Re: Adrenals / thyroid

[Guest guest]

I'd say play it safe and take the glandulars. Basically, they act as food

for the glands...so your body will take what it needs to repair the glands from

those. I don't like the idea of bovine glands either, but then again...I

don't think God was planning on us having mercury in our mouths....

Lynne

[Guest guest]

I can tell you that the T4 only didn't work because you are NOT converting from

T4 to T3. FT3 and FT4 are more reliable tests and should be in the upper 2/3 of

their ranges or higher. Armour is the drug of choice because it has everything

our own thyroids produce. Go to thyroid and join for thyroid

help. Many here use the Naturalthyroidhormones group. Do a search for Bruce

Rind for a good explanation of the differance between thyroid/adrenals. Carol B

---------------------------------

Yahoo! Photos – Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover

Photo Books. You design it and we’ll bind it!

[Guest guest]

>

> I have only just recently hit on the link between thryoid and

> adrenals after reading here, and this may explain my experience over

> Christmas. I have been hypothyroid since the dental treatment that

> started my problems 18 months ago. Throughout the whole of last year

> I was considered hypothyroid, ie, TSH levels were over 4. The doc

> put me on Euthyrox 25mg (T4 only) in April last year, this was

> increased to 50mg in August when my symptoms got abruptly worse.

> When this happened, I also took thyroid glandulars (2 a day) and the

> next blood test I had in October showed that TSH had corrected to

> 1.9. Not knowing about T3 and T4 etc, I decided (stupidly - I now

Were your symptoms better at this point when your TSH was at 1.9?

> know) to ease off the glandulars but continue with the Euthyrox.

> Next thing I know in December is that I develop hyper symptoms -

> pounding heart, stomach upset, and crashing hard. I spent the whole

> of Christmas and New Year in bed feeling completely debilitated.

> Blood tests showed that I had too much T4 in my body - hence the

> hyperthyroid symptoms - but was still actually hypothyroid. After

> reading Andy's book I figured that as mercury blocks the conversion

> from T4 to T3, this was understandable. I stopped taking the T4 and

> have started feeling better, the hyperthyroid symptoms are going.

>

> I explained this to the doctor I am seeing who actually believes in

> mercury toxicity, but he couldn't make head or tail of the results,

> and said the lab must have got them wrong, and so tested for T4 and

> T3 levels. To my confusion, these have come back completely normal

> and within range. How can things have righted themselves within one

> week and show that I am not hypothyroid at all, when I have been for

Again at this point, how are your symptoms - you said above you were

still having hyper symptoms after stopping the T4. At the point of

these blood tests, are you still hyper, hypo as before, or less hypo

than before?

> the past year and don't expect to be otherwise until after amalgam

> removal and chelation? I personally don't believe the blood tests,

Right, don't believe the blood tests, believe your symptoms.

> but don't know what to do now. My other GP has given up on me after

> I talked about mercury issues, and my mercury doctor doesn't think

> there is a problem! What do I do now? I think I probably need to

> take T3 only, but am wary about self-diagnosis and treatment on such

> an important issue. Any ideas?

Unfortunately, there aren't many docs out there who know what they

are talking about. Join one of the thyroid groups and at least

get some additional advice that you can consider along with doctor's

advice.

> The other thing I didn't appreciate was the link between cortisol and

> thyroid treatment. From symptom evaluation I am very hypoadrenal

> (although the tests showed I am normal), and after 2 crashes in one

Saliva or blood test was normal? Saliva test is informative, blood

test is not.

> week over Christmas, I believe I need to treat the adrenals. I have

> ordered some adrenal glandulars, and will take these before possibly

> resuming the thyroid glandulars (mix of T4 and T3). Can anyone tell

> me how adrenal glandulars work, and whether they are better than

I think they basically provide the kind of nutrients the adrenals

need. This can be helpful (helped me a couple of years ago), but

if you've been hypo for a long time, your adrenals likely need

much more than that.

Others can tell you more about cortef. I am still resisting it;

I take a high dose of ashwagandha.

> cortef? I am a bit nervous about this too, as I don't want to make

> anything worse. Also, the bovine bit freaks me out a bit too, but if

You should check the source of glandulars. If they are produced

from organically raised animals (no hormones, chemicals), that is

much better. Also you can look for neonatal glandulars - of course

you may have ethical issues with this, or with any glandular.

It is not crazy to consider cortef. (Trying to listen to my own

advice here...)

> it makes me better, then so be it.

>

> Sorry for the long post.

>

[Guest guest]

My situation is very similiar to yours. Thankfully, I have cortef and

I get SRT3 with my little bit of T4.

