ADRENAL FATIGUE, SYMPTOMS- AFFECTS 10'S OF MILLIONS

[Gaby]

An update from NaturalNews.com

Eighteen Overlooked Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

http://www.naturalnews.com/024985.html

by: Patty Donovan

More and more alternative health practitioners are beginning to recognize how widespread adrenal fatigue (hypoadrenia) is in the general population. In mainstream medicine, doctors refuse to recognize there is a problem with the adrenal glands unless you meet the diagnostic criteria for Addison's disease (extremely little adrenal function) or Cushing's disease (hyper adrenal). These diseases together affect less than 2% of the population, but some experts believe that upwards of 80% of the population suffers from some level of adrenal insufficiency. Besides the usual symptoms of overwhelming fatigue and inability to handle stress, the symptoms listed below provide a more complete picture of adrenal fatigue and are often overlooked even by alternative practitioners.

•ASTHMA, BRONCHITIS or CHRONIC COUGH: Any person with lung problems, especially asthma and bronchitis should be checked for poor adrenal function. The lungs cannot respond appropriately to stress, allergens etc because of lack of cortisol. Asthma is often considered an emotional disease because stress can trigger an attack. Fix the adrenals so the body can respond normally to stress and the asthma will disappear.

•ALLERGIES: Most allergies involve an inflammatory process. As the adrenal function decreases, allergies worsen. Generally, if the adrenal glands were functioning properly, the body would not respond to the allergen. This same anti-inflammatory effect is important in asthma also. As the adrenal glands heal, allergies are markedly reduced.

•RECURRENT INFECTIONS: Severe and/or recurrent infections (especially respiratory) often indicate adrenal problems. The more severe, the more frequently it occurs or the longer it lasts, the more likely adrenal fatigue is involved in the infection.

•MUSCLE WEAKNESS AND BACK PAIN: Dr. Goodheart identified five skeletal muscles which can indicate adrenal function. These are 1) sartorius, 2) gracilis, 3) posterior tibialis, 4) gastrocnemius, and 5) soleus. When the adrenal glands are malfunctioning, there will be weakness in one or more of these muscles. The sartorius and gracilis attach on the pelvis. Weakness in these muscles can cause the sacro-iliac joint to subluxate posteriorally (toward the back) leading to low back pain. In persons with adrenal fatigue, low back pain is frequently caused by instability of the pelvis rather than an actual back problem. These same two muscles also attach to the knee and help provide support. Weakness will cause knee pain, weakness and instability of the joint. Any person with knee problems should be checked for adrenal fatigue. The other 3 muscles mentioned stabilize the feet and ankles. Weakness of any of these muscles leads to complaints of tired, aching feet, weak ankles or aching calves. The symptoms related to the muscle weakness will improve when the adrenal glands are treated.

•SLEEP DISTURBANCES: Cortisol production follows a curve from highest levels around 8am, dropping throughout the day until the lowest levels are reached about 11pm. In early stages of adrenal fatigue the body compensates with high night time cortisol. In this case the person finds it difficult to relax from the stress of the day and has trouble going to sleep. High night-time cortisol results in reduced REM sleep which is neither restful nor restorative. This can lead to depression and reduced energy levels the next day. In later stages of adrenal fatigue, the body may produce adrenaline ("fight or flight" hormone) in an attempt to compensate for low cortisol. This too will result in insomnia.

•DIZZINESS (POSTURAL HYPOTENSION): When a person stands from a sitting or lying position, the systolic blood pressure usually rises about 10 points as blood vessels in the lower body constrict to force blood to the heart, lungs and brain. This is a result of the action of epinephrine on the blood vessels. In people with adrenal fatigue, the blood vessels are unable to respond to the release of epinephrine because of lack of cortisol, so blood pools in the abdomen and pelvis and blood pressure drops. This systolic drop ranges from 10 to 40 points and is present in over 90% of those with hypoadrenia. Dizziness is usually present on standing; however, in some people it is present intermittently or constantly throughout the day as even resting blood pressure is low. Paradoxically, in order to prevent pooling of blood in the abdomen and lower extremities, the body may keep blood pressure extremely elevated. Pressure will still drop when the person stands but only to around 150. Remember, it may have been 180 or higher before standing. Treating the adrenals will lower blood pressure whereas anti-hypertensives and diuretics will make the adrenal problems worse in many cases.

•INFLAMMATION: Cortisol and other glucocorticoids produced by the adrenal glands are the body's own anti-inflammatory hormones. People who have responded to injections of corticosteroids into joints or to taking them orally are usually those whose adrenal glands produce insufficient amounts of these hormones. Any person who responds to corticosteroids should be checked for adrenal fatigue.

•HYPOGLYCEMIA: As adrenal fatigue progresses, blood glucose levels will tend to fall too low. The body responds to hypoglycemia by causing the person to crave anything that will rapidly raise blood sugar levels, such as a soda, candy bar, a cup of coffee or even cigarettes. Often adrenal fatigue leads to the abuse of alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs because of the need to "fix" recurrent hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, the rapid rise in blood glucose provided by the "fix" only serves to start the whole cycle over.

•HEADACHES: This is caused again by blood pooling in the abdomen and pelvis leading to inadequate blood supply to the head.

•BEHAVIOR AND MEMORY PROBLEMS: Cortisol even regulates the electrical activity of neurons in the brain and thus influences behavior, mood and memory. Behavior changes frequently occur in both excess and deficient cortisol levels. Sleep disorders for example, are common with both high and low cortisol. Symptoms more closely related to adrenal fatigue involve decreased tolerance (quick to anger), decreased clarity of thought, poor memory and memory retrieval.

•SALT CRAVING: The adrenal glands produce many more hormones than just glucocorticoids. One very important hormone is aldosterone, a mineralocorticoid. Aldosterone regulates fluid and electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium) in the blood, between and in the cells of the body. As adrenal fatigue progresses, the production of aldosterone lessens. This causes "salt-wasting". As the salt is excreted by the kidneys, water follows leading to electrolyte imbalance and dehydration. Those with adrenal fatigue should always add salt (preferably sea salt with its trace minerals) to their water. Soft drinks and electrolyte drinks like Gatorade are high in potassium and low in sodium, the opposite of what someone with low cortisol needs. Commercial electrolyte drinks are designed for those who produce high cortisol when exercising, not for someone who produces little or no extra cortisol during exercise. You need to add ¼ to 1 teaspoon of salt to a glass of water or eat something salty to maintain fluid/electrolyte balance.

