body temp

Dr. Jernigan talks about this in his book. It takes about one year to get it up to a normal level. You have to eat certain foods. He has a list of what he calls "hot foods" and "cold foods".

You also need to do infrared saunas on a weekly basis, about three times a week. Getting a lymph drainage massage ON a biomat table is recommended. Dr. Jernigan has remedies for this too.


If you have his book "Beating Lyme Disease" it's all in there http://www.hansacenter.com/beating_lyme_disease.php

Gary

Humm...Traveler, so lyme can cause low body temp and thyroid too??

Iam on 10mg of prednisone down from 20mg that I was on for almost 2 yrs. I finally got it down to 10mg for last 3 months but my thryoid numbers look ok and I think it is from prednisone.

You know I used to be a hot yoga teacher in 2001 to 2005 and then I couldn't take the heat anymore.

i was taking low dose armor thyroid because it has T4 and T3 and I am thinking fo doing it again but I remember when my cortisol was off the thyroid ed made me nuts. so maybe I will wait and work on trying to slowly get down from the prednisone. I would rather be on anything else than the steroids. everytime I go down to 8mg for more than 3 days my neck starts up and glands.

Hi Bucci,
Everyone is as unique as their DNA & so I believe that Lyme attacks the weak points in our bodies first, with every person being at least a little bit different. After a great deal of reading in medical & scientific journals & my own experience- low body temps are a playground for viruses. Having successfully raising my body temp, I believe it has helped me not only with TBI's, but other virus(es) that I have lived with for some time.

Here is but one example from the Journal of Immunology:
Exposure of adult mice to a cold environment (4°C) causes a loss of resistance to infection with the Conn.-5 strain of Coxsackie virus.

This article can be found at:
http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/80/1/39[url]

I don't suggest that anyone go on or off their medications without a doc supervising, as there could be some serious results. What I do suggest is that if a person has a low body temp, it can be a playground for the viruses we Lymies fight & that something can be done about it.

Hope this helps some,
Trav

Detox bathes are also covered in the thread "New to Lyme? Start here."

Long article from Dr. Jernigan's blog but a good explanation of low body temperature and how to treat it:

* Fibromyalgia and Low Body Temperature

There are many theories as to the cause of Fibromyalgia. Some say it is the effects of heavy metal and chemical toxicity. Some say it is chronic infections, while others say it is the side-effects from vaccines and the use of suppressive medicines such as acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen, still others say it is dysregulated hormones or the effects of emotional trauma.

In this author’s opinion everyone is correct in the same way as the proverbial three blind men describing an elephant from the head, tail, and the side are correct in their description of the elephant, but only from each one’s unique vantage point. However, in Fibromyalgia there is one common overriding finding…low body temperature!

This article deals primarily with the very predictable problems seen in low body temperature and the profound importance of restoring and maintaining normal core body temperature. This is true not just in Fibromyalgia, but in every degenerative disease of our day.

Your core body temperature is the temperature taken under the tongue. When human physiology books refer to the “normal” core body temperature it is presented as a range sometimes listed between 97.0-99.0°F . Understand that the “Normal Range” for temperature or even the normal ranges in blood tests are based upon the average person of our day. That is why “normal” changes periodically, because as our average population continues to get sicker the normal ranges must be adjusted. So in this discussion I am speaking about what is an optimal core body temperature – 98.6-99.6°F.

Much emphasis in conventional medicine is usually placed upon feverish conditions; however, a low body temperature can be a much more sinister condition. Where a fever can be viewed as an active developmental and corrective process of the healthy body, a low body temperature can never be viewed as a normal or healthy condition, nor is it a mechanism for a learning or developmental process in the body.

A low body temperature creates a happy home for viruses and chronic infections, and is a sign of degeneration and gradual cellular death. The problem with a low core temperature is that no effective immune response can be mounted therefore no fever is generated and infections go undetected. The sickest person is one who gets the same infections but never miss a day of work because there is no response by their immunes system, so they have a false sense of wellness as healthier individuals go through healthy fevers and immune responses that may cause them to miss work.

Low body temperature is the plague of the 21st century. People with low body temperature have a weak reaction to even the most ideal medicines and therapies.

As the body’s core temperature decreases all cellular energy also decreases thereby leading to profound and chronic fatigue that is not relieved by sleep.

