Adrenals Question

I have a lot of questions, but am not sure how long I can sit here since my sciatica is acting up.
1) I don't understand too much about adrenals and cortisol although I have read a lot. I have the book, Adrenal Fatigue. It seems that most of you talk about taking some cortisol and that is what I thought I might need for a long time. But now I am realizing that my cortisol is too high. I have hypertension and am having to take lotrel which is a combination of calcium channel blocker and ace inhibitor. It seems like that it has been during this time that I have been taking that medicine that I have been gaining weight around the middle only. I have always been a slim person and gained less than 20 pounds with my first pregnancy. I am 63 years old but I still knew that this is strange and does not have a direct relation with menopause since I have been through that for quite a while. Then I found a book entitled "Potbelly Syndrome" and know that is what I have. It is also called syndrome x. It involves insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and high cortisol. It says it is caused by some kind of parasite. I have been tested positive for h-pylori. My cortisol was tested in Oct.2000 and the morning was 18.2(expected range 3-8) and the night level was 2.9 (expected range .5 - 1.5) At that time I didn't know the significance of that being high and was having to get rid of a bad naturopath. Anyway, what I need to know is what is the difference between the high cortisol and adrenal exhaustion? I think I need to lower mine and I am now taking chromium picolinate and have not noticed any difference. I have also heard of two natural products, one of them being relora that sounds good. Polly I am reading your book about fibromyalgia because the serotonin connection seems so much related to my symptoms. Do I understand that the adrenals need to be taken care of before taking any thyroid medicine? There are a few doctors listed on the thyroid.about.com site who sound good for me(within 130 miles)which I wanted to try but not sure about the adrenal stuff first. I would ask them on the phone before I make an appointment but I'm not quite sure what to ask since my understanding of the adrenals is lacking.
BTW, I have had a sleep problem all of my adult life that has been devastating so much that I have always wished that I could become normal before I die to show myself and family who I really am. Now I have two things that help me sleep if my gut was not giving me a fit so much and keeping me awake. I take melatonin and benadryl, but the gut pain, bloating, and irritation is literally an eye-opener. I have IBS and they say that is either constipation or diarrhea or alternating, but mine is more like at the same time. It is like diarrhea in the way it feels in my gut but it is hard to get to move and I never feel like I am finished. I end up on the pot for close to two hours every night. I get off to give my sciatica relief and sit back down to try to give my gut relief. I'm sorry to be spilling such personal things and for writing so long. I am not sure what to do for that. There are so many things to try for the gut issue and I don't know in what order to do them.
2)That leads me to the second question:Polly said that Leo Galland says that probiotics will feed amoebas and that should be worked on first. What is the best thing to kill them. Is the Hulda Clark protocol a good way to do it (cloves, walnut hull tincture, and I forgot the 3rd one).
3) I have not taken the antibiotics that were prescribed for my h-pylori and have been trying natural things. So far nothing has helped or at least the pain remains the same. I tried manuka honey, mastic gum, dgl, zinc carnosine, vitamin c, vitamin a, oil of oregano, and slippery elm. I have also been taking one tablespoon of coconut oil, but figure I would need to gradually get up to three a day.
So does anyone know any answers? What should be done first? Is a colon cleanse better than colonics? Would a coffee enema help? Should a parasite cleanse come first.
I have a friend in Alabama who has used a rife machine and something called qxci which she thinks is going to help and she thinks I should come down there and try it.
I am too brain foggy to know if I asked everything or if I made any sense. I just hope someone knows something that will help. I hope to also be able to help others in the future. Thank you for reading this.

Can you get a full thyroid panel done? High cortisol can be due to hypothyroidism, as your liver cannot clear the cortisol and its half-life gets extended.

The feeling of incomplete evacuation is also a symptom of hypothyroidism. T3 runs your sleep cycles. I noticed an amazing difference in sleep quality when I got onto T3. It also runs your gut/digestion. Anyway, that is where I would start.


The high cortisol elevates insulin, and elevated insulin becomes insulin resistance. Doctors don't seem to know what the hell high cortisol means.... I also had this. Putting some things together, I would also try to take more magnesium. Magnesium deficiency will lower DHEA levels, which then elevates cortisol. Magnesium seems to be the key to using insulin properly, but if you are hypothyroid, you will have trouble retaining magnesium. Reading over your post, I think the majority of your problems are related to your thyroid. Good luck.