•EXCESSIVE THIRST AND URINATION: A person with low aldosterone may also urinate 15 to 20 times a day and drink excessive quantities of water. Unless salt is added to the water, the fluid/electrolyte balance in the body is further disrupted.

•SWELLING: As the body tries to keep the ratio of electrolytes and fluid balanced, fluid may pour into the tissues and cause swelling. Most doctors will only see the symptom and not the cause and prescribe a diuretic which further compounds the dehydration and electrolyte imbalance and making the patient worse.

•HEMORRHOIDS: Hemorrhoids are basically varicose veins of the rectum and are caused by blood pooling in the abdomen and pelvis. When a person presents with hemorrhoids, it is usually do to adrenal fatigue, but can be caused by liver congestion. Once again, listening to the heart can help determine the cause. If the loud second sound is over the pulmonic valve, it is indicative of adrenal problems, while a loud 2nd sound over the tricuspid valve is indicative of liver congestion.

•VARICOSE VEINS: Varicose veins of the lower extremities result from the same pooling of blood in the abdomen and pelvis that causes hemorrhoids.

•INDIGESTION: The same sluggish circulation in the abdomen can cause symptoms of indigestion and poor absorption of nutrients.

•HYPERPIGMENTATION: Although more often seen in actual Addison's disease, hyperpigmentation is occasionally seen in adrenal fatigue. This increased pigmentation of the skin may show up as "bronzing" somewhere on the body or as unusual brown patches.

•HEART SOUNDS: The heart normally makes a "lub-dub sound, with the second sound being much quieter than the first sound. In a person with hypoadrenia, the second sound will be equal or louder than the first sound over the pulmonic valve. When the body is stressed, it produces epinephrine which will cause vasoconstriction throughout most of the body, including the lungs. This vasoconstriction decreases the production of mucous in the airways. At the same time, epinephrine will relax the bronchi (bronchodilation) allowing more air to reach the lungs. In those with adrenal fatigue, the body cannot respond to the epinephrine because of lack of cortisol so they experience bronchoconstriction instead, leading to symptoms of asthma. The bronchoconstriction, along with vasodilation and swelling of the mucous membranes create a back pressure in pulmonary circulation (pulmonary hypertension) that causes the pulmonary valve to slam shut, hence the accentuated second sound over the pulmonic valve. Lung diseases such as tuberculosis or tumors can also cause this loud 2nd sound.

The adrenal glands are very complex parts of the endocrine system producing glucocorticoids (cortisol is the most important), mineralocorticoids (aldosterone), epinephrine, norepinephrine and even sex hormones. Adrenal fatigue affects every part of the body and every aspect of life. If you are experiencing the symptoms described above it is imperative you find a practitioner and get tested and treated. It may be helpful to print this out and take it to your practitioner. Saliva cortisol testing usually includes the sex hormones too and can be ordered from several on-line sites without a doctor's order. If you do it this way though, testing will not be covered by insurance. Saliva testing is the most accurate test because it shows the rhythm of cortisol production and because it shows how much cortisol is present that the body can actually use. Blood tests only show bound cortisol which gives no indication if that cortisol is actually available to enter the tissues. Many people test "normal" on blood cortisol yet very low on saliva.

Sources:
http://tuberose.com/Adrenal_Glands.html
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by Dr. James Wilson
http://www.drlam.com/A3R_brief_in_doc_format/adrenal_fatigue.cfm

 

[pete69]

Dr. Wilson's "Adrenal Fatigue" book is a pretty good book on the subject. The two self tests in the book are a good start to determine if you might have adrenal fatigue, especially the test measuring your blood pressure lying down then again after standing. If it drops then this is an indicator that you might have a problem as orthostatic hypotention is a symptom of AF. Another fascinating book on the subject of the stress response and our modern lifestyle, you should pick up "Why Zebra's Don't Get Ulcers" by my favorite author, Robert Sapolsky.

The best way to test for this is to order an AM/PM salivary cortisol test where you put your saliva in a vial at 8AM and 8PM (empty stomach). Cortisol functions on a circadian rhythm, it peaks around 8AM and is part of what wakes us in the morning, and fluctuates but steadily declines throughout the day. High levels at night can be a cause of insomnia. I ordered a test years ago from salivatest.com and had Adrenal Fatigue. My 8AM cortisol was extremely low (well below the normal range). I found that (real) licorice root helped with morning energy, as this prevents an enzyme in the liver from breaking down cortisol which oddly enough is important for early morning wakefulness.

As mentioned about, magnesium (a deficiency that is truly rampant, and probably the most important mineral in the body, involved in 320 enzyme reactions) as malate or citrate (oxide is poorly absorbed), B-complex, Vitamin C (most C in the body is stored in the adrenals, and some stress response studies show supplementing Vit. C reduces the duration of glucocorticoids in the blood after a stressor), as well as potassium and even adequate Sodium.

A reduced carbohydrate is important, and the carbs you eat need to be low glycemic as large fluctuations in blood sugar will cause cortisol levels to rise. Eliminating food allergies is also key as cortisol elevates when you eat allergenic foods.

5-HTP as mentioned about is miraculous for some of us, and L-Theanine is another worthwhile amino acid to take on an empty stomach, as it raises GABA, another inhibitory neurotransmitter that works wonders for reducing stress.

Caffeine is a poison for the adrenally challenged.

If getting tested by your doctor, a blood cortisol test isn't helpful as the stress of a needle can give a false reading. An ACTH response test would be an excellent test but most Doc's probably wouldn't prescribe it and it takes several hours.

Another revealing blood test is a DHEA-Sulfate test, another adrenal hormone. If this is low then there is a good chance you have adrenal fatigue.

 

[1984]

Hi pete69 and welcome to the forum. You've posted some interesting items. As is customary here, you can visit the Newbies section and tell us a bit more about yourself - how you found us, etc. No need to share personal info.

