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Adrenal fatigue stage 3 profile/solutions?

Messages
2
I have been a high level athlete my whole life but the last 2 years I took on a second full time job while trying to maintain my training volume. The result has been many different symptoms, mainly cannot sleep more than 3 hours straight, extremely low sex drive, no hunger ever, constant fatigue. I took a saliva adrenal panel from biohealth and here were the results:

Cortisol ( Reference ranges)
AM: 8.9 (13-24)
Noon: 3.8 (5-8)
afternoon: 1.6 (4-7)
evening: 0.6 (1-3)

Dhea: 16.52 (2-10)

Estradiol: 0.8 (1-3)

Estriol: 2.7 (0.5 - 40)

progesterone: 87.6 (5 - 100)

Testosterone (AM): 61.8 (40 - 130)

Melatonin: 1.9 (12 - 35)

So cortisol is really low, Dhea is EXTREMELY high, testerone was low normal, estradiol was low, estriol was low normal and melatonin as extremely low. I'm taking progenelone/licorice root/herbal adrenal supplement (ginseng, etc).

From what I understand this is adrenal fatigue stage 3? Anyone see anything in the results to suggest something else? Is there anything else I can do to speed up recovery?

Edit: Currently working 20 hours a week total and not training.
 
Last edited:

Aerose91

Senior Member
Messages
1,400
Hey man

I know this will sound crazy to you and I don't mean for this to take away from your suffering but you're in very early stage 3. Severe AF is what brought me into ME and i was a stage 4- the worst case I or any of my doctors have ever seen. They even refused to treat me at first because they thought I had Addisons. I couldn't sleep like you, couldnt walk, stand, feed myself, keep balance, stay concious etc.. I showered once a month because that's the time I could crawl to the bathroom.

Anyway, my AF suddenly dissappeared when I got encephalitis which is what triggered my ME. What I've since learned is that the encephalopathy I have (chronic brain infection) is forcing my cortisol up to higher levels than it was to fight the infection.

What you hear about AF being an adrenal problem is incorrect. The only one who has it right so far is Dr Jack Kruse. It's a brain toxicity disorder. Things that will make it worse are genetic snp's that inhibit detoxing, liver problems, poor circadian rhythems, blue light at night etc.. Check out his article here:

http://www.jackkruse.com/brain-gut-16-adrenal-fatigue-rx/?fdx_switcher=true

You can make a full recovery, just be careful not to overdo it now while you're still able to do stuff. The severe crashes are a living hell. Good luck, bro
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
I think HPA-axis malfunction can be caused by many things.

I would add in pregnenolone (50 mg+), give you body the raw materials it needs and let it produce what it wants. You could even add progesterone, and licorice root is smart too. Pregnenolone would theoretically let you boost cortisol levels (if partially converted to), and licorice root would extend the life of it.

While I think activity can cause adrenal fatigue like symptoms, I think there is something else keeping people in that state, whether it be genetics or pathogen (virus). There's usually something else at play besides just being stuck in adrenal fatigue. If you had adrenal fatigue because your glands were depleted, they would come back online quick if you fixed the deficiency. Otherwise, there is something else contributing to it.
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
The shape of the cortisol curve looks fine to me. It's supposed to be high in the morning and drop to near zero in the evening.

Without knowing the reference ranges the rest is uninterpretable. Please always add the reference ranges if you want useful feedback on lab tests.
 
Messages
2
Thank you for the quick replies. I have edited it to include reference ranges as well.

I looked at the website aerose posted (Btw that all sounds awful man - so sorry you had to go through that), very interesting stuff. Will try sticking closer to the diet he recommends, although I do most of it without knowing it on my own (low carb breakfast, etc).

I will have to check into different viruses...I took the test March 1, so I didn't "know" I was like this until then which is only a couple months ago. I do know before I took on my crazy schedule work/training that I was fine but I'm open minded and willing to look into whatever could help. I will keep on taking both the prognenolone and licorice root in hopes that it is helping. My plan is to get re-tested in July. Open to any other suggestions, and thank you again.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Since you're a beginner here, you might not have heard yet the "low and slow" advice. Licorice contains glucocorticoids and mimics cortisol replacement, and you may be tempted to eat as much as you can hold to try to bring things back to normal faster.

Start with what is considered a quarter of a normal dose of whatever you're taking and, over a period of weeks, gradually increase. If your cortisol is super-low you risk it being suppressed when you take too much at once. There are many threads here that discuss the suppressive fx of too much cortisol. Just be careful; your body is already compromised.

I consider ginseng (Panax ginseng) a little excitatory. Consider trying (LOW AND SLOW) Withania somnifera in the AM.

Oh, and welcome!

-J
 

Aerose91

Senior Member
Messages
1,400
Thank you for the quick replies. I have edited it to include reference ranges as well.

I looked at the website aerose posted (Btw that all sounds awful man - so sorry you had to go through that), very interesting stuff. Will try sticking closer to the diet he recommends, although I do most of it without knowing it on my own (low carb breakfast, etc).

I will have to check into different viruses...I took the test March 1, so I didn't "know" I was like this until then which is only a couple months ago. I do know before I took on my crazy schedule work/training that I was fine but I'm open minded and willing to look into whatever could help. I will keep on taking both the prognenolone and licorice root in hopes that it is helping. My plan is to get re-tested in July. Open to any other suggestions, and thank you again.

Hopefully you can get somewhere with that. Another thing that was very successful with AF people is something called nutritional balancing. It's a hair mineral analysis that looks at heavy metals and minerals in your tissues and tweaks your diet and adds correct supplements. I saw some people make some damn good recoveries with that. Just look up nutritional balancing practitioners in your area, it's pretty cheap.
Another thing to consider is phosphatidylcholine. It helps rebuild neural connections and rebuild cell membranes- very important for us.

As someone who had very severe AF and was deep in the community for a while I would recommend being cautious with pregnenolone haphazardly like that. Pregnenolone steal is real, yes, but you need to know where its going. Sometimes you may need to take small amounts of DHEA with it as well and some people (myself) even have paradoxical effects.
My best advice would be to find yourself a good naturopath / functional practitioner who is well versed in AF and let them look at your labs and make suggestions from there before starting hormones. Get a full picrure of where youre at; infections, hormones, histamines, inflammattory markers and just assuke heavy levels of toxicity. Adrenal glandulars are a bit old school at this point since they know it's not direct adrenal gland damage but they may give you adaptagens (licorice root, ashwandaga etc..). Then, do a nutritional balancing test and add their supplements and diet suggestions into Dr Kruse's paleo outline. If you do those combined with correct rest and detox, detox, detox i think you'll bounce back better as ever. Unfortunately it does take some time though :meh: Something high speed people like us don't want to give but it's necessary.
 

Aerose91

Senior Member
Messages
1,400
Another thing to add: the fact that your cortisol is still following the correct diurnal pattern is really good. Your DHEA being high and cortisol being low def mean you're off in your signaling a bit but you still have a correct circadian rhythem. When AF gets to later stages your cortisol will start rising at night and the whole pattern will be off. Keep your circadian cycles as good as you can and try to avoid blue light at night etc.. If you catch it now you'll have a much, much easier time.