Hi Athene and all,
Thanks for pointing me to this thread Athene.
As someone who's experiencing adrenal 'burnout', which is not the same as adrenal exhaustion or 'insufficiency', I just wanted to stress how extremely important it is to get a
24 hour salivary hormone test done before trying any supplementation. You need to know what your cortisol levels are throughout the day, not just in the mornings, as they change dramatically (as they should) during a 24 hour period. The problem is, when one has been under various stressors for years (including bacterial, etc), then cortisol often ends up very low in the AM (when it should be high), and high in the evening, when it should be low.
Adrenal burnout and adrenal exhaustion (or insufficiency) are two very different things.
"Burnout" is the stage just
prior to exhaustion, where one's adrenals -- due most often to long term stressors -- are often putting out elevated levels of cortisol, usually towards the latter parts of the day, but sometimes all day and night (as mine were back in 2003) -- before they finally can't keep this up any longer and you end up with low cortisol throughout the entire 24 hour period. The latter is adrenal insufficiency.
Symptoms of elevated cortisol can include: Anxiety, restlessness, irritability, and most often, feeling 'better' in the late afternoon/evenings, and also feeling like you're getting a 'second wind' about 11pm, and then not being able to go to sleep until about 2-3 am.
This may explain why some folks have had
negative reactions to commonly prescribed 'classic' supplements for the adrenals like pantothenic acid (B5) and/or even a B-complex. Pantothenic acid stimulates the adrenals to secrete more cortisol. If one's cortisol levels are already high,
then this may make them go even higher -- not a good thing.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18520055
The same thing can happen with other vitamins and also herbal remedies, like for example licorice root extract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21184804
I just can't believe I'm still in burnout, nine years after that first test. I completely forgot about the importance of the adrenals -- as did the new DOCTOR I was seeing the past 3 years(!) -- so I'm pissed at her, but have to let go of that, and accept some responsibility myself and move forward, now trying to LOWER my still-high cortisol (at noon!) and later in the afternoon/evening. But it's bad -- I lost 10 lbs of muscle in 6 months due to cortisol catabolizing my muscles for fuel -- and 14 lbs in one year.
Things that help lower cortisol are zinc, Seriphos, and amino acids like lysine, arginine, and ornithine. Also increasing one's complex carbs, rest, laughter, meditation, forgiveness, etc..
The 24 hour salivary cortisol test is available through many labs, including Diagnos-Techs. A google search will turn up more info on all of this.
Okay, I'll shut up.