Please share what has helped you most with adrenals.

[Avengers26]

I have found making some changes in my lifestyle quite helpful including respecting my body & mind & resting if that's what I need. I am still bad about sleep time because i function best in the evening & at night. I also read articles by Dr. Lam, Dr. Wilson etc. & take some vitamins etc. mentioned by them. I find that helpful.

I do get lower back pain sometimes, when I take something which supposedly lowers cortisol significantly. I don't know how relevant it is but I have found that observation too often to be just coincidental.

Do you have any tips you can share? Thanks, John.

 

[BadBadBear]

Sleep, salt, more sleep, anything to lower stress, more salt, B5... And my adrenal function has come up some over the last couple of years. AM cortisol is up 3 points or so this year (now at 15).

I am finally starting adrenal cortex and some Gaia herbs for adrenal. Could not really take them until my thyroid started working better (low dose T3 therapy, my ND says it will help bring up adrenals but it must be done with lowest effective doses). Working to stabilize blood sugar has helped a lot with night time adrenaline surges that I had during night time glycogenesis - I think those surges were really taxing on my whole body. I have learned I HAVE to eat something before bed to prevent those. That snack also helps my fasting AM blood sugars.

Also overall I can't eat too many carbs or my blood sugars are not good, but if I go too low on carbs it thrashes my adrenals and thyroid.

I still need quite a lot of salt - I salt all my food and consume ~2 TSP salt per day in my drinks. Still can't drