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So before I even discovered the ideas of ME/CFS (not really certain that's what I have, no post exertion fatigue) I went through the more well known disorders and one of them I came across was the thyroid / adrenal fatigue.
I scoured StopTheThyroidMadness and it made sense to me so I got a full panel done and a 24 hour salivary cortisol test done. My thyroid panel looked good, other than my RT3 being 17 (which according to STTM >14 is indicative of issues with the adrenals). I also had a full HPG/HPA axis panel done to check Prolactin / FSH / LH and all was good there, though my testosterone was about 399 with the bottom end being 350. My body temps also in the morning could hit as low as 95.0 and my highest natural temps were usually 97.0. I never hit 98.6, ever.
So I started on testosterone replacement with bi-weekly injections subQ totaling 100mg / week with HCG to preserve the testes. I've been on this probably a year and a half. I can't even tell I take it mood / energy wise. The only thing I notice from this is I actually put on and retain muscle.
My salivary cortisol was a bit off. In the morning I was higher than range, 2nd measurement I was so low it was barely detectable, and the 3rd and 4th were 2-3 x too high. According to STTM this could be a beginning stage of "adrenal fatigue" which I'm not that big of a believer in. I'm a believer of cortisol level issues but not necessarily the conventional fatiguing of the adrenals. People with Cushings disease pump out massively excessive amounts of cortisol their entire lives without issue. From what I read some believe it to be a hypothalamus signaling issue, with Rich Van K claiming it is a lack of glutathione in this organ.
So anyway, I went with the method of rubbing some hydrcortisone cream on my skin just to test things out, this was around the same time (it was all a couple years ago). I got an amazing response from that. Connected more with my body, facial expressions normalizing, thoughts normalizing, etc etc. The saliva result skewed my perception of this and I dropped the cream, I only used it sparingly for a couple weeks. I then got disappointed by the whole thing with TRT doing nothing and kind of moved onto the next interesting hypothesis.
Fast forward a couple of years and after going through all kinds of different theories and experiments I came to discover with my schooling that I indeed was having some fairly extreme burnout. I could at times barely have enough will power to watch television if I studied hard for a couple of days. I tested out some licorice root and almost immediately this crushing, defeating, wall of energy drainage evaporated. I perked up and felt pretty good. I had read about consuming the Cortizone 10 ointment (ingredients petroleum jelly and hydrocortisone) so I gave it a shot and for weeks I was feeling incredible, like this was my treatment. I would say my cure but I'm not certain where this is coming from, but it was that strong. My temps were regularly hitting 98.6 for the first time since I started measuring them. I was feeling about 80% normal, up from about 20-25%.
I had my DHEA / Ferritin / iron panel done and everything was in order, except perhaps my DHEA. Dr Mercola (I think it was his article?) suggested DHEA be in the 400-600 range for optimal levels, out of the range 85-690 mcg/dL mine was 200 mcg/dL so I felt I had some room to improve.
Over the few weeks this faded a bit and I added in DHEA 50 mg / day. I was back up and running for about 3 or 4 days until I started to notice some fairly poor side effects. One day I was completely enraged, probably owing to the fact that DHEA can push up estrogen levels, which I read can cause these effects. I drop the DHEA and remain on ~30mg HC / day (~190lb male suggested starting dose -STTM). I also had my Dr order generic HC and that did almost nothing, Cortef seemed to be a bit better but unaffordable at the moment, attempting to get a pre-auth. The ointment honestly works really well.
I'm having a really hard time wondering what I should do or how I should go about getting those results back, or if those results can be gotten back. I'm wondering if I've drained another nutrient or hormone involved in the process. I'm going to add back in 10mg DHEA for a while and slowly go from there and see how I respond but I can't imagine that is the only thing happening here.
Does anyone have an understanding or experience of what could be going on here? My mood/state STRONGLY correlates with my temperature. If I'm at 98.6 I usually feel at least 80%. I'll still have some fog but I'm so much more functional as a human being. All I want to do now is sit around and research as nothing else in life I can even pretend to enjoy in my state, so that's what I do. At 98.6 I was going around taking trips without a 2nd thought, starting projects, going out and doing whatever I felt like, I just had that effortless energy.
I've lightly played with pregnenolone without much result and I do have some Cytomel that I didn't really give a proper run in the beginning before TRT (I tried it and didn't get results in like a week - could have been due to cortisol issues. Moved to TRT and dismissed it).
After 6 or 7 years of hardcore research and experimentation I still don't know what is wrong with me. My disease overview writeup can be found here. My protocol is outdated, I no longer am doing much methylation. Only 7-8 mg Metafolin over the course of the day.
Labs:
05/04/2016
Ferritin, 57. 20-345 ng/mL - (STTM claims men want over 100. Previously had good response from Ferris bis-glycinate 18mg / day. 3-4 hours after taking = 30-45 minute period of heightened mental function, felt dopaminergic. Didn't measure temps).
DHEA, 200, 85-690 mcg/dL
% Iron Saturation, 48, 15-60%
Iron, Total, 136, 50-195 mcg/dL
Iron Binding Capcity, 285, 250-425 mcg/dL
05/01/2015
Bilirubin, 3.3H, 0.2-1.2 mg/dL
TSH, 0.88, 0.40-4.50 mIU/L
09/18/2014
TS, Reverse, LC/MS/MS, 17 ng/dL
T3, FREE, 3.6, 2.3-4.2 pg/mL
TSH, 2.16, 0.40-4.50 mIU/L
T4, FREE, 1.2, 0.8-1.8ng/dL
No thyroid antibodies
Thanks!