 

[Gaby]

I wanted to share a quote from the book "Detoxification and Healing" by Sidney Baker, it is a list of factors involved in chemical sensitivities. Since it touches the subject of adrenal fatigue, I thought that this will be the right place to post it. As Dr. Wilson - author of Adrenal Fatigue - says:

http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/adrenal-fatigue-related-health-conditions/adrenal-fatigue-allergies.html

Allergic reactions typically have an adrenal component.*

Most allergies involve the release of histamine and other pro-inflammatory substances (substances that produce inflammation). Cortisol, one of the primary hormones produced by the adrenal glands, is a strong anti-inflammatory (a substance that reduces inflammation). In fact, the amount of cortisol circulating in the blood is a key factor in controlling the level of inflammatory reactions in the body.

For this reason, proper adrenal function plays an important role in mediating the histamine release and inflammatory reactions that produce the symptoms experienced with allergies.*

When the adrenals are fatigued they are less likely to produce enough cortisol to adequately counteract the inflammatory reactions, allowing allergic symptoms to continue unchecked.* People going through times of adrenal fatigue may notice that they seem to have more allergies or their allergies seem to get worse.*

Conversely, the more histamine released, the more cortisol it takes to control the inflammatory response and the harder the adrenals have to work to produce enough cortisol.* The harder the adrenals have to work, the more fatigued they may become and the less cortisol they produce, allowing histamine to inflame the tissues more.*

It is therefore not surprising that people with food and environmental allergies commonly tend to have fatigued adrenals.*

This vicious cycle can lead to deepening adrenal fatigue as well as to bigger allergic reactions.*

Actively supporting your adrenal glands and eliminating or reducing your exposure to foods and other substances that cause allergic or sensitivity reactions in you can help break this cycle as well as strengthen adrenal function.*

Food allergens can interfere with daily functioning and become a profound stress on the adrenals, so it is important to track down and eliminate these food sensitivities and allergies in order to both decrease your allergy load and promote adrenal health.*

Ok, so from Detoxification and Healing by Sidney Baker:

[Notice that low dose hydrocortisone is explained in #5 Adrenal Insufficiency]

I began accumulating the following list from listening to the sto­ries of patients who came to see me with problems of sensitivity to many things, sometimes so many things that controlling their diet and environment seemed a fairly unworkable treatment compared to find­ing the sensitivity's basis and repairing that. The list provides a helpful orientation to considering ways to evaluate a person's detoxifica­tion chemistry.

1. Something is out of balance. If I am standing on one foot and you push me over with your thumb, I could conclude
that I am thumb-sensitive and need to stay away from thumbs. Now if I put both feet on the ground, I regain my balance and I am no longer so sensitive to the effect of your thumb. In the same way, a toddler with eczema may itch all over and keep himself up half the night scratching because of sensitivities to foods, fabrics, dust, or other factors that cannot easily be determined. He seems sensitive to just every­thing. Then, for example, if a zinc or fatty acid deficiency is found and his balance is restored with respect to zinc, his sensitivity will diminish.

2. Something is wrong with digestion. If the destructive forces of digestion are lacking and more than normal quantities of food substances escape being stripped of the antigenicity by which they are able to provoke allergic reactions, then it is the fault of digestion, not the immune system. I realize that I am being unfaithful to the whole integrative medicine concept by starting to cast blame on this or that system. However, once allergy is provoked by poor digestion, digestion may be the victim of allergy. So it goes round and round in a circle. Circular effects are the rule.

Magnesium deficiency provides another example. A person under stress tends to lose excess magnesium as part of the response to stress. A magnesium deficit then creates the setting for less resistance to stress. The question is not so much which part of the circle is to blame, but which is the most practical place to intervene to break the cycle. If a person is sensitive to most foods and has very poor stomach acid secretion or a failure to produce good bile or other digestive juices, then supporting those functions with supplements makes more sense than severe dietary restriction.

3. Infection. If the immune system has to get up every day and fight germs, it is not surprising that it may become cranky and reactive to environmental stimuli. "Hypervigilant" is a good term for describing the posture of the immune system that has taken on an increased reactivity to many kinds of substances. Such a posture is part of a state of immune activation that is common in individuals with many illnesses including autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue immunodeficiency syndrome, and childhood autism as well as generalized tendencies toward allergy. The place in the body where germs are least accessible to control by our various immune mechanisms is the intestinal tract, where parasites and the overgrowth of yeasts are the most common provokers of a hypervigilant immune system.

If I meet someone casually and he or she describes a rela­tive's problem and says no more than that the person in question was quite well until a certain point when he or she became suddenly sensitive to all sorts of foods, chemicals, or dust, my very first thought is that the person must have been on antibiotics in the interval before the onset of the state of hypersensitivity which was caused by a yeast problem. Virus infections are also capable of a tenacious chronicity, and the ones that have the greatest capacity for ongoing subtle mischief are herpes simplex and Epstein-Barr virus.

4. Chemical exposure. An exposure to any potential allergen can sensitize a person if the exposure is intense or if it is accompanied by a high level of stress, even if the stress is not painful. When I joined the Peace Corps I had finished my six-month stint as an assistant resident in obstetrics and gynecology and suddenly found myself getting up early in California not to deliver babies but to play soccer with Peace Corps volunteers who were just out of college and in much better shape than I. Leaving my cat, car, house, and belong­ings to be cared for by someone else for two years and trav­eling with my then wife and nine-month-old daughter across the country constituted stress. When I started having to get up at night to treat myself for asthma attacks, I suspected that I was having some sort of emotional reaction to the Peace Corps. A vacationing friend of my wife's then returned
to claim her cat who had been boarding with us, and my asthma disappeared. My severe cat allergy lingered and some
years later I realized that my sensitization must have had something to do with the cat-stress combination, especially
considering that I had had cats all along. Returning from Africa after two years I found myself unable to tolerate my old cat's presence!

If, instead of being exposed to a cat, I had moved into an environment that was contaminated with formaldehyde, pesticides, or petrochemicals, I might have not only over­loaded my detoxification system's capacity to rid myself of my daily load of inhaled or ingested material, but something more insidious could have happened: the engendering of a global state of sensitivity to all chemicals. Such a state stretches scientific credulity. First of all there has been a long-standing belief in the field of allergy that only fairly large molecules can provoke an allergic response and most of the substances we informally group under the heading "chemicals" are small molecules. Moreover, they are a diverse group, and allergy is understood to be quite specific. Finally, the symptoms reported by victims of chemical sensi­tization are often cerebral and subjective in nature, inviting the reproach that "it is all in your head." Individuals who suffer from chemical sensitivity often find themselves in a surprisingly adversarial medical setting in which physicians state firmly that they "do not believe in" chemical sensitivity and cite the finding of emotional disorders in chemically sensitive patients as evidence that there is no physiologic basis for the problem, which therefore must be a state of malingering or psychosis. A person who has become chemi­cally sensitized enters a much more polarized medical setting than someone who has been sensitized to cats, and should be forewarned of encounters with physicians who hold strong positions that whatever is wrong with such patients is -not real."