Perhaps either through Andy, or through contacts on the naturalthyroid

hormone forum, or someone who knows someone, you might be able to find

a doctor who is familiar with the use of physiological doses of

cortisol and T3. It is much better to work with a doctor on this

(provided the doctor knows what he/she is doing). There are some

doctors who would be able to treat you properly.

J

>

> I have only just recently hit on the link between thryoid and

> adrenals after reading here, and this may explain my experience over

> Christmas. I have been hypothyroid since the dental treatment that

> started my problems 18 months ago. Throughout the whole of last year

> I was considered hypothyroid, ie, TSH levels were over 4. The doc

> put me on Euthyrox 25mg (T4 only) in April last year, this was

> increased to 50mg in August when my symptoms got abruptly worse.

> When this happened, I also took thyroid glandulars (2 a day) and the

> next blood test I had in October showed that TSH had corrected to

> 1.9. Not knowing about T3 and T4 etc, I decided (stupidly - I now

> know) to ease off the glandulars but continue with the Euthyrox.

> Next thing I know in December is that I develop hyper symptoms -

> pounding heart, stomach upset, and crashing hard. I spent the whole

> of Christmas and New Year in bed feeling completely debilitated.

> Blood tests showed that I had too much T4 in my body - hence the

> hyperthyroid symptoms - but was still actually hypothyroid. After

> reading Andy's book I figured that as mercury blocks the conversion

> from T4 to T3, this was understandable. I stopped taking the T4 and

> have started feeling better, the hyperthyroid symptoms are going.

>

> I explained this to the doctor I am seeing who actually believes in

> mercury toxicity, but he couldn't make head or tail of the results,

> and said the lab must have got them wrong, and so tested for T4 and

> T3 levels. To my confusion, these have come back completely normal

> and within range. How can things have righted themselves within one

> week and show that I am not hypothyroid at all, when I have been for

> the past year and don't expect to be otherwise until after amalgam

> removal and chelation? I personally don't believe the blood tests,

> but don't know what to do now. My other GP has given up on me after

> I talked about mercury issues, and my mercury doctor doesn't think

> there is a problem! What do I do now? I think I probably need to

> take T3 only, but am wary about self-diagnosis and treatment on such

> an important issue. Any ideas?

>

> The other thing I didn't appreciate was the link between cortisol and

> thyroid treatment. From symptom evaluation I am very hypoadrenal

> (although the tests showed I am normal), and after 2 crashes in one

> week over Christmas, I believe I need to treat the adrenals. I have

> ordered some adrenal glandulars, and will take these before possibly

> resuming the thyroid glandulars (mix of T4 and T3). Can anyone tell

> me how adrenal glandulars work, and whether they are better than

> cortef? I am a bit nervous about this too, as I don't want to make

> anything worse. Also, the bovine bit freaks me out a bit too, but if

> it makes me better, then so be it.

>

> Sorry for the long post.

>

[Guest guest]

Yup! I love NaturalThyroidHormones at Yahoogroups dot com! And Carol's also

right about www.drrind.com It is a very useful site!

FWIW, in our family we use electronic basal body temp thermometers intended

for tracking ovulation (they register 2 places to the right of the decimal.)

....

>

> I can tell you that the T4 only didn't work because you are NOT

> converting from T4 to T3. FT3 and FT4 are more reliable tests and should be

> in the upper 2/3 of their ranges or higher. Armour is the drug of choice

> because it has everything our own thyroids produce. Go to

> thyroid and join for thyroid help. Many here use the

> Naturalthyroidhormones group. Do a search for Bruce Rind for a good

> explanation of the differance between thyroid/adrenals. Carol B

>

>

[Guest guest]

If you need adrenal support and don't get it your thyroid hormones will have

a difficult time getting into your cells. Do your research so you don't have

to be afraid...As Andy says panic is not a good basis for decision making...

Unless you are allergic to echinacea you might want to check out Isocort -

each pellet only contains 2.5 mg cortisone so it is easy to dose. J

mentioned physiologic doses - and that's what I take - small, doses so my

thyroid hormones don't just build up in the blood but actually get into the

cells... You can Froogle Isocort - it is OTC...

HTH,

....

>

>

> It is not crazy to consider cortef. (Trying to listen to my own

> advice here...)

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sorry, I couldn't find your name -

I don't know what test you had but the 4x in one day saliva cortisol test

gives some very useful information. Depending upon where you live maybe

www.HealthcheckUSA.com or www.CanaryClub.com can help.

