RE to Those of Us Taking Adrenal Support

[Guest guest]

This is issue is being discussed on another thyroid group concerning adrenal support. Because of this I wonder how others feel about adrenal support. Do you feel comfortable with your doses, if you are taking any, or is their any danger in the length of time you have been supporting your adrenals? I just recently (two weeks ago) added Isocort (seven pellets) to my regiment (armore - 3 grains) and am also taking adrenal cortex extract (one dropperful twice daily) recommended by the alternative doc I saw recently. I noticed that since I started the the adrenal support, I have not been falling asleep at work midmoring as I had been doing. I am just curious how everyone feels about this. There was more stated, but I thought I would begin with what is stated below. F.

>> This is just my opinion, but welcome to the world of how steroids> beget needing more sterioids. As you up the dose, your range of stress> tolerance will narrow and you will find yourself dosing for more> things and crashing on more things than you used to.> > The reason that I think this happens is if for example: your adrenals> store 2 weeks of hormones for stress and you start taking cortisone at> a dose of about 1/2 of your daily needs, then over time, your adrenals> will be storing 1/2 of 2 weeks of hormones or 1 week for stresses. The> same thing will also be happening to the pituitary, which before> taking steroids was probably putting out lots of ACTH. After being on> steroids, it will need to put out only 1/2 of the ACTH for to tell> your

adrenals to make cortisol. > > So, now that you have been on IsoCort at a dose around 1/2 of daily> production and the adrenal gland has weakened to some degree,> depending on man things, and your pituitary has also weakened, then> you have a stress that would have used most of the 2 week storage you> had in the past, but now you only have 1 week. Very quickly you> deplete your adrenals of all their stores and they must temporarily> shut down. While this is happening, cortisol drops too low and you get> lots of inflammation going on from this and your muscles start getting> deprived of adequate glucose and they go into a kind of starvation> energy getting method and start making lots of ketones and other> inflammatory byproducts, Boom, before you know it you feel real bad> and maybe you crash the next day.> > The pituitary also contributes to the problem, because it

is weak too> and cannot put out large amounts of ACTH to tell the adrenals you need> more cortisol for this stress. So, it tends to have a weak response to> your stress, which means the adrenals do not react very quickly with> cortisol production and what they do make may not be enough.> > You realize that you could not handle that stress and you also have an> idea what low cortisol feels like and that means you know that you ran> low. So, the natural reaction is to add more and up your dose so you> don't suffer. So, you do this and then over a couple more weeks your> adrenals get even weaker and your pituitary gets even lazier and then> the number of stresses you can handle gets smaller, because your> stores of hormones for this has shrunk more. It turns into a never> ending thing - a constant need for more to feel and live somewhat> normally.

> > This is the downside to adrenal support. It boxes you in on stress> past a certain point or narrows your stress tolerance levels. For sure> adrenal fatigue does this, too. But, my experience has been that> adrenal support seems to help you feel better when you don't have too> much stress and at the same time increases your risk of crashes and> the number of stresses that turn out to be too much.> > Eventually, you end up taking an extra IsoCort or two or three for> stresses that you soon learn you can't handle. This is the only way to> do it and avoid the problem of ever increasing daily doses and ever> shrinking ranges of stress you can handle. The alternative is to go> all the way up to full replacement, but then you would have no stores> at all for stress past a normal calm flat day.> >