For those with high DHEA and lowish cortisol, answer from Andy.

[Guest guest]

I emailed Andy about my situation, I started out very high DHEA off

the chart (low cortisol). Here was my paraphrased question: Is the

high DHEA/low cortisol caused by this below as this website excerpt

says? This below is posted with his permission. Thanks

> " Mercury causes a defect in adrenal steroid biosynthesis by

inhibiting the activity of 21a-hydroxylase. The consequences of this

inhibition include lowered plasma levels of corticosterone and

elevated concentrations of progesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone

(DHEA). DHEA is an adrenal male hormone. Because patients with

21-hydroxylase deficiencies are incapable of synthesizing cortisol

with normal efficiency, there's a compensatory rise in ACTH leading to

adrenal hyperplasia and excessive excretion of

17a-hydroxyprogesterone, which, without the enzyme 21-hydroxylase,

cannot be converted to cortisol. "

I have seen cases where this is clearly going on.

There is some conversion so 17 alpha HPG generally is not wildly

elevated and this test isn't informative.

Generally in males it is not easy to figure out but they need a lot of

adrenal support, in females they hvae mild androgenization and are

generally pretty messed up by the other hormone (cortisol being a

major one) imbalances.

Andy

www.noamalgam.com