Posted by bleauberry on November 30, 2010, at 18:52:06
In reply to Adrenal gland damage from Meds, posted by rculater on November 30, 2010, at 17:06:35
I don't know about the back pain thing. I've never heard of that being associated with hypoadrenalism.
The chronic fatigue and irritability are consistent with it.
This is an evolving science with not much known about it except for clearcut cases of obvious low cortisol or high cortisol. This is one of those topics where I feel the pioneering doctors, the alternative doctors, the integrative doctors and the naturopathic doctors are way ahead of the scientists.
My own theory....
Drugs that stimulate norepinephrine release....anything with alpha antagonism such as remeron and antipsychotics, eventually cause adrenal problems. That's because the adrenals were not intended to work at full capacity 24/7 which is what those drugs force them to do . Eventually they just can't keep up.
Drugs such as SSRIs do the same but by a different method. When serotonin is artificially increased, the genes automatically try to compensate by producing more norepinephrine. To keep things balanced according to their preprogrammed instructions. When an SSRI doesn't work, perhaps it is because the adrenals could not match the demand put on them, and the norepinephrine boost never happened. When SSRIs do work, perhaps it is because the adrenals met the demand. But eventually...months, years...they can't keep up because the demand is beyond their inherent capability on a 24/7 basis. The adrenals are meant to step up to the plate on an as needed basis, in times of fear or crisis or strain. Short bursts. But not continuous heavy demand.
I don't personally think 6 weeks of an SSRI would do that. If anything, it would uncover a hidden weakness you didn't know about that was already in existence. The adrenals would have to already be fairly weak to begin with for 6 weeks to do them in.
The body is very resilient, but not infinitely resilient.
Whatever the cause, adrenal problems are tough to correct and take a lot of time. It is a very comprehensive life changing strategy of specific food choices/avoidance, avoidance of any kind of physical or mental stress, guarded sleep schedules, herbs such as eleuthero or cordyceps, supplements such as Bs and C, some of the minerals, adrenal cortex extracts, and sometimes even a year or so at a very low dose of hydrocortisone tabs.
We don't know if you have adrenal fatigue. For about $100 to $150 you can get a lab test that checks your cortisol 4 times throughout a 24 hour period and plots it on a graph comparing it to a normal daily curve. From that you can clearly see if there is a problem or not...too high, too low, low at the wrong time, high at the wrong time, etc. There is a challenge test that shows if the adrenals respond to demand or not. That really isn't a very good test though because it basically just shows if the adrenals are dead or alive.
When cortisol is too low, the body tries to compensate by producing adrenalin or epinephrine. This results in such things as anxiety, irritability, sleep problems, etc... I personally think many people with these kinds of problems should be taking a cortisol test before proceeding with any kind of longterm treatment.
The time to heal adrenal fatigue is commonly in the one year to two year time frame and involves a purposeful strategic comprehensive plan with multiple lifestyle changes. It took a long time for them to get diseased, and it likewise takes a long time to undo the damage and to stop the things that caused the damage in the first place.
There is a lot of information on adrenal fatigue, most of it consistent from source to source, not much conflicting or confusing data. But it is a relatively new area and most doctors are not well schooled on it. So you will not have a very good prognosis unless you do the 24 hour 4 sample test first, and then read everything you can on how to fix what you find wrong. Before taking the topic any further, you first have to determine if you indeed have adrenal damage. Unlike many things in medicine, the current health of the adrenals is actually easy to test for.
poster:bleauberry
thread:971985
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101117/msgs/971993.html