Re: HELP! Hydrocortisone question

August 18, 2004

Do you think that there's a possibility that the medical procedures you had

might be involved in this? If you are anemic/were anemic, then it's

absolutely crucial for you to take your iron. Iron anemia can cause

breathing problems also, sort of a tired, " heavy " chest feeling. I don't

how to tell you to remember it though, other than leaving yourself a note

somewhere where you are doing something regularly during the time that you

are ordinarily supposed to take it. I really will not advise about the

hydrocortisone, and I feel like it IS something to bother your doctor about,

BTW. I know you have a very good doctor, , who is very concerned about

your health. I would call. Is he aware of the other medical procedures

that you have had? If not, he needs to be.

HELP! Hydrocortisone question

> I don't know if I can phrase this question correctly because I'm

> feeling absolutely miserable today, but I'll try. I switched from a

> T4 only med to Armour in June. I have gradually built up my dose to

> 1 1/2 grains. My doctor also prescribed DHEA (compounded 5 mg 2x day

> because I was low). I wasn't doing so well with something, I felt

> like the DHEA was too much so I decreased that to 5 mg a day, and

> that maybe I needed hydrocortisone so I asked the doctor for a

> trial. He prescribed 2.5 mg compounded hydrocortisone 4 times a

> day. I've never been able to take it 4x a day, only 2x and

> occasionally 3x. At first it caused terrible stomach pain, so I had

> to start Omeprazole, then I had some medical procedures where I had

> to fast, then I ran low. It's a long story.

>

> To make a long story short, the hydrocortisone seemed to be helping

> at first, for the most part helping to alleviate the worst symptom

> which I associate with stress and weak adrenals, the sore breathing,

> sore throat, short of breath problem. But the last few days, as I've

> tried to increase the hydrocortisone again, it seems to be

> aggravating that symptom and causing more stress, and some

> palpitations too. But I also have those symptoms without it. In

> fact, sometimes the only things that alleviate those symptoms are a

> couple glasses of wine or xanax. Here's the big question, I think.

> Should I quit taking the hydrocortisone altogether and try to

> increase my DHEA back up to 10 mg a day? Would that be enough to

> support my adrenals so I can continue taking Armour? Would I know

> within say, a week? Or should I just keep trying to push myself to

> hydrocortisone at 4x a day and wait a few weeks to see if things

> improve? Gosh, I'm kind of at a big loss as to what to try. I'm

> afraid I won't be able to maintain or increase the Armour if I don't

> support my adrenals. I don't see my doctor until October sometime

> and I just hate to continually bother the office with these questions

> I should be able to figure out myself. The other thing is, I keep

> forgetting to take my iron. I don't know if that can impact

> everything? I hope this makes enough sense so that someone can give

> me some advice or a suggestion as to what I should try. Thank you so

> much!

>

August 18, 2004

> me some advice or a suggestion as to what I should try. Thank you

so

> much!

>

____________________

This is my guess as to what is happening. Hydrocortiaone must be in

balance with thryoid. If thryoid is low with respect to

hydrocortisone, then you get symptoms like Cushings and/or low

thyroid and if thryoid is high with respect to hyrdrocortisone, you

get symptoms of thyroid overdose. Adrenal hormones make thyroid go

into tissues and increase the use of thryoid hormone.

Possibly you cannot increase adrenal because it is causing you to

use up your thyroid hormone in the blood and you are getting

symptoms from low thyroid and too much cortisone. This may have to

do with your relatively low thyroid dose due to you just starting

treatment. Thyroid and adrenal must be balanced. So, I think you

need to keep adrenal support at whatever point makes you feel best,

if that is none right now or just dropping it down a bit. Or it may

be time to raise thyroid a little as this will increase demand for

adrenal support. DHEA does support adrenals, but does not support

hydrocortisone production very much. DHEA supplementation can also

be a little overstimulating due to it's causing an increase in

androgen production. Excess DHEA is converted to estrogen and

estrogen increases demand for thryoid hormones because it causes

thryoid to become bound up and unavailable. The average person

usually needs only a few milligrams a day.

Tish

August 18, 2004

Thanks so much for replying, Tish, and what you said makes a lot of

sense to me. It's sounding more and more like everything has to be

so delicately balanced. No wonder it takes so long to get to where

everything is at an optimal level. I'm wondering if my estrogen and

progesterone are adding problems to the mix too, because I'm

perimenopausal.

It boggles my mind how complicated this stuff gets. And so many

endo's say it's only a matter of taking a little synthroid pill every

day for the rest of your life. Hahahahahahaha. Right. Thanks again

for your input. You think it's best to just keep adding a little

here and there and backing off if I need to and just keep going by

how everything feels? For now. I welcome any and all comments! Oh

and yep, Breyer's is the best! All natural ingredients!

> This is my guess as to what is happening. Hydrocortiaone must be in

> balance with thryoid. If thryoid is low with respect to

> hydrocortisone, then you get symptoms like Cushings and/or low

> thyroid and if thryoid is high with respect to hyrdrocortisone, you

> get symptoms of thyroid overdose. Adrenal hormones make thyroid go

> into tissues and increase the use of thryoid hormone.

>

> Possibly you cannot increase adrenal because it is causing you to

> use up your thyroid hormone in the blood and you are getting

> symptoms from low thyroid and too much cortisone. This may have to

> do with your relatively low thyroid dose due to you just starting

> treatment. Thyroid and adrenal must be balanced. So, I think you

> need to keep adrenal support at whatever point makes you feel best,

> if that is none right now or just dropping it down a bit. Or it may

> be time to raise thyroid a little as this will increase demand for

> adrenal support. DHEA does support adrenals, but does not support

> hydrocortisone production very much. DHEA supplementation can also

> be a little overstimulating due to it's causing an increase in

> androgen production. Excess DHEA is converted to estrogen and

> estrogen increases demand for thryoid hormones because it causes

> thryoid to become bound up and unavailable. The average person

> usually needs only a few milligrams a day.

>

> Tish

August 18, 2004