The effects of low temperature:

The cooperative and collective intelligence of the human organism is short-circuited as the body temperature cools. As a result, all cellular functions decrease. There is a decrease in the production of all hormones, neurotransmitters, and other body chemicals necessary for healthy regulation of energy.

In this mild hypothermia condition there is an increased susceptibility to infectious disease as temperature drops the acidity of the body increases and the normally predominantly negative polarity of the cells become more positively charged.

The colder the body becomes the more prone to depression and other psychological abnormalities and all degenerative illnesses of the body, mind and spirit.

Until the causes of the lowered temperature are addressed and corrected, the best that can be hoped for is only temporary or mild improvement of symptoms and a gradual but steady overall decline in health.

Viruses prefer and promote a cold environment and replicate at a much more rapid rate when the body is cold. Viruses are killed and further replication is impeded by maintaining a warm body. Some bacteria such as Lyme spirochetes also prefer and promote a cold environment and can remain in a chronic state as long as their cold environment is maintained. Therefore, in the interest of the prevention and treatment of any viral, bacterial, or chronic illness, this topic must be understood.

The ultimate body coldness is seen in death. When observing a corpse many clinical gems can be gleaned and correlated to degenerative states of human suffering. In death, the blood and lymph fluid of the body solidify and the body becomes stiff and cold. In the same way many chronic cold illnesses such as cancer, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, diabetes, and heart disease, we see that the body becomes progressively colder. As the body cools, the electrical oscillations of the fluids in the body slow down and there is a shift in the body’s polarity which promotes infectious microbes and cancer.

We can see the same principle of what happens in the body by observing the same dynamics in a water molecule. When the electrical oscillations of a water molecule slows down it becomes a solid, ice, as we speed up a water molecule’s electrical oscillations it liquefies and ultimately becomes a vapor.

The colder a body becomes, the slower the electrical oscillatory rate and therefore the thicker, more viscous, or syrupy the body fluids become. The more viscous the fluids become the more difficult it is for the body to push the fluids through the body. The lymph fluids that are normally supposed to bathe the outsides of all of your cells become progressively stagnant as it is too thick to move efficiently. Now, consider the fact that just like your skin is constantly dying and flaking off and being replaced, so it is that every cell in your body is in a constant state of dying and being replaced. Only now the cold, syrupy lymph fluid cannot wash the dead cellular debris away. As a result the body becomes a toxic waste dump!

Muscles normally have a high demand for energy. Through contraction and relaxation muscles assist in eliminating their own cellular waste products. In a cold body however, the liquidity of the fluids inside of the muscles is gone, and the muscles cannot move the toxins and cellular debris. The deeper you go into belly or center of the muscle, the colder and more difficult it is to move the toxins. Without normal viscosity of the body fluids, muscular contraction and relaxation grinds to a halt, like an engine with no lubricating oil. The belly of the muscle develops a knot that can be felt when massaging the muscle. This is the knotted, painful, muscle condition commonly known as “trigger points” of Fibromyalgia Syndrome, which is being diagnosed in millions of people every year.

If the low body temperature is allowed to persist and no therapies are applied, even in a palliative manner as in massages to move toxins manually out of the belly of the muscle, the condition follows that of the water molecule. The belly of the muscle, due to the increasing coldness and decreased muscular activity progressively over time reaches the point of zero electrical oscillations at which time the tissue solidifies in a calcified stone in the belly of the muscle.

Interesting research that supports this concept has been performed by Dr. Carolyn McMakin, D.C. using the electro-therapy called microcurrent. The microcurrent is applied through direct contact on these trigger points via vinyl/graphite gloves connected to the microcurrent machine. The trigger points virtually vanish under the gentle touch of the glove when applying the correct electrical frequency. What may be happening here is that the stimulation of the muscle through microcurrent is externally increasing the electrical oscillatory rate of the thickened fluids in the muscle resulting in temporarily restoring the normal liquidity of the fluids allowing the muscles to once again contract and pump out the toxic accumulation. The results are somewhat temporary due to the fact that the underlying condition that created it in our scenario, the overall low body temperature, remains unchanged. However, used in combination with various other corrective measures, this micro current therapy can speed healing in many cases. Relief of Fibromyalgia Through Microcurrent Therapy by John W. Addington
ImmuneSupport.com 7-11-2001

Organ Circuits and low temperature

The body is set up with dedicated electrical circuits all of which are interdependent and interconnected. A circuit in the body has a specific organ, gland, teeth, muscle, and nerves. If anything goes wrong in one of these organ circuits the circuit energy goes down approximately 60% of normal.

