Adrenal Fatigue - Medication

[Booblet]

Hi everyone,

I saw Dr P (Dr Peatfield) several yrs ago. After examination he told me I had Adrenal Fatigue.

I had been taking the recommended medication- Nutri - adrenal I think it was called since about 18 months ago.

After reading on this forum that this certain medication did not agree with many suffers including myself:

I have been taking Adrenavive 11 - 250 mg. since I stopped the other Med. I am not sure that I am taking the correct strength? And it is exspensive.

Any suggestions?

[Anthea55]

The company who produce both Metavive and Adrenavive changed the formula last year and added ribonucleotides to both of them. New formula Metavive has disagreed with some of us. I wouldn't be surprised if the new formula Adrenavive disagrees with some people for the same reason.

[jimh111]

How are you without taking these supplements? Do they make a positive difference?

I ask because everyone I know of personally and via the forums who has visited Dr P has been told they have 'adrenal fatigue'. Adrenal insufficiency is recognised but is quite rare.

If I remember correctly Dr Skinner found adrenal issues in a few of his patients and they usually recovered when their hypothyroidism was treated along with low dose prednisolone. Maybe try gradually reducing and ditching these expensive supplements.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

I'm sorry that is not Adrenal insufficiency!! It is true that cortisol & thyroid has to be balanced to get full benefit but Adrenal insufficiency is the lack of the body to produce cortisol, the only time that it may be reversible is when someone has had a tumour removed which caused Cushing's syndrome & they are on replacement steroids until the body starts to make cortisol again & then the steroids can be slowly reduced & then stopped. Or if the person has been on long term steroids which has caused their adrenal glands to stop producing cortisol, by slowly tapering the steroids it may be possible for the adrenal glands to produce cortisol again. However it is a dangerous life threatening condition in that if the person stops taking the steroids they will die. You can have have primary adrenal insufficiency also called Addison's Disease which is where the adrenal glands don't produce cortisol. Secondary adrenal insufficiency is where the issue is that the pituitary gland doesn't produce ACTH to stimulate the adrenal glands to produce cortisol or long term steroid use has stopped the adrenal glands working. Have a look at the Addison's Disease charity website or the Pituitary foundation website to learn more.

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

You are correct. I have edited my post to remove the errors, unfortunately we can't use 'strike out' text to show the amendments so I thought it better to correct the text rather than leave the misleading bits in.

I've re-read the section on hypoadrenalism in Dr Skinner's book where he discusses Dr Peatfield's strategy of giving adrenal support ab initio on diagnosis of hypothyroidism and he writes that he has only found it to be necessary "in any but a few patients".

In general it seems that the approach is to give low dose prednisolone or hydrocortisone if adrenal insufficiency is suspected in case thyroid hormone precipitates an adrenal crisis. This would generally be long term but in some cases the patient could be slowly weaned if the suspected adrenal insufficiency didn't exist - a safety first approach.

Apologies for causing confusion.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

Thank you for the corrections, however I wouldn't agree with Dr Peatfield or Dr Skinner's theories. Adrenal fatigue is not a recognised medical condition & if Adrenal Insufficiency is suspected then that needs further investigations by an Endocrinologist. It is certainly not good medical practice to prescribe steroids where it hasn't been properly diagnosed as AI, steroids are not the "super drug" many think they are. A Patient Safety Alert & a new steroid card was produced last Autumn due to the many patients who had been given steroids for other conditions, who then went on to develop AI, however that was only discovered when the patient presented in A&E in Adrenal Crisis which can be a fatal condition if not recognised by the doctors. I would love to stop taking my steroids but if I do then I will die with in a few days.

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

I agree with you regarding 'adrenal fatigue'. Dr Skinner rarely prescribed for adrenal insufficiency and only after a full clinical appraisal. He didn't value the Synactin test on the basis that the adrenals are not stimulated to the same extent on a day to day basis (we don't use the TRH stimulation test to diagnose hypothyroidism). He used clinical examination with some attention to cortisol levels. His book is still available if anyone is interested.