Cortisol level

[France92]

Just got my cortisol level test back looks like low on nearly all of them. Can anyone help who can advise me how to raise them?It's different test I did years ago when I got m.e the old one gave advice and supplements to help this has no advice .

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

My knowledge of cortisol is limited but your curve is at least following the normal trend albeit low. I believe this can happen with low FT3 and yours 2 months ago was only at 38% of its range. Have you considered adding some T3?

[France92 in reply to Jaydee1507]

I'm not on any Thyroid treatment being monitored. Also on propranolol because it went hyper last September just low dose.

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to France92]

I see, my apologies. Perhaps we'd better wait for someone who knows more about raising cortisol.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Could be the propranolol or it could be that thyroid levels have dropped further

Have you retested thyroid levels since these tests below 2 months ago

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Are you now on absolutely strictly gluten free diet

Suggest you at minimum test TSH, Ft4 and Ft3

Ideally test ferritin too

[France92 in reply to SlowDragon]

No haven't had any tests this year was due next month for Endrocolgy appointment but it's been changed to June. I have so many health problems at present just one thing after the other. I aren't 100% gluten free as find it to hard especially when my stomach flare up I just want plain food. I've now got gallbladder problems as well as embedded uti I wanted to see if anything underlying causing it all like immune system not functioning probably.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to France92]

increase risk of UTI and gallbladder when hypothyroid

Suggest you get thyroid levels tested

June is long time away

[France92 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thankyou didn't realise this all could be connected. Can you levels change in a couple months? I have to see if medicheck has an offer on have to get blood drawn as im not good getting blood out of.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Gall bladder and thyroid

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

palomahealth.com/learn/hash...

wellnessresources.com/news/...

naturalendocrinesolutions.c...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

UTI and thyroid

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[McPammy]

when my thyroid T3 level was low my cortisol was very low too. I was already taking levothyroxine and my T4 level was high. That made no difference to my cortisol. I had a short synacthen test and my adrenals were working normally but still cortisol remained too low. Eventually I was prescribed T3 liothyronine medication along with my normal levothyroxine T4 medication. Within a few weeks my cortisol shot up to the highest it’s been. It’s remained to be normal now. I get it checked every 3 months along with my thyroid levels. All is now good. T3 can raise low cortisol along with many other issues you may have in the most positive way.

[France92 in reply to McPammy]

I'm not on any treatment as my levels are normal they are just keeping eye on them. I did all levels in Sept including t3 and all normal I put them on here for advice.

[McPammy in reply to France92]

in that case maybe you could do with getting your adrenals checked. A GP can firstly organise a 9am cortisol blood test and you could show him/her your private results too. I’d request your private results are scanned onto your NHS file too. This is totally acceptable. It’s your file I was informed that by my GP who did scan private test results on to my NHS file. Then you can have the important synacthen test. It’s a simple blood test normally done in hospital. They inject you with an adrenal stimulator then checked if your adrenals are working as they should. It’s not painful nor has any discomfort in my experiences. I’ve had two. Then you’ll know if your adrenals are failing or not. The other thing to consider is do you take any steroid medications. Inhailers have steroids in them and there are many creams that have steroids. Taking steroid medications can lower your own natural steroids,which is cortisol, which is produced by your adrenals.

[France92 in reply to McPammy]

Thankyou do the NHS recognise these tests? I have an appointment with my Gp soon I will see what she says also I have endrocolgy appointment in June. I did do the 24hrs urine test with endrocolgy and they said it was normal.

[McPammy]

yes the tests are very well recognised by the NHS. You just need to rule out if it actually is your adrenals. The only sure test is the NHS synacthen test, you’ll find out the results on same day. Well I did. The synacthen test needs to be done in the morning time. Cortisol also is usually done at 9am as this is generally when your cortisol is at its highest. Mine normally is about 250-300( range is 155-650). Remember these are the same ranges for all ages and both men and women. I had the 24hr urine collection test too and mine was normal also. If Addison’s disease is ruled out by the synacthen test then take a deeper look at your T3 levels. Ensure you are converting well from T4 hormone. T3 liothyronine medication had a hugely positive effect on my adrenal/cortisol output. My T3 level was very low as I wasn’t converting well enough. I now feel very well indeed. There is another private test you can do to check if your converting well enough also it’s called the DIO2 gene test You can get it done through Rengenerous Laboratories as promoted on this forum it costs about £165 I got it done and mine came back positive Another piece of evidence as to why my T3 was so low and cortisol too My GP scanned that result onto my NHS file