Simple story of how adrenals work and how to help .. (and response to Palma's question)

[Guest guest]

One of the fun times I get to quote myself... I posted this a while back and rather than type it all out again, I just did a copy/paste.. Me thinks it's time to put it up on the website.... One of many pages that need to be added... sigh

From June of 2005.... Topper wrote:

"This is kinda long.. it's how adrenal function, fatigue, recovery wasexplained to me. Normal healthy you. Your adrenals kick into gear in the morning at your regular time to wake. Working properly, they should wake you about the time the alarm clock does. Adrenals dump their largest load of hormone into the system. Giving us energy to get up and start our day, clarity of mind and direction of purpose... so that we can keep going until we can eat. Once we've eaten the adrenals have less pressure to cover for us and can kick back and relax. Adrenal production is a slow trickle kind of a thing... They happily just work on filling a reservoir tank with hormone.. That way when it's time to get up in the morning the hormone is there, when you get a flat tire on the way to work the hormone is there, when a tree falls on your kid, the hormone is there. There is always enough there to do what you need it to do. After there is a 'dump' into the system.. the adrenals just happily plod along working at their own pace to refill the tank. No big deal, the world is good. Skip breakfast... a LOT... adrenals have to keep releasing into the system to keep you going... Drink coffee.... adrenals have to release even more to keep up.... Hectic morning, racing, sucking coffee, no breakfast... more stress onthe adrenals...

But they can take that kind of abuse for a long time... now... low thyroid.... metabolism is slow, food processing is slow, fatigue, insomnia, depression all contribute to poor sleeping and eating habits.. the body relies more and more on the adrenals to make up for every thing... . When a long enough period of time as past that reservoir finally gets tapped dry... Just to use some numbers so that it's easier to 'see'. Lets say that the adrenals at their normal pace can produce 75% of the hormone to fill up that tank. Normal folks use maybe 50 % so that tank is always topped off and the adrenals can work at their own happy pace. Now... poor lifestyle habits, low thyroid... and your body is using more and more of the adrenal reserves.... it gets to the point where you need more every morning than what the tank has.... so the emergency call goes out to the adrenals to kick up the pace. Now they are not happy anymore.. they are working hard... but they have always been there for you and will work to their death for you... so the work as hard as they can. Time goes by and they get more and more tired.. it takes longer and longer to meet your morning demand. Forget about flat tires and daily stress.. they are still trying to answer to your call to wake up this morning and get going... *sigh* if only you'd eat a decent breakfast and skip the caffeine..... As time goes on your demand for that precious adrenal 'go juice' isn't being met till late morning.. then early afternoon... then late afternoon... the early evening... the late evening... then its not hitting you until the wee hours of the morning.... and the later it hits you ... well.. that's that second wind you get late at night... or that start in bed that has you awake for hours, all nervous and jumpy and exhausted but can't sleep. The ONE most important time of the day to help the adrenals is when you wake. These are the things that I've learned helps them.

Wake at the same time every day.No caffeineNo sugar binges, eat balanced breakfast with protein for sustained energy and carbs for quick energyHave yourself organized so that the morning isn't a rush. Less panic, less stress, less pressure on the adrenals.Take your thyroid dose as soon as you wake, especially when taking naturals, this gets more of the important thyroid hormone into your blood, easing the work load of the adrenals.Take your adrenal supplement as soon as you wake. To help lesson the amount that must be taken from the reservoir... Depending on how over worked and exhausted the adrenals are, it can taketwo years, or more for them to recover.... but they should recover... to get past the point where they can heal... is the point where they fail and you die. How long does it take to get them so very very exhausted like that?Years.... Catch things early, change your morning routine to lessen the workload of the adrenals in the morning and you'll greatly reduce the amount of damage that they sustain while you're working on your thyroid dosing and over all health. Is it worth it? You bet it is...

How would you like to be able to wake up in the morning without having to hit the snooze 3 or 4 times?

