The adrenal glands are small endocrine glands that sit directly on top of each kidney, one on the right kidney and one on the left. In terms of physical size, Aajonus described them as approximately the size of a thumb, or smaller, roughly the size of a little finger up to the second joint. They are paired organs, meaning the body has two of them, and Aajonus noted that this pairing is purposeful, a built-in redundancy in the body's emergency system.

In Aajonus's framework, the adrenal glands are endocrine glands, meaning they manufacture hormones and dump those hormones directly into the bloodstream, they do not secrete into a duct or intermediate organ. Their primary secretion is adrenaline, though he noted they produce much more than only adrenaline, much like the pancreas produces more than just insulin.

Within the Primal Diet, raw adrenal gland tissue, whether consumed fresh, as a fresh gland from a butchered animal, or as a freeze-dried glandular supplement, is used therapeutically to teach the body's own adrenal glands how to produce hormones again, and in severe cases, to supplement the body with the actual raw hormonal and tissue material the adrenal glands need to regenerate.

Aajonus placed the adrenal glands within the broader context of the entire endocrine gland system, which he described as existing exclusively for emergency purposes in a healthy organism. In healthy tribal peoples eating raw foods, and in healthy wild animals, he found only trace amounts of hormones, including adrenaline, in the blood under normal circumstances. The adrenal glands should not, in his view, be chronically active. Chronic adrenal activity is a sign of a deeper systemic problem, almost always rooted in industrial toxicity, dietary deficiency of proper raw fats, and the inability of red blood cells to transport oxygen to convert fat into energy properly.

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Aajonus was explicit and repeated across multiple seminars that adrenaline is not meant to be a normal, everyday hormone. In a healthy body eating the proper foods with sufficient raw fat, adrenaline would be present only in trace amounts in the blood under normal conditions. The only time adrenaline should rise significantly is during genuine emergencies, fight or flight situations, physical danger, extreme athletic emergency performance, or severe injury.

He gave the example, repeatedly, of a woman in the 1950s whose baby was about to be run over by a car she had failed to put the emergency brake on. The car had already run over the baby's fingers. The woman lifted the back end of the 3,000-pound car, two and a half tons, because a surge of adrenaline entered her bloodstream. This was not a normal occurrence; it was a physiological emergency response. Under normal circumstances, that feat would be impossible.

Aajonus stated that even a pinprick, a thousandth of a microgram, of adrenaline in the blood can produce 300 times more strength than baseline. He noted that if you inject adrenaline into a stopped heart, it will begin pumping and pump very strongly for days from that single injection. However, if you pump too much into the body, it causes the heart to go into a cramp, a kind of charlie horse of the heart muscle, and the heart stops from over-pumping.

Aajonus described the adrenal glands as being responsible for producing physiological energy for the muscles, helping to pump muscles, helping give physical energy for muscular activity. He connected the anatomical location of the adrenal glands (on top of the kidneys, near the lower back and waist) to their function. The kidneys are located in the lower torso, which relates directly to leg movement, lower body mobility, and the mechanics of fight-or-flight physical response. He noted that adrenaline can also go to the arms.

A major theme in Aajonus's teaching about adrenal glands was that normal physical energy, the energy needed for everyday muscular activity, should come not from adrenaline but from properly metabolized raw fat. He stated directly: "The adrenal glands, again, are not for normal activity. Your normal activity comes from eating the proper foods with enough fat to make the good energy. You wouldn't need adrenaline if your body is producing the right fats. Eating the right fats, mixing in the right nutrients to transform it into energy. Why would you need the adrenaline except for fighting a fight?"

When the body is not receiving the right fats, or when the red blood cells are not healthy enough to transport oxygen to convert fat into energy, the body resorts to using adrenaline as a substitute energy source. This is an emergency mechanism being chronically hijacked by dietary deficiency.

