adrenal insufficiency

Adrenal and thyroid insufficiency is something I believe many doctors over look!

A great site to read through to help us understand the importance of these to our healing, best testing available and to even help find a doctor that does understand is "Stop The Thyroid Madness": www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

I am not connected to nor do I receive any compensation of any type for anyone visiting or using this site. I'm only sharing it because it helped me tremendously.

Thanks for posting this, Revive!!

Revive,

I have not read the book but it sounds like a good one. It is absolutely correct to say that low adrenal function may suppress immune function. The conservative approach is to use appropriate supplement/herbal/glandular therapy to correct the situation. If that approach fails then replacement hormone may be needed to be used per the advice of a knowledgeable physician. It is important to realize that either too little or too much cortisol can be a real health problem. Thanks for thinking outside of the box and posting on the issue.

I read a book authored by William Jeffries M.D. who was perhaps the foremost expert on the safe use of hydrocortisol for adrenal insuffiency. Here is a summary of the book written by another person that read it. I found it to be an accurate and excellent summary of Jeffries book.



Here is the link to the book summary which appeared on the Stopthethyroidmadness website:

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/safe-uses/


Unfortunately discussion of the use of low dose replacement levels of this absolutely crucial hormone is sometimes lumped in with the foolish and indiscriminate use of steroids for inflammation. Distinctions must be made or else truth is lost.


Here is a statement of my daughter's situation in a prior thread as it related to this issue. Dr. J. attempted to correct her insufficiency with "alternative" approach then referred us to an MD who prescribed the hydrocortisol which she is still taking.

"My daughter was very ill for 6 years. Her Adrenals were undoubtedly stressed for an equivalent amount of time. She eventually became well. She resumed her competitive swimming but she noticed that her energy level still was wasn't quite up to normal even about 2 years after she appeared to be completely recovered from her illness.

After both saliva and blood tests it was determined that she had a fairly low level of cortisol. She was given an ACTH Challenge Test which showed that there were no problem with her Adrenals per se, but that she was not receiving enough ACTH hormone from the Pituitary Gland for normal cortisol production. This is called Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency. An MD prescribed 50 mg./day of bio-identical hydrocortisol. This is a bit more than a normal replacement level, but he took into account the very strenuous swimming program that she is involved in. Also she is 6'2" and 185 lbs. After about a month she had gained 16 lbs, retained a lot of water, looked puffy, had the "moon face", and was very thirsty all the time. Overdose messes up electrolyte levels and ratios. Being alarmed I went into research mode and found out that this was an overdose situation. We weaned her down by 5 mg./ week and the symptoms went away but she was still able to perform in the pool. She leveled off at 25 mg/day, and has stayed at that level for almost 1.5 years now."



Don

Post Edited (Heathersdad) : 7/11/2014 1:51:12 PM (GMT-6)

In_A_Cocoon_Now,

Thank you so much for the kind things that you said about me! Yes, the love is there, but unfortunately I have been a very imperfect father. I guess that we are all a work in progress.

It absolutely makes my day to read of the impact that my posts have had on you- and in a way that I would have never anticipated! Thank you so much for sharing that.

Thank you for your transparency in expressing the pain of not having a loving father in your life. Upon consideration of this most intimate of disclosures, I am rendered speechless. If I were near you, my only possible response would be a silent hug.

Its difficult for me to express loving and caring sentiments with the pen, so I don't even try most of the time. This much I know- that you are in the midst of a caring community here on this forum. I've had some great role models to learn from. That's what this forum is about.

Don

I look at adrenal insufficiency a little differently than most, but I look at most things differently. I was the science project nerd in high school that won first place at all the science fairs.

I try to find the cause of the problems I have and I have had adrenal insufficiency before. IMO, this comes most often from the hypothalamus and is caused by pathogens. It has been shown in studies that H pylori can induce expression of polyamine oxidase (PAO1) and can increase expression of Arginase II. This increases ornithine decarboxylase which is the rate limiting step in putrescine production. (putrescine being the first polyamine produced.) Why is this important? For one, it begins the cytokine cascade and inflammation from the immune response occurs. But looking into it more closely, in the adrenal gland, GABA is the major metabolite of putrescine. As putrescine levels increase, GABA levels elevate. The body senses this and the negative feedback shuts down the adrenal glands to normalize the system. The adrenals are suppressed because the pathogen (I feel babesia does this as well) can increase polyamine levels. Here is where most of our sleep problems occur.
Studies also show that it takes 5.6 hours for GABA to turnover to putrescine in the adrenal gland with amino guanine. How long do I sleep when I'm attempting to kill pathogens? 5.5 hours. Most of the things that are happening with me, if I look enough, I can find the answer. The solutions take a little more time.

Girlie said...
Georgia Hunter -So, then are you saying that if you heal your lyme and co, your adrenal issues may resolve?

Yes, and if you decrease your bacterial load, it should correct itself.
IMO, that applies to all other conditions as well. Some are much more complicated, but use the same principle.