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Able to lower hydrocortisone dose

WoolPippi

Senior Member
Messages
556
Location
Netherlands
in March I upped my HC dose to 40 mg per day. This was the dose that made me not-fatigued. This was the correct dosis. If there was stress I took 65 a day.

Since then I'm doing things and even took up powerlifting. I take small amounts of mB12 now every day without getting hyped.

Beside this my colon has quieted down (by not eating fibres or gas-producing foods). As a result I don't suffer from insomnia anymore.

Because I now sleep through the night my adrenals seems to do better. I am lowering my HC.
This is good because a side effect of HC is low calcium in the blood. The blood then takes the calcium from the bones to try and up its levels.

If you ever think about taking HC please have your calcium checked prior and during and also your bone density. I had a DEXA-scan.

Ps I still have to take horizontal rests twice a day. No job. Lots of trying to keeping the nervous system calm.
 

jjxx

Senior Member
Messages
137
Have you looked into improve your adrenal function instead of flushing your body with HRT, which is nothing wrong to begin with? I have to flush in some estrogen on daily basis.
 

WoolPippi

Senior Member
Messages
556
Location
Netherlands
Have you looked into improve your adrenal function instead of flushing your body with HRT, which is nothing wrong to begin with? I have to flush in some estrogen on daily basis.
I'm sorry, I don't understand the question because English is not my native language. My HRT consists of Cortisol and Progesteron, two hormones I show deficiency in, both in blood levels and in symptoms.

Progesteron deficiency has been present all my life only I didn't know. My adrenal insufficiency has been aquired and is the thing I addressed first, in 2008, and I did so without hormones. I followed the book Adrenal Fatigue by dr Wilson to the lettre and read up on dr Selye, specialist on the human stress system.

All the destressing, salt and vit C didn't help enough because cortisol is made from progesteron which I am lacking naturally. Only when I started Progesteron did adrenal functions improve. Only not enough. Which is why I started hydrocortison. Which I upped to adequate dosis only last year. I need to keep doing all the other things for adrenals too (rest, vit C, glandular extracts) and the things for sex hormone balance (no estrogen, no soy products)

I am not flushing anything, my HRT is a delicate practice. The system is very sensitive. One portion of soy yoghurt and I spot.

Is your answer in here?
 

Paralee

Senior Member
Messages
571
Location
USA
@WoolPippi , I wasn't aware (or don't remember) vit. C being involved in raising cortisol, I get a stim test for low cortisol (and maybe more) this Friday, my cortisol has fallen from 24 to 4.6 (morning) in the last couple of years. I've been trying to find out what caused it and had two culprits in mind, then read something about it having to do with too much calcium. Since I had high cortisol and high calcium at the same time for a while (2-3 yrs. or so) this is confusing.


I was trying to blame my cortisol falling because of a Cipro toxicity and a B6 toxicity, since all my hormone levels went down. But as usual...I digress. What I was asking about was the vitamin C and approximately how much one should take a day. I hear so many tout vit. C as a cure all and others say "be very careful" with it.
 

WoolPippi

Senior Member
Messages
556
Location
Netherlands
@WoolPippi , I wasn't aware (or don't remember) vit. C being involved in raising cortisol, I get a stim test for low cortisol (and maybe more) this Friday, my cortisol has fallen from 24 to 4.6 (morning) in the last couple of years. I've been trying to find out what caused it and had two culprits in mind, then read something about it having to do with too much calcium. Since I had high cortisol and high calcium at the same time for a while (2-3 yrs. or so) this is confusing.


I was trying to blame my cortisol falling because of a Cipro toxicity and a B6 toxicity, since all my hormone levels went down. But as usual...I digress. What I was asking about was the vitamin C and approximately how much one should take a day. I hear so many tout vit. C as a cure all and others say "be very careful" with it.
The adrenals use vit C, is all I know.

I take 200-500 mg per day on days that I eat carbohydrates (vegetables, bread, sweets). The vegetables need vitamins to be absorbed.

On days that I eat egg yokes, chicken soup, liver or gelatine I take no vitamins. The meats have full spectrum amino acids and do not need vitamins for digestive uptake.

I sometimes use 1 - 2 grams of vit C to flush my colon. 1 gram does nothing, 2 grams has me running to the toilet. I don't do this often because I'm cautious on putting too much of anything in my body.

Yours is quiet the puzzle.
Due to raising cortisol artificially my body is losing calcium. I have low blood levels and my bone deposits are being raided. So there must be some connection between calcium and cortisol. I don't know how.

All hormonal glands taper production after the age of 25.
Dr. Hertoghe in Brussels is fan of supplementing these shortages from the get go. He does not condone "it's a natural decline, it's your age". When you cannot function in your life, your levels are too low. No matter how many people of your age have the same blood levels.
Good luck Friday and don't settle for "your levels are normal, there's nothing wrong." What you want are "optimum levels".
 

Paralee

Senior Member
Messages
571
Location
USA
@WoolPippi , thanks for the info. I'll check into it. I don't know why my cortisol stayed so good, but my calcium was because I had hyperparathyroidism, so maybe the parathyroid hormone is a clue there. But after I had two parathyroid adenomas taken out the cortisol still remained good, and calcium was in the 9's, which is what we need.

I think all my hormones started dropping when I got Cipro'd, I don't know, but the timing connects right, and I'm still checking out records to make sure.