Thanks so much for your quick answer. So if you get the thyroid that takes care of the cortisol? You don't have to do the cortisol first? Did you have the cortisol problem? I have followed your posts a lot and have a lot of the same symptoms. How are you doing?

I guess it would be a good thing to ask the doctor that I am going to try to make an appointment with what kinds of tests he does. I am just getting a name from Mary Shomon's site. What does the full panel inclued? I was just thinking it was ok to go by the symptoms, but I will ask for that if that is best.

BTW, Marilyn have you ever seen a graph that shows that ms lesions increase in the winter months when there isn't as much sunshine(which means that vitamin D helps ms)? If you haven't, I'll try to find it. I just ran across that and thought of you.

I will definetely get some thyroid, but just need to know if that is supposed to be done before taking care of the cortisol. Did you mean that the thyroid causes the liver not to work to get rid of the excess cortisol? Sorry to be so dumb, but the mercury is already working on my brain.

Thanks so much for your help.

When you don't have enough thyroid hormone, your liver is sluggish. You cannot get rid of excess estrogen, cortisol, ammonia etc. My estrogen dominance cleared up on T3 which immediately increases production progesterone and bile salts. If you are going to do a thyroid panel, make sure it includes free T3, free T4, T3 uptake, rT3..... high cortisol can turn T3 into rT3 which is inactive... high estrogen can also mess up how you use thyroid hormones as estrogen can occupy thyroid receptor sites... on the other hand, some of these problems can clear up when you get on thyroid hormones, which then improves liver function. That is why I would first start with thyroid testing... so many problems are thyroid related, and until you address that, you spend a lot of money on tests that show abnormalities like high cholesterol, but the root problem is hypothyroidism.

I am sort of doing the Dr. Lowe protocol, and am now on 140 �g of time released liothyronine.... it is not perfect, but it is the best I have so far tried. Armour thyroid did not work for me as I could not convert the T4 to T3. My last doctor who is the only one that had a clue about mercury toxicity said her clinic was finding that the mercury poisoned did far better on high doses of T3.

I have seen the graphs that show winter lesions are more active in MS, but I question whether vitamin D is the only factor. Raymond Peat says that people need far more thyroid hormone in the winter and I wonder how much this has to do with it, as myelin production seems to be controlled by T3. There is a relationship between vitamin D and T3 also, that I don't know if they understand just yet. High cortisol is very common with MS and when they do autopsies on MS cadavers, they find very enlarged adrenal glands. There could be so many reasons for this. When you are hypothyroid, the adrenals try to make up for the lack of energy by pouring out adrenaline and cortisol.... magnesium deficiencies can be at the root cause of enlarged adrenals... for basically the same reason, a lock of energy, in this case ATP energy...

Mercury poisons the adrenals and in the beginning you pour a cortisol as poison is a form of stress. My DHEA was so low it was scary... low DHEA will elevate cortisol... I don't know the doctors understand cortisol very well. Some people find that if they take a little bit of cortisol in the form of Cortef, it will lower their own cortisol output which seems contradictory... if you have hypoglycemia, if your pancreas are not putting out enough digestive enzymes which is common with mercury poisoning, your cortisol will be elevated because it brings up blood sugar. If you have mercury poisoning, your thyroid has undoubtedly been affected... I would try to correct it first... you might only need iodine and selenium, but most people on the metal list at least have had to take some form of supplemental thyroid because their conversion pathways in the liver are compromised. That is probably why I could not convert T4 to T3 because my liver is severely messed up.... but until I got onto the thyroid, I was reacting to every supplement I tried to take.... now I can take some liver herbs and B vitamins... but I sure don't have all the answers yet....


Marilyn,
Thank you so much. You explained that so much better than I have ever seen before. I am understanding it better now, maybe not as well as I should. I have printed your post and will be studying it some more. I am so glad I asked because I will be better armed to know for sure what I want the doctor to do and to make sure they will do as I ask before I choose them, I hope.
Polly says that synthroid can make some people worse and I think I have seen an example of that. My mother was on synthroid for a few years before she died. When she became bedridden two months before she died, it became extremely hard to give her all of her medicines. Therefore, we decided the synthroid was not as important as some others. Before she was bedridden her eyelids had been swolen almost shut which I knew was a sign of hypothyroidism. After we stopped giving her the synthroid the swelling went away. I would never want to take synthroid.
As for the winter lesions being worse in ms, I am sure you know and have studied that much more than I would know. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something you had missed if it was significant. Sunshine has been beneficial to for melatonin, so I have a lot of respect for it.
Thanks for taking the time to help me understand the thyroid and adrenals. I wish good health for you.

