Re: Fatigue, cortisol, armour, questions

July 29, 2007

> About 3 months ago I read stop the thyroid madness, did the pupil

> test, and started with cortisol, I felt incredibly well for a few

> days and then I slowly declined and crashed. In fact, I call all my

> attempts to cure myself as " crash and burn " . Someone on this list had

> alerted me to the fact that as I was taking cortisol, I was finally

> using up the T4 and T3 that was around, and that soon it would go

> down and would feel fatigued again. She was right, a little while

> after this I started taking armour and the problem corrected itself a

> little.

> What is next? What else do you guys who suffer from CF do? I am

> taking the usual supplements, but I had to cut down on some as I was

> getting a rash. What is there left in the bag of tricks? How did it

> go for you? How much relief did you get from this treatment and how

> did you tweak it? Anything you cas say is important to me.

> Raquel

Hi Raquel,

The Armour 'guru's' on the Natural Thyroid List are quite clear. You need to

get your Armour dose up to AT LEAST 3-5 grains.

They say as soon as you start using thyroid hormone you thyroid back's off

producing its own thyroid and you need to make sure you provide a full

replacement which is 3-5grains/day. This seems to happen in stages. So they

advise that once you are on adrenal support raise your thyroid by 1/4 to 1/2

a grain every week until you are at three grains (180mg). Then raise it

every 4-6 weeks by another 1/2 grain until you feel good or reach hyper

symptoms (then you back off). 3-5 grains is common, and some need as much as

8 (rarer). It is a slow process. You can't raise it too fast or you boost

your metabolism and burn your adrenals out.

Your thyroid dose is way too low according to this.

I have discovered I have very low temperatures to my surprise. This is

called 's Low Temperatures, and I would encourage you to look into

that. Sustained release T3 is used in cycles to help reset the thyroid

gland. I have been using Armour because I have been unable to get sustained

release T3 in South Africa. http://www.wilsonssyndrome.com/

The reason why I feel it is so important is that if your temperatures are

low then many enzymes stop working. Enzymes have a narrow temperature range

in which they work.

It can cause an impressive array of symptoms. I instinctively know that I

need to correct my temps using the 's protocol, but am stumped for the

moment. The Natural Thyroid list don't like the 's protocol, they

simply say raise your Armour and you temps will rise. Mine haven't yet

But raising Armour is their classic response to most questions.

Good luck, and stick with us, we will find a way eventually :-)

Dean

July 29, 2007

Raquel:

" What is next? "

I would get your thyroid tested again, because you just might need to increase

the Armour, you could try raising it and see if you notice anything.

Dr. Lowe www.drlowe.com has good info on thyroid and fibromyalgia. One grain is

a small amount of Armour for FM.

-Olif

July 29, 2007

> For about 2 months, I have been taking HC daily in 3 doses, and 60

> granules of armour. However, I am still very fatigued, still unable

> to focus

Hi Raquel,

Sorry you're having such a tough time. I just climbed out of a bad fatigue hole

just this

week. What was helpful for me was getting the full thyroid and adrenal panels

from

Diagnos-Techs, which showed that I was taking too much HC, and even on 150 mgs

of

Armour, not getting enough T3. I lowered the HC which made the Armour work

better (I

hadn't realizd that too much as well as too little HC can foul up Armour).

The tests also pointed to a possiblity of gluten intolerane (surprise! lol) and

going gf has

helped my energy a LOT.

The other thing I'm doing that's helping is taking some iodine.

Do you have a friendly doc who can order those tests for you? I got them through

Mark

, who does telephone consulting. I didn't think the actual consultation

was worth

the money, but the tests were invaluable.

Nell

July 29, 2007

I think hormone support is an art. I haven't mastered it by

any means, but I have learned that once you throw a new hormone

(or other treatment that effects hormone levels) into the mix,

you may throw off the level of something else.

You have to keep trying things in order to learn what you need

and how to improve it.

Some hormones like DHEA, pregnenelone, progesterone cream can

convert into multiple other hormones as needed by your body,

so these are good things to consider because you may be able

to provide raw materials and let your body decide which hormones

to make. I am only taking a small amount of DHEA, and I had to

get it in a transdermal cream, but I " feel it " and it has helped

my brain and my energy more than cortisol did.

I have also found an electrolyte drink really essential to

keeping my blood pressure at a good level. This also helps

with my mood and emotional balance.

I take licorice and adrenal glandular in addition to cortisol.

I am not sure if the glandular helps subjectively, but I think

it provides support for healing the adrenals. The licorice

definitely improves how I feel.

Getting good saliva testing to see where your hormone levels

are at can be helpful. But you can also just make some guesses

about which ones you are low in based on information in Andy's

book or other reading, and then try some experiments with those

hormones. It may be more helpful to experiment a little first,

to see what feels good, and then do some testing to see where

you are at.

--

>

> Hi all,

>

> I got a question so I include a little history: I have been dealing

> with debilitating chronic fatigue for over 7 years, and I have been

> chelating on Andy's protocol for 3 years, that is 96 rounds with DMPS

> or DMSA and ALA every 3 hours for 3 days and nights.