Deb's experience with needing adrenal support--plus comments

[Guest guest]

Deb, great post! Thanks for sharing that. If anyone here suspects

they might have adrenal issues, or wants to play it safe and wise

whether you suspect it or not, check out our LINKS section for the

24 hour saliva test done by ZRT labs. It will cost you about

$155.......or, you can get your doc to prescribe it, and perhaps

your insurance can help you.

And for those who are new here---there are MANY folks here who do

NOT need adrenal support, didn't even know about adrenals, started

on Armour, and did fine.......and still are. But.......it can be

wise to find out if you DO need it by doing the test mentioned

above..and avoiding problems.

Janie

>> I self diagnosed as most of us did and was lucky enough to find a

doc who would treat me even though my TSH was " only " 2.5. I had

most of the classic symptoms of HypoT. I had done no reading or

research on adrenal function or connection to thyroid function. So

she started me on 30 mg of armour. She did not know to do any

adrenal testing either. I started the armour in Nov. 03 by Feb. 04

I had managed to get to up to 3 gr. doing Peatfield's increases of

30mg every two weeks. But I was feeling worse than when I was not

taking armour. So I requested Cortef to see if it would help and we

agreed on 10mg a day as both of us were afraid of steriods. I took

10 mg til July 04 by which time I was suicidually depressed and my

Free T4 and T3 were so over the upper limits that the doc and I were

scared. Not much if any of the armour was getting into my tissues.

It was all swimming around in my blood stream. So in July I

increased to 20mg and got off the armour for 10days. By day 2 I

felt like I did when I was 20. The best I had felt in years. On

day 11 I started back on armour at 1 gr. and began the long increase

trek. We did a Free T4 and T3 test and they came back normal for

the first time. So I have stayed on 20mg Cortef from July 04 til

Feb 05 when I developed itching which is a common side effect of

Cortef so I have transitioned to Isocort which seems to be working.

But even with the adrenal support I can not get to 5 gr. without

going hyper. So my adrenals were and still are very weak and I am

not optimized even at 5 gr. So we can need adrenal support and not

know it til it becomes pretty bad. I think it should be one of the

things tested if one can afford testing because it has great impact

on treatment.

>

> Deb

> Re: Re: Self medicating

>

>

> >>Whew!!! On that happy note...maybe everyone should begin with

> adrenal support just to be on the safe side???

> Holy crap...now I'm scared to start self treating. Maybe my

> adrenals ARE a little " tired " , I don't know. I suppose we

can't be

> certain unless we are tested. Right? Back to the drawing

board. <<

>

> This is exactly what I was hoping to avert. It is NOT dangerous

to start thyroid treatment IF you go slowly. By going slowly you

will know LONG before any damage is done if you need adrenal

support. Starting adrenal support if you do not need it WILL make

you sick.

>

>

> *Artistic Grooming * Hurricane, WV

> Fat cat? Diabetes? Listowner for overweight or hypothyroid cats

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hypokitties/

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I started out on just on 25 mcg of Levoxyl and if I had not had such

devastating effects from just that tiny amount without adrenal

support, I would not be so paranoid and cautious as I am. Because it

did such terrible things to me, I do not want to make light of the

dangers. If the person was older and had been hypo many years and

had developed cardiovascular disease, this sort of self medicating

could cause serious problems and even death in my opinion. So, Ok it

is probably rare, but I sure do not want that guilt on my concience

from someone not taking the risks seriously and me making too light

of them.

Tish