I was wondering if I could get some help. I havent been around for a while, life got busy and I just kept on keeping on but still not feeling good and worried all my deficiencies are affecting my body in other ways. Can I post my cortisol saliva results? They are low across the board. Dont really know what to do about them. Can anyone help? DHEA low too as well as testosterone but I dont think I can take DHEA as my estrogen in high (and dhea can raise estrogen). I'm just baffled really and could do with some help. Thankyou so much.
I am on ct3m, t3 only. I dont have any recent result for my thyroid to post as I havent had any done since I have been t3 only (since march). I guess I should get some done soon, I will order some but i know that my t3 will be high in range, t4 low or non existent and tsh low.
Chloe
Many thanks.
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SeaVee79
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You can see from the graphic that even though they are low, your levels follow the normal curve. Mine were very similar although my waking sample was higher in the yellow zone. I am working on mine and using an adrenal glandular.
I started with Adrenavive (adrenal cortex only) and gradually built up the dose, then it became unavailalble and when it was back in stock it had risen dramatically in price. So I swapped to a glandular (contains cortex and the medulla rather than cortex only). I have done better on the glandular. My levels are gradually rising and my DHEA has risen too.
Thankyou for your reply Susie. Would you mind PM ing me the name of the glandular that you used? I did use adrenavivie III for a while but I didnt find it did much. Then I tried hydrocortisone but it had negative effects which I did not like. I would be willing to give a glandular a go again. I am trying ct3m but so far it has not helped a huge amount if I look at my cortisol result.
It was Adrenavive lll I was using but I'm doing better on the Nutricology so there must be something in the whole glandular that I need rather than just the cortex that's in Adrenavive lll.
As you can't work out how much cortex is in the Nutricology, I used what was in the Adrenavive as a rough guide and decided I needed a bit more of the Nutricology compared to the Adrenavive. So for me I think I was taking 1 x Adrenavive lll twice daily (but I could have remembered incorrectly), so I started on 2 x Nutricology twice a day. I've been retesting with Regenerus. After the first re-test (after 3 months on Nutricology) I increased to 3 x Nutricology with breakfast plus 2 with lunch and there was a good improvement so I've stayed on that dose and am due to retest again in a couple of weeks.
Once I've got all 4 samples within the green zone, following the natural curve, I will reduce to see if I can find a maintenance dose. Not sure if it's something I'll need continued support with or not.
I will ignore the optimal ranges given by the testing company because I have no idea how they were derived. Instead I will use the reference ranges and use the optimal results suggested above. Where necessary I will take your sample 4 result as 0.33 because I don't have a precise figure.
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We need to compare your results to the optimal results and see what comes out of it.
Sample 1 : Optimal = 30 ; Yours = 7.6 ; You produce 25% of the cortisol you should.
Sample 2 : Optimal = 11.025 ; Yours = 2.7 ; You produce 24% of the cortisol you should.
Sample 3 : Optimal = 4.75 ; Yours = 1.0 ; You produce 21% of the cortisol you should.
Sample 4 : Optimal = 0.33 ; Yours = < 0.33 ; You produce less cortisol than optimal.
Totals : Optimal = 46.105 ; Yours = 11.63 ; You produce 25% of the cortisol you should per day.
The fact that your DHEA is way below range suggests that your cortisol levels are on the way down and will continue to get worse.
As SeasideSusie points out your results do show a normal rhythm which follows the pattern of optimal results. This is encouraging, and it suggests that you might be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and improve your levels with self help and supplements. However, your results are so low that I think you need to show these results to your GP and ask for an early morning cortisol blood test just to be sure. There is a chance you have Addison's Disease. If you do have this then no amount of self-help will fix it and you would need to be treated for this for life. The treatment is replacement of the missing hormone (cortisol is a steroid hormone).
If you do have Addison's Disease it is very important that you get treated urgently. Someone on the forum did turn out to have Addison's (her results were quite a lot worse than yours). You might like to read the posts where it got discussed :
A member on the forum who is more knowledgeable on the subject of Addison's than me is Hidden . She will know if I'm being too cautious in suggesting it or not, and whether getting a cortisol blood test is worth doing. If you do have a very low result on the blood test then you would have to be seen by an endocrinologist as a matter of urgency.
