Test results and high cortisol - any advise?

[gillianc]

Hi everyone,

These are my recent results - managed to get the hospital to do a Free T4 and Free T3 as GP wouldn't do them.

TSH 0.67 (range 0.2-4.5)

Free T3 17 (range 9-21)

Free T4 1.3 (range 0.9-2.4)

Total T3 3.8 (range 2.6-6.2)

I'm having problems with lower back, pain on walking (tight hamstrings and groin pain) and stiffness when I get up from sitting down (especially from computer chair at work). Sore points on buttocks, calfs, thighs - very painful to touch. I'm also having issues sleeping. I wake up about an hour after falling asleep with raised heart beat and anxiety, also a bit of anxiety about 5 ish too. I also had inner trembling at night but this has been helped by sipping orange juice throughout the day. Blood sugar issues caused by too much cortisol and adrenline at night? Or is it caused by adrenals being weak? Not sure what to do or discuss with Endo visit in a few weeks time. Any suggestions?

Was thinking of trying Phosphatidylserine, aka PS or Holy Basil leaf? Its all a bit of a guessing game and I don't really want to take something which might make matters worse. I had a Adrenal Stress test last May and all four where high, however, Dr P thought this was a "wacky" result and I took another one which he marked as "basically normal". Since November 2012 I've been waking up during the night, which is very unusual for me as before this I would sleep through the night.

Anyone any thoughts?

Cheers

G.

[roslin]

Hi Gillian

I have had the same problem with waking up during the night with what feels like adrenalin surges. It was horrible. Some nights I didnt get much sleep at all and felt I was going to crawl out of my skin. Now I just wake up once or twice in the beginning of the night with small surges. I take my last Nutri-adrenal at 5pm and 3 mg melatonin at 9.30 together with magnesium. I think that is working. You could try melatonin as it is an antagonist to cortisol as I understand

Roslinxx

[Xanthe]

Just a thought, but sipping orange juice during the day is going to cause a bit of a "sugar rush" each time you do it. The pancreas will then respond by reducing the blood sugar level. If the pancreas over-do it, the adrenals are stressed because they are kicked into action to restore blood sugar levels. It's recommended that people with stressed or under-performing adrenals should keep to a low GI diet, so maybe you should consider stopping the orange juice and replacing it with a high-protein snack, such as nuts, for example, which will be much kinder on the adrenals.

The inner trembling could be due to low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) - which could wake you up at night, or I recall reading that it sometimes indicates an imbalance in adrenaline and cortisol levels.