By Michael Greer, MD - Vol. 12, No. 4. Winter, 2011 Think of adrenal fatigueas the "waiting room" for type-2 diabetes, hypothyroidism and heart attack. As a disease classification, it hangs out there with other "pre-" conditions like"pre-diabetes" and "pre-hypertension," and is a strong indicator of which direction a patient's health is headed; namely, down.