When adrenaline fires in a healthy body with sufficient blood fat, it calls out the fat stored in the muscles and burns it as energy. This is the correct, intended mechanism. The adrenaline works with fat and uses it for muscular output.

However, when there is insufficient blood fat, as in people eating low-fat diets or eating improperly, the adrenaline has nothing to work with in the muscles. In that state, it moves to the nervous system, where it begins leaching from the myelin sheath, the fatty protective coating around nerve fibers, which is approximately 90% fat. Aajonus was very specific: adrenaline acting on insufficient fat causes lesions in the myelin. As the myelin thins, more electromagnetic energy floods through, causing hypersensitivity, irritability, anxiety, and inability to function. The person becomes overwhelmed by sensory stimulation.

He further specified that adrenaline does not work alone, it requires a fuel source. Without fat available, it turns to sugar. But sugar in conjunction with adrenaline becomes extremely acidic, comparable to battery acid or sulfuric acid. This acid state damages tissues everywhere in the body. Tissues can no longer produce their own prostaglandins (intracellular hormones). The body may still secrete extracellular hormones for a time, but when that breaks down completely, total exhaustion results. This exhaustion is not just adrenal, it spreads system-wide.

He quantified the energetic inefficiency: it takes two and a half times as much sugar or starch to burn the same amount of energy as one molecule of fat. So when adrenaline is burning sugar instead of fat, it burns through sugar reserves at a massively accelerated rate.

When the adrenaline and sugar combination remains in the tissues, stored throughout the body in pockets, not just in the adrenal glands, yeast organisms, particularly candida, move in to feed on those sugars. Aajonus was specific: all yeasts come about to eat sugars, whether starch sugar, fruit sugar, or vegetable sugar. Bacteria can also feed on this combination, but yeast is the primary organism that responds.

He stated that the candida usually develops before the adrenal exhaustion completes, but that the two conditions occur together approximately 86% of the time. In women specifically, the body may attempt to route the adrenaline-sugar combination to the vaginal area, where a woman can eliminate it faster through vaginal yeast infections. Men, not having this discharge route, accumulate candida systemically.

Aajonus noted that the body can substitute and convert hormones across glandular systems. It can take thyroxine (thyroid hormone) and convert it into an adrenal hormone. This is a complicated process that the body resorts to when it is so fatigued and damaged that it cannot produce sufficient adrenal hormone from the adrenal glands directly.

He also documented the reverse compensation: when the adrenal glands are underproducing, the gonads (sex glands) may attempt to substitute their hormones for adrenal hormones. In one reading he gave a man named Ranga Rajan, he explained that the man's overactive adrenal glands were replacing the missing testosterone from debilitated testes, creating a debilitating calm rather than hyperactivity. In another reading (Sandra), the sex hormones were compensating for absent adrenal output, the adrenal gland on one side appeared to not be working at all, and the other was working minimally, while the sex glands were very active, making up for the adrenal deficit.

Aajonus used both iridology and palm/hand reading to assess adrenal status. In hand reading, the area at the base of the thumb, what he called a mound, reflects adrenal gland activity. If this mound is almost non-existent, flat and lifeless, it indicates either low adrenal activity or adrenal exhaustion. He distinguished between the two states: low adrenal activity means the gland is under-functioning; adrenal exhaustion means the gland has been chronically over-functioning and has now completely depleted itself.

He described reading an individual (during an iridology session) where the adrenal gland mark on one side was overactive, showing as deeper than normal, but was also losing firmness, becoming fleshy without the firm backing. He explained this as a sign of transitioning toward exhaustion. He noted specifically that the left adrenal gland was almost exhausted while the right one was still functional. He further cross-referenced this against the iridology reading, explaining that the right eye reflects the left side of the body's internal organs, and the left eye reflects the right side, and that the adrenal gland readings in the iris corroborated the hand reading.

