When to take Hydrocortisone when on T4 Synthroid and T3.

[Liyaelize]

I take my. Synthroid and T3 at 6 am. When is the right time to take my Hydrocortisone? Thanks

[Emyloulou]

I take t3 and t4 at bedtime and for my hydrocortisone I take 10mg at 7am and 2.5mg at 11,3,7 and bedtime.

[magsyh in reply to Emyloulou]

I'm just starting down this road. Were you ever bothered with palpitations through the night? Doc has given me a heart monitor but I'm so fed up. I was woken 5 times last night by palpitations and I'm not getting much sleep. I have low cortisol but doc won't do anything till they rule out everything else.

[Emyloulou in reply to magsyh]

I had palpitations before I was treated along with A LOT of other symptoms in the 6 months before I was diagnosed. I couldn’t function at all, I’ve seriously never felt so ill in my life. Even when I was diagnosed hypothyroid with a tsh of 147 I was still working 12 hour days but the adrenal insufficiency totally floored me.

Unfortunately they won’t give you treatment until they are sure you have AI as the treatment can also cause secondary AI however it can also be a hard thing to diagnose. I ended up having 3 short synacthen tests and an insulin tolerance test before I was eventually diagnosed .

[greygoose in reply to Emyloulou]

Do you have Addison's? Or adrenal fatigue? It's important to distinguish between the two, because for adrenal fatigue you would not want to take it quite so often, and never after 1 pm.

[Emyloulou in reply to greygoose]

I have adrenal insufficiency and have been officially diagnosed by an endocrinologist. If I don’t take my hydrocortisone every 4 hours I really don’t do well.

A lot of people don’t believe that adrenal fatigue is a real diagnosis, I know my endocrinologist doesn’t.

[greygoose in reply to Emyloulou]

No, I know. But, I think they'd change their minds if they actually had it!

I was diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue by a hormone specialist that had it himself. And he told me that if I hoped to come off HC one day, I should never take it after 1 pm. I did as he said, and was able to wean off HC a couple of years later.

If you take HC every four hours, as people with Addison's have to do, the adrenals will shut down and won't work again, so you'll be on HC for life. The way we did it, they had to carry on working for at least part of the day, and gradually recovered.

[magsyh in reply to greygoose]

Did you have trouble with palpitations? I was woken 5 times with it last night. I'm feeling exhausted by it.

[greygoose in reply to magsyh]

I've never had much trouble with palpitations, no. It's very rare for me to have them.

[magsyh in reply to Emyloulou]

That's the problem with my GP when I told her about my low cortisol she laughed! I'm really struggling and the heart palpitations have me exhausted.

[Liyaelize]

Yes often experience palpitations during the day and night.

[Hidden]

I recently did the Regenerus saliva test. It's expensive and very hard to do because of not being able to have anything with caffeine in, and no painkillers except paracetamol for the resultant headache (I don't drink that much tea or coffee but get a lot of headaches anyway)!

But it was worth it because it showed clearly that I have low cortisol. DHEA was OK but none of the 4 readings were in the optimal range and two of them were well below range.

I had palpitations a few months ago, mostly on waking up, but they seem to have almost stopped, as has the pounding pulse, and I just feel slightly unwell and not much energy till later in the day.

It seems the adrenals go on overdrive for a while when you wake (Adrenaline rushes trying to compensate???), then go downhill from there.

Waiting to see endo so taking Adrenavive, morning and noon only, in the hope it will help .

[Liyaelize]

I didn't find adaptogins working for me. Spent a fortune on different formulations. The downside of supplements are that most contain fillers that are bad for us. I am looking into using topical products only so that I can start low and work up to tolerance level. I. found a topical T4/T3 in the USA. NDT T3 levels are too strong for me.