thyroid function, which are unexplained by thyroid blood tests, characterize Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.

— A Quick Sketch of Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, the doctor’s manual

Both are defined by symptoms plus a clinical sign, not by a blood test. That is why they get confused, and why each has its critics — the objection hub covers the Wilson’s side of that.

Why the symptoms overlap

Dr. Wilson’s explanation is that the two hormone systems regulate each other:

Thyroid hormone sets a kind of “baseline” activity level and stress hormones, secreted from your adrenal glands, speed it up or slow it down.

The bottom line is: both hormone systems need to be functioning properly for either to work optimally. If one is out of whack, it will affect the other.

If these systems are out of whack, you may have a list of seemingly contrary symptoms — you may be tired but jumpy and have trouble sleeping, you may be sweaty and cold, but intolerant of heat. You may be depressed and anxious. You may feel light-headed when you stand up or try to exercise. You may have trouble concentrating and remembering things. You may be overweight but always hungry.

— Optimize Thyroid – Adrenal Cross-talk

And he is explicit that they often coexist:

And adrenal fatigue often exists alongside other conditions such as low thyroid hormone function or fibromyalgia.

— What is Adrenal Fatigue and Why is it Such a Controversial Diagnosis?

The one measurement that separates them in his practice

For Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, the sign is a body temperature that averages low, and he asks readers to check it before anything else:

Check your body temperature. (For instructions on how to do this correctly, see “How are body temperatures measured” on our website.) If your body temperature is consistently low—below 98.5 F., or 36.94 C, but typically lower than 97.8 F, or 36.56 C.— there’s a good chance that you have low thyroid hormone function.

— Optimize Thyroid – Adrenal Cross-talk

For the adrenal side, he offers a symptom checklist rather than a number:

There isn’t a specific test for this condition, but if you have several of these symptoms, your adrenals may benefit from some support.

• Fatigue, even after a good nights sleep.
• Unexplained weight gain which is difficult to lose
• Low blood pressure and lightheadedness when standing too quickly
• Low libido
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty exercising or feeling worse after exercise
• Poor immunity or getting sick easily
• Salt cravings
• Having conflicting feelings of “tired & wired”
• Poor sleep habits or non-refreshing sleep

— A Checklist for Adrenals

Notice how many of those ten also sit on the 53-symptom list for low body temperature — fatigue, weight gain, low blood pressure, lightheadedness, poor concentration, poor sleep. The checklist does not separate the two conditions; the thermometer does, in his view. A low average points at the thyroid side; a normal average with the checklist symptoms points at the adrenal side; both together is common.

What he does about each

For the adrenal side, his approach is lifestyle, nutrition and botanicals — not hormone:

Improvements in lifestyle and nutrition (such as adding more vitamin C) are crucial. Also, herbal support for the adrenal glands can be extremely helpful, especially when it comes to helping your body to better withstand stress. These herbs include Holy Basil, Rhodiola, licorice, ashwaganha, Eleuthero (Siberian ginseng), astragalus, and others.

— What is Adrenal Fatigue and Why is it Such a Controversial Diagnosis?

For the thyroid side, the protocol described across this site:

I’ve found that people with low body temperature can often improve dramatically if they get supplemental thyroid hormone in the form of T3. Normalizing body temperature with T3 can improve mood, energy level, ability to drop excess weight, and a host of physical symptoms. It can help your adrenal gland function better, too.

— Optimize Thyroid – Adrenal Cross-talk

And when temperature alone does not do the job, the doctor’s manual tells physicians to consider the other rope:

The thyroid rope is strong and it’s simple because it’s just T3 to get the temperature normal. It’s great when T3 does the job because the fewer the variables the easier the management. Nevertheless, some doctors find it helpful, and in some cases necessary, to pull on the “Adrenal” rope as well.

— Treatment Principles, the doctor’s manual

The short version

• Same symptoms, two systems. Dr. Wilson’s position is that they regulate each other and are often both involved.
• The measurement he uses to tell them apart is the temperature log: low average, thyroid side; normal average with the checklist, adrenal side.
• Adrenal support in his writing is nutritional and botanical; the thyroid side is a prescription protocol run by a doctor.
• Both diagnoses are disputed. Read the disagreement before you raise either with a physician.

More on the site: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Adrenal Connection, the Related conditions hub, and the symptom pages for Fatigue, Low Blood Pressure and Lightheadedness.

This is a reader’s guide compiled from Dr. Wilson’s published writing; every quotation is his and links to its source. It is not a diagnosis or medical advice.