The laws of thermodynamics state if we decrease energy we decrease temperature. Due to the interconnectedness of all the circuits, one circuit in the body cannot go down without ultimately affecting the whole.

Therefore, if the muscle is seizing up and becoming progressively rigid and solidified, what do you suppose the organ that is also on that same electrical circuit is doing? It is likely that to some degree it is also progressively seizing up and solidifying.

In the 50,000 miles of blood vessels, the cold thick blood is more difficult to flow through the veins and arteries. Arteriosclerosis, the progressive hardening of the arteries, and the clogging of the blood vessels is manifesting the exact same problem that is being experienced by every tissue in the too cold body. Edema in the extremities is seen as the muscular walls of the blood vessels seize up and can no longer maintain tone and the fluids leaks out of the pores in the vessels.

I look at many older patients, and some not so old, who are experiencing all the signs and symptoms of death in the extremities. They are dying in their extremities first, from the feet and hands up to legs to the torso. To touch their feet is just like touching an icy, stiff, dead corpse. The foot is deathly whitish blue and etched in blue/black blood vessels from devitalized, stagnant blood.

The overcooling of peripheral blood returning from cold legs and feet causes depression of the temperature in the vital organs with slowing of metabolic processes, particularly in the brain and medullary centers. Cotran R.S., Kumar V., Robbins S.L., Robbin’s Pathological Basis of Disease 4th ed. 1989 pp501. Death occurs when a vital organ reaches the point of being too cold.

Your physician can name your disease, he can call it cancer, he can draw your blood and show you everything that is wrong with it, but he is simply describing the process I have just outlined. When the core temperature of the body is cold every organ, gland, and tissue is affected and becomes hypo-functional or may even become hyper, as in the case of hyperthyroidism, in a last ditch effort to compensate for the hypothermic condition of the body.

Hypo-function in the body means that there are fewer hormones, and less of every chemical involved with normal body and brain function. Even the psyche is affected leading to virtually any type of psychological problem, especially depression. How many people are told that they have psychological depression from a deficiency of a certain brain chemical? Many! Can you see that of course they are deficient in “happy” brain chemicals possibly due to the overcooling of the body?

It might be said that you are dying in direct proportion to the coldness of your body. Follow this logic: Cells degenerate and die in direct proportion to the depletion of oxygen. Blood that is overcooled from a cold core temperature is too thick to efficiently carry oxygen and the lung vital capacity is reduced leading to shallow breathing. This means that the oxygen to carbon dioxide exchange rate in the lungs is minimal. Now combine the degenerative effects of the oxygen deprivation and the cold temperature and the fact that all of this and the overgrowth of microbes promote an acidic environment and you have greatly accelerated cellular degeneration and the onset of life-threatening disease.

There is an optimum body temperature is which all chemical reactions in the human body need in order to maintain health...98.6° F. I can honestly say that I rarely see a new patient come into my clinic with a normal body temperature. One 66 year old woman came in as a new patient with a temperature of 94.6! She was in dire straits for certain. She could not feel her feet and to touch her legs was like touching the legs of a corpse, the legs even looked dead and grey, streaked with blue/black veins of stagnant devitalized blood.

In classic hypothermia, as seen in people stranded in blizzards, it is well known that the circulation of blood in the arms and legs is reduced dramatically, almost to zero, in order to provide protection and warmth to the vital organs. These people will also cease to feel cold and will experience numbness, loss of coordination, mental confusion, and heart rhythm problems. It sounds like I am describing many elderly people, and some cancer sufferers doesn’t it?

One way to treat weather related hypothermia is to give the person warm sugar drinks. Sugar is a cheap, fast burning fuel for your body and therefore generates a lot of heat in the process. This may be why so many people suffering from lifestyle induced cold core temperature are plagued with sugar cravings. Many of them consume copious amounts of sugar in the form of soda pops, chocolate, pastries, and various candies. It may be a craving that is driven by the body’s desire to generate fast heat to keep the body functioning. Sugar cravings should diminish as the core body temperature problems are resolved.