[...] The concept of sensitizing potential was first championed by the late Dr. Theron Randolph, who became the father of an ecologic approach to medicine and teacher of many of us who found ourselves in the practice of various specialties,
knowing a great deal about our patient's innards and very little about their "outards," that is, the physical and chemical environment with which their chemistry interacted.

Although Dr. Randolph's work coincided in the I 960s with the general awakening to the realities of chemical pollution as a widespread phenomenon, the medical profession's focus on disease left it poorly prepared to accept the very individual nature of chemical sensitivity and slow to accept the idea that a patient's toxic burden might constitute a clin­ical priority no matter what his or her disease may be.

Dr. William Rea is the Randolph disciple who has done more than anyone to bring a passionate and scholarly energy to the study and treatment of problems of chemical sensiti­zation and chemical poisoning. His multivolume treatise, Chemical Sensitivity,' presents the most comprehensive review of the subject. Dr. Sherry Rogers's books' provide another rich resource of information about chemical sensitivity.

5. Adrenal insufficiency. Here is a story that exemplifies a common finding in sensitive individuals. Abigail Stockwell was at the Sleigh House restaurant one evening in 1980 when an obstructed flue filled the place with gas fumes. She was among dozens of patrons who were treated in the emer­gency room for a variety of symptoms from fainting, nausea, and headache to numbness and tingling. One of the puzzling things about chemical exposures is the great variety of symp­toms that can be produced in different individuals from an essentially identical exposure. Before that exposure she was well except for a childhood history of eczema. After it she was troubled by fatigue, nausea, a peculiar scratching pain in her head, difficulty concentrating, and depression. Such symptoms would recur particularly following exposure to a variety of petroleum-based products. Pumping her own gaso­line could make her sick for a couple of days. She was both­ered by certain foods as well as by pollen, dust, and molds. When I first interviewed her I thought that she was sensitized by her initial exposure to gas fumes and that her recovery would be more difficult to achieve than it would he for someone with sensitivities limited to foods or mold.

I asked her about symptoms of fatigue, feeling cold, recurring infec­tion, low bood pressure, poor modulation of blood sugar, salt craving, acne, and other hormonal symptoms such as excessive facial or body hair or loss of scalp hair. These are all indicators of a common condition (about one in 100 people) called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The only symptoms she reported from the list were hair loss, fatigue, and feeling cold in the evening. 1 did not think that she was a very good candidate for CAH. After failed attempts to treat her by removing mold from her diet and killing yeasts in her intestines, I did a simple test to rule out CAH which involved a trial of treatment while monitoring her symptoms with a key lab test before and after the trial. Here is the information I gave her and the instructions for the brief test treatment.

Low-dose hydrocortisone therapy

Hydrocortisone is the normal product of your adrenal gland. It is the main hormone among a whole family called steroid hormones. Some people fail to produce enough hydrocortisone to provide for their body's needs. Like people with low thyroid function, such people benefit from taking hormone pills to make up for what their body fails to produce each day. The average daily production of hydrocortisone in your body is about 30 to 40 mg. If you have adrenal insufficiency (low adrenal function), you may be produc­ing only 15 to 25 nag daily and consequently may feel cold and tired and have many sensitivities, low blood pressure, and salt craving. By supplementing your low production with, say, 5 to 20 mg of hydrocortisone, your body's supply becomes normal and symptoms should promptly disappear.

The big misunderstanding that occurs with regard to this treat­ment comes from the use of high-dose cortisone or cortisone-like medicines (prednisone, Medrol, etc.). With high-dose treatment, doses way in excess of your body's needs are given and have a seri­ous drug effect plus many side effects: high blood pressure, weight gain (usually with a characteristic central distribution and a moon face), immune suppression with a tendency toward fungus infec­tions, diabetes, stomach ulcers, and so on. These potential side effects have nothing to do with what could happen with low-dose hydrocortisone treatment, which cannot give your body significantly more than your body needs. Even it your production of hydrocor­tisone is already normal, the extra 5 to 20 mg hardly ever makes a noticeable difference. High-dose treatment employs amounts of cor­tisone or cortisone-like drugs (such as prednisone) equivalent to at least several times your body's daily output, that is, 60 to 300 mg of hydrocortisone per day.

So, if a friend says, "Oh my God, you're not taking cortisone, are you? That stuff is so dangerous, my mother took it and it gave her ulcers and she gained weight!" please reassure yourself and your friend that you are using this medicine in a totally different and safe way. Can tests be done before actually taking this treatment to determine if it is really needed before trying it? Yes, but the tests are very good at picking up people with bad adrenal insufficiency, but they can miss people who need low-dose hydrocortisone treat­ment. I have done the tests in dozens of people and have decided that the best first test is a clinical trial of hydrocortisone. It is with­out risk and takes less time and trouble than the tests. If you fail to feel better from taking the hydrocortisone, then you don't need the test. If you feel much better, so that it appears that you needed the hydrocortisone, then a test can be done later to confirm the diag­nosis, if that seems appropriate. Note that low-dose hydrocortisone is used to treat people with mild adrenal insufficiency in whom the symptoms of underproduction of hydrocortisone come out as an overproduction of the "male" type of hormones that in women lead to scalp hair loss, excessive hair growth, and other hormonal abnormalities.''