In other readings, he found: - Both adrenal glands very debilitated (Marcia) - Left adrenal gland almost deteriorating (one woman) - Left adrenal gland about 25% hardened tissue (Kevin) - Left adrenal gland shrunken but in pretty good shape (one man) - Left adrenal gland protein deficient (one woman) - Right adrenal gland approximately 40% scar tissue, still functioning (one reading) - Right adrenal gland almost deteriorating (one woman) - Right adrenal gland pretty hardened (one man) - Right adrenal gland little waterlogged but okay (one man) - Right adrenal gland in poor circulation, not working well (implied by context) - Very overactive adrenal glands, one of the widest adrenal gland areas Aajonus had seen, on both sides (one man with dry skin) - Extremely overactive adrenal glands, especially the right, causing irritability and impatience (one woman) - Very overactive adrenal glands combined with very overactive sex glands (Benjamin, typically indicating physical athlete or physically active person) - Overactive adrenal glands combined with low testosterone from testes, creating debilitating calm (Ranga Rajan)

Aajonus made a specific observation about cats and their adrenal cortex. He noted that cats have rudimentary adrenal glands, so to build up their adrenal cortex, they play with their prey before killing it. The fear response of the prey animal floods that animal's body with adrenaline. By consuming the prey after it has been in this high-adrenaline state, the cat ingests the adrenal hormones stored in the prey's muscles and tissues. Without this, the cat would not be able to hunt again effectively. This is a naturally occurring form of consuming raw adrenal tissue and the hormones it generates.

Aajonus noted that people with otherwise good adrenal glands can still suffer chronic fatigue because all of their adrenal hormone output is being used to bind with and manage industrial toxins in the body, leaving nothing for energy production. He stated he knew many people in this situation: very good adrenal glands, yet chronic fatigue, because the adrenaline is being entirely consumed in dealing with toxicity rather than producing functional energy.

He identified the primary cause of what people label "adrenal problems" as industrial toxicity: "99% of the time that I've seen people say they have an adrenal problem, there's not an adrenal problem. People have an industrial toxicity problem. That is always your problem."

He also noted that mercury from vaccines and other medications can be stored in the endocrine gland system, affecting the adrenal glands along with all other endocrine glands. Getting this mercury out of the endocrine gland system through the lymphatic system is a very difficult process.

Aajonus described a secondary role involving the thymus, that the thymus helps convert some of the adrenaline into hormones to regulate lung and heart functionality. The heart and lungs never shut down, working constantly, and the thymus helps regulate their continuous activity partly by processing adrenal output.

Aajonus reported from his own testing of healthy animals: hormone production and content in the blood and rest of the system is minimal, only trace amounts, when the animal is healthy and eating correctly. He found that in tribal peoples eating raw foods, hormone levels including adrenaline were almost nil under normal conditions. The only time hormone levels were elevated was in genuine emergencies: high adrenaline when the animal was being chased by a predator; high testosterone and estrogen when animals came together sexually for procreation. Growth hormone from the pituitary only appeared when animals were starved or in emergency growth situations.

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Aajonus made a clear hierarchy of efficacy for consuming adrenal gland tissue:

Fresh raw gland is the most effective form. It provides the actual raw hormonal compounds, enzymes, and tissue components that can both supplement the deficient hormones directly and give the body's own adrenal glands the material they need to rebuild. He stated explicitly: "If you want to supplement, you have to have the fresh gland. Well, it can be old gland, but it has to be the gland. It can be a stinky rotten gland. It works even faster."

This is a significant detail, Aajonus indicated that an aged, even putrefied ("stinky rotten") adrenal gland works even faster than a fresh one, following his general principle that enzymatic breakdown increases bioavailability and potency of raw animal tissues.

Freeze-dried desiccated glandular supplements (capsule form) are the secondary option. Aajonus acknowledged their utility but was specific about their limitation: "I say in my book, one of my books, that yes, I've seen that raw desiccated glands help the body make their own glands, but it doesn't really neutrify [provide the actual nutritive substance of] that particular substance in the body." The desiccated form teaches the body, sends a signal to the glands to produce the relevant hormones, but does not actually supplement the hormonal content the way fresh gland does. He described it as "the long and hard way" compared to fresh glands being "the better way."