Keep in mind that the body has been too cold possibly since birth, due to multi-generational use of suppressive medicines, vaccines, fever-reducers, heavy metal and chemical toxins, and from the consumption of energetically dead food.

The retraining and resetting of the body’s thermostat is just the beginning of healing the body of chronic illnesses. The normal body temperature must be held steady possibly for a year or more in some cases before the body can undo the damage of a lifetime of coldness.

Understanding your Temperature

Everyone can afford a simple thermometer. Track your temperature when you first awaken in the morning, before even getting out of bed. This reflects your core body temperature, when it is not being influenced by what you just ate, drank, or your activity level. Many of you will likely be surprised to see just how cold you already are. This is the result of generations of suppressive therapies and an imbalanced life. You must save yourself.

Many doctors will undoubtedly say that you need to take a thyroid medication to bring up the body temperature; however this is the same mentality of taking a Tylenol for a headache. If you don’t believe me then ask anyone on the prescription thyroid medicines- what happens when they go off of the medication? The body returns immediately to the previous cold, hypo-functional condition.

One should definitely support the normal functioning of the thyroid, by detoxification, organic iodine, adrenal glandular supplements, and nutritional support, but see the coldness for what it really is, a sign of multi-organ system breakdown, and longstanding or even generational imbalance. Besides, it is the hypothalamus that regulates your core body temperature, along with regulating your degree of motivation and sex drive. The hypothalamus is actually “upstream” from your thyroid, helping the pituitary regulate the thyroid.

The healthy body has daily temperature fluctuations (diurnal) with the coolest temperature upon awakening in the morning hours of 6-8 a.m. and the warmest being in the evening between 8-10 p.m. Tracking of the difference between morning and evening temperature should reveal, in a healthy person, a difference of at least 0.9° F (0.5° C). People with a low body temperature and an overall degenerative condition will find that this temperature variation is minimal. Another unusual finding of dysregulated body temperature is that the evening is often colder than the morning reading.

The body’s best chance at long-term healing increases in direct proportion to the restoration of normal body temperature. The effect of even the most perfectly selected medicines is limited by the available energy in the body to correctly utilize those medicines.

You and your healthcare team must address your body from every direction and with every balancing tool available. You can never truly overcome this condition with pills. Therapies must engage and reactivate and stimulate the rhythmical, metabolic, and nerve/sense aspects of your body, addressing the body, mind, and spirit.

Other supporting therapies designed for restoring the rhythms of the body must be applied. These therapies might include color and sound therapy, hot and cold contrast therapy, life-activity planning, breathing and voice therapy, rhythmical massage therapy, curative movement therapies, and indeed every other treatment from your doctor will address in some way the rhythmical aspects of your body.

Low body temperature must be addressed to bring the body back to balance. The temperature must be elevated to end the dying process of the body and to help the body eliminate the cellular debris or the “sludge” in the body.

Treatment:

• Temperature monitoring and graphing (upon awakening before getting out of bed, and between 8-10 pm after a 30 minute resting period)

• CRT (Computerized Regulation Thermography) for identifying problem areas and tracking of progress.

• Core Warmth™ herbal formula (Hansa Healing Products, Inc.) to open all meridians and restore proper fluid dynamics and warmth regulation in the body.

• Sleep on an Amethyst BioMat® from Richway, Inc., provides detoxification and restoration of fluid viscosity and core body warmth through variable infrared heat and negatively-charged ions from amethyst crystals.

• Infrared Sauna Therapy…detoxifies body and restores circulation of blood and lymph (High Tech Health, Inc.).

• Natural-Bristle, Dry skin brushing morning and evening (Entire body)

• Detoxification Bath Therapy…4 cups Epson Salt 64oz. Hydrogen Peroxide 3% in warm bathtub. Soak for 20 minutes one bath per night before bedtime.

• Mustard foot bath (Hansa Healing Products, Inc.)… at least once per day, preferably in the morning or early afternoon.

• Solum Aesculus Oil (Uriel Pharmacy, Inc.)… This oil and essence is great for restoring the warmth organization of the body. They also are beneficial for chemical sensitivities, and those suffering from weather-change barometric-related sensitivities. The oil and essence are low odor products made by Uriel Pharmacy, Inc. This oil can be added to a bath for all over body application or be used as massage oil. May be applied as needed.

