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High Cortisol Inherited?

Messages
48
I have only done a fasting blood test in the morning (around 10:45 a.m) for cortisol and it was raised. I have all the symptoms of someone with high cortisol. Strangely enough so did my father. All the symptoms of high estrogen and low progesterone for example are prevalent.

I've always had a problem with stress and so did he. His hands used to shake before he died in his 50's of heart disease. I'm afraid I'm going the same way unless I can help myself.

I tried to get my doctor to test me for cushings syndrome but he wouldn't go further because I didn't have a hump on my back. Maybe that's not it. Are there other conditions / gene mutations / anomalies, which can contribute to high cortisol and can be passed from father to son? It seems to be on one side of my immediate family.

Thanks
 

ryan31337

Senior Member
Messages
664
Location
South East, England
Hi @dominover,

How much out of range was it? I'm curious about this myself as I've had several elevated 9am tests, though only by +10-20%. I have no idea if its something that needs to massively elevated for a doctor to take notice. Seeing a good endo again in a few weeks so will hopefully know more then.

Ryan
 

alicec

Senior Member
Messages
1,572
Location
Australia
I'm still interested whether this can be inherited

I've done a bit of research on high cortisol since it is something I have experienced at times.

Lots of things can cause elevated cortisol, most notably stress, but high cortisol does not equal Cushing's syndrome. The latter is relatively rare and the most common cause is use of glucocorticoid medication (exogenous CS). The much less common endogenous CS is usually the result of a pituitary or adrenal tumour.

I haven't come across any suggestion that CS can be inherited (apart from a very rare inherited condition which includes pituitary tumours) so I just did a quick Google search.

I found one recent paper which does seem to show a germline mutation in the gene PRKACA in a subcategory of patients with CS. In another group, mutations in this gene were found in adrenal tumours though not in the germline of the patients.

Please note this is an extremely small group of patients with very serious disease, not just high cortisol. The study concludes

Consistent with the hypothesis that the resulting increased PKA activity is responsible for adrenocortical tumor formation, patients with somatic defects had single adenomas, whereas patients with germline duplications presented with bilateral adrenal hyperplasias. All the patients with PRKACA defects, whether germline or somatic, had overt Cushing's syndrome, and none of the patients with subclinical Cushing's syndrome or other adrenal tumors had genetic PRKACA alterations.
 
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Messages
48
Then why do I grow so much chest fat that I look like I'm growing breasts. 2 years of solid cardio hasn't moved a thing.
My father had the same until it killed him...

High estrogen is a result of high cortisol (via depleted progesterone). How else can high estrogen be maintained then???????

I just can't believe there's not answers to this if my father had it!
 

alicec

Senior Member
Messages
1,572
Location
Australia
I just can't believe there's not answers to this if my father had it!

I'm just saying that there is no obvious genetic basis to Cushing's syndrome, let alone high cortisol. Your problems may have a completely different basis.

It sounds like you need to find a doctor who will be more helpful in further investigation.
 
Messages
48
Sorry about my post. Didn't mean to sound arrogant.. I'm just a little frustrated and disillusioned with our medical establishment. I genuinely appreciate your help :)