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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Worried about adrenal fatigue? Read this.

• The truth about the “8 cups of water” rule

• The foods that boost mood

• How to diagnose and bust out of a plateau

Beyond The Headline 
Adrenal Fatigue Is Not What It Appears

The appeal of “adrenal fatigue” is easy to understand. It takes a frustrating mix of exhaustion, poor sleep, brain fog, and feeling wired but tired and gives it one cause: chronic stress has worn down your adrenal glands.

And if you believe the millions of views on social media, it also comes with a simple fix: Mix orange juice, coconut water, salt, and sometimes magnesium. The “cortisol cocktail” is supposed to replenish what stress depleted, restore cortisol balance, and help you feel normal again. It sounds medical enough to be plausible. 

The cocktail doesn’t work, but the diagnosis is the bigger issue.

“Adrenal fatigue” is not a recognized medical condition, and there’s no good evidence that chronic stress exhausts your adrenal glands until they stop producing enough cortisol.

As with everything, that’s not our opinion. It is what exhaustive research has found.

A systematic review of 58 studies found no scientific support for adrenal fatigue. Cortisol isn’t something the body needs to flush out, either. Levels are supposed to rise after waking because that increase helps make you alert and prepares the body for the day. 

Adrenal insufficiency is a real medical condition. However, it doesn’t function like the “burned out” version you hear about. 

For example, an autoimmune disease can damage the adrenal glands, and taking corticosteroids such as prednisone for an extended period can suppress the body’s own cortisol production. There are other causes, too. 

But everyday life, however stressful, doesn’t wear out the adrenal glands in the way “adrenal fatigue” claims.

As for the cocktail, chronic stress can disrupt normal cortisol patterns, but juice and salt haven’t been shown to repair them.

The drink itself is mostly carbohydrates and electrolytes. That can help after a long, sweaty workout, especially when you need to replace fluids and sodium. There’s little reason to expect the same drink to relieve chronic stress or fix persistent fatigue.

Sleep, regular exercise, enough food, and addressing the source of ongoing stress have far more evidence behind them. 

And persistent fatigue deserves more than an internet diagnosis. Sleep problems, anemia, thyroid disorders, medication effects, depression, and true adrenal insufficiency can all cause similar symptoms. If this sounds like your situation, a doctor is the best bet to help you feel better. 

Together With LMNT 
Breaking Down The "8 Glasses of Water" Rule

You've probably heard that you should drink “8 glasses of water per day.” But when a scientist went looking for the study behind that number, he found something surprising:

The eight-glass rule was never real. But that doesn’t mean you should underestimate the importance of hydration. 

In a 2002 review, Dartmouth physiologist Heinz Valtin searched for the data behind the "eight 8-ounce glasses a day.” Maybe somewhat surprisingly, he found no evidence that healthy people need it. The closest source was an old nutrition-board note suggesting about a milliliter of water per calorie you eat, and the very next line said most of that already comes from your food. 

That little detail was overlooked, and the math became simple: Two quarts, 64 ounces, eight glasses. 

The bigger hydration figures you see quoted (2.7 liters for women and 3.7 for men) come from a 2004 Institute of Medicine report. They're totals for all the water in what you eat and drink, including coffee and tea, with about a fifth coming from food. 

If you drink throughout the day, you’re probably doing just fine. The problem is that most people don’t drink until they’re thirsty, and — even then — they won’t always drink or don’t drink enough. 

Or, you might have lost touch with your ability to detect your hydration needs. 

If you rarely feel thirsty and rarely drink, that can be a signal you've tuned out, and you’re likely part of the group that benefits most from focusing on hydration. 

In a year-long trial, women prone to UTIs who drank under 1.5 liters a day cut their infections almost in half by drinking more. Recurrent kidney stones drop for the same reason.

Or, if you train hard in heat or sweat a lot, it’s very easy for your losses to outrun your thirst signals. 

In those situations (hot day, a hard workout, or even if you’re battling a fever or stomach bug), drink on purpose instead of waiting for thirst to catch up. 

When you lose about 2% of your body weight in fluid, endurance and performance (physical and cognitive) start to drop quickly. 

As you age, your ability to detect thirst weakens, which is why older adults can be dehydrated without feeling it.

Mild dehydration reliably drags down mood, energy, and focus and can bring on headaches, well before it affects memory or reaction time. You feel worse and foggier, not measurably dumber.

As a rule of thumb, don’t go several hours without a drink. Drink ahead of it when you're hot, exercising, sick, or getting older. Normal water will do the trick.

But, if you struggle with hydration, that’s where something like LMNT can help.

If you forget to drink or stop feeling thirsty, the fix isn't more discipline. It's a drink you actually want to reach for. A glass of something that tastes good is a lot harder to ignore, and for people who chronically under-drink, that's most of the battle right there.

