Re: Cortisol -- was The healing process takes time

[Guest guest]

>>Cortisol sets up a condition that causes your body

to NOT burn fat, it tries to store all the fat it can, lowers

the metabolism, AND makes you outrageously hungry.

You can get high cortisol for other reasons, but in

my case I think it was all stomach issues -- when I

react to a food I ALSO get high anxiety, but I think

the anxiety is a symptom, not the cause.

Heidi, I understand how cortisol flips the fat-burning switch off, but

about making you outrageously hungry, that hasn't been my experience. (Of

course I'm an unusual case!) Do you know how it would make you hungry?

It just seems to me that cortisol is what's involved in the fight-or-flight

response, which shuts down digestion so that you can lift a car. By now I

should be lifting cars all the time.

-

[Guest guest]

--- In , " Christie "

> One of the known, listed side effects of cortisone drugs is

ravenous hunger and thirst, along with water retention and

weight gain.

----You can say that again! When I was on prednisone (synthetic

cortisone) I was an appetite with legs! Another lovely side effect

is a buffalo hump...

[Guest guest]

\

> I have no idea why it makes me hungry. I think it isn't the case

> for everyone -- some people refuse to eat when they

> are under stress. For me though, my blood sugar

> drops (maybe because I can't burn fat?) and I

> eat everything in sight.

>

> >It just seems to me that cortisol is what's involved in the

fight-or-flight

> >response, which shuts down digestion so that you can lift a

car. By now I

-----the adrenal gland, which produces cortisol (which I believe is

a hormone which is supposed to calm you-- which is why it

released when you're stressed...) also produces adrenaline. It's

adrenaline that causes your appetite to shut down during the

" fight or flight " response to stress. I suspect that cortisol is

released shortly after adrenaline in order to " bring you down " ,

and that it stimulates the appetite so you can replenish all the

stuff you used up while your body was revving on adrenaline.

That said, when I was on prednisone, I was extremely jittery, and

my heart raced and I had panic attacks... but that might have to

do with large quantities of a synthetic substance having the

opposite effect of small quantities of the natural substance.

I'm no expert, so if anybody out there can elaborate, or correct me

where I'm wrong, please do!

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

>>the adrenal gland, which produces cortisol (which I believe is

a hormone which is supposed to calm you-- which is why it

released when you're stressed...) also produces adrenaline. It's

adrenaline that causes your appetite to shut down during the

" fight or flight " response to stress. I suspect that cortisol is

released shortly after adrenaline in order to " bring you down " ,

and that it stimulates the appetite so you can replenish all the

stuff you used up while your body was revving on adrenaline.

Good explanation, thanks. So it's really adrenaline that's associated

with the fight-or-flight response that shunts blood flow away from

the digestive organs and to the periphery so you can do heroic tasks..

I seem to be stuck in FOF chronically, but I haven't lifted any cars

lately :-))..

>>That said, when I was on prednisone, I was extremely jittery, and

my heart raced and I had panic attacks... but that might have to

do with large quantities of a synthetic substance having the

opposite effect of small quantities of the natural substance.

Interesting.. When I did the saliva test for cortisol, I remember

being very jittery when doing the nighttime sample, and that sample

tested high for cortisol. So maybe the high cortisol was trying to

bring the adrenaline down, although it wasn't working, or it was

taking a long time.

But why prednisone itself causes jitteriness, I don't know.. I should

read that book on cortisol, although I think reading a whole book on

cortisol might make me jittery!

(I still have the Adrenal Fatigue book on my shelf, too tired to read

it :-)

-

[Guest guest]

--- In , Joanne Pollack

> So is cushings syndrome excess cortisol? And

> treatment would be to reduce the amount of cortisol...

> I am sooo convinced my BF has this condition. Heidi's

> recent posts about the link between poor digestion/low

> HCl and excess cortisol just convinces me even more.

------When I went to the internist with all my Prednisone side effects, he said

I

had Cushing's Syndome. Usually the term refers to too much NATURAL

cortisol. Buffalo hump, racing heart, moon face, bloated abdomen, water

retention... are these your friends' symptoms?

[Guest guest]

--- In , Joanne Pollack

> Yes, and pink stretch marks over much of his torso.

> He lost 140lbs on a low carb diet, but still has 90lbs

> or so to go, and he is just slowly gaining - NOTHING

> is working! BUt it's a long slow process getting him

> to the doctor. First he has to register....

-----stretch marks are also caused by excess cortisol. It

weakens the skin, so when you gain weight, you get truly nasty

marks (I have to have plastic surgery on my underarms...)

It sounds that your friend may also have low thyroid. Lots of

times this condition doesn't show up on doctors tests. There are

simple temperature tests your friend can do to find out if this is

the case. There is a great book on this (I can't think of the title,

but it's recommended on the WAP website...) wait... I think its

called " Solved: The Riddle of Illness " .

It's possible that an underactive thyroid could cause a person to

produce excess cortisol to compensate...

Hope this helps,

[Guest guest]

>

> What does moon face mean?

-----moon face is the term used to describe the odd looking face

someone gets on cortisone/prednisone. You tend to swell in the

face and abdomen first. And the face gets very wide and

disproportionately large for the body. If you're on the Raw Dairy

site, I posted a picture of me on steroids. My face and neck were

enormous!

[Guest guest]

> ,

>

> I don't know the site you are speaking of, but I do know what

you mean. There was a guy I used to work with that had a face

like that. Very swollen looking.

-----It's just another group like this one called RawDairy.