• Chiropractic spinal, pelvic, and cranial alignments combined with specific homeopathic, nutritional, glandular, and myofascial support using Bio-Resonance Scanning™, or other body circuit balancing technique…as dictated by your healthcare professional.

• Vibration Station®… work up to 20 minutes per day. (Or other movement therapies)

• Therapeutic Massage using various homeopathic and herbal ointments (Uriel Pharmacy, Inc.) and therapeutic essential oils (Young Living Essential Oils company)

• Dietary Changes… call Dr. Jernigan for pamphlet on cooling foods and warming foods for restoring optimum body temperature.

• Learn to control the mind and emotions, picking higher vibrational thoughts and emotions…see Hansa Center blogs (www.hansacenter.com) and Dr. Jernigan’s book, “Everyday Miracles by God’s Design”


For more advanced conditions add the following:

• Prescription-only, daily injections of Homeopathic, Viscum Album (Uriel Pharmacy, Inc.) as directed by your Healthcare Professional.

• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy… Two 1-hour sessions per day for first 5 days, then two to three sessions per week
thereafter

Source: http://davidjernigan.blogspot.com/

Dowa said...
Gary: I do an epsom salt bath every night faithfully. What other ingredients do you use? Thanks D

Do you use hydrogen peroxide in the epsom salt bath and grated ginger?

"Ginger functions to open up the pores of the skin and increase the blood flow at the surface of the skin, so that the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide can do it's work in detoxifying the poisons and kill bacteria and fungi. The pores open wider so that the magnesium sulfate can be more readily absorbed. Ginger is invigorating and can stimulate perspiration for the elimination of toxins". --Dr. David Jernigan

Here's the Jernigan Recipe that Deejavu posted that Traveler mentioned, "New to Lyme? Start Here"

Dr. Jernigan's bath detox recipe:

* 4-6 cups Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate).

* 32-64 fluid oz Hydrogen Peroxide (3%, as found in grocery store).

* 2-4 Tablespoons of Ginger (fresh grated preferably) wrapped in a thin piece of cloth or in a tea ball. An old piece of nylon hose also works well.) I cut up a pair of new nylons, after grating the ginger/measuring it out appropriately, stuffed the nylon and tied knots at the ends.

Instructions:

* Dry Skin Brush entire body with a natural bristle brush for five minutes before bath. This removes the layer of dead skin for better absorption. You start with the feet working upwards, hands move towards shoulders, torso upwards toward the heart, back upwards and over shoulders towards heart. Light pressure in areas where skin is thin, and harder pressure on places like soles of feet.

* Fill the bath tub with WARM water. Then add Epsom Salt, Hydrogen Peroxide and Ginger "ball". Swirl water around, then get in the tub for 20 minutes. Some people say the water should be 98 degrees and to use a thermometer. I don't use one as I feel comfortable that I'm using warm water but if you want to be exact then use a thermometer.

Here's the foot detox bath which is also listed on the "New to Lyme" thread.

Stir into warm (not hot) water... to cover just above the ankles:

1 T. dry mustard seed powder
1 t. cayenne pepper powder
1/2 t. dry ginger powder
1/2 t. dry rosemary powder

Dr. Jernigan says that this foot soak is used as relief from general aches, pains and toxic headaches. He also says that it seems to increase blood and lymph circulation.

Soak your feet for 20-30 minutes and if you'd like you can do this with your hands in the same water for the same amount of time.

Gary

Gary: Thank you so much for posting all of this information about the low body temp. I do use Epsom salt faithfully (at least 3 cups per night) but the store I have access to only carries the small bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide and it would be really expensive to use 64 ounces per night. Is there any reason that you cannot use less than the 64 ounces? I have not tried the ginger but alot of people at the clinic I went to used to make ginger tea with grated ginger to "warm" the stomach.

Interesting about the thyroid also. I see others replied that were taking thyroid meds. It makes sense to me what Dr. J says about the thyroid and how if you discontinue the meds the hypothyroid condition returns. Of course that makes perfect sense. I also think my bath temp is higher than 98 as I love the heat. Any reason that you cannot start with a higher temp and sit in it until it cools? My body craves heat as I am always cold. Thanks so much for this article, very informative and interesting.  I appreciate your posting it.

Best.. Dowa

Dowa,

No reason you couldn't use less hydrogen peroxide, it will still be helpful even if it's a little less than what the recipe calls for.

