Guest guest Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 Hi Everyone! What tests are they suppose to do to test if adrenals are shot? I had my am coritsol tested and normal but still have symptoms of adrenal: dizziness when standing, salt cravings, energy at night, insomnia, etc. What tests should I ask for? Then what happens if you have shot adrenals? He said steroids, that sounds scary? Anyone know how long you have to fix adrenals before doing thyroid meds? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 Anyone know how long you have to fix adrenals before doing thyroid > meds? ____________ Do adrenal support for one week before starting thryoid. If you wait longer, you can vecome more hypothryoid since adrenal cortisol depletes thyroid hormone if you don't make enough. ____________ A 24 hour cortisol test is best, either saliva, urine or blood. However, if you have symptoms you have it. These cortisol tests are more geared toward finding total adrenal failure and so in adrenal fatigue, it often comes back normal but at the low end or low at just one time of the day. They are frequently indecisive. You can do some at home tests for this: Lie down and take your blood pressure lying down. Then stand up and retake your blood pressure. If it drops any when you stand, you don't have sufficient adrenal hormones. Get a friend or somebody to hold a small bright light like a falshlight in your eyes. Carefully watch your pupils for at least a minute. If adrenal output is sufficient, the pupils should contract and stay contracted as long as the light is there. If you have adrenal fatigue, the pupils will contract and then slowly open back up or flutter trying to stay closed. They may close and open, and close and open, also in adrenal fatigue. You don't have to go crawling to your doc or spend a bunch of money on tests. You can just treat it and see it it helps. Just buy IsoCort or Nutri+meds adrenal glandular. Typical adrenal support is 10 to 20 mg of cortisol a day in 4 evenly divided doses. IsoCort has 2-1/2 mg of cortisol per tablet, so you would need 4 to 8 a day. Nutri+meds has about 4 to 5 mg per tablet so you would need 2 to 6 a day. Stay on it as long as you need and then be sure to taper off slowly over a few weeks. It takes 4 months to 2 years for the adrenals to recover. Long term adrenal support is not harmful. See Jeffries " Safe Uses of Crtisol " Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 Anyone know how long you have to fix adrenals before doing thyroid > meds? ____________ Do adrenal support for one week before starting thryoid. If you wait longer, you can vecome more hypothryoid since adrenal cortisol depletes thyroid hormone if you don't make enough. ____________ A 24 hour cortisol test is best, either saliva, urine or blood. However, if you have symptoms you have it. These cortisol tests are more geared toward finding total adrenal failure and so in adrenal fatigue, it often comes back normal but at the low end or low at just one time of the day. They are frequently indecisive. You can do some at home tests for this: Lie down and take your blood pressure lying down. Then stand up and retake your blood pressure. If it drops any when you stand, you don't have sufficient adrenal hormones. Get a friend or somebody to hold a small bright light like a falshlight in your eyes. Carefully watch your pupils for at least a minute. If adrenal output is sufficient, the pupils should contract and stay contracted as long as the light is there. If you have adrenal fatigue, the pupils will contract and then slowly open back up or flutter trying to stay closed. They may close and open, and close and open, also in adrenal fatigue. You don't have to go crawling to your doc or spend a bunch of money on tests. You can just treat it and see it it helps. Just buy IsoCort or Nutri+meds adrenal glandular. Typical adrenal support is 10 to 20 mg of cortisol a day in 4 evenly divided doses. IsoCort has 2-1/2 mg of cortisol per tablet, so you would need 4 to 8 a day. Nutri+meds has about 4 to 5 mg per tablet so you would need 2 to 6 a day. Stay on it as long as you need and then be sure to taper off slowly over a few weeks. It takes 4 months to 2 years for the adrenals to recover. Long term adrenal support is not harmful. See Jeffries " Safe Uses of Crtisol " Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 Usually they use hydrocortisone or something like it. Yes, it is a steroid but it is not as dangerous as it sounds or as it has gotten a reputation for being. Keep in mind that I don't have any personal experience with this but I have read quite a bit about it because I feel that it may be one of my big issues. (In the book The Great Thyroid Scandal by Dr. Barry Durrant-Peatfield he suggests reading a book by McCormack Jeffries called Safe Uses of Hydrocortisone.) Hydrocortisone has gotten a bad wrap because of situations where people were prescribed very high doses - more than your body would have been producing on its own. In these instances you can have very scary side effects. Dr. Peatfield says Cushing's disease " though not especially common, ... is seen today more as a result of over-medication with cortisone, which is used in high therapeutic doses, for a number of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions, asthma, chronic allergic disorders. " (p. 96) However, what I've heard being suggested is physiological doses - a dose lower or very close to what your body would produce on its own, enough to give the adrenals a rest but not enough to make them dependent on the steroid. Another very good book that talks about all of this quite extensively is L. 's book Adrenal Fatigue The 21st Century Stress Syndrome. He also references Jeffries' book. In 's book replacement hormones such as cortisol (hydrocortisone), DHEA and Progesterone and Pregnenolone are discussed in Chapter 17 pages 217-221. I hope this helps. If I can provide any more information please let me know. I hope I wasn't being too nosey or presumptuous. Have a great day. Misty PS I'm going to look up in the books about other testing and will hopefully remember to post it all later. It will probably have a heading like " Recommended lab tests for Adrenals " or something along those lines. Hi Everyone! What tests are they suppose to do to test if adrenals are shot? I had my am coritsol tested and normal but still have symptoms of adrenal: dizziness when standing, salt cravings, energy at night, insomnia, etc. What tests should I ask for? Then what happens if you have shot adrenals? He said steroids, that sounds scary? Anyone know how long you have to fix adrenals before doing thyroid meds? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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