Adrenal Results, would love some input

October 21, 2006

Hi Everyone,

I just joined this forum. I've been a member of the natural thyroid

site for a while now. Anyway, I am in pretty good shape

with my thyroid, but was wondering why I was still so tired and achey

and was having such a hard time with managing my blood sugar. I need

to lose 20 pounds and I can't say it's because I'm eating really well

and and exercising. Actually, my exercise has been rather sporadic,

but my biggest problem is I'm always starving and if I don't eat, I

get the shakes, headachey, anxious - basically hypoglycemia symptoms.

My doc had me do the 4 X a day saliva testing for adrenals and here

are the results and the reference ranges:

7:00 - 8:00 am 5 (13-24) depressed

11:00 - noon 2 (5-10) depressed

4:00 - 5:00 pm 2 (3-8) depressed

11:00 - midninght 3 (1-4) normal

Along with the adrenal results, there were others:

DHEA pooled value 2 (3-10) depressed

Insulin

fasting <3 (3-12)

post-prandial 8 (5-20) normal

Total salivary SIgA 8 (25-60) depressed

P17-OH Progesterone 50 (22-100) normal

Also, my ferritin was at 20.

As a result of this, my doc wrote me a prescription for cortef and

told me to take DHEA and iron. From what I've read the adrenal

insufficiency could be causing the hypoglycemia. Is it other people's

experience that once this is straightened out the hypoglycemia goes

away and they can eat better and lose weight? Do you know how long it

takes to start feeling the effects of the cortef? I feel so awful,

particularly first thing in the morning. I feel like I'm 85 years old.

I'm also confused, and a little worried, because it sounds like a lot

of people complain about gaining weight when they start taking cortef.

Also, does anyone have any thoughts on why my fasting insulin is so

low? My doc was even stumped by that one.

Thanks,

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