Regenerus cortisol & DHEA results

[J972]

Hi everyone,

In an attempt to gain a better understanding of what exactly is going on with me, I decided to take the Regenerus cortisol/DHEA saliva test.

My motives were a sense of not being able to easily increase thyroid meds & not particularly feeling an improvement; waking nightly at around 2-3am and being wide awake for an hour or so; feeling like death in the mornings and perhaps a tad more ‘with it’ later in the day; skin darkening/pigmentation on my face and notably in the folds where my thighs meet my torso, plus a larger patch on my hip; tummy fat; shakiness when hungry; loss of body hair, especially on thighs and pubic area; completely diminished tolerance to exercise; aches & pains throughout body; breathlessness (investigated by GP, no obvious underlying cause); occasional tinnitus.

I’m on 62.5mcg of Levothyroxine and am awaiting the results of a Randox test to see about increasing to 75mcg. So I’m aware that I’m undermedicated. I’ve previously tried Thyroid S but couldn’t tolerate anything more than 1/2 - 3/4 of a grain.

What does everyone think of my results? Are they sufficiently poor that they warrant follow up testing with my GP? Or is this something I can work on myself with something like Adrenavive?

Many thanks, as ever. 🙏

[seveneleven]

So you could try taking them to your GP, but at most, and only if they're very amenable, they would test morning serum cortisol, which in your case would likely be fine. Not saying don't, but wouldn't expect much, as they generally have no/very poor understanding of HPA axis or adrenal dysfunction outside of Addisons or Cushings.

Your midday level is quite low, and evening very low, so makes sense that you're getting symptoms and waking up in the early hours. When that happens with low cortisol overnight, it's because the body is increasing adrenaline to compensate for the insufficient cortisol, so you end up exhausted but wired. But your morning levels look good. That's a good sign and means, as they say in the comments, that it's an earlier stage of dysfunction. Your DHEA levels are low, but given age and menopause status, I don't think they're worryingly so, just reflecting that the HPA axis is really starting to struggle.

If your morning cortisol were very low, it would be a harder thing to tackle. I'm not surprised you've had trouble with raises - definitely happens with low cortisol. Also wouldn't be surprised if you end up needing T3 at some point, so will be interesting to see what your most recent bloods say in terms of T4-T3 conversion at this stage. With low cortisol, we often don't convert well, and this can leave us feeling undermedicated even on higher doses of levothyroxine. So as you say, addressing cortisol will be important to allow you to tolerate more meds.

You'd probably benefit from Adrenavive - I think it's at a stage where you can just try and support it on your own. Adrenavive II (cortex only, 150mg caps) is a good starting point, and you can build up gradually to see what works best. Think there are quite a few posts on here from people using adrenal cortex, so have a browse and see how others have tackled it You could maybe also get some benefit from a small amount of licorice root for a short time, as that can help with mildly low cortisol, but only if your blood pressure tends towards the lower side - best avoided if it's high, and also best taken with a potassium supplement.

When you're feeling really rotten and either dead on your feet or wired but tired, you can also try an adrenal cocktail for a temporary boost - small cup of orange juice (for vit C) with 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar (potassium).

[J972 in reply to seveneleven]

Thank you seveneleven, coincidentally I was just looking over some previous posts regarding Regenerus and was literally just reading about your results! Where are you currently with regards to your cortisol? It was much lower than mine.

Thanks very much for the feedback, all extremely helpful. My blood pressure is really good (at least something is!) so I’ll give liquorice root a try. Do you literally get sticks of root from a health food shop?

[seveneleven in reply to J972]

You can get sticks to make tea, but it's a faff. Easiest is to either get teabags with licorice root in them (licorice and peppermint is fairly easy and tastes better than on its own), and just have a cup a day for a little while, or you can get capsules of licorice root powder and take them like any supplement. It's a good idea to take potassium with it and keep an eye on blood pressure, because it can sometimes increase the hormone aldosterone slightly and decrease potassium, raising BP and giving headaches etc. If you want to try the licorice, would do that first for a few weeks before trying to start adrenal cortex - you want to avoid adding multiple stimulating things at one time when the system is depleted. Worth knowing as well that licorice isn't recommended for long periods, more than about 6 weeks at a time, whereas cortex is considered safe for much longer.

I've ended up on hydrocortisone for my cortisol, a full replacement dose that will probably continue the next 6 months to a year while I slowly raise T3 (which I've only been able to add because of the cortisone) and allow everything to rest and recover. I definitely feel a bit better, not crashing in a heap every afternoon, which is nice! But it's peaks and troughs - it's a long way back when cortisol is extremely low, so just have to be patient and stick with it.

[J972 in reply to seveneleven]

Thanks, pretty sure I have some of those teabags already 👍

Hope the addition of T4 helps.

Take care.

[Mixteca]

Is that test also good for high cortisol levels? If so, who does them?

[J972 in reply to Mixteca]

Yes it would. regeneruslabs.com/products/...

[Mixteca in reply to J972]

Thank you!