Adrenals

[Guest guest]

got it! thanks!

and I need to finish peatfields book -

Cris

Re: adrenals

In a message dated 7/7/2004 12:21:45 PM Eastern Standard Time,

cris@... writes:

> should the adrenal cortisol number be lower? or higher? in the range -

>

cortisol serum labs are not very good for detecting adrenal fatigue...much

like those TSH labs are not very good at detecting hypo. Go by symptoms...and

have you been undiagnosed hypo for a long time. Also, if DHEA is low, that is

an indicator.

Cindi

[Guest guest]

To and all:

I started Armour last Nov. and worked my way up to 5 gr. Between Nov. and Feb 13

when I added 10mg of Cortef I felt absolutely horrible. Not one smidgen bit

better than pretreatment. I took the Cortef from Feb 13 til July when I began

20 mg of Cortef. Still I found no relief. My Free T4 and T3 were getting

steadily higher til my Free T3 was over 900. My doctor was about to freak out

and I must say I was somewhat concerned.

Then someone in the group, I forget, began the discussion on adrenals.

Somewhere in that two week period posted a portion of Peatfield's book on

how to handle adrenals. He suggested to get off Armour all together for 10-14

days and take only the 20 mg of Cortef. Well, I decided to do just that. I

reasoned that I couldn't possibly feel any worse.

Well, a miracle happened. I feel 500 million times better. I have energy, I am

not suicidually depressed, irritable, pessimisstic, etc, etc. I have been on

Cortef only for 9 days and will start again with 1 gr. of Armour on the 14th day

of being off.

My conclusions, with some help from a friend, is that my adrenals were weaker

than I ever imagined and just could not put out enough cortisol to push the

thyroid into the cells hence the high T3. Both my saliva and serum cortisol

tests came back low normal. So my doctor never said a word about treating them

prior to starting me on Armour. I had to ask for the Cortef and then I was

afraid of taking more than 10mg.

I am reading Jefferies book right now and let me say that there is no reason to

fear hydrocortisone in psysiologic doses. I would also like to say always test

your adrenals before starting thyroid meds. It can be very critical as it was

for me.

I also want to thank this group and The thyroid support group for all your help,

information, support. I would have never known to try this without ya'lls help

and information.

Deborah

[Guest guest]

>

> Well, a miracle happened. I feel 500 million times better. I have

energy, I am not suicidually depressed, irritable, pessimisstic, etc,

etc. I have been on Cortef only for 9 days and will start again with

1 gr. of Armour on the 14th day of being off.

>

Deborah,

Do you think this would work with the isocort too? I have isocort

coming and I have thought about chucking the thyroid meds for awhile

and getting the adrenals back up to par. Maybe isocort is not strong

enough? This is a very scary thing for me to think about doing because

I fear my hair will start to fall out again and the acne will come

back full force and the fatigue etc...etc... I have two small kiddos

to care for and the house is up for sale. Bad time to do this? Thanks

kindly!

[Guest guest]

,

I think the Isocort will work it will just take more of them. Each pellet is

2.5 mg of hydrocortisone. It is scary but the way I felt it couldn't have made

me feel worse. Jefferies says that acne, allergies, etc. can be from adrenals

being tired. Hydrocortisone was first developed and used on reuhmatoid

arthritis patients. They gave some too high a dosage and that is where the

scare came in and still comes in. Jefferies says that med students are taught

nothing about adrenal insufficiency which is what most of us have so they never

test or treat it. Deborah

Re: Adrenals

>

> Well, a miracle happened. I feel 500 million times better. I have

energy, I am not suicidually depressed, irritable, pessimisstic, etc,

etc. I have been on Cortef only for 9 days and will start again with

1 gr. of Armour on the 14th day of being off.

>

Deborah,

Do you think this would work with the isocort too? I have isocort

coming and I have thought about chucking the thyroid meds for awhile

and getting the adrenals back up to par. Maybe isocort is not strong

enough? This is a very scary thing for me to think about doing because

I fear my hair will start to fall out again and the acne will come

back full force and the fatigue etc...etc... I have two small kiddos

to care for and the house is up for sale. Bad time to do this? Thanks

kindly!

[Guest guest]

,

May I put in my two cents? I think you will most likely be happy with

the Isocort. The dosage says 3 tabs, 2x daily. It doesn't say on the

bottle, but I read on the web site that if you are over 150 pounds to

take four. That's what I did and they have worked fine for me.

Isocort is dessicated sheep adrenal, just like Armour is dessicated pig

thyroid. Just like Armour also gives us T3,T2, T1, T0 and calcitonin,

you may be getting other benefits from the Isocort. So even if you want

to try the Cortef later, I think it would be fine to use up this Isocort

first.

Blessings,

Debbie K.

-----Original Message-----

Deborah,

Do you think this would work with the isocort too? I have isocort

coming and I have thought about chucking the thyroid meds for awhile

and getting the adrenals back up to par. Maybe isocort is not strong

enough? This is a very scary thing for me to think about doing because

I fear my hair will start to fall out again and the acne will come

back full force and the fatigue etc...etc... I have two small kiddos

to care for and the house is up for sale. Bad time to do this? Thanks

kindly!