don't adrenal glandulars contain adrenalin ?

[sulamaye]

Hi, I'm looking at buying some nutri adrenal support for my partner, and am looking at what Dr P puts in his book - however it seems to contain whole glandular extract and I thought that would then give too much adrenaline etc which could be high in low cortisol body? Could someone please advise me the best concentrate to support a low stress test adrenal body? Thanks

[Angel_of_the_North]

I took whole adrenal for ages and was quite a lot better - low cortisol all the time but the pattern of lower and higher is correct. Then I couldn't get supplies of whole adrenal and got Adrenergize (Enzymatic Therapy) which is mostly cortex (3/4) and a small amount of whole adrenal (1/4). Much better, although it's early days. But I've found other people have completely different experiences, so all you can do is test for several months and compare.

[sulamaye in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Thank you - i was looking at Nutri adrenal, but I don't want to raise her adrenalin, so taking it didn't have that effect on you?

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to sulamaye]

Don't really know. Sleep during the night is better with cortex, but it might just be because it is winter. Nutri-adrenal didn't work as well for me as Nutri meds whole adrenal, but better than isocort (which you can't get any more). Adrenergize seems better than either right now.

[Glynisrose]

Its really easy, if a person feels their adrenaline is too high then they stop taking the supplements!!

[sulamaye]

Yes that's one approach,however things don't always respond so quickly and straightforwardly as you'd expect in some bodies and secondly, you end up with another pot of expensive supplements u can't use! I have 3 expensive pots of chelated minerals from the states because it raised my ferritin from 77 to 164 in a few weeks so now have to buy more expensive ones with no iron; and I have 145 grains of thyroid-s because it produced adrenalin jitters compared to previous NDT. Since September I have spent aproximately £500 on things to try to get my life back that's 5 % of my families household income. I'm just trying to avoid spending anymore money that we can't afford, unless it actually makes us feel better rather than deprives my daughter of shoes! So if someone can share experiences that save us more mistakes and money I'm eternally grateful. I am it has to be said always eternally grateful for the information and expertise shared here and on other sites

[ChooseLife in reply to sulamaye]

Hi Sulamaye - just wanted to see if you'd decided to go with a cortex product, in the end? I have been taking Nutri Adrenal, but am wondering if I would benefit from taking something that is only cortex, rather than the whole gland.

I haven't noticed any adrenaline probs in particular, from the Nutri Adrenal, BUT I definitely release adrenaline inappropriately (eg. jump through the roof if the doorbell rings). Hard to tell if it's got worse after 2 years on Nutri Adrenal, but maybe it has....... My health is so poor and my adrenals so messed up, that it's really hard to tell if it's just me, or if I am getting too much adrenaline from the Nutri!!

I know what you mean about the crippling expense of spending money on things that you don't know whether they are going to work of not......... With all my meds, supplements and tests added up, I would say I am spending several hundred pounds a month . Given that I am too ill to work, this is a lot! I'm hoping that I get better and can get a job very soon, before my credit cards get maxed out!

Anyway, sending best wishes to you and your partner. Would love to hear how things are going.

[sulamaye in reply to ChooseLife]

I am on hydrocortisone which is helping. My partner is on the nutri adrenal and that does seem to help her and with some thyroid S. But I've just tried swapping from T3 only to NDT and am feeling very hypo on top of the m.e. Yes I probably spend something similar, spent all my savings at the beginning of the illness. I am finally giving in and applying for PIP as a friend of mine who is less ill than me has been awarded the maxium, god knows how. I always though I'd get nothing with m.e but now I feel I should at least get the lower rate, so its worth a go and will help with the meds.

[ChooseLife in reply to sulamaye]

Hi Sulamaye - glad the HC is helping. I have been taking that too, for quite a while, but haven't had any benefit yet.... HOWEVER, I am starting to get some ideas about why it might not be working, so hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Sorry, I didn't realise that you and your partner were both ill. Really sorry to hear that. Also sorry to hear that the change from T3 to NDT has made you hypo..... sounds like you really need pure T3, like many people, but am guessing that this isn't an option any more?

Good luck with the PIP application - will keep my fingers crossed for you.

xx

[sulamaye in reply to ChooseLife]

Why do you think hc isn't working? I'm always interested to know what's happening to other ppl that's how we learn.

[ChooseLife in reply to sulamaye]

I'm still feeling my way a bit with this, but there are currently 3 things that I'm looking into:

1) I was taking split HC doses, as recommended, but within a really short timeframe. My first dose was at 1pm and my last dose at 5pm. I am taking 35mg-ish every day and, from reading posts on this site I've realised that I probably need to spread it out through the day more, ie. not take it all within 4 hours. Is difficult, because I don't wake up until 1pm, but I'm working on making myself wake up earlier (tricky, because I feel even worse if I do that! My sleeping problems are probably too lengthy to go into here, but suffice to say I am often awake during the night, hence the sleeping till 1pm thing). So, I'm going to try taking my first dose at 11am and last dose at 7pm, or something like that, and see if taking it over a longer period each day makes any difference.

2) I may need to take a higher dose of HC. I think I may have poor absorption, so may need to be brave and increase my dose to allow for that (I also need to look into my stomach acid problems). The only benefit that HC has given me so far is that I can't tolerate any thyroid meds (either Nutri Thyroid, Armour or T3) without it - I get a massive goitre, as it would appear that my body cannot use the thyroid hormones. When I take HC, I can take any thyroid meds with only a small goitre. However, if I try to increase my HC to see if I can get some relief from low adrenal symptoms, the goitre gets massive again!!! Can't work out why this is....... But maybe I need to persist - maybe the return of the goitre on higher HC doses is just a temporary reaction and that things will get better if I keep on with the higher dose.

3) I think I may need fludrocortisone as well as HC. I need to read more about this, but my symptoms show low aldosterone (another adrenal hormone) and the suggested treatment for this is fludrocortisone (Florinef). I don't know if this is really related to the HC issue (ie. whether correcting low aldosterone will "help" the HC to work) or whether it's a separate issue. But, I will get my aldosterone tested and see what the results say.

There are a few other things, like bio-identical HC, that I also want to look into too.

[sulamaye in reply to ChooseLife]

You are meant to take at least two thirds of your HC prior to 1pm, by taking it when you wake up you are probably reinforcing your sleep cycle, as cortisol is needed to wake up and get up.

The other thing you can try is dexamethone, that's what I am using because my HC need was so demanding. Now I take 0.125mcgs of dex before I go to sleep. My sleep has improved, but that could just be the NDT hard to know for sure, but more importantly I have gone from needing 35-60mgs of HC to get through the day to 15-25mgs. I have been told that 0.125 dex is worth 7.5mgs of HC but it has a longer half life so lasts longer in teh body and gives a kind of background dose from which to dose with HC. It is also much cheaper than HC about 1.50 for 20 tabs from which I can get 80 doses out of.

[ChooseLife in reply to sulamaye]

Thanks, Sulamaye - I'll have a look into dexamethasone.

Yeah, the whole sleep/getting up thing is a real problem at the moment. Also, the STTM site says (I think) that HC should be split throughout the day and I hear of many people doing this. I can see the logic in what you're saying though, and I know that Greygoose is a firm believer of not having HC after lunch.

[sulamaye in reply to ChooseLife]

I take 10mgs of HC at 8am and then 5 at 11am and a further 5 at 4pm if that helps. They are meant to be 3 hrs apart roughly