He specified that the freeze-dried glandulars should be chewed if possible, though if a person does not chew them it is still acceptable.

Aajonus generally preferred single-gland supplements so that the specific gland being targeted receives the most direct support. However, he made an important exception for adrenal exhaustion: because adrenal exhaustion almost always occurs together with thyroid exhaustion and then exhaustion of every other gland in the system, he recommended a multi-glandular supplement for anyone with adrenal exhaustion. Getting all glandular tissue together makes sense in this situation because the exhaustion is systemic, not isolated to the adrenal glands alone.

His earlier sources mentioned Carlton Labs in Illinois as a past source for glandular supplements, including a complete multi-glandular supplement, though he noted that by the time of the recording they only made multi-glandulars and no longer offered single-gland products in the pure form he had worked with.

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Aajonus sourced fresh raw glands from: - Miller's Organic Farm - NorthStar Bison ("You can get from North Star Bison, or you catch your farmers around here, when they suddenly butcher, get the bulls balls.") - Amish farmers, he noted that around Amish communities, one can order any gland desired: "You get the tissue, ovary tissue, and you get it freeze dried. Preferable to chew..." - Local farmers who are butchering, catching them at butchering time to obtain fresh glands

For freeze-dried glandular supplements, Aajonus mentioned: - Nutripack, he used the term "Nutripack" in reference to freeze-dried glandulars for liver and prostate and similar glands, indicating he found their products acceptable - Carlton Labs in Illinois, a historical source he used extensively when experimenting, before they changed their product line to only multi-glandular formulas - Dr. Ron's, mentioned by a client; Aajonus's response was to ask "Who is Dr. Ron?" suggesting he was not familiar with or did not recommend this company - New Zealand-sourced glandulars were referenced by a client, but Aajonus did not specifically endorse New Zealand sourcing over other sources

Because fresh gland is the optimal form, preparation is minimal. The gland is consumed raw. Aajonus indicated it should ideally be eaten with a meat meal (liver, fish, or some kind of meat) because the body is already processing protein tissue and its accompanying chemicals at that time, making it the optimal moment for glandular tissue to be introduced and absorbed.

He specified for thyroid tissue (which parallels his glandular principles broadly): eat with a meat meal, because "thyroid is a meat. And the body will carry it. The body will already be dealing with the protein in the meat tissue and its chemicals, everything is geared for that. So putting it in at that time is the best."

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The most important pairing principle Aajonus articulated around adrenal gland function and healing is adequate raw fat, particularly raw animal fats (butter, cream, raw meat fat). This is not just a pairing for consuming glandular tissue itself, but the foundational requirement for adrenal health overall.

Without sufficient raw fat: - The body cannot generate normal physical energy from fat metabolism and resorts to adrenal adrenaline instead - Adrenaline in the absence of blood fat turns to sugar, creating a sulfuric acid-level acidity throughout the body - Adrenaline in the absence of fat leaches from the myelin sheath of nerves, causing hypersensitivity and neurological damage - The adrenal glands continue to be stimulated because there is no fat-based energy pathway available, driving them toward exhaustion

He stated: "The adrenals have to do with not having enough fat? Not having the proper kinds of fat to utilize and to generate energy, or your red blood cells aren't healthy enough to bring in the oxygen to alter the fat into energy."

For regenerating any gland (including the adrenals), Aajonus specified that both fish and red meat (beef) are needed. He explained: "When you are talking about regenerating the cells of a gland, you have to understand that it needs fish as well as beef, because there are mostly red cells in many of the glands." He noted that different glands have different coloration and cellular composition, some are redder, some are lighter, and that the dietary protein sources need to reflect this.

