Recent 'AF' observations

[drob31]

Lately I've made a few changes to my supplements and diet and I wanted to report on how it's affecting me.

First of all, I dropped allot of the stuff I was taking. Things like Pregnenolone, I definitely needed in the beginning, but after I taper off, I felt better off of it. I had improvement, stagnation, then improvement once tapered off. I noticed I dropped allot of water weight when I went off Prenenolone. I was carrying allot of water, started preg, dropped water, then gained a little back, then went off and dropped even more.

I decided to start using a core of:

Active B vitamins
Dessicated Adrenal gland by standard process (3 pills in morning, 2 in afternoon, 2 in evening)
Cod Liver Oil (A + D + Omega 3's)
Lumbrokinase (1 cap, 2x/day to reduce fibrinogen)
Magnesium Glycinate (600 mg before bed)
Melatonin 1 mg before bed
Probulin Probiotics (1 in morning before breakfast)

I also decided to start eating more calories and having smaller meals more often. This has yeiled the biggest positive impact. I'm pretty sure I've been starving myself for a decade in an attempt to get to low Bodyfat, and this was part of the reason for my AF, or more appropriately termed adrenal stress. Your adrenals don't get fatigued, they get "stressed."

A big clue here is fluctuating blood sugar and cortisol levels. When I haven't eaten for about 3 hours I start to get cranky, but when I eat, I start to wake up a bit. Adding the dessicated adrenal gland to a meal seems to help as well. I'm currently eating about 7 times a day.

I still avoid gluten, and soy, but sometimes have dairy, corn, and legumes. I don't feel sensitive to these currently.

Another thing which I believe has helped is sunlight exposure. On the weekends I have gotten about 3-4 hours of sunlight each day. I'm not sure exactly how this is helping since my 25 hydroxyl levels were already in the mid 50's but hypothetically, maybe the extra production of D increased my T-regs which lead to the slow down was immune system activity or autoimmunity.

 

[Aerose91]

Happy to see you have had some success, i hope it continues for you. Adrenal fatigue, however isn't a problem with your adrenals, it's a signaling problem from your hypathalamus. The glands themselves are fine.

Look up adrenal fatigue by Dr Jack Kruse and some of his teachings. You'll see why the sunlight and better circadian rhythems have been helping you and may get you the rest of the way there.

 

[drob31]

Happy to see you have had some success, i hope it continues for you. Adrenal fatigue, however isn't a problem with your adrenals, it's a signaling problem from your hypathalamus. The glands themselves are fine.

Look up adrenal fatigue by Dr Jack Kruse and some of his teachings. You'll see why the sunlight and better circadian rhythems have been helping you and may get you the rest of the way there.

Thanks. I really don't know what to attribute it to. I'm sure the sunlight and circadian rhythm helps, but I think there is something else causing hpa-axis dysfunction.

 

[Beyond]

Happy to see you have had some success, i hope it continues for you. Adrenal fatigue, however isn't a problem with your adrenals, it's a signaling problem from your hypathalamus. The glands themselves are fine.

Look up adrenal fatigue by Dr Jack Kruse and some of his teachings. You'll see why the sunlight and better circadian rhythems have been helping you and may get you the rest of the way there.

No one has sunbathed more than me (I live in southern Spain and 10 minutes everyday suffice) but it just makes you feel slightly better no way helps adrenal fatigue significantly.

And anyone with true adrenal fatigue (and most people with CFS, fibromyalgia and other autoimmune crap) knows is impossible to get to sleep early, which means you won´t solve the cyrcadian rhythm dysfunction easily. Not even melatonin sublingual will make me drowsy. Nothing does, not even drugs. I haven´t felt drowsy at night since I got ill.

 

[Aerose91]

No one has sunbathed more than me (I live in southern Spain and 10 minutes everyday suffice) but it just makes you feel slightly better no way helps adrenal fatigue significantly.

And anyone with true adrenal fatigue (and most people with CFS, fibromyalgia and other autoimmune crap) knows is impossible to get to sleep early, which means you won´t solve the cyrcadian rhythm dysfunction easily. Not even melatonin sublingual will make me drowsy. Nothing does, not even drugs. I haven´t felt drowsy at night since I got ill.