Walmart has the bigger bottles of hydrogen peroxide but I plan to go on Amazon and other internet sites to see if I can get epsom salt and hydrogen peroxide cheaper in bulk somewhere. If I can find a cheaper source for buying in bulk I will post it here for everyone to know about.

I too like my bath water hotter than the instructions call for. I will need to ask Dr. Jernigan if there's any reason why it can't be hotter. Maybe Denise (Deejavu) here knows the answer to this question since she's very familiar with this protocol herself. Denise, do you know???

So glad you are enjoying the baths. I took one this afternoon and took a nice nap. Been feeling good and relaxed all evening.

Gary

ok great expectations. I fit the low steroid profile
low temp but somedays feel like I have fever but feet cold not hands.
that when I'm not feeling so great but the temp is still below 97 or like 96.7
that seems weard.
I have always been low blood preasure person
also low cholesterol
my sugar runs hig but not if I am not eating sugar stuff.

actually now I am not sure if I am low or high steroid???

I'm gonna watch sugar and how often I feel overly warm that doesn't happen when I have the hormone est test prog under control

I take 2 5 mg prednisilone in the morning. I take the prednisilone because it suppose to be easier on liver.

I was once on dexameth and the doctor over dosed me so bad. it was before taking that special cortisol test when I was on just cortisone they had me take dex for 3 days before and he wrote the script wrong.

but isn't dex 10 times stronger than prednisone?

do you take it? It is so hard to even get into a endo now I just have a gp writing my prednisilone scripts.

of all the steroids which is the better combo? i am wondering if i need the florineff too and little cortisone??

so what is the dose of dexamethazone if I am on 10 mg of prednisilone??

I am gonna try AM and PM on the prednisilone now.
what time is best in afternoon? before 3 pm? after dinner?

also i do come up on the blood work as LOW cortisol while on the prednisilone and was wondering about that. it is another reason why i don't take the thyroid because I tried that before and got too nutty. that was before the prednisone.

so are a lot of lyme people on steroids because no alternative after so many years of lyme damage.

is dexameth any less damaging than the prednisone?

this is the scairiest area to me especially after seeing 3 endo that don't know what time it is.

anyone out there who knows a lyme savy endo please email me . anywhere ..Arizona. west coast east coast. I gotta get ths part right.

thank you

Hi bucci,

Adrenal problems are complicated and then when you add in the lyme and other infections it's a nightmare to try and manage.  I've been working on finding the best dose & type of steroid medication for years now.  The good news is I have found something that works for me and has given me back a quality of life I haven't had in Years.

"low temp but somedays feel like I have fever but feet cold not hands."

I have run a fever with Low cortisol, but lyme can also cause fever so it is hard to separate.

"my sugar runs hig but not if I am not eating sugar stuff."

Generally when you have adrenal insufficiency you have reactive hypoglycemia which will cause high blood sugar after you eat sugar.  Best thing to do is stay away from sugar.

"actually now I am not sure if I am low or high steroid???"

Since you are taking the prednisolone once a day you are probably both Low and High.  In the morning 10 mg probably feels like too much and in the afternoon/evening you will be running low. 

"I'm gonna watch sugar and how often I feel overly warm that doesn't happen when I have the hormone est test prog under control"

Trying to follow individual symptoms to figure out if you are over or under treated for your steroids is Very difficult.  You really need to look at how you feel overall.  For example: When I didn't have enough steroid meds in the afternoon around 3pm I would start feeling achy, tired, sometimes like I had fever, but temp would be low, feel cold, nausea, sometimes diarrhea, hurt all over, joint pain, headache, etc.  So in this example one of the ways you can figure out if the symptoms are from low cortisol is to take prednisolone in afternoon and see if the symptoms get better.  

"I take 2 5 mg prednisilone in the morning. I take the prednisilone because it suppose to be easier on liver."

May be a typo...are you on 25mg or 10mg?  10mg is equal to about 40mg Hydrocortisone and not too high, but 25mg is alot.

"I was once on dexameth and the doctor over dosed me so bad. it was before taking that special cortisol test when I was on just cortisone they had me take dex for 3 days before and he wrote the script wrong."

