I posted a few days ago about my latest adrenal stress test, but still completely confused as to what to do about it. It has come back showing that my cortisol is high (just over) in the morning, but low the rest of the day. Up until now, it has always come back pretty much low throughout the day, so I'm really stumped as to why it's now gone high first thing. I wasn't concerned about it being a bit high, but have noticed the past few weeks that I am shaky in the mornings, and I'm also suffering with palpitations throughout the day. I have recently cut down from 2 grains of NDT to 1.5 as my FT3 was too high, and should get my results on Monday to see whether this has improved or not.
My question is - should I take something to reduce my morning cortisol, and then say - late morning take nutri adrenal extra to raise it?
I really dislike the actual graph as it makes the cortisol look much higher than it is.
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sip1
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Have you thought of trying adaptogens, such as rhodiola, which help even out highs and lows? If you've been over medicated for thyroid, that might be having an impact on your adrenal results. Also high doses of Vit C can sometimes help - I take 3 - 4 g a day. Your results kind of mirror mine, except my total cortisol was 22 (from memory). I take nutri adrenal extra and hydrocortisone, but I wasn't on NDT when the test was done, just a starting dose of thyroxine.
As with everything, it's going to be experimenting to see what works for you. Another thought is licquorice drops. They were suggested to me because they help the body retain cortisol, which might help raise the day time lows, but it raises blood pressure, so I couldn't take it.
Thank you for replying I had a read about rhodiola, seems like that might be a useful thing to take in the mornings. I'm thinking of then taking NAX about 11am and then 1pm, and perhaps licorice in the PM sometime. The high cortisol is causing me the most problems really at the moment.
This is really important post for me - thanks sip. And thanks, Heloise for the link - it'll take me quite a while to read it but it looks important. I hope you don't mind my asking sip, how did you paste your results on the forum? Is that called a screen grab? I ask not just for myself - although I would like to know how to do it, but I think it would make it easier for some of us to post our results - and easier for others to read. Could you direct me to a tutorial if it's too long for you to explain?
Of course I don't mind. I just pressed the control and print screen keys on keyboard - opened up Photoshop, and a new blank document and then went to edit-paste
Blimey! When I work out what on earth you're talking about, I'm going to try it!! seriously, thanks - I'm going to follow it step by step and see how many times I b**ls -up! Mind you, i will need to get Photoshop, work out what is the print screen key and what the f.. ..... er, heck, is edit-paste!!
Hi Schenks, I don't know much either but I do know that you have a key called print screen. It's located in the top row next to the regular key board. I think if you press it, it takes a picture of what's on your monitor. You may have to hold down the control key or CTRL key at the bottom right row on your keyboard.
Not sure how her records got into Photoshop so I'll skip that part.
The edit and paste is usually found in a menu box. If you press the right mouse button, up pops a menu which lists option for the page your mouse is pointing to. If it's a picture, there is usually a menu for editing. If it's an article, the menu will have options to save or copy. You can try it right here actually. If it has an option to "select all", it will darken the area and if you click "copy", it will copy the information. If you want to take that information and put it in an e-mail or even in one of the reply boxes here, you click the left mouse button on the e-mail or this box and bring up the menu by pressing the right mouse button again and click paste. That will insert the information on whatever you selected. Tinker around, I think you'll figure it out.
Download IrfanView. Install it (double-click on the file you downloaded and respond to the prompts - you can accept all of them).
Run IrfanView.
Then display the page you want to save and use Print Screen (sometime Prt Sc). Nothing seems to happen. Go back to IrfanView and use Ctrl & V (or Paste). Then save the image as a jpg file.
IrfanView is free for personal use (and only a small sum for business use). It is far simpler than Photoshop but has all the facilities most of us need for handling things like screenshots.
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I had a read about rhodiola, seems like that might be a useful thing to take in the mornings. I'm thinking of then taking NAX about 11am and then 1pm, and perhaps licorice in the PM sometime. The high cortisol is causing me the most problems really at the moment. 
Suspected Cushing's: High cortisol levels on saliva test, now low cortisol after 8 months on Levothyroxine. Can this happen with Cushing's?
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Why did I go looking... Zinc inhibits cortisol 