Synthroid can indeed make people worse. I've been on the thyroid newsgroup for quite some time. Even small amounts of T4 can suppress the pituitary. What happens is, say someone takes 25 �g of Synthroid, and their pituitary gets totally suppressed. Then there is no feedback loop to the thyroid and it stops producing thyroid hormones. The unfortunate person is then trying to function on 25 �g of Synthroid, which is not enough thyroid hormone to replace anywhere near what they would be making if healthy.... sometimes Synthroid seems to work for some people, but doses have to be high enough and people have to be able to convert the T4 to T3.... most people feel better with added T3, but from the thyroid newsgroup I have learned there are many exceptions to any thyroid therapy. A lot of it seems to be trial and error. It sounds like your mother was very hypothyroid, her state of hypothyroidism was induced by the low amount of Synthroid. No wonder you are afraid of it!


Marilyn, I checked out the thyroid newsgroup site. Just the little bit I looked at it, I see that it has a lot of information. I am glad to hear about them. I am understanding more after you explained it and also reading at that site. Yes, I think my mother was really bad hypothyroid. Her TSH checked 82. That sounded like such an unbelievably high number for something that should be in the range of .5 to 5 or 6, that I asked them to repeat the number. I thought they might be looking at the decimal point wrong. But they said, no that was what it was. I have wished I had found out my mother's blood type because of maybe needing to know anything about her health specifics.

I am trying to pick out a doc from Mary Shomon's site. The one that sounded the best does not take insurance and is expensive. I think I had better choose someone else since I would feel free to try to get more tests done. I don't mean to bore you with all that...I'm just rattling on.

I do want to ask you one thing though: What was your opinion of the infrared saunas? I remember that you were selling yours when you were moving, but did you think they are worth the money? I want to get one someday but want to make sure I can make use of it.

Thanks so much for your help. I am always glad to read your posts here and on the metals forum.

Hi Patsy and Marilyn,

Sorry that I didn't respond sooner. (I've been off the computer for a while.) Patsy, I'm glad that Marilyn answered your questions. She did a much better job than I ever could have. You definitely need a practitioner that would at least consider T3 therapy. Yes, serotonin seems to be a big factor in MS. Within the last few months, I have witnessed dramatic improvements in two friends who had severe sciatica by them getting their neck adjusted using the technique found at www.atlasprofilax.com One additional friend tried it, and said that the sciatica went away, but his sciatica always comes and goes anyway, so he wasn't sure if this neck adjustment had anything to do with it or not. At least this technique it is worth a try, especially if you have had any neck problems or have been in an accident, or have limited range of motion in your neck. Once the top vertebra has been put back where it belongs, the whole spine tends to straighten out. You only need one adjustment (unless you get into another accident). It is definitely NOT THE SAME adjustment you would get from a chiropractor working on your neck. My three friends had tried that before. It is not the same thing at all.

Marilyn, nice to hear that the T3 thyroid is still working for you. I've started taking the Platinum Plus that you had mentioned. I like it. I feel more relaxed and yet have more energy during the day. Maybe I'll get rid of some metals too, wouldn't that be nice.


Thanks for answering Polly. I have not been able to access this forum for a few days so I just today saw that you had answered. My sciatica is in my hip, leg, and foot. I am checking out the site that you mentioned just in case that it helps that too. I really think mine is connected to my intestines. I have searched a little on that and found that that is more common than a slipped disc type thing.
I think I have found a doc to make an appointment with, going by the things Marilyn said I should have tested. I still do not understand for sure about the cortisol, but maybe I can trust a doc just a little.
Thanks so much for your help Polly and Marilyn. I will let you know if this doc helps. I got his name from the Mary Shomon site.

My friends' sciatica was in the legs and hip too. Even though the pain was there, part of the problem was their neck.