I hope you weren't accusing me of not having "real" adrenal fatigue or ME. My AF was so bad, doctors refused to treat me because they were positive I had Addisons. My AF has been all over the place since ME hit.

But I agree with you, it's extra hard to get to sleep early with adrenal fatigue and ME- it's a fight we are always in. I can count on one hand the amount of good night's I've slept in 4.5 years. Trying to fix circadian cycles/sun exposure at correct times of the day/no blue light at night etc, are all things that take serious time to have effect. Sucks, but they do. I'm just making the point that since adrenal fatigue is an issue with the hypothalamus rather than the glands themselves, doing things to try and "rebuild" your adrenals glands won't help the problem. Adressing the damage to the hypothalamus eventually will.

 

[Beyond]

I hope you weren't accusing me of not having "real" adrenal fatigue or ME. My AF was so bad, doctors refused to treat me because they were positive I had Addisons. My AF has been all over the place since ME hit.

But I agree with you, it's extra hard to get to sleep early with adrenal fatigue and ME- it's a fight we are always in. I can count on one hand the amount of good night's I've slept in 4.5 years. Trying to fix circadian cycles/sun exposure at correct times of the day/no blue light at night etc, are all things that take serious time to have effect. Sucks, but they do. I'm just making the point that since adrenal fatigue is an issue with the hypothalamus rather than the glands themselves, doing things to try and "rebuild" your adrenals glands won't help the problem. Adressing the damage to the hypothalamus eventually will.

Nah not all. I read your posts describing your symptoms last year, quite scary, so wouldn´t accuse you of not being ill! The post was worded agressively because I am frustrated.

Well we just disagree about what would be enough to heal "AF". Nevertheless, its time for me to buy those damned blublocker glasses. There is no debate regarding if they work or not, everyone I have seen benefits from blocking blue light at night. And its not like getting some sunlight at early morning is the hardest thing to do either.

 

[Aerose91]

Nah not all. I read your posts describing your symptoms last year, quite scary, so wouldn´t accuse you of not being ill! The post was worded agressively because I am frustrated.

Well we just disagree about what would be enough to heal "AF". Nevertheless, its time for me to buy those damned blublocker glasses. There is no debate regarding if they work or not, everyone I have seen benefits from blocking blue light at night. And its not like getting some sunlight at early morning is the hardest thing to do either.

My bad if I came across too aggressive. Like you (probably), I've been accused too many times of being psychiatric or embellishing my illness to the point where I'm pretty touchy about it. I understand your aggravation all too well, it's been 4.5 years for me and all I've managed to do is obtain a new disease (ME)

I don't think just fixing circadian rhythems and blocking blue light is enough to heal AF, no way. It's just an important foundation. What I mean is I and many others wasted so many years doing things to directly heal the adrenal glands themselves when that was never the problem, it's the hypothalamus. Had I known that from the beginning I could have focused on different and more helpful things as a foundation to recovery.

I believe adrenal fatigue is a toxicity illness that effects your HPA axis, particularly the hypothalamus. There's more and more research coming along to support this nowadays. Sunlight and sleep patterns are important, but one must also keep energy expenditure in check, eat correctly, maybe employ some cell membrane repair and detox, detox, detox. I don't think any one or two things alone is enough, I believe they all have to be done together to make the turnaround. I do believe it's possible, though.

 

[Beyond]

Yeah taking Vitamin C and Panthetine and other "adrenal supplements" never did a fig for me, and tests leave pretty clear I am severely deficient in all "adrenal" hormones.

It´s too bad we have SO MANY quacks and desperate people in the Internet. They make a nefarious combination.

 

[Beagle]

It´s too bad we have SO MANY quacks and desperate people in the Internet. They make a nefarious combination.

Yes they do. Though I can't agree with all their site, whenever people tell me I have adrenal fatigue (and here's how to treat it) I like to point them at the Science Based Medicine article: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/fatigued-by-a-fake-disease/

Unfortunately I usually get a predictable response ("Written by people with a vested interest", "Doctors don't know everything" et al)