Also, I have a little experience with both adrenal glandulars and thyroid

glandulars. No the adrenal glandulars are not better than Cortef nor Isocort

nor H/C. Unfortunately the adrenal glandulars can have adrenal hormones

other than cortisone. They also have epinephrine or adrenline (older name)

type hormones which will exacerbate your troubles. Also thyroid glandulars

are *very* hard to titrate and if you have adrenal issues you really need to

do a bit of homework on how to start a bit of low-dose adrenal support to

get your cell receptors ready for tiny tiny tiny doses of natural thyroid

(such as Armour Natural Thyroid.)

I recommend you join a thyroid list - Carol likes thyroid I

like NaturalThyroidHormones but you need access to folks who

can help you research and learn...

HTH,

....

(not to be confused with R - although her name is lovely, too!)

>

> From symptom evaluation I am very hypoadrenal

> (although the tests showed I am normal), and after 2 crashes in one

> week over Christmas, I believe I need to treat the adrenals. I have

> ordered some adrenal glandulars, and will take these before possibly

> resuming the thyroid glandulars (mix of T4 and T3). Can anyone tell

> me how adrenal glandulars work, and whether they are better than

> cortef? I am a bit nervous about this too, as I don't want to make

> anything worse. Also, the bovine bit freaks me out a bit too, but if

> it makes me better, then so be it.

>

> Sorry for the long post.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sorry - make that www.Canaryclub.org ---grrr! I hate when I mix up my orgs

and my coms!

....C ;o)

>

> Sorry, I couldn't find your name -

>

> I don't know what test you had but the 4x in one day saliva cortisol test

> gives some very useful information. Depending upon where you live maybe

> www.HealthcheckUSA.com <http://www.healthcheckusa.com/> or

> www.CanaryClub.com <http://www.canaryclub.com/> can help.

>

> Also, I have a little experience with both adrenal glandulars and thyroid

> glandulars. No the adrenal glandulars are not better than Cortef nor Isocort

> nor H/C. Unfortunately the adrenal glandulars can have adrenal hormones

> other than cortisone. They also have epinephrine or adrenline (older name)

> type hormones which will exacerbate your troubles. Also thyroid glandulars

> are *very* hard to titrate and if you have adrenal issues you really need to

> do a bit of homework on how to start a bit of low-dose adrenal support to

> get your cell receptors ready for tiny tiny tiny doses of natural thyroid

> (such as Armour Natural Thyroid.)

>

> I recommend you join a thyroid list - Carol likes thyroid@...

like NaturalThyroidHormones

> but you need access to folks who can help you research and learn...

>

> HTH,

> ...

> (not to be confused with R - although her name is lovely, too!)

>

>

> >

> > From symptom evaluation I am very hypoadrenal

> > (although the tests showed I am normal), and after 2 crashes in one

> > week over Christmas, I believe I need to treat the adrenals. I have

> > ordered some adrenal glandulars, and will take these before possibly

> > resuming the thyroid glandulars (mix of T4 and T3). Can anyone tell

> > me how adrenal glandulars work, and whether they are better than

> > cortef? I am a bit nervous about this too, as I don't want to make

> > anything worse. Also, the bovine bit freaks me out a bit too, but if

> > it makes me better, then so be it.

> >

> > Sorry for the long post.

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Gladiolo--

What kind of reactions did you have to the cortef before you tried the

compounded? Did the compounded also give you the hyper/irritable/ crazy

symptoms like the regular. These same things happen to me on Cortef and I

cannot take it because of it. I never tried having it compounded. I am

using Isocort now and it's working well for me. No side effects like

Cortef.

Re: Adrenals / thyroid

> Hi,

> I've made some comments below which may or may not help you:

> See ***

>

>

> >

> > OK - I'm confused! Some of you say glandulars are OK, others say

> > cortef is better.

>

> ***I remember Andy responding to someone else on this issue and him

> commenting that you can only do so much with glandulars, but if that

> is all you have access to, then that is all you can use. Adrenal

> Cortex extract is different than whole adrenal extract. You want the

> adrenal cortex glandular. Andy mentioned Thorne brand, but stated

> that was because that was the one he was familiar with. He mentioned

> a dosage of 1-2 capsules 3 to 4 times a day. He also mentioned

> licorice in AM and noon, 25-50mg pregnenolone in AM. (He posted this

> in July of 2005)

>

> I am also a bit queasy about self-diagnosing and self-

> > medicating with steroids ... I am more comfortable with the

> > glandulars (just don't think about the mad cow thing)- I also got

> > mine from Nutriwest. I don't think there's any danger of me being

> > hyperstimulated - I am so hypo as to be horizontal most of the time.

>

> ***If you have support from a local doc you might consider asking him

> to do an ACTH exercise stress test. It is described in Andy's book.