Aajonus specifically recommended naturally carbonated/sparkling mineral water as a tool for calming overactive adrenals. He stated: "Drinking naturally sparkling mineral waters helps to calm the adrenals." He specified "naturally carbonated", even if the label says "carbonation added," as long as the world is a chemical carbon, it is acceptable as naturally carbonated.

For conditions of anxiousness caused by excess adrenaline, Aajonus recommended: - No-salt-added raw cheese - The Nut Formula - Small amounts of cooked starch with plenty of raw fat (this calms the condition) - Raw meats, especially white with red, with plenty of raw fat - Unheated honey or a few non-steamed dates with raw fat (to maintain enzymes and blood sugar levels)

He noted salt is especially toxic in adrenal-excess states and should be avoided entirely.

As noted above, glandular tissue, including adrenal gland, should be consumed with a meat meal (liver, fish, or other meat protein) because the body is already in a glandular-tissue-processing mode when digesting meat, and introduces the glandular material at the moment of greatest enzymatic readiness.

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No direct topical applications for raw adrenal gland tissue are documented in the source passages. Aajonus's topical protocols in the adrenal context relate to supportive measures: - Hot baths to help the adrenal-overstressed body perspire, release pressure on the nervous system, and lower bacterial/parasitical/fungal activity. He specified that getting into a hot bath takes pressure off and lowers temperature of bacterial and fungal activity, helpful for the whole debilitated system including adrenal-exhausted individuals. - Butter for dry cracked skin associated with systemic debilitation including adrenal compromise. - Primal Facial Body Care Cream / Coconut Cream, mentioned in passing as nearly miraculous for topical healing in the context of overall glandular debilitation.

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Aajonus did not specify a precise gram or ounce dosage for fresh raw adrenal gland consumption in the passages provided. His general principle was to follow hunger, he referenced asking people to "go by hunger level" as a guideline for glandular tissue consumption.

Aajonus gave specific dosing for thyroid glandular tablets that he described as representative of his general glandular protocol approach: - Start with 2 tablets for 4 days (with a meat meal) - Let 3 weeks go by - Then take 4 tablets for 4 days - Let 3 weeks go by - Repeat the 4-for-4-days pattern for approximately one year - Monitor for signs of improvement

While this was described for thyroid, Aajonus's general glandular framework applies this cycling/pulsing approach rather than continuous daily supplementation, suggesting similar principles would apply to adrenal glandular supplementation.

Aajonus documented that too much adrenaline in the body, whether from over-injection or chronic pathological overproduction, can cause the heart to go into a cramp (a charlie horse of the heart muscle), leading to death from over-pumping. This underscores that adrenal stimulation, even with natural substances, must be approached with awareness of the balance required.

For people who are running on adrenaline (particularly body builders or those with high physical demands), Aajonus recommended eating small amounts of food often rather than large meals, because the adrenaline burns through fuel very quickly. He specified this approach unless the person is a body builder who needs storage glycogen, in that case, they may need the storage from larger meals. But for the average person with adrenal hyperstimulation, small frequent meals prevent the adrenaline from having to leach from the nervous system due to fuel shortage.

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Aajonus described raw adrenal gland (and glands in general) as best consumed fresh and raw, eaten with a meat meal. No cooking. No processing beyond obtaining the fresh gland from a butchered animal and consuming it.

He indicated the gland can be in varying states: - Fresh (optimal) - Older/aged (still effective) - Stinky/rotten (works even faster due to enzymatic pre-digestion)

The gland is consumed alongside or within a regular meat meal, liver, fish, or other raw meat, because the body's digestive chemistry is already oriented toward processing meat protein and its accompanying nutritional compounds at that moment.

For those who cannot obtain fresh gland, the freeze-dried capsule is taken at meal time, ideally with a meat meal, and should be chewed if possible rather than swallowed whole. Chewing improves the signal the body receives from the glandular tissue.