I scoured StopTheThyroidMadness and it made sense to me so I got a full panel done and a 24 hour salivary cortisol test done. My thyroid panel looked good, other than my RT3 being 17 (which according to STTM >14 is indicative of issues with the adrenals). I also had a full HPG/HPA axis panel done to check Prolactin / FSH / LH and all was good there, though my testosterone was about 399 with the bottom end being 350. My body temps also in the morning could hit as low as 95.0 and my highest natural temps were usually 97.0. I never hit 98.6, ever.
So I started on testosterone replacement with bi-weekly injections subQ totaling 100mg / week with HCG to preserve the testes. I've been on this probably a year and a half. I can't even tell I take it mood / energy wise. The only thing I notice from this is I actually put on and retain muscle.
My salivary cortisol was a bit off. In the morning I was higher than range, 2nd measurement I was so low it was barely detectable, and the 3rd and 4th were 2-3 x too high. According to STTM this could be a beginning stage of "adrenal fatigue" which I'm not that big of a believer in. I'm a believer of cortisol level issues but not necessarily the conventional fatiguing of the adrenals. People with Cushings disease pump out massively excessive amounts of cortisol their entire lives without issue. From what I read some believe it to be a hypothalamus signaling issue, with Rich Van K claiming it is a lack of glutathione in this organ.
So anyway, I went with the method of rubbing some hydrcortisone cream on my skin just to test things out, this was around the same time (it was all a couple years ago). I got an amazing response from that. Connected more with my body, facial expressions normalizing, thoughts normalizing, etc etc. The saliva result skewed my perception of this and I dropped the cream, I only used it sparingly for a couple weeks. I then got disappointed by the whole thing with TRT doing nothing and kind of moved onto the next interesting hypothesis.
Fast forward a couple of years and after going through all kinds of different theories and experiments I came to discover with my schooling that I indeed was having some fairly extreme burnout. I could at times barely have enough will power to watch television if I studied hard for a couple of days. I tested out some licorice root and almost immediately this crushing, defeating, wall of energy drainage evaporated. I perked up and felt pretty good. I had read about consuming the Cortizone 10 ointment (ingredients petroleum jelly and hydrocortisone) so I gave it a shot and for weeks I was feeling incredible, like this was my treatment. I would say my cure but I'm not certain where this is coming from, but it was that strong. My temps were regularly hitting 98.6 for the first time since I started measuring them. I was feeling about 80% normal, up from about 20-25%.
I had my DHEA / Ferritin / iron panel done and everything was in order, except perhaps my DHEA. Dr Mercola (I think it was his article?) suggested DHEA be in the 400-600 range for optimal levels, out of the range 85-690 mcg/dL mine was 200 mcg/dL so I felt I had some room to improve.
Over the few weeks this faded a bit and I added in DHEA 50 mg / day. I was back up and running for about 3 or 4 days until I started to notice some fairly poor side effects. One day I was completely enraged, probably owing to the fact that DHEA can push up estrogen levels, which I read can cause these effects. I drop the DHEA and remain on ~30mg HC / day (~190lb male suggested starting dose -STTM). I also had my Dr order generic HC and that did almost nothing, Cortef seemed to be a bit better but unaffordable at the moment, attempting to get a pre-auth. The ointment honestly works really well.
I'm having a really hard time wondering what I should do or how I should go about getting those results back, or if those results can be gotten back. I'm wondering if I've drained another nutrient or hormone involved in the process. I'm going to add back in 10mg DHEA for a while and slowly go from there and see how I respond but I can't imagine that is the only thing happening here.
Does anyone have an understanding or experience of what could be going on here? My mood/state STRONGLY correlates with my temperature. If I'm at 98.6 I usually feel at least 80%. I'll still have some fog but I'm so much more functional as a human being. All I want to do now is sit around and research as nothing else in life I can even pretend to enjoy in my state, so that's what I do. At 98.6 I was going around taking trips without a 2nd thought, starting projects, going out and doing whatever I felt like, I just had that effortless energy.
I've lightly played with pregnenolone without much result and I do have some Cytomel that I didn't really give a proper run in the beginning before TRT (I tried it and didn't get results in like a week - could have been due to cortisol issues. Moved to TRT and dismissed it).
After 6 or 7 years of hardcore research and experimentation I still don't know what is wrong with me. My disease overview writeup can be found here. My protocol is outdated, I no longer am doing much methylation. Only 7-8 mg Metafolin over the course of the day.
Labs:
05/04/2016
Ferritin, 57. 20-345 ng/mL - (STTM claims men want over 100. Previously had good response from Ferris bis-glycinate 18mg / day. 3-4 hours after taking = 30-45 minute period of heightened mental function, felt dopaminergic. Didn't measure temps).
DHEA, 200, 85-690 mcg/dL
% Iron Saturation, 48, 15-60%
Iron, Total, 136, 50-195 mcg/dL
Iron Binding Capcity, 285, 250-425 mcg/dL
05/01/2015
Bilirubin, 3.3H, 0.2-1.2 mg/dL
TSH, 0.88, 0.40-4.50 mIU/L
09/18/2014
TS, Reverse, LC/MS/MS, 17 ng/dL
T3, FREE, 3.6, 2.3-4.2 pg/mL
TSH, 2.16, 0.40-4.50 mIU/L
T4, FREE, 1.2, 0.8-1.8ng/dL
No thyroid antibodies
Thanks!
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