How would you like to be able get out of bed, shower, dress, have breakfast and head out to start the rest of your day without being in a 'hair pulling frenzy'?How would you like to have the end of the day roll around and be feelingsleepy and head of to bed at bed time and fall asleep and wake up in the morning, on time... instead of at 2 am wondering if the toilet is running over or if you closed the refrigerator door or if the dog is in or out? Helping your adrenals to get back on schedule.. helps your whole body to work better AND helps the thyroid hormone that you have to work better. Ponder on it... what you can do to HELP them to get better again, making their work easier.... "

Now. That lengthy bugger over with... how does this apply to you, Palma? Well.. your first morning levels aren't really off.. your adrenals are still handling that okay.. but that round is depleting your reserves enough after that to tax your glands.... they are trying to kick things up and releasing too much later in the day. Adding adrenal support first thing in the morning will reduce the need to tap into your own reserves of adrenal hormones and leave more there for later in the day. Top that with doing whatever you can to reduce your stress loads, mental and physical, to help the adrenals.. that will all combine to get them back on track, rebuild the reserves of hormone and have them release the right amounts at the right times...

Does that help it make more sense to you?

Topper ()

On Fri, 11 May 2007 07:06:40 -0700 (PDT) palma joshi writes:

What i am having a hard time wrapping my arms around is the fact that if you have high cortisol, at night in my case, and if i add cortisol to that by taking isocort or whatever, wouldn't that make it even higher and thus wouldn't i have more problems sleeping or feeling anxious, nervous? given my results below, how should i be going about dosing and what should i take?

Free Cortisol Rhythm7-8 am 19 range is 13-24 normal11-noon 5 range is 5-10 normal4-5 pm 9 range is 3-8 elevated11-midnite 4 range is 1-4 normalDHEA 3 range is 3-10 borderline

[Guest guest]

hey - you always take the time to fully explain things!! now, i always read that people should dose 4x/day, 5 mg each to have 20 or 25 mgs of HC per day. is this what i should be doing or just take a little first thing in the morning? also, i don't eat breakfast and i've done that for a very, very long time and all i would have would be a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar. i've switched to decaf now and use honey but still.......... also, don't have very heatlhy eating habits period. i love food, all kinds and both me and my hubby eat out alot, both lunch and dinner. breakfast on the weekends. it's alot of wasted money and alot of strain on our health. so i know i need to revamp but it is so hard. i just have to do it one day and stick to it. i used to have sooooooo much will power. i didn't eat meat for over 13 yrs because of my passion for

animal welfare and i used to work out religiously and i would fast one day a wk without fail. now i haven't done anything in about 5 yrs and now i'm in the position i'm in.......................topper2@... wrote: One of the fun times I get to quote myself... I posted this a while back and rather than type it all out again, I just did a copy/paste.. Me thinks it's time to put it up on the website.... One of many pages that need to be added... sigh From June of 2005.... Topper

wrote: "This is kinda long.. it's how adrenal function, fatigue, recovery wasexplained to me. Normal healthy you. Your adrenals kick into gear in the morning at your regular time to wake. Working properly, they should wake you about the time the alarm clock does. Adrenals dump their largest load of hormone into the system. Giving us energy to get up and start our day, clarity of mind and direction of purpose... so that we can keep going until we can eat. Once we've eaten the adrenals have less pressure to cover for us and can kick back and relax. Adrenal production is a slow trickle kind of a thing... They happily just work on filling a reservoir tank with hormone.. That way when it's time to get up in the morning the hormone is there, when you get a flat tire on the way to work the hormone is there, when a tree falls on your kid, the hormone is there. There is always enough there to do what you need it to

do. After there is a 'dump' into the system.. the adrenals just happily plod along working at their own pace to refill the tank. No big deal, the world is good. Skip breakfast... a LOT... adrenals have to keep releasing into the system to keep you going... Drink coffee.... adrenals have to release even more to keep up.... Hectic morning, racing, sucking coffee, no breakfast... more stress onthe adrenals... But they can take that kind of abuse for a long time... now... low thyroid.... metabolism is slow, food processing is slow, fatigue, insomnia, depression all contribute to poor sleeping and eating habits.. the body relies more and more on the adrenals to make up for every thing... . When a long enough period of time as past that reservoir finally gets tapped dry... Just to use some numbers so that it's easier to 'see'. Lets say that the adrenals at their normal pace can produce 75%

of the hormone to fill up that tank. Normal folks use maybe 50 % so that tank is always topped off and the adrenals can work at their own happy pace. Now... poor lifestyle habits, low thyroid... and your body is using more and more of the adrenal reserves.... it gets to the point where you need more every morning than what the tank has.... so the emergency call goes out to the adrenals to kick up the pace. Now they are not happy anymore.. they are working hard... but they have always been there for you and will work to their death for you... so the work as hard as they can. Time goes by and they get more and more tired.. it takes longer and longer to meet your morning demand. Forget about flat tires and daily stress.. they are still trying to answer to your call to wake up this morning and get going... *sigh* if only you'd eat a decent breakfast and skip the caffeine..... As time goes on your demand