Thankyou humanbean I appreciate your reply and I apologise for not writing my results out like that, I had a brain fog moment and I couldnt remember what I had to do. It appears my body is producing only 25% of what it should e which explains why I only feel 25% well most of the time. I had similar results 2 years ago and I pushed my endo to order another synacthen test, he agreed but denied saliva cortisol tests mean anything. My baseline cortisol was only one above range for the morning test but my cortisol raised as it should have (albeit in a low way) when I received the synacthen test. This led my endo to conclude I was fine and there was nothing more he could do!!! So here I am on my own unfortunately, trying to bumble my way through to feeling well again. I got diagnosed with m.e. recently azwell and I'm pretty certain it's just these low levels and low hormones too. Its impossibly hard not being able to find a dr to help! That's why this forum is so important.
Anyway I'm waffling. Thankyou for any help offered
As you are using the CT3M method, it could be that you haven't found your optimum time for taking the overnight dose. I believe Paul Robinson does some private consultations now. You might want to consider talking to him about your results and how you are implementing his method. He's lovely. Talking to him is easy. Find him through his web CT3M web site.
DHEA doesn't raise my oestrogen, just my testosterone (and, obviously DHEA, but I didn't have high oestrogen to start with). Ask GP for ACTH and short synacthen test. Probably won't be bad enough for meds, but you never know. If not bad enough, try an adrenal cortex supplement.
Thanks Angel_of_the_North . Maybe I could try some dhea and see what it does to my estrogen. My testosterone is low too (and shgb high). I have had two atch tests and despite having low cortisol my adrenals produce some so drs deny anything is wrong!
I had the same thing. My cortisol was exactly on the bottom of the range, so I'm fine, Be aware that DHEA is prescription only in the UK. It is a controlled drug so you cannot import it legally for your own use
In case anyone doesn't believe that it is a Class C drug as you can buy it online, you find it under the brand name Prasterone (Dehydroepiandrosterone DHEA) here: gov.uk/government/publicati...
Thanks FancyPants54 , I am in consultation with him at the moment. He is lovely. I just hoped it might have made more of a difference by now, although saying that my early morning cortisol has defo improved, it's just not optimal and I dont seem to be producing much.
I think it is with low adrenals as the metabolism is lowered leading to high estrogen as the liver fails to clear out toxins and hormones. It looks like your adrenal function needs help as there’s no where to go regards lowering your metabolism any further as DHEA is barely there. Glandulars are a good option if have passed the SST and symptoms are severe enough.
I'm a bit confused though as I had my dhea tested at the doctors (blood draw) 4 months ago and it was mid range. I dont understand how it could have dropped so much in a few months when my adrenals have been bad for years. Could this be a problem with the saliva cortisol test itself?
I don't think you can compare blood and saliva tests, I believe they test different things. I *think* the saliva test tests the free/unbound hormone and the blood test doesn't.
It's gradually improving with the adrenal glandular I'm taking.
.It might be worth getting an early morning blood cortisol before you take any supplements to see what the cortisol is. It is important to get an ACTH blood test done at the same time of an Short Synacthen test to see if the problem is a pituitary one. It is imperative to see an Endo who has experience with pituitary/adrenal issues as most of them don't!
Thanks Hidden I have had 2 early morning cortisol blood tests done, they both fell within the range by about 2 pts 🙄 so inevitable I was 'normal' and the endo wouldnt pay any attention. Do you know of any endos who are versed in severe adrenal fatigue? I would like a specialist but they dont seem to exist
Thanks
Adrenal Fatigue is not a recognised condition so you won't find Endo's that deal with it. What was your cortisol result? It should be around 500nmol/Ls first thing in the morning, anything under 400nmol/Ls needs investigating. Cortisol levels vary throughout the day so if yours is just in range it could be that it's much lower than what it should be for that time of day.
Hi Pauline. Unfortunately I dont know the units it was measured in but my last atch test in 2017 showed my early morning cortisol at 241 and this rose to 604 during test. I think bottom of the range for the early morning test was 195 so my cortisol was low but not low enough for them to pay attention to it unfortunately!
Hi Bramble83 . I have not been taking steroids and yes I would like to rule out SAI by getting tested for it but I dont really know how to go about it. Is it something the NHS would do here in the UK do you know or is it something I would need to gave done privately?
thanks Bramble83 . By atch reading do you mean the results of my synacthen test? What are they supposed to be when 'normal'. The endo just said that my cortisol responded to atch stimulation and therefore my adrenals were working fine. Hmm. I dont feel like they are working fine! Who could order an ITT test? Would it be a gp, an endo or someone else? I've just remembered that I use eumovate which is a steroid cream, for a neuropathic itch, about twice a week. However I avoided it for 14 days leading up to the atch and the saliva test. I wonder how I go about getting sai tested. Thankyou
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