That's part of what makes LMNT effective: it’s an enjoyable way to stay hydrated, without added sugar, dyes, or additives you don’t want. 

We mix it into a glass on mornings we know we've been slacking, and on any hot or hard-training day when water alone won't keep up with the electrolytes we lose. Each serving refuels the sodium, potassium, and magnesium your body needs to maintain higher performance and hydration.

APC readers get a free 8-count Sample Pack, one of every flavor, with any drink mix order. It's added to your cart automatically, no code needed. If you don’t love the product, LMNT offers a no-questions-asked refund policy, which means you’ll be satisfied. 

Nutrition 
The Good Mood Food

Most reasons to eat more fruits and vegetables sound like an investment in your future health. But when you eat the right things, your mood may respond even sooner.

Researchers found that eating extra fruits and vegetables was associated with more energy, motivation, and psychological well-being. 

And that’s not all: A longer observational study of thousands of women found that those who ate at least five servings per day of fruits and vegetables (combined) had a nearly 20 percent lower risk of depression.

Observational research can’t tell us whether the food deserves the credit. People who eat more produce might exercise more, sleep better, have higher incomes, or differ in other ways that affect mental health.

But a randomized controlled trial suggests there might be more to eating good food than coincidence.

In the study, one group continued eating normally. The other received fresh vegetables, and researchers measured changes in skin carotenoids to confirm that participants were eating them.

Happiness improved in the vegetable group but didn’t change in the control group.

The study was small, and participants knew they were receiving free food. That could have influenced how they reported feeling. Even with those limits, the result adds to evidence that eating more fruits and vegetables may support mental health, rather than merely being something happier people tend to do.

Researchers don’t know exactly why, but there is no shortage of theories and potential mechanisms.

Vitamin C and several B vitamins help the body produce and regulate neurotransmitters involved in mood and motivation. Fruits and vegetables also contain compounds that may help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, both of which are associated with depression. Plant fiber feeds gut bacteria that communicate with the brain, although the role of that pathway in these studies remains uncertain.

Regardless of the cause, this is one area of research with lots of upside and very little downside.

Better Questions, Better Solutions 
The Plateau Is Telling You Something True

A plateau can make you want to bang your head against a wall. The scale stalls. The same weight keeps showing up on the bar. Pretty soon, the early progress starts to look like luck. Or you just assume you’ve reached the limits of your potential.

Either way, you get exasperated trying to jumpstart progress. But maybe the problem is the plan itself.

Old question: How much harder do I need to push to break through this plateau?
Better question: Is this plateau a sign my plan is flawed?

The first question sends you hunting for more effort against the same wall. The second turns you toward the plan itself, which is where the real solution lives. 

Nearly any program can produce results at first. New exercises, new loads, or even consistent training can be enough to trigger early progress.

Novelty does some of the work, even when the program itself isn’t very good. And it’s why many people get sucked into plans with a short shelf life.

Once that wears off, the design gets exposed. Some programs repeat the same workouts without a clear way to progress. Others bury you in so much volume that fatigue piles up faster than strength. 

Soreness can confirm that a workout was hard. It doesn’t tell you whether the workout was productive or designed to make you better. 

As we’ve said before: a good workout can be exhausting, but the goal of your workouts isn’t to feel exhausted. It’s to make progress: get stronger, do more reps, add more range of motion, or anything else that shows you’re getting better. 

A meta-analysis of 18 studies found that periodized training, which includes planned changes over time, produced greater strength gains than repeating the same work. That advantage showed up across experience levels, whether beginner or advanced. 

So if you feel stuck, it’s easy to think you’ve maxed out your potential or hit the end of the road. 

In reality, the plateau can be a sign of many things, but for most people, it’s an indication that your program wasn’t designed to help you get better over the long haul. 

Try this: Look at your last month and assess your progress. If you aren’t tracking anything, start with a two-week period to review whatever feels stuck. 

Then, if things aren’t changing, adjust one variable, such as the load, reps, or your recovery, and stick with that change for two weeks before judging the result.

You can do the same thing with your diet. First, make sure you’re compliant (you can’t judge a plan if you’re not following the plan). Once you are, then see if you’re making changes. When you’re not seeing gradual improvements, adjust one variable and see if progress starts back up. 

Sometimes you’re stuck simply because you’re doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Or it’s because the plan itself just isn’t very good. Either way, there’s no need to sit and wait, thinking you can’t change. Because you most certainly can. 

If you don’t want to think and just want to act, that’s why we created The Pump Cub App. It’s not like other apps, and that’s a big reason why it works. Start your free 7-day trial, and find out for yourself.

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to edit and review our interpretations of the research, ensuring scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell