adrenal support

[Guest guest]

Since I know very little about it please regard my thoughts as

_speculation_. But as I understand it during stress situations

[illness, surgery, etc.] at least one of the products of the adrenal

gland needs to [roughly] double. If it doesn't increase almost double

you can go into crisis; maybe even fatal. So, if we assume your adrenal

gland has slowly been brought back up from a dysfunctional level to,

say, 100% _normal_ [unstressed] production things might seem great...

UNTIL you run into a stressor [illness, surgery, etc.]. At that point

your production is suddenly roughly one half of that needed to keep you

out of crisis. Does this make any sense; or am I full of it [again! {ggg}]?

>Message: 1

> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 17:11:28 -0400

> From: " Every " <denisee@...>

>Subject: Re: Re: adrenal support

>

><<You said that by the time the medication is stopped, the adrenals will be

>at their normal full production rate. I've been weaning since February and

>actually had a relapse once I got off the meds and my doctor put me back on

>the full 20mg I was taking and

>had me start all over on the weaning process. That was in March sometime.

>So from there I have been weaning for almost 8-10 wks. Everytime I get near

>the end of the weaning, I start having crisis. So do you think this is a

>sign this is perminent for me? >>

>

>I wonder why this keeps happening to you - it sounds to me like you may have

>some permanent decreased adrenal function, maybe there is some permanent

>damage to the adrenals? It would seem to me that if there was enough

>normally-functioning adrenal tissue left to meet your body's needs, you

>wouldn't go into a crisis once you went off the medication. Maybe they are

>partially functioning and can meet some of your needs, but not quite all of

>them? What explanation has your doctor given you?

>

>

><<My doctor said that after I get off the meds, the adrenals would still be

>weak and I would need to keep stress doses on hand for up to a year

>later....is this what you have heard also?>>

>

>No, I don't recall ever having heard that. What exactly does he mean by

>'weak', I wonder... not fully functioning, like I talk about above, not able

>to meet the body's needs? What if you have, say for an example, 75% adrenal

>function existing? Now, this I do not know but toss it out for

>consideration - if your adrenals are capable of regeneration, i.e. growing

>new functioning adrenal cells, how long would that take? Wouldn't you

>expect to see gradual improvement over time as the cells rebuild? Since the

>adrenal glands are so tiny... why would that process take a year?

>

>But what happens to them each time you are taken off the medications and go

>into crisis - does that stop any regeneration process? Does it even set it

>back - does it cause new cellular damage, so that essentially you keep

>getting bounced back to the same point, and have to start all over again?

>On the other hand, what if the adrenal glands have permanent scar tissue,

>and will never regain full function? Can your doctor differentiate between

>the two - a very slow, long term healing process versus incomplete function,

>or can he only assume what is going on?

>

>I don't have any answers, it's simply beyond the realm of my knowledge. I

>do wonder, though, if he thinks you can be weaned off the adrenal

>replacement, that it could be tapered down much, much more slowly and in

>much, much smaller increments - like 2.5 mg and months at a time - it would

>seem to me that way, if your adrenals do have the capacity to regenerate,

>they would be able to build up very slowly over the course of time as the

>medication is decreased.

>

>Did you ever read the book, " Adrenal Fatigue " ? I read it a while ago and

>though it was very good, I don't know if it has information that would

>specifically pertain to a situation like yours, but it might be worth a

>read.

>

>

><<<<This does get confusing becuase the treatment is not consistent between

>doctors

>and also the information I get on various groups varies also. >>>>>

>

>I think it's confusing because nobody really knows all the answers - and

>everyone is different, an individual - this is why they say medicine is an

>art - it's not black-and-white, cut-and-dried, one-size fits all. I think

>the best one can hope for is a doctor who doesn't have a fixed mindset and

>is willing to listen to you and pay attention to your symptoms - but even

>then it doesn't mean that person is going to be right... some things that

>work well for one don't help another.

>

><<I don't know if the fact I took in a large tablespoon of salt before going

>to the ER had anything to do with my Cortisol being higher or not but I did

>intake a lot to try to prevent the crisis. Usually or at least I'm told

>when you start going into crisis to take salt because usually it's low and

>potassium is high which is bad. I'm told if you bring the salt

>back up soon enough, balance can be brought back and you may avoid a

>crisisCould that have had an effect on the Cortisol test?>>

>

>Again, I don't know.... it is possible, I suppose.....I think the salt

>doesn't 'cure' anything wrong with the adrenals, but is more important in

>helping in general the body's functioning. I don't think there is any kind

>of feedback mechanism between salt and the production of cortisol, but if it

>can forestall a crisis, then maybe it might. What probably would be a good

>thing is to see if your doctor will order some serial blood work as your

>dosage decreases - maybe that could give some clue as to how well your

>adrenals kick in and pick up the slack, so to speak, especially when you get

>down to a very low dose.

>

>But at the heart of it all, I do wonder if there isn't some element of loss

>of adrenal function that can't be regained.

>

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