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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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  1. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    I don't know. oversupplementing will lower your immune system. It's why cortisol is an anti-inflammatory. It may thusly also lower the repair functions of tissues. (This reminds me to take echineaforce today :) I'm in a period of stress right now and I feel my immune system lowering. My...
  2. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    @outdamnspot have you found your symptoms of overdosing yet? I get jittery, wired, ready to take on the world. And hungry. It goes away in a couple of hours. As with all hormones it's not a problem to overdose on occasion. Just don't make it a regular thing. Because structural high doses will...
  3. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    This is my experience too, and also my understanding :thumbsup: And it's what I base my sage words upon, @YippeeKi YOW !! May I come down from the celebration chair now? I feel awkward:balloons: I took a little longer, stayed on 5 mg for about two months. Didn't get functional until 17,5 mg...
  4. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    Hi, sounds like you're benefitting from the HC. You are supplementing the anti-stress hormones your body lacks and your body is able to relax a bit more. Sounds like you are appropriatly cautious and are not overdoing it. I like your approach (but I'm no doctor! and I have warned you time and...
  5. WoolPippi

    Food source of cartilage

    I usually make a big pot of chicken bones with water, salt and chopped ginger. This year I use a lot of chicken wings. I cut them up with the garden scissors. And I skim the surface, when the foul looking scum is there. Drink some of the broth with hot water thrice a day.
  6. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    Hi :) Yes it is normal to experience the dose wearing off. It is so with most hormones, just think of insuline (carb sleepyness). With hydrocortisone I experience it in 1,5 hours the first half of the day and this lengthens during the day. The time of day when you take it influences whether you...
  7. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    you should also mention these are full replacement doses, taken by people who have no adrenal output and were started on a dose of 5 mg per day, working their way up to where they needed to be. Under medical supervision. Outdamnspot is about to take HC without supervision, without full...
  8. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    I have to work for a couple of days now and cannot spend an hour every day writing on this thread. I will be reading though.
  9. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    am I right in thinking that OCD likes a coherent explanation of what's happening and what is likely going to happen? in that case: your idea that HC is a stimulant is wrong. It is a replacement. It replaces the hormones your adrenals fail to make in adequate quantities. In the last phase...
  10. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    I don't think that's a problem. With this hormone, it will take 45 minutes in your stomach to be converted to cortisol. Effects will come 45 minutes after ingestion, unless you keep part of the pill in your mouth (through the mouth lining it travels faster to your liver than via the stomach...
  11. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    licorice might boost your blood pressure a bit but it activates the adrenals in doing so... it's a stimulant? sorry my frustration about your living situations came through so strongly. I wished we could sit down, draw all aspects of this problem on paper and work it out together. (also...
  12. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    Yes but in a different way. adrenal extracts might burn the system because you're basically pouring rocket fuel into a mini scooter. 20 mg of Hydrocortison will put it out of commission because you're dropping a 20 ton anvil on a bunny. do not take 20 mg of HC you do not seem to have knowledge...
  13. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    Well, 20 mg will make the adrenals stop producing for sure because that's about what they make on a normal, low-stress day and if you supplement it blood levels will be detected and the brain will not ask the adrenals to produce any. Are we perhaps talking about two different things? aiding the...
  14. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    Because HC is a Serious Drug. Hormones are about the most powerful drugs you can take. Like all hormones you can't just dive in, you have to go low, go slow. It's a blood level you're building up to. Taking too much at once might knock out your adrenals. 20 mg/day will make the adrenals stop...
  15. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    I would not mess with insuline-peaks. Insuline and adrenaline are the two emergency-hormones of the body, only used when there is imminent danger. They both override health promoting processes. Instead use 5-htp, GABA and bio-identical progesteron cream. These promote Serotonin, gut health and...
  16. WoolPippi

    Unnerving symptom

    yeah, I recognize this as the phase where your adrenals have crashed and burned. They're not even capable of producing adrenaline anymore. Your body has now pulled the ultimate emergency break. You need to prioritize your health right now or your adrenals will die and so might you. (Adrenal...
  17. WoolPippi

