low cortisol

[RoseStar]

hello,

I’ve repeatedly had lowish 9am cortisol (around 250ish mark) but passed SST. However, private endo has said he wants to trial a low dose of hydrocortisone to see if it helps my symptoms of chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle aches etc. etc. I’m nervous to trial a steroid when I don’t have Addison’s tbh - has anyone had any experience of this?

[greygoose]

Yes, I have. But my morning cortisol was a lot lower than that. Can't remember the exact numbers, it was a long time ago, but one hundred and something. I was told I had adrenal fatigue and that taking HC for a while would give them the helping hand they needed until they were capable of working on their own again.

But, it was stressed to me that if I ever hoped to come off HC I should never take it after 1pm. First dose when I got up in the morning, second dose before lunch, then leave the adrenals to work for themselves the rest of the day.

I took it for a couple of years and was then able to wean myself off it. I can't remember any specific symptoms it helped with, but I remember I had so much more energy! And I felt really good.

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

Yes, my 9am cortisol levels 224 and I passed the SST... 'no further action' so last year I initially added adrenal cortex and some improvement so I swapped to 5mg HC and thing continued to improve, took it for around 8 months and then swapped back to adrenal cortex... all good

[TheRightSide in reply to TiggerMe]

Hi Tigger, which adrenal cortex brand did you use? My cortisol is lower (still in the range but lower) compare to last year, have no idea what happened. Is it ok for me to consume the adrenal cortex? Do I need 4 points salivary tests? I'm feeling weird the past weeks, fatigue, low, dizzy, brainfog, etc. I also have Hashi. The HC 1% cream you mentioned below, it's the eczema cream, isn't it? Does it work to boost some energy too?

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to TheRightSide]

I've tried various adrenal glandular and actually prefer the whole adrenal from Pure Encapsulations.

When you say your cortisol is lower do you mean serum cortisol (total)? You are better off doing a saliva test to see your free levels as they can be the opposite, high and low cortisol feel can much the same 😕

You can experiment with a blob of HC cream, yes I found it would power me up for a hour which was very handy when I had to deal with the Endo

[RoseStar]

thank you both. He wants me on 10mg first thing in the morning

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to RoseStar]

I forgot to say I first tried a 1cm blob of HC 1% cream and that gave a surprising lift for an hour, you could give that a go to see how you feel

[RoseStar in reply to TiggerMe]

Where did you apply it?

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to RoseStar]

Torso alternating between either side of stomach and either side of back as you shouldn't apply in the same place as it will thin the skin, I used it for a few weeks just to prove to myself it was doing the trick

[J972]

Lucy___

[RoseStar]

is it likely I can’t tolerate T3 because my cortisol is low?

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to RoseStar]

How are your vitamin levels and what supplements are you taking?

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to RoseStar]

Yes