Thanks again........and no, lol, I never accept a "normal" without records (hoping I'm getting the correct ones) and checking them out.

OK, I re-read your post and got to thinking about my calcium levels in my urine test during that time. My blood calcium only got clinically high twice but always a good level in the "normal" ranges, so I guess my kidneys were doing a good job keeping my blood levels ok most of the time.

My bones were thinning out, though. Now they're back to a much younger density and I'm no spring chicken.

You might be interested in parathyroid dot com....it's a lot to it but well worth checking out.
 
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Paralee

Senior Member
Messages
571
Location
USA
The adrenals use vit C, is all I know.

I take 200-500 mg per day on days that I eat carbohydrates (vegetables, bread, sweets). The vegetables need vitamins to be absorbed.

On days that I eat egg yokes, chicken soup, liver or gelatine I take no vitamins. The meats have full spectrum amino acids and do not need vitamins for digestive uptake.

I sometimes use 1 - 2 grams of vit C to flush my colon. 1 gram does nothing, 2 grams has me running to the toilet. I don't do this often because I'm cautious on putting too much of anything in my body.

Yours is quiet the puzzle.
Due to raising cortisol artificially my body is losing calcium. I have low blood levels and my bone deposits are being raided. So there must be some connection between calcium and cortisol. I don't know how.

All hormonal glands taper production after the age of 25.
Dr. Hertoghe in Brussels is fan of supplementing these shortages from the get go. He does not condone "it's a natural decline, it's your age". When you cannot function in your life, your levels are too low. No matter how many people of your age have the same blood levels.
Good luck Friday and don't settle for "your levels are normal, there's nothing wrong." What you want are "optimum levels".

@WoolPippi , got my letter in the mail yesterday "normal", no levels.
 

Rlman

Senior Member
Messages
389
Location
Toronto, Canada
in March I upped my HC dose to 40 mg per day. This was the dose that made me not-fatigued. This was the correct dosis. If there was stress I took 65 a day.

Hey @WoolPippi , how did you dose 40 mg HC? like 20mg in morning then 10mg noon and 10mg late afternoon? How about now with 20mg HC? Thanks so much for sharing your recovery story! :)
 

Paralee

Senior Member
Messages
571
Location
USA
The adrenals use vit C, is all I know.

I take 200-500 mg per day on days that I eat carbohydrates (vegetables, bread, sweets). The vegetables need vitamins to be absorbed.

On days that I eat egg yokes, chicken soup, liver or gelatine I take no vitamins. The meats have full spectrum amino acids and do not need vitamins for digestive uptake.

I sometimes use 1 - 2 grams of vit C to flush my colon. 1 gram does nothing, 2 grams has me running to the toilet. I don't do this often because I'm cautious on putting too much of anything in my body.

Yours is quiet the puzzle.
Due to raising cortisol artificially my body is losing calcium. I have low blood levels and my bone deposits are being raided. So there must be some connection between calcium and cortisol. I don't know how.

All hormonal glands taper production after the age of 25.
Dr. Hertoghe in Brussels is fan of supplementing these shortages from the get go. He does not condone "it's a natural decline, it's your age". When you cannot function in your life, your levels are too low. No matter how many people of your age have the same blood levels.
Good luck Friday and don't settle for "your levels are normal, there's nothing wrong." What you want are "optimum levels".

@WoolPippi , thanks for the answer. Guess what? My base cortisol (same time limit-8-9 in the morning) has gone back up to between 24 - 25. I have a bipolar body. And since I have Hashi's, I never know why my bp and pulse are up and/or down. I'm an enigma. :bang-head:

Edit: Forgot to mention, I have had high cortisol and calcium at the same time, but I also had hyperparathyroidism, maybe if I can find some old records I can see if I did before the hyperparathyroidism (I hate that looonnng word) I can check on the levels before then and see if there was a difference like yours.
 

WoolPippi

Senior Member
Messages
556
Location
Netherlands
Hey @WoolPippi , how did you dose 40 mg HC? like 20mg in morning then 10mg noon and 10mg late afternoon? How about now with 20mg HC? Thanks so much for sharing your recovery story! :)

I never took more than 5 mg at once. I found my body doesn't like high peaks. symptom = I get hungry.

This is my dosage these days:
2,5 when I get up
2,5 2 hours after that (say 9 AM)
2,5 2 hours after that (say 11 AM)
2 2 hours after that (say 13 o'clock)
1 or 2 3 hours after that (say 16 o'clock)

2 extra when I go exercising in the afternoon or when it's cold or when I bump my toe/head or when someone makes me jump or when I have bowel related insomnia or when something external makes me cry or when I take a shower in the afternoon.

guess I'm even more down on my daily dose from 20 mg now... I'm at about 15 mg per uneventful day. But I have at least 2 eventful days each week (meaning 2 hours walking in the city or active gardening or meeting people in an environment with noise)
I go by symptoms and this is what I need minimum. It's a bit too low I guess, I've not felt fierce lately.

I do best with 2 or 1 mg per dosage. I just nibble the pill. (beware: cortisone attacks the enamel in your teeth. Rinse with water.)

Either way: have the main bulk of your daily dose before noon.

Edit: when it's hot weather I need more HC too. Dehydration is a large risk when on cortisone.
 
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