Dosage schedule

Start with 2.5 mg (a quarter of a 10-mg tablet or half of a 5-mg tablet). Take a dose of 2.5 mg daily between 6:00 and 8:00 A.M. over the course of a week. See how you feel. If nothing has hap­pened, increase the dose to 5 mg between 6:00 and 8:00 A.M. and observe any changes in symptoms for another week. If at any point you develop carbohydrate cravings, experience bloating or insom­nia, feel hyper, or have any other negative symptoms, either stop or reduce the dose. If at any point your target symptoms (fatigue, excess hair growth, sensitivities to allergens or chemicals, acne, salt cravings, or feeling cold) begin to improve, discuss with your doc­tor a strategy for finding the lowest dose that will produce the best effect. You may increase your dose and change the timing of your intake to 10 mg in the early morning, 5 mg at noon, and 5 mg at 4:00 P. M . before concluding that your experiment has failed. At that point you will he taking, about halt your body's need for hydrocortisone to, supplement what you presume your adrenal glands were not producing. If the experiment is a success, you have the following obligations:

I. To establish, by trial and error, the optimum dose. This can be done only by finding the lowest dose that will keep symptoms under the best control.

2.To explain to doctors that the basis for treatment with low-dose hydrocortisone is a successful clinical trial, the results of which were very convincing. You should anticipate hat most doc­tors will reject this way of making the diagnosis. If it turns out that you will continue to need the low-dose hydrocortisone treatment for more than about six months, then it would be reasonable for you to undertake the kinds of urine and blood tests that are nor­mally used to document adrenal insufficiency. It is still my position that the diagnostic trial you have just undergone is more decisive than the laboratory tests; there are individuals who have convinc­ing response to treatment but who would not qualify for treatment based on the lab tests.

3.To be aware that what you are taking is hydrocortisone, not prednisone. Many people, including some doctors, are unaware that the potency of the two is very different. For example, 5 mg of hydrocortisone is the same as about 1 mg of prednisone.

4.If you are in an accident or undergo severe physical stress, such as surgery, your doctor should consider doubling the daily dose of hydrocortisone. This is not because the dose you are tak­ing suppresses adrenal function (as high-dose prednisone would do) but because your diagnosis of mild adrenal insufficiency indicates that you are probably not able to mount a normal adrenal response to stress.

Mrs. Stockwell became 50 percent better after the first few weeks of treatment when she had arrived at a dose of 2.5 mg of hydrocortisone four times daily. After that she went on to make a complete recovery and now can go about her busi­ness in New York City with only occasional symptoms when she encounters the exhaust of a diesel bus or someone wearing too much perfume in an elevator. As part of her initial evaluation I had done a study of her detoxification chemistry. After she was treated with the hydrocortisone, it became completely normal. The normalization of her detoxification chemistry provides a good example of the intercon­nections among immune function, adrenal function, and detoxification. It may turn out that after a few months of treatment she will no longer need her hydrocortisone.

Adrenal insufficiency can result from a congenital weak­ness in the biochemistry that forms hydrocortisone in the adrenal gland. In its extreme form it produces a masculinization of girl babies to the point that their clitoris and other external genitals are enlarged to a male appearance. Unless the condition is recognized immediately the associated imbal­ance in the regulation of body salts can precipitate a fatal crisis. At the very least, a delay in the proper assignment of gender can result in distress for everyone involved. Many people with adrenal insufficiency have a very mild form of the same condition. They do not have genital abnormalities but may show, after maturity, salt cravings, excess hair growth, and acne as well as the other symptoms mentioned above. On the other hand, an unknown percentage of indi­viduals with adrenal weakness acquire it from stress. This was first studied by Hans Selye, the famous physiologist whose studies of soldiers killed in battle clarified the rela­tionship between the adrenal gland and stress. A certain number of the healthy seventeen- to twenty-year-old young men who are found dead on a battlefield have no wounds to explain their death. At postmortem examination, the only abnormality found is an exceptional shrinkage of the adrenal glands. These and other studies conducted by Dr. Selye over many years gave rise to the whole modern concept of the relationship between stress and health. In a sense, my profes­sion received the concept of stress with open arms but not so with the findings about the adrenal glands. The reasons for that turn of events are discussed in the monograph" by the endocrinologist William Jefferies. Considering Mrs. Stock-well's lack of long-term masculinizing symptoms and the sudden onset of her illness after a chemical exposure, I think that her condition may be temporary so that in several months or a year she can come off the hormone support and find that her health and tests are normal.

6. Invasive life events. In the course of a two hour initial visit, patients with multiple sensitivities often refer to the unfor­gettable pain and anger of experiences suffered in childhood that were abusive, often in a very literally invasive way. This abuse need not always have been sexual, as described in Chapter I; even certain medical procedures such as a tonsil­lectomy performed in the kitchen, believe it or not) could easily be interpreted by a child as a violation accompanied by severe pain. For some the revelation of such stories had gone unspoken for many years. Especially in respect to sexual abuse, if feelings of anger and pain do not find their natural exit in speech they are more likely to burrow into a person's sou' and do mischief that may be expressed more immunologically than psychologically on the surface. When such patients have pursued the appropriate psychological treatment, the immunologic aspects of their hypervigilance become much more responsive to treatment.

This may be the appropriate place to make the point that I do not think that health is concerned only with biochemistry and immunology. I have chosen those subjects for this book to clarify the central role of detoxification chemistry, but I do not mean to suggest that words and deeds and the feelings they engender cannot be toxic. On the contrary, I believe that words and deeds have the great­est potential for both harm and healing and that only when they are in the right balance can the biochemical and immunological treatments prevail. We live, however, in a culture with a high level of psychological awareness. If a person is feeling chronically sad without apparent reason, appropriate attempts to find a psychological reason or to alleviate symptoms temporarily with drugs should not fail to include a look for biochemical balance.

Do not hesitate to get the book, it is really one of the most important readings we've done. Highly recommended!

 

[Mrs. Peel]

I wanted to share a quote from the book "Detoxification and Healing" by Sidney Baker, it is a list of factors involved in chemical sensitivities. Since it touches the subject of adrenal fatigue, I thought that this will be the right place to post it. As Dr. Wilson - author of Adrenal Fatigue - says:

http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/adrenal-fatigue-related-health-conditions/adrenal-fatigue-allergies.html

If you fail to feel better from taking the hydrocortisone, then you don't need the test. If you feel much better, so that it appears that you needed the hydrocortisone, then a test can be done later to confirm the diag­nosis, if that seems appropriate. Note that low-dose hydrocortisone is used to treat people with mild adrenal insufficiency in whom the symptoms of underproduction of hydrocortisone come out as an overproduction of the "male" type of hormones that in women lead to scalp hair loss, excessive hair growth, and other hormonal abnormalities.''