for that precious adrenal 'go juice' isn't being met till late morning.. then early afternoon... then late afternoon... the early evening... the late evening... then its not hitting you until the wee hours of the morning.... and the later it hits you ... well.. that's that second wind you get late at night... or that start in bed that has you awake for hours, all nervous and jumpy and exhausted but can't sleep. The ONE most important time of the day to help the adrenals is when you wake. These are the things that I've learned helps them. Wake at the same time every day.No caffeineNo sugar binges, eat balanced breakfast with protein for sustained energy and carbs for quick energyHave yourself organized so that the morning isn't a rush. Less panic, less stress, less pressure on the adrenals.Take your thyroid dose as soon as you wake, especially when taking naturals, this gets more of the important thyroid hormone into your

blood, easing the work load of the adrenals.Take your adrenal supplement as soon as you wake. To help lesson the amount that must be taken from the reservoir... Depending on how over worked and exhausted the adrenals are, it can taketwo years, or more for them to recover.... but they should recover... to get past the point where they can heal... is the point where they fail and you die. How long does it take to get them so very very exhausted like that?Years.... Catch things early, change your morning routine to lessen the workload of the adrenals in the morning and you'll greatly reduce the amount of damage that they sustain while you're working on your thyroid dosing and over all health. Is it worth it? You bet it is... How would you like to be able to wake up in the morning without having to hit the snooze 3 or 4 times? How would you like to be able get out of bed,

shower, dress, have breakfast and head out to start the rest of your day without being in a 'hair pulling frenzy'?How would you like to have the end of the day roll around and be feelingsleepy and head of to bed at bed time and fall asleep and wake up in the morning, on time... instead of at 2 am wondering if the toilet is running over or if you closed the refrigerator door or if the dog is in or out? Helping your adrenals to get back on schedule.. helps your whole body to work better AND helps the thyroid hormone that you have to work better. Ponder on it... what you can do to HELP them to get better again, making their work easier.... " Now. That lengthy bugger over with... how does this apply to you, Palma? Well.. your first morning levels aren't really off.. your adrenals are still handling that okay.. but that round is depleting your reserves enough after that to tax your glands.... they are trying

to kick things up and releasing too much later in the day. Adding adrenal support first thing in the morning will reduce the need to tap into your own reserves of adrenal hormones and leave more there for later in the day. Top that with doing whatever you can to reduce your stress loads, mental and physical, to help the adrenals.. that will all combine to get them back on track, rebuild the reserves of hormone and have them release the right amounts at the right times... Does that help it make more sense to you? Topper () On Fri, 11 May 2007 07:06:40 -0700 (PDT) palma joshi <dholakia72 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> writes: What i am having a hard time wrapping my arms around is the fact that if you have high cortisol, at night in my case, and if i add cortisol to that by taking isocort

or whatever, wouldn't that make it even higher and thus wouldn't i have more problems sleeping or feeling anxious, nervous? given my results below, how should i be going about dosing and what should i take? Free Cortisol Rhythm7-8 am 19 range is 13-24 normal11-noon 5 range is 5-10 normal4-5 pm 9 range is 3-8 elevated11-midnite 4 range is 1-4

normalDHEA 3 range is 3-10 borderline

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[Guest guest]

I was much healthier when eating out, but don't want to encourage anyone else, if it's not good for them. The reason for this is that I WILL not cook all those veggies every single day, like I was getting off of the Golden Corral buffet bar (or any other comparable place like that). Alas, now they have closed in my little town, and you have to go one town over to find this type of place. I just hate it that mostly what's around this little town is chicken fried, etc....texas......you get the picture....so if I'm going to have a whole lot of these things every day, I've got to do it myself. Working the nursing floor, I just don't have the attitude when I get home OR when I get up from bed to do any of this, plus not the energy, plus that's NOT what I want to be doing on my days off, since I relish days off for R & R, not more dang work. The smell of food makes me sick when I first get up, for hrs, but I have been choking down some cheese or a piece of fruit or both at the same time. My real eating comes at my work place, that is, if I've managed to cook that meal. I just can't MAKE myself do it these days, abhor cooking these days, since I cooked for 8 people yr after yr, at one time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want my local salad bar with that smorgasbord of stuff on there, two plates of food, and I felt good ALL the time then, and, would you believe, was much thinner, even with thyroid disease!! I ate there almost every single day, so I got my 5 a day in veggies and a couple of fruits AND the meats.