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The primary derivative of the adrenal gland is adrenaline (epinephrine) itself. Aajonus's entire teaching about the adrenal gland is fundamentally about adrenaline, when it should and should not be present, how it acts with or without fat, and what happens when it is chronically overproduced. His key statements:

• One little drop of adrenaline in the blood: ability to lift a car
• A thousandth of a microgram: 300 times more strength than baseline
• A pinprick in the blood: gives strength "a lot of action"
• Injected into a stopped heart: restarts it and keeps it beating strongly for days
• Too much: heart cramps and death

The raw adrenal gland, when consumed fresh, provides the body with the raw precursors and actual tissue from which the body can both learn to produce adrenaline properly and receive direct hormonal supplementation.

Goat's milk contains what Aajonus called "a lot of precursors to adrenaline production." It does not contain adrenaline itself but contains compounds that the body uses to synthesize adrenaline. This makes it functionally an adrenal stimulant food, beneficial for those with low/exhausted adrenals and contraindicated for those with hyperactive adrenals.

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Aajonus was explicit about what he saw as pharmaceutical fraud around hormonal measurement and supplementation. He stated: "The pharmaceutical industry is making a fortune telling you, oh, you've got to have this level. You've got to have this much thyroxine. T3, T4, T6. This is the level you should have. All of that measurement nonsense is about them making money."

His argument was that in a healthy organism, hormone levels are near zero in normal circumstances, only trace amounts. The idea that one needs to maintain a particular circulating hormone level at all times reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of endocrine gland function, or, in his view, a deliberate medical/pharmaceutical fraud.

Aajonus described the phenomenon of athletes using synthetic adrenaline for performance enhancement, including Lance Armstrong as a specific named example. He drew a clear distinction: "They're selling adrenaline now. You can take adrenaline. You're an athlete. You can shoot up adrenaline. It's natural. But it's the chemical adrenaline that they're making. So it's not really adrenaline." He called this "cheating", and more fundamentally, a fraud, because the synthetic version does not function the same as biological adrenaline.

Aajonus referenced Lance Armstrong multiple times in the context of adrenal hormonal doping: "Like Armstrong. And Schwarzenegger did, even though he had the nutrients, he was still taking synthetic drugs because they told him that that would make him bigger and better." He used this as a teaching example that people who are eating the wrong foods and lack proper fat-based energy metabolism are driven to seek artificial hormonal shortcuts.

Aajonus made an historical note that the Norwegians, the Vikings, used to eat molds containing LSD to excite both brain activity and adrenal gland activity. This was a deliberate use of a psychoactive/adrenal-stimulating compound to enhance the fight response before battle or raid. He connected this to the historical context of how warriors were prepared to "go out and rape and pillage", that stimulating adrenal glands through external compounds was used to override compassionate behavior and enable conquest.

Aajonus documented that mercury from vaccines and other medications preferentially stores in the endocrine gland system, affecting all endocrine glands including the adrenals. He described this as creating a glandular system that is "affected by mercury from vaccines or some other medication that is stored in the endocrine gland system." Getting this toxicity out through the lymphatic system is a very difficult process, requiring coconut cream as the best solvent.

Aajonus placed the epidemic of adrenal exhaustion and chronic hormonal imbalance in the context of industrial contamination of the food supply: "60,000 chemicals go into foods now. There are 60,000 chemicals used in food production on this planet. 60,000. We have 80,000 chemicals all together. 60,000 of them are used in processing foods." This level of chemical contamination forces the endocrine gland system, including the adrenal glands, into chronic emergency mode, using hormonal output to manage toxin binding rather than normal energy production.

Aajonus referenced the period 100 years prior to the modern era as one of exceptional adrenal and physical health: "Nobody ever heard of adrenaline. You never took adrenaline. You didn't get it. But people were incredibly healthy because they were eating a lot of raw fats. Even though they were cooking other foods, they were eating a lot of cream, a lot of butter that was not pasteurized. And people lived on butter and cream." He cited this as evidence that proper raw fat intake eliminates the need for adrenal compensation and produces robust natural physical energy.

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