Am I understanding the above correctly? Is he saying that women with mild adrenal insufficienty manifest symptoms like scalp hair loss, etc. which are caused by an overproduction of "male" hormones? NOT that if one TAKES the hydrocortisone therapy, it WILL CAUSE the symptoms of scalp hair loss, excessive hair growth, etc.

In other words, if you've got those symptoms, you could try the therapy, right?

P.S. I've got the book. ;D

 

[Gaby]

Am I understanding the above correctly? Is he saying that women with mild adrenal insufficienty manifest symptoms like scalp hair loss, etc. which are caused by an overproduction of "male" hormones?

Yeap :)

 

[Gawan]

I hope that's the right place for this question.

In the last weeks I have been under full stress, couldn't relax anymore (stiff neck, which got with the time even worse), also the pipebreath didn't fully work, because I couldn't calm down any longer (thoughts kept running and running, what I have to do next etc.). Well, I experienced that I'm not stress resistant, it's like a killer for me.

Could it be said, that to be able to relax, the body has also to be fixed again? Because as stated above, with the tool of pipebreathing I had great difficulties.

(As a note Psyche's recommended supplements, especially the ones treating the adrenal gland, are ordered and on it's way, thanks again for it Psyche!)

 

[Gaby]

I hope that's the right place for this question.

In the last weeks I have been under full stress, couldn't relax anymore (stiff neck, which got with the time even worse), also the pipebreath didn't fully work, because I couldn't calm down any longer (thoughts kept running and running, what I have to do next etc.). Well, I experienced that I'm not stress resistant, it's like a killer for me.

Could it be said, that to be able to relax, the body has also to be fixed again? Because as stated above, with the tool of pipebreathing I had great difficulties

It reminds me of one of the articles that Paul Ingraham (which Laura recommends in the EE intro) wrote. Here are a few quotes FWIW:

http://saveyourself.ca/articles/respiration-connection.php

...if the diaphragm doesn’t do its job well, muscles in the upper chest (pectoralis minor) and throat (sternocleidomastoid and scalenes) try to take over.1 Unfortunately, these muscles aren’t built for routine respiration, and they exhaust and eventually injure themselves.2 A cascade of potential consequences results. ...

Does stress cause people to breathe poorly? Or does breathing poorly cause stress? It’s both, obviously: each pattern aggravates the other. What a pickle.

...Chronic upper chest and neck breathing presumably exhausts and then eventually damages the emergency breathing musculature, causing a list of bad news: exercise gets more difficult, and the risk of both acute and chronic injuries and painful conditions in the neck and shoulders increases dramatically — especially whiplash injuries....

Exhausted muscles develop what I call “sick muscle syndrome” — they develop hard knots, technically known as myofascial trigger points, that radiate pain in characteristic patterns.9 The intensity of this phenomenon can range from mild to crippling, and it doesn’t just hurt: anything that lies in the path of that radiating pain is vulnerable, interfering with normal function in a variety of ways.

Sick muscles don’t do their own job very well, either: the more you’ve worn out your neck and chest muscles trying to breathe without your diaphragm, the more likely you are to have a problematic upper body posture and lousy mechanics of the shoulder and spinal joints, which leads to yet more injuries....

“Reduce your stress level” is the most vague and unhelpful advice I can imagine! It’s a huge topic, and I can’t properly address it here. For the purposes of this article, I just want to instill in you some respect for the consequences of stress: if you are so stressed out that you can’t breathe properly, what else is stress doing to you? It’s time to take a serious look solving some problems in your life, and/or changing the way you react to challenges — for the sake of your health.

We are a society of shallow breathers

Quick conclusion

We are a society of shallow breathers: afraid of moving our bellies, afraid of expressing ourselves, living our lives in chairs, and stressed out by our busy minds. Instead of breathing with the diaphragm, people tend to breathe with upper body musculature that is inadequate to the task, with a cascade of musculoskeletal consequences and vulnerabilities. These are the solutions to dysfunctional breathing:

* the book lifting exercise, to learn how to recruit the diaphragm
* water breathing, to increase your diaphragmatic strength and coordination
* bioenergetic or round breathing, to break down the emotional rigidity that makes it so hard to breathe diaphragmatically in the first place
* the abdominal lift exercise, to strengthen and stimulate the abdominal musculature and increase your body awareness of abdominal movement during breathing
* stay out of chairs as much as possible, so that your diaphragm actually has room to do its job
* embark on a program of stress reduction, whatever that means to you

If you can't calm yourself to do the pipe breath, perhaps doing some good old basic steps again might help. For instance practicing belly breathing with a book first and then see if you can add the pipe breathing. When you are stressed out, you can overwhelm yourself very easily, then suddenly is black and white, and one is always on the black part of it. Taking it literally one step at a time helps put things into perspective. Going for a walk might help clear out your thoughts, also journaling which helps to put all your thoughts "out of your head".

While doing the DMSA protocol for mercury detox, I found that a powerful cocktail was 5 HTP + GABA + Taurine to calm my mood. I will take it 3 times a day on an empty stomach to be certain that it was going to have an effect. I think the GABA and the 5 HTP will help you as well. Also the adrenal support.

You can read the rest of Paul Ingraham's article here: http://saveyourself.ca/articles/respiration-connection.php There are other suggestions which can motivate you or help you out.

My 2 cents.

 

[shellycheval]

Thank you Psyche,
Although you have written predominately about hydrocortisone therapy, this is very interesting to me as in the past I have had very positive results from taking very low doses of prednisone, 2.5-5mg, that I was given for my asthma. I tried discussing this with a doctor and was told that 2.5 to 5 mg. doses of prednisone were too low to be therapeutic therefore my feeling better reaction "must-be-all-in-my-head."

Before Advair stabilized my asthma (I am symptom free if I take the 150 dosage once a day in the winter and twice a day during plant allergy season) I was given prednisone to have on hand, in addition to my regular daily medication—theophylline for 30 years then others, to take at the first flare up of symptoms. I was in my forties then and after a lifetime of struggling to breathe was well aware when my body was having an asthma reaction. I learned that splitting the 20 mg pills would work better as it relieved my allergy/asthma symptoms and the only "side effects" were that I had lots of energy and felt much better than normal. Sometimes I would take a 5 mg dose of prednisone the evening before a day when I knew I needed to have a lot of energy to get things done even when my asthma was not acting up just to feel good/better than normal. Taking any larger amounts brought on the usual side effects of taking prednisone-- jitters, teeth-grinding, edgy feeling, swelling etc.