Sorry to hear about this...it's a shame but you really have to check the scripts I have had them write mine for too much, too.  Dexamethasone is stronger and lasts longer than prednisolone.  If you take too much Dex it can be Very Uncomfortable.

"but isn't dex 10 times stronger than prednisone?"

.75mg of Dex is equal to about 5mg of prednisolone, but dex lasts 36-56 hours so really it is stronger because it overlaps.  Here's a comparison chart. http://www.nadf.us/tools/adrenalhormone.htm

"do you take it? It is so hard to even get into a endo now I just have a gp writing my prednisilone scripts. of all the steroids which is the better combo?"

I was taking prednisolone by itself, which was better for me than hydrocortisone, but I still felt low cortisol symptoms in afternoon and at night.  It seems that when you have chronic lyme you need more steroids than most and you need a longer acting steroid.  

Now I am taking .25mg of Dex And 5 1/2mg of prednisolone a day.  I recently made contact with a couple of ladies who have lyme and adrenal insufficiency and they both said that combining Dex and hydrocortisone had worked for them.  I started this a few weeks ago and feel better than I have in YEARS! 

I take the .25 Dex at night and then take Prednisolone -2 1/2mg at 8AM, 1mg at 11am, 1mg 3p, 1mg 5:30pm.  The reason this works for me is because the Dex lasts longer, so when the prednisolone would have run out or low now the dex fills the gaps.  

 "i am wondering if i need the florineff too and little cortisone??"

hydrocortisone is the same type medication as prednisolone, but does Not last as long.  I would not recommend that you try hydrocortisone.  Florinef is to replace aldosterone and help balance electrolytes.  You need to have sodium, potassium, and renin tested to see if you need florinef. If you feel dehydrated all the time you may need florinef.  Have you had your aldosterone tested?

"so what is the dose of dexamethazone if I am on 10 mg of prednisilone??"

I think most people who try dex by itself take .50mg, but I am not sure.  I think it varies from person to person.  The only problem with taking dex by itself is that it lasts so long that it can end up being too high at night and keeping you awake.  That is why I am combining the dex and prednisolone.

"I am gonna try AM and PM on the prednisilone now.
what time is best in afternoon? before 3 pm? after dinner?"

Razzle has good explanation of times.  Your body naturally makes the most cortisol in the morning and then it tapers throughout the day until it is very low between 11p and 2am and then starts to climb at about 4am. 

If I was going to take prednisolone twice a day I would take 7mg at 7AM (put it by your bed and take it immediately when you get up) and at 3mg at 3pm.  Or You might consider taking it 3 times a day -5mg at 7AM, 3mg at 11am or 12, and 2mg at 3pm.  What works for each person is different.  You just have to try different times and amounts and see what works for you.

If you take a good amount for you at the right times you will probably end up taking less overall than you are on now.  It is not easy to find the right steroid med and the right dosing schedule.

"also i do come up on the blood work as LOW cortisol while on the prednisilone and was wondering about that. it is another reason why i don't take the thyroid because I tried that before and got too nutty. that was before the prednisone."

Prednisolone does not show up in the cortisol blood test, so if your levels are low that means that your body is NOT making enough cortisol and you need the steroids. 

Yeah, Treating the thyroid will not work until you get the steroids balanced.

"is dexameth any less damaging than the prednisone?"

??Damaging??  I don't know what you mean??  When your body does not make cortisol (steroids) you Need to take them to replace what your body is not making!  If you have adrenal insufficiency and you quit the steroids you may die.  The steroids are supporting your immune system, Keeping your blood pressure from dropping too low,  Keeping your blood sugar level, and many other Vital functions.

I don't know what all tests you had run to diagnose you, but if you have been properly diagnosed then you Have to take the steroids, getting off of them completely is not an option.  There are some side affects to taking too much steroids (wt. gain, stretch marks, moon face) but this only happens if you are taking Way too much.  

I have had Zero luck with endos, I now go to a fibro & fatigue center doctor.  I think you just have to find a dr. that is willing to listen to you and help you try different combinations of doses and/or meds until you find the one(s) that help you feel good.

Good luck,

Great Expectations

Just sent you email with the PA doc's contact info.

Great expectations: I am also in Texas. Did you go to the Fibo&Fatigue clinic in Dallas by any chance? I know there is also one in Fortworth. And do they treat Lyme or just F&F and hormonal issues? Thanks  Dowa