Posted by bleauberry on September 24, 2008, at 17:04:39
In reply to Best SSRI for post-steroid HPA axis suppression?, posted by nuala on September 24, 2008, at 10:14:25
Lexapro. While antidepressant effects on cortisol are not well studied, there are a few showing Lexapro stimulates cortisol. Many others do the opposite. Remeron calms down an overexcited axis, with a slight bebound later, while Reboxetine totally evens it out and keeps it that way. I found Milnacipran was good for that, since I have extreme peaks and valleys in cortisol over 24 hours. These things all have something in common...they work on norepinephrine. So why lexapro, I don't know. Just going by what I saw at pubmed.
I don't know why you stopped HC. It is usually needed for a year to get things under control. Six weeks is way too short, unless you couldn't tolerate it for some reason. Some people need it for life. We have no idea how these powerhorse antipsychotics mess things up or not.
Though slow and gradual, the proper eating strategy can help adrenals a lot. No caffeine, no or very low sugar, mostly proteins and low-sugar veggies, low carbs, only low-sugar fruits (berries), lots of clean purified water. Basically heavy on chicken, beef, eggs, and veggies.
You may already know, but licorice is good for hypoadrenalism because it slows down the breakdown process of what cortisol you have. You cortisol lasts longer and goes farther. While there are many internet claims and chinese folklore of adrenal herbs, looking in pubmed shows two in particular, in combination, balanced adrenals regardless if they were low or high...siberian ginseng+astragulus. You can also use adrenal cortex extract (not the whole adrenal extract), with or without the licorice or herbs.
Cutting someone off of 20mg HC without a long slow taper is insane. I can't believe that is being done to you. It is not only extremely uncomfortable, it is extremely dangerous and even life threatening.
Not sure why the finger is pointed at seroquel. Could certainly be the culprit. But also, the stress that caused you to take seroquel in the first place could be the guilty one. Or mercury/lead toxicity. Nothing in my knowledge screws up adrenals+thyroid more often than those two metals. They come from unlikely hidden sources that would surprise you, and even tiny amounts can cause severe disruptions for genetically weak people.
Adrenals and thyroid work in harmony. Treat one without the other and it can make you feel worse. Armour thyroid is preferred by many hypothyroid folks. Sometimes there is too much T4-to-reverseT3 conversion, which would mean you need pure T3.
There are good Yahoo forums on all this stuff.
poster:bleauberry
thread:853772
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/853834.html