Holy Basil Tulsi recommendations.

[Min789]

Hi, I read on here a few days ago that Holy Basil was a good supplement to take to support the adrenals. Can anyone recommend a brand that is effective for them? A tea phaps!!!

[humanbean]

Holy Basil is only a good supplement for the adrenals if your cortisol levels are too high for good health and you want to lower them.

It would be a disaster if your cortisol levels were already low!

The best way of checking cortisol levels is a saliva cortisol test which the NHS won't do or pay attention to - they only do single blood tests. The best supplier of saliva cortisol tests is Regenerus :

regeneruslabs.com/products/...

It is the best option because :

a) They deal with the customer directly (Genova don't).

b) They do four sample testing - paying for more is a waste of money.

c) The test provides a DHEA result as well, which Blue Horizon and Medichecks don't.

d) The reference ranges Regenerus uses don't include zero as part of the range for their results. A level of zero cortisol is (in my opinion) only healthy for a corpse. Some other companies use ranges that include zero, and this is totally absurd.

I take this Holy Basil supplement :

healthmonthly.co.uk/swanson...

[Min789 in reply to humanbean]

Thank you for your helpful reply humanbean. I am having a random cortisol blood test at the end of this month as requested by my endo. Phaps I should wait until I have the results from that before i consider it. I will be having the blood test at the same time as my thyroid function test about 8.30 in the morning after fasting and taking my levothyroxine 24 hours before testing.

That should give me some idea of whether my levels are too high or low hopefully.

[humanbean in reply to Min789]

Random cortisol blood tests are rarely helpful, apart from when they save the NHS money. Cortisol output in healthy people changes dramatically throughout the day. See this graph :

alpineintegratedmedicineblo...

Cortisol can be 6 (or more) times higher at its highest when compared to its lowest during waking hours.

The NHS uses different reference ranges for morning and afternoon, but they cover several hours of the day and aren't good at describing healthy levels at particular times. What is healthy at noon is much lower than what is healthy at 9am, but a random cortisol is unlikely to show you what yours is doing.

You might be lucky. But it depends on what time you actually get tested. Try and get a blood sample taken between 8am and 9am if you can.

[Min789 in reply to humanbean]

Yes I want to have it tested at 8.30am along with my thyroid levels. I did point out to the endo that I should have levels taken throughout the day but he said that will be the next stage if he thinks need it.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

Thank you for that link HB, I have saved it, hope you don't mind if I use the graph in future, it will be very useful

[humanbean in reply to SeasideSusie]

Be my guest! I pinch your links all the time!

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

LOL - you're welcome to them, share them around, it all helps

[Lesleyg13 in reply to humanbean]

I'm confused about the cortisol graph. The left hand side shows cortisol low at 6am, the right hand side then shows it high at 6am. Or am I reading it incorrectly?

[humanbean in reply to Lesleyg13]

It's not a precise graph, but is handy to show the general trend of what cortisol does during the day. Cortisol probably starts rising around 3am - 5am in most people with a fairly normal circadian rhythm, although I suspect shift work and chronic insomnia could have quite an impact on timings.

You might prefer this graph, although it starts at a different time of day and doesn't show the classic shape of a cortisol graph as a result :

media.mnn.com/assets/images...

The link refers to the "mesor" which is explained in this link - it isn't as straightforward as being just an average, but I haven't explored the definition further :

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mesor

[Lesleyg13 in reply to humanbean]

Possibly helps explain why I wake far too early, between 3.30-4.30am, and could easily go to bed before 9pm, since the menopause anyway. Fits in well with that graph.

[humanbean in reply to Lesleyg13]

Yes, I used to have problems with waking regularly at around 4 - 4.30 when I was working. These days my waking and sleeping times are much more erratic (and inconvenient for being a normal part of the human race) and so I have no idea at all when my cortisol starts to rise. I wish I had sleeping times that matched the majority of people.

[Lesleyg13 in reply to humanbean]

Ditto. We rarely go out in the evenings nowadays because of it. Looking on the bright side I tend to get a lot done during those first few quiet hours of the day, my most productive time of day, brain much more alert then.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Min789]

A single cortisol blood test is virtually useless

A multi point saliva test will show cortisol diurnal variation

regeneruslabs.com/products/...

cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...