Re: Simple story of how adrenals work and how to help .. (and response to Palma's question)

hey -

you always take the time to fully explain things!! now, i always read that people should dose 4x/day, 5 mg each to have 20 or 25 mgs of HC per day. is this what i should be doing or just take a little first thing in the morning? also, i don't eat breakfast and i've done that for a very, very long time and all i would have would be a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar. i've switched to decaf now and use honey but still..........

also, don't have very heatlhy eating habits period. i love food, all kinds and both me and my hubby eat out alot, both lunch and dinner. breakfast on the weekends. it's alot of wasted money and alot of strain on our health. so i know i need to revamp but it is so hard. i just have to do it one day and stick to it. i used to have sooooooo much will power. i didn't eat meat for over 13 yrs because of my passion for animal welfare and i used to work out religiously and i would fast one day a wk without fail. now i haven't done anything in about 5 yrs and now i'm in the position i'm in.......................

[Guest guest]

.... compromise... when you cook, or prep vegies, do enough for several meals, not just that one. It is still gonna be less than when you did it for 8 and you won't have to do it for every meal.

Just a thought.

I cook/bake three days a week, making enough of everything and/or extra for the freezer for when I don't get kitchen time, to cover till the next cook/bake day. I do every thing from scratch. So it does take some time... but averages to maybe 40 - 45 minutes a day for the prep/cook/bake/portion/cleanup stuff. Not bad for some one that does 5 to 7 mini meals a day. Most of the stuff I couldn't do if I only had 45 minutes to do it in..

Back in the days when I had a job , and a life, and worked 60 to 80 hours, I spent 1 weekend day a month cooking and baking, stashing it all in the freezer. Didn't really cook the rest of the month. All I had to do was come home and either put a pot of water on the stove or pop something into the microwave and I was heating up home made supper and eating... Dishes for the night was the plate and silver I ate off of. The cook pot just needed to be sloshed out... so never had dishes sitting all week, waiting for the weekend, like I did before, when I tried to struggle to cook every night.

I didn't like take out, or ordering in... I was working hard for my OT and the thought of handing that money to someone else... I just couldn't do it.

Ponder on your schedule. How you do stuff. See if any of my tricks can be adapted to you.

When I was in storm I made the circuit of the 'all you can eat' places. Country Buffet had four in my area, I'd hit a different place each day, cuz they just cringed when I came in. They still gave you trays then, they'd hold a couple or three plates... The first load was fruits and vegies, just heaped.. then back up for a second round, meats, hot vegies, breads, pasta, whatever I could pile on. Never had desert. Sweets and chips and stuff I got from work, there I was eating all the expired product. Third round was heaped with whatever I was still hungry for. With the shear volume, and variety, of food I was packing in that year, I just couldn't afford to buy enough to cook at home, and didn't have time to cook.. the last few months I even stopped sleeping, cuz I had to stay awake to eat, and even with that I still couldn't maintain my weight, it continued to drop a bit each week. Scary stuff.. to eat like that, feel starved ALL the time and have your clothes hang on you.

Topper ()

On Sun, 13 May 2007 22:00:24 -0500 " " writes:

I was much healthier when eating out, but don't want to encourage anyone else, if it's not good for them. The reason for this is that I WILL not cook all those veggies every single day, like I was getting off of the Golden Corral buffet bar (or any other comparable place like that). Alas, now they have closed in my little town, and you have to go one town over to find this type of place. I just hate it that mostly what's around this little town is chicken fried, etc....texas......you get the picture....so if I'm going to have a whole lot of these things every day, I've got to do it myself. Working the nursing floor, I just don't have the attitude when I get home OR when I get up from bed to do any of this, plus not the energy, plus that's NOT what I want to be doing on my days off, since I relish days off for R & R, not more dang work. The smell of food makes me sick when I first get up, for hrs, but I have been choking down some cheese or a piece of fruit or both at the same time. My real eating comes at my work place, that is, if I've managed to cook that meal. I just can't MAKE myself do it these days, abhor cooking these days, since I cooked for 8 people yr after yr, at one time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want my local salad bar with that smorgasbord of stuff on there, two plates of food, and I felt good ALL the time then, and, would you believe, was much thinner, even with thyroid disease!! I ate there almost every single day, so I got my 5 a day in veggies and a couple of fruits AND the meats.