Does armour effect cortisol?

[Sunshine388]

Can anyone help explain link between starting armour and effect on cortisol levels? Or suggest a good place for me to find any more information?

Husband (41, male, hashimotos) started on armour thyroid. Previously thyroid bloods all over the place on levothyroxine treatment and felt very hypo.

He’d been starting to feel a bit better, but now started by to feel hypo again. Ok-ish in mornings but fatigue by afternoon. He’s massively craving salt. I made mistake of googling this and it’s potentially linked to low cortisol/adrenal insufficiency. Cortisol levels were checked prior to starting armour and were high. I remember private endo saying something about cortisol levels/armour but can’t remember exactly what.

So we’re not seeing endo til mid March and would like to see if there’s anything we can do at home to help current symptoms, Or anything else we should be considering.

[Incoguto]

Armour can either normalise high cortisol or exacerbate it.

Craving for salt could be a sign of adrenal issues, but also, low sodium, which could also be a sign of being hypothyroid.

It would be a good idea to check cortisol and sodium/potassium levels.

[FoggyThinker in reply to Incoguto]

Incoguto any advice on how/where to test these please? I think I need to, too!

[Incoguto in reply to FoggyThinker]

Regenerus does salivary cortisol in the UK, I'm based in Poland currently. Sodium potassium us just a standard blood test, might be a good idea to get a blood test for cortisol as well as saliva

[Sunshine388 in reply to Incoguto]

Our endo said saliva test was better than blood test so maybe search for saliva one.

GP would check sodium and potassium in their standard blood tests so you could try and get it through them. Think potassium is best done as blood draw, not finger prick as if it’s squeezed to get enough blood it can give abnormal result.

[FoggyThinker in reply to Sunshine388]

Thanks Sunshine388 Incoguto - it was the potassium/sodium I was interested in. I can't find it easily done privately, probably because it doesn't work well with a finger-prick, but you're right, I think it was in my full blood test done by the GP.

[Sunshine388 in reply to Incoguto]

Thanks for replying. Sodium and potassium were ok before but who knows what’s changed in 3 months. Will look in to getting them checked with his next set of bloods.

[Hectorsmum2]

People often feel better for a while then start to feel ill again when starting a treatment. It usually indicates the need for a dose increase. There is something called an adrenal cocktail he could try but I cant remember the recipie. Orange juice and a pinch of salt or something/Hopefully somebody else will advise re this.

[humanbean in reply to Hectorsmum2]

Adrenal cocktail info :

stopthethyroidmadness.com/a...

therootcauseprotocol.com/fa...

[Sunshine388 in reply to humanbean]

Thank you. ‘Adrenal cocktail’ sounds a bit disconcerting! Can see it’s mainly vitamin c, potassium and sodium so we will try boosting his intake of those to see if it helps.

He’d increased his dose but seemed too high so gone back down and will see what endocrinologist says at next appointment.