There are several of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue that I experience now and additional ones I have experienced more in the past when my diet and health habits were not as good.
•ASTHMA
•ALLERGIES
• LOW BACK PAIN and some knee problems
•SLEEP DISTURBANCES--I fall asleep easily, but wake up half way through the night and cannot get back to sleep
•DIZZINESS (POSTURAL HYPOTENSION) not much now--more in the past
•INFLAMMATION
•HYPOGLYCEMIA do not test positive for it but experience the symptoms
MEMORY PROBLEMS—(I do not feel I have a memory problem but those who know me say I do—I think it is selective)
•SALT CRAVING—at times
•SWELLING slight—like pre menstrual
•INDIGESTION: acid reflux in the past—I eat healthier now

I am female, 56, postmenopausal, over weight by 30 lbs, struggle to loose weight, mild hypertension 145/75 and asthma. I am moderately active most days taking care of my large house, many pets, small farm and horses, and teaching full time. I seem to have a moderate amount of energy every other day, but never two days in a row.

Reading the diet posts here have caused me to change my diet for the better. Since last summer I have cut way back on dairy, to +- 6oz. whole organic milk in A.M. with coffee—(I know I know, but I swear I would have NO energy at all without 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning!) 2-3 oz cheese a week, and wheat, about 4-6 servings a week, about 3 eggs a week, and most weeks almost no sugar. I will go for weeks without eating any sugar other than 2-3 tablespoons of preserves a week on toast, and then fall off the wagon and have a small piece of dessert or 2-3 cookies everyday for a few days as I get that craving for sugar again. I eat a lot of chicken, some red meat, fish when I am not too lazy to fix it, fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, rice, potatoes, olive oil and some butter—I do not binge and rarely eat too much at one time—I feel better with 4 small meals a day. I tried the detox diet for a week but felt anxious, very hungry, and could not concentrate on my work.

Sorry for this long rambling post—I am answering my own questions to some extent by writing all this down, but here are some anyways:

Does one have to stay on the low dose hydrocortisone indefinitely?
How long does it take for the adrenals to heal?
If you are taking it, how do you know when the adrenals have healed and you can stop taking it?

I am hoping that by trying this therapy I will gain the energy to get out of the continuous low energy “funk” I am in so much of the time.

I have NOTHING in my life to feel depressed about—good friends, beautiful home, great job, good health care benefits, a joyful hobby riding horses, some time to myself, loving pets, mobility--few aches and pains; I can breathe; the intellectual and spiritual goals are in sight that I was searching my whole life for until I found SOTT, FOTCM, and you all here on the Forum! I divorced the last psycho partner four years ago, have had years of doing emotion work through multiple successful therapies, do the POTS every night and the other breathing exercises occasionally throughout the week.

But I seem unable to fully maximize my potential to enjoy my life. I procrastinate doing almost everything—even the things I enjoy the most. I have periods in the school semester, like now, when the workload is very stressful and this is when I shut down the most.

I have had days where I do have a lot of energy and I suspect that those are the times when I am functioning on a normal energy level and the rest (most) of the time I am pushing myself to get everything done. Although I am on a tight budget and live paycheck to paycheck, I finally have most everything (not just material) I have strived for in my life, but I feel unable to enjoy it more than some of the time. I am amazed at how much so many forum members are able to accomplish with incredible hardships, handicaps, and other serious trauma in their lives, and I feel ashamed that I do not do more. I remember how I felt back in the 70s when I was taking amphetamines on and off for a few years and wish I could experience half that level of energy again in my life now.

Do you think this is physical to some extent, or am I in the grip of the predator mind that is sabotaging my life? Or am I just lazy, weak-willed, and self-indulgent? Or all of the above?

I feel I am right on the edge of getting to where I feel good most of the time but I can’t seem to maintain it—I feel overwhelmed and then sabotage my advances to some extent. Things are so much better now than they were in the past, but now that I have experienced some real “feeling good” I want it all the time, but can’t seem to make it happen for more than a few days.

Sorry to dump all this on you—but once I started getting this out on paper I realize that this search for more energy is the core of my constant low-level anxiety lately. Thank you for listening—any thoughts you or others might have will be much appreciated.
shellycheval

 

[Gaby]

Thank you Psyche,
Although you have written predominately about hydrocortisone therapy, this is very interesting to me as in the past I have had very positive results from taking very low doses of prednisone, 2.5-5mg, that I was given for my asthma. I tried discussing this with a doctor and was told that 2.5 to 5 mg. doses of prednisone were too low to be therapeutic therefore my feeling better reaction "must-be-all-in-my-head."

And notice how it says that "5 mg of hydrocortisone is the same as about 1 mg of prednisone." Your dose of 2.5mg of prednisone was probably supporting your adrenals as a "low dose hydrocortisone therapy". In any case its best to use hydrocortisone because it is what our bodies produces.

I tried the detox diet for a week but felt anxious, very hungry, and could not concentrate on my work.

I really think that will help you immensely is to cut out all dairy and gluten from your diet, finding substitutes so you won't feel hungry or low in energy. Also coffee (ouch!), I know it sounds like an impossible task, but you can reduce the quantities you drink every day and substitute it with other caffeinated drinks like yerba mate. I hardly recommend this, but I think that its best to drink the lesser of "two evils" ;) Yerba mate can give you that boost early in the morning, without overdoing it of course, while you heal your adrenal glands.

You can cook with buckwheat flour to substitute for bread, there are some easy to follow recipes and even cooking videos :) You can substitute the dairy with rice milk, there are even some types of rice milks that are more "creamy". It really does become easier to follow the diet when you eliminate inflammatory foods from your diet, it allows for a "clearing" of your body and it comes to the point when you don't crave foods in an unhealthy way. Did you gave the elimination diet a try? It is here: The Ultra Simple diet.

Does one have to stay on the low dose hydrocortisone indefinitely?
How long does it take for the adrenals to heal?
If you are taking it, how do you know when the adrenals have healed and you can stop taking it?