> (mentioned on Pg. 118 of Amalgam Illness). It can be done at any lab

> that can draw an ACTH level. This is what my doc used, along with

> symptoms, to check my adrenal status. My adrenals did not respond at

> all to the physical stress of exercise. I started taking compounded

> hydrocortisone (allergic to exipients in Cortef) You would think

> since my adrenals were in such bad shape that I could just start

> taking my prescribed dose right away, but that was not the case. I

> had to start with 2.5mg, which caused some very nasty side effects

> (hyperstimulation, insomnia, irritability, aggression, parathesias),

> and work my way up to 10mgAM and 5mgNoon dose. It took me 3 months

> to adjust to this dose. Not everyone has this difficulty starting HC

> therapy, but I thought I would warn you in case you get some

> cooperation from your local doc. Before the HC I could not handle

> any kind of physical stress, including chelation, without ending up

> flat on my back with my BP crashing.

>

> Even my doctor who believes in mercury toxicity is

> > not very knowlegeable about its effects on the endocrine system,

> and

> > has taken the cortisol blood test (which was of course normal) as

> > gospel, so I won't get any cortef from him! I ended up with

> > homoeopathic cortisol drops - mmm, like they're really going to do

> > the trick!

>

> ***I had to go into my local doc's office armed with the info. from

> Andy's book relating to adrenals and discuss the ACTH exercise stress

> test. I made the case for doing it because the doc felt it made

> logical sense, which most of the info. in Andy's book does, if you

> have a doc who is willing to take the time to listen.

>

> All the Best,

> Gladioli

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I never tried the Cortef* because I knew it contained ingredients

that I had previously had an allergic reaction to. My HC was

compounded with methylcellulose which I know I do not react to.

The compounded HC caused agitaition, irritability, aggression,

insomnia, etc., BUT ONLY INITIALLY. These symptoms disappeared

3-14 days after each dosage increase, but had I tried to start out at

a higher dose than 2.5mg or increased the dose faster than my body

would allow, it would have sent me over the edge. In fact, initially

I tried taking 2.5mg in the AM and 2.5mg at noon and I did not sleep

for 3 days as well as practically taking my husband's head off and

that's no joke. I was an absolute witch. I stopped HC for a week

and started all over again. It was difficult to be patient regarding

increases in dosage, but well worth it. You may just not be able to

take HC (I don't tolerate prednisone at any dosage) or your initial

dose was too high (for you) when you tried it previously. As I said

before, it took me 3 months to get to my current dosage.

Gladioli

>

> Gladiolo--

>

> What kind of reactions did you have to the cortef before you tried

the

> compounded? Did the compounded also give you the hyper/irritable/

crazy

> symptoms like the regular. These same things happen to me on

Cortef and I

> cannot take it because of it. I never tried having it compounded.

I am

> using Isocort now and it's working well for me. No side effects

like

> Cortef.

>

>

> Re: Adrenals / thyroid

>

>

[Guest guest]

There are things that you can do to help the adrenals while you are

investigating the possibility of Cortef.

Frequent meals, protein with every meal, no sugar, low carb and carbs

spaced evenly to prevent blood sugar troughs, stress reduction, stress

'management' (walking, relaxation, deep breathing, meditation,

prayer), regular sleep, etc, etc. Adrenal cortex extract (helps for

people who cannot get cortef), herbs.

Vitamin C, all B vitamins, cod liver oil, magnesium, and other

supplements as recommended by Andy's Amalgam Illness book (correcting

deficiencies, removing allergens and so on helps to reduce the stress

on the body). Read the parts in the book about adrenals, sodium,

potassium, magnesium, etc, etc. One of the things that I didn't

realize until recently is that I need a lot of salt and some potassium

(I knew I needed them before but was amazed at how much salt I seem to

need.)

I had to pace the physical and financial stress of amalgam removal

over time in order to cope with myself. I also was very pleased that

I was able to have vitamin C IVs with amalgam removal, and felt that

the benefit was greater than the cost.

Good luck

J

> Thanks for this info . What a great article! Describes me down

> to a tee, particularly the internal shaking bit. I have emailed this

> article to my doctor, with a plea for some cortef. I am due to start

> having my fillings out (and a possible extraction) the week after

> next, and fear that my body won't deal with the trauma with my

> adrenals in such bad shape. I know it's late in the day to start

> rebuilding them, and I should have clued into this a lot earlier but

> was only prompted to by my big crash over Christmas. Psychologically

> I need to start having my fillings out. I have known for a year now

> that this is my problem, and so far have had just one out. It feels

> like it's going on forever.

>

> Thanks again.

>

> >

> > >I would get some cortef, but I live in Europe, and

> >

> >

> > Try phoning this guy and see if he is still in business:

> >

> > http://home.no.net/ngrondal/cortisone_replacement.html

> >

> >