    Feeling exhausted after bowel movement

    Briljant you! For investigating your theory and for confirming it with the glucose meter. :thumbsup: I'm going to follow your example. I learned to counter the exhaustion after a bowel movement by timing my Hydrocortison (HC) with the bowel movement as I certainly collaps after a BM if I'm late...
  18. WoolPippi

    Lack of flue / cold / other common disease

    yeah this idea of biphasic sleep is floating around. It's a load of bollocks, in my opinion. Sprung from one man's head who had a lot of thoughts but not a lot of studies to back up his ponderings. your body needs 5 continuous hours for Deep Sleep and repairs and will do anything to get it...
  19. WoolPippi

    Second visit to KDM - any advice?

    oh man, I seem to have written another novella... sorry. I am too tired to put a TL;DR on top for you tired people. I'm so sorry. :thumbdown:
  20. WoolPippi

    Second visit to KDM - any advice?

    I used ELN for hair analysis and stool analysis. I had my blood tested broad panel hormones by an endocrinologist in Brussels, Thierry Hertoghe. Plus all electrolytes and vitamine. Turns out my blood levels of vit B12 and vit D give no clues because my DNA doesn't code correctly for receptors...
  21. WoolPippi

    Second visit to KDM - any advice?

    Hi, I don't have much to offer so skip this post if you're tired. Just wanted to let you know I'm also in the Netherlands. You're right, there are not much options here. For example, there's no all round "internist" here anymore, the last one was in Utrecht and retired earlier this year. We do...
  22. WoolPippi

    Lack of flue / cold / other common disease

    Yeah, for years I'm free of the cold/flue now, ever since I got ME. With me it's because my cortisol is low --> causing the immune system to run in full Diva-mode --> defeating any virus that even thinks of giving me a cold. I only got a cold once in the past 10 years and it was during a stress...
  23. WoolPippi

    Do people recover?

    I am 47 yo and recovered. Fell ill at age 35. Diagnosed at 37. Recovered at 45. Forum member sueami is a mature woman also and she recovered completely. There is not one solution to fit all, there are so many bodily systems involved once you start to show symptoms that it's hard to find the...
  24. WoolPippi

    Worse or better after menopause?

    hi, sorry to answer so late. yes, my thyroid got better with progesteron but it's not a simple cause-effect. My progesteron deficiency fuels my adrenal deficiency (the anti-stress hormone cortisol is made from progesteron) By fortifying my adrenals -of which progesteron cream was one of the...
  25. WoolPippi

    Do people recover?

    I find “normal people” have a plethora of conditions preventing them from training for a marathon. I am recovered but I have a string of conditions. But they are other conditions. I can feel the difference between them and CFS clearly. With cfs my body just could not cope: with an intruder or...
  26. WoolPippi

    Am I getting better? Thoughts appreciated.

    I was severly ill for four years. Bed ridden. Then four years of “what’s this? I’m not as ill anymore, dare I dream?” House bound. The last two years I am in full recovery. Meaning I do have some chronic things but not the CFS anymore. I am 46 now.
  27. WoolPippi

    Am I getting better? Thoughts appreciated.

    Yes, I experienced the same. Slow slow improvement. After a few years of this I decided I was in recovery :) Prepare to be scared though, whenever you have a set back. But don’t panic if you do, you are wise to get scared. You have been burned by this disease, of course you’ll get scared. But...
  28. WoolPippi

    Iodine - The Biggest Result I've Had So Far

    No idea but compliments and trumpets to you for figuring out you need Iodine!! I used the muscle resistance thing too. The DIY method doesn't work for me. But when a practitioner did it it worked. My body screamed for Lithium, the mineral. That's quite an odd need to have, the practitioner just...
  29. WoolPippi

    Iodine - The Biggest Result I've Had So Far

    amazing that you found this out! trumpets and compliments to you. I also admire your approach of experimenting and figuring things out and trying to aim for the lowest dosage needed. This is more or less how I found out the specifics of my body too. For me it's Choline, Zink, Lithium (the...
  30. WoolPippi

    B12 causing insane anxiety, racing thoughts, and jitteriness!

    I do not agree with you. B12 deficiency is not rare. Blood panels do not always show defiency. Many people benefit from repairing their deficiency. I do agree that starting with high doses is unneccesary. The doses recommended in some protocols on this site are way too high. (I forget the...