How much adrenal cortex is there in whole adren... - Thyroid UK

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How much adrenal cortex is there in whole adrenal...?

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Does anyone have any idea how much adrenal cortex whole adrenal approximately contains? I have been on 250 mg of adrenal cortex extract for the past year, after weaning off Medrol for adrenal fatigue, and have felt wonderful on it. But I have just started taking a supplement containing, among other things, 200 mg of adrenal extract, so I guess that I will end up taking too much adrenal cortex if I continue to take 250 mg daily in addition to the 200 mg of adrenal extract...?

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diogenes profile image
diogenesRemembering

Looking at pictures of the gland, I'd estimate that 80-85% of the adrenal is cortex, and an internal part called the medulla is 15-20%.

in reply todiogenes

Thanks! So there seems to be quite a lot of cortex in adrenal extract...?

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministrator in reply to

anna69,

I think diogenes' answer applies to humans. You'd need to check further for the proportions in animals - by species and age.

I found the following in a relatively old textbook:

In cases of sudden death in [human] adults without prior illness, the mean weight of individual glands is 4.0—4.2 g with a coefficient of variation of ± 15 % (95 % limits of 2.8—5.5 g) (Fig. 4.3). Ninety percent of the total weight of the gland is accounted for by the cortex.

Which is close to diogenes' estimate. Elsewhere it was stated that clear identification of the cortex and medulla is not always easy - so all answers could be somewhat imprecise.

in reply tohelvella

Thanks to you, too! I wonder if the easiest thing would be to continue to take 250 mg of ACE, along with this new product, and see how I feel, simply switch to the new product and stop the ACE, or take less (I see Thorne has a product containing 50 mg ACE per capsule)...?

greygoose profile image
greygoose

Can you take too much, if there's no hormone in it?

in reply togreygoose

That's the thing...I am not sure that's the case. In any case, I do feel a difference when I take ACE, compared to when I don't...but maybe you're right in the sense that they are not very strong, so would be very hard or even impossible to overdose...?

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to

It's something I've never thought about.

in reply to

I have the same product me too.

At the beginning of my problems i was taking 100mg/day , but its difficult to say if its working or not :)

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