I am hoping that by trying this therapy I will gain the energy to get out of the continuous low energy “funk” I am in so much of the time.

Low dose hydrocortisone is really not meant to be taken indefinitely, it is ideally for the period of time which allows your adrenals to recover and this will variate among each person, depending on the "hits"- stresses we had endured throughout our lives and also the health problems. It can take months or so. Don't hesitate to read Detoxification and Healing by Sidney Baker to give you more background and tools on how to take care of your body.

Do you think this is physical to some extent, or am I in the grip of the predator mind that is sabotaging my life? Or am I just lazy, weak-willed, and self-indulgent? Or all of the above?

This can be very well physical. I think that the elimination diet (Ultra Simple diet) will help you enormously. Unfortunately, even little gluten or dairy here and there can create much havoc in your health and well being. With the elimination diet you also get to test foods to see if you can tolerate them, so at end you only eat what your body can tolerate. You test for example eggs, nuts, tomatoes, butter, etc. There is more information on how to do the diet in the thread of Ultra Simple diet, or at least there should be... If something is not clear, you can ask in that thread and we'll chime in with some clarifications if necessary.

Sorry to dump all this on you—but once I started getting this out on paper I realize that this search for more energy is the core of my constant low-level anxiety lately. Thank you for listening—any thoughts you or others might have will be much appreciated.

I think you will feel much better doing the Ultra Simple diet, without quantity restriction as you shouldn't go hungry. Do you take supplements?

You have the right to have good energy levels and to feel that your living your potential

Do get Sidney Baker's Detoxification and Healing, the information about low dose hydrocortisone therapy is there, but also the information about heavy metal detox (mercury detox protocols) among other things.

 

[shellycheval]

Thank you very much for your help.

Did you gave the elimination diet a try? It is here: The Ultra Simple diet.

I look at it and shudder, then use the typical procrastinator's excuses--"I can't manage that in the middle of my busy schedule . . .etc."

Do you take supplements?

In the morning I take:
A combination monopotassium aspartate 250 mg & monomagnesium Di-Aspartate 250
GNC brand B 150 Combo
Niacin 500
zinc gluconate 50 mg
choline bitartrate 250 mg
D 3 2000 IU cholecalciferol
Ester C 1000
Since I started taking the vitamin D last Fall I have noticed an improvement in my overall sense of physical well being.
In the evenings, when I remember which has been hardly at all lately ,
I take the C & D & magnesium again.

I bought, with the intention of also taking in the evenings but have not been able to consistently able to manage it yet: , alpha lipoic acid 200 mg, acetyl-L-carnitine 500, and a combination fish oil thing.

Clearly I am on the road to Hell with my good intentions!!!!

When I think of everything I should be doing: finishing reading ISOTM, Gnosis I,II, &III, Mircea Eliade and dozens of other books, keeping up with SOTT, the forum, the bills, grading students papers, prepping for classes, mentoring adjunct teachers, spinning, stretching, breathing, thinking, laundry, dishes, cleaning, feeding everyone, finding and buying the food to feed everyone, repairing the fences, mowing, getting my oil changed, etc., etc., etc., I just want to “Homer-out--go find doughnuts and watch TV.” Then, I think of all the many, many, blessings and things to feel good about in my life and then I feel bad for not feeling good.

I have a high tolerance for pain and have been used to living with toxic people (abusive and controlling men) and less than optimal conditions for most of my life. I now live alone, sort of, except my sister, her twenty-something son and his fiancé live in the separate basement apartment. They respect my privacy; we interact some, they help a little when I ask but nothing consistent; they do not pay any rent.

I actually am much more optimistic than this most of the time, and am enjoying my life now more than ever; I just would like to have more energy to do it with so I can accomplish more--and "be all I can be." I have been a member of the forum since 03 or 04, and although I have had some serious life (and near death) issues to deal with since then, I am freaking out lately at how little I have accomplished, especially when I compare myself to newer people who give so much and appear to have so much less. I feel swamped (which is where this probably should be located); the world is heading faster and faster toward entropic destruction and I should be doing more to save it, and I am afraid of being left behind . . . So, yes--I take supplements. Thank you for asking.
shellycheval

 

[shellycheval]

Sorry to go off like that--I hear you.

I will order Baker's book today and read it first.

I will do the diet because "I got nowhere else to go."

I will breathe, take baby steps, and persevere.

I will do as much of the right stuff everyday as I can manage because there is no other day--if I want tomorrow to be different I have to change what I am doing today.

I am going outside right now and feed my bread to the birds.

sc

 

[Jacques]

I will do as much of the right stuff everyday as I can manage because there is no other day--if I want tomorrow to be different I have to change what I am doing today.

As Anart said it so well:

if you keep doing what you've always done, then you'll keep getting what you always got

 

[Gaby]

Don't hit your head in that wall I know that right now the whole idea about dieting sounds "impossible" and may be triggering your sabotaging feelings. You feel overwhelmed but it is easier than you think. You'll probably contemplating the whole thing now with your gluten and dairy/evil spirits who want you to keep your old ways. Once you eliminate the inflammatory foods, it becomes much easier to stick to the diet. Your will strengthens so to speak. Although it is not really a matter of lack of will. That is not a fair way to look at it. When you're inflamed and when you are eating foods that you might be allergic to, you often crave the very things that you shouldn't be eaten. So it does become easier when your body starts to clear out all the inflammatory foods. The elimination diet is very simple to prepare.

Your supplements look good, but it will help to get some rice protein (for example the one of Nutribiotic) so you can add it to your Ultra Shake. That is a healthy snack which will help you to calm down cravings. It is very healthy and you can put some of your powdered supplements there. You can add xylitol for a better taste. The shake usually has flaxseed oil, flaxseeds, rice protein, blue berries, rice milk, and powdered supplements.

Upwards and onwards! :)

 

[Laura]

Shellycheval, I can't emphasize enough how much better you will feel with ZERO wheat and dairy. You can eat like a piggy on the Ultra Simple diet if you need to get through a week or two of "cold turkey-ing" the elimination of the two major evils. Once you have gotten them out of your system completely, the cravings will stop and the appetite will calm down. It really is an addiction because the proteins in wheat and dairy bind to the opiate receptors in your gut and the "ups and downs" you have are related to a literal drug addiction.

Try it... you only have to suffer a little bit for a short while.