Posted by bleauberry on May 30, 2010, at 16:49:16
In reply to Best meds. to raise cortisol/ACTH?, posted by whitmore on May 30, 2010, at 12:15:17
HC is the best short term solution, but the current dose is much too high. That is begging for more problems than you began with. The adrenals will become overly lazy and withdraw from action when artificial HC does the job. What they need is a little assistance, a little rest, which means taking just a little bit to help them out. That is no more than 20mg max.
I know a couple people who had severe adrenal exhaustion who were much better after treatment with HC. However, this is important. One of them, his dose was only 2.5mg. The other, 5mg. The real key is this...adrernals take a long time to heal. In both of those cases, they were on those doses for a full year. It isn't the dose that matters as much as the time.
In the natural world, there is no better adrenal rejuvenator than Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng, not a true ginsent). It has to be the concentrated tincture from HerbPharm, not a capsule or tablet. Unlike many internet claims or naturopath claims, this one actually has a ton of scientific data behind. But again, as with HC, the key is time. Eleuthero needs 6 months minimum to see improvements setting in, and then another 6 months to nail it.
Meds or stimulants can raise your adrenal activity, but they are your enemies. They will further weaken and destroy already exhausted adrenals. To prolong your own existing cortisol, you can take Licorice root supplements. They slow down the breakdown of cortisol, allowing what you have to last longer.
Isocort is a popular adrenal supplement at forums that deal with heavy metals, lyme, and candida, where adrenal exhaustion is almost universal. Basically, an adrenal cortex extract can help. For some, they need isocort, an herb like eleuthero, licorice, adrenal cortex extract, and HC all together. Each person is different and it takes some experimenting.
Diet is extremely important. And again, time is the most important factor. The worst things for trying to stimulate adrenals back to normalcy are sugars, caffeine, carbs, toxins, and infections. That means you want food choices that battle all of those.
There is an entire book written by a doctor on the topic of healing adrenals with food. In a nutshell, it involves mostly non-root veggies comprising 75% of each meal...raw or very slightly cooked, organic as much as possible, lots of purified water, lean meats and nuts. There are no donuts, pizzas, sodas, ice cream, or fast foods on the journey to healing.
Another common problem seen in adrenal exhaustion is gluten intolerance. And dairy intolerance. It is not unususal that the foods we love the most are the very ones making us the sickest, and we don't even realize it.
In a diet healing, the patient usually feels worse for a couple months. That's because yeast (candida) are dying off, the immune system is killing more stuff, toxins are being flushed out, and there is a lot of shift going on in the adrenal/thyroid axis.
I've dealt with all of these issues and have studied them inside and out. The best thing I can tell you is that it is a multipronged comprehensive approach. No single thing, such as HC, is going to heal you.
1. Adrenal friendly diet.
2. Maintain a stable sleep/wake pattern.
3. Eleuthero tincture for at least 6 months.
4. Very low dose HC.
5. DMSA urine provoked test for heavy metals.
6. Study up on Lyme and Candida.
7. Possible isocort and/or licorice and/or adrenal cortex.Adrenals don't go bad for no reason. They are stressed by one or more of infections, toxins, metals, bad schedule, bad foods. The American lifestyle which we all consider perfectly fine and normal is actually a palace for disease promotion. No wonder we have the best medical system on the planet and yet disease continues to advance at an accelerated rate.
If an unsuspected infection or heavy metals are the root cause (very common at other forums), then the adrenals will never heal until those issues are attacked head on. For some that means low dose frequent dose DMSA chelation and/or anti-yeast anti-bacterial herbs. The whole time though, regardless, the adrenals need to be supported with every possible benefit you can give them. HC is only one of those. Anything over 20mg is actually an enemy and not a friend.
poster:bleauberry
thread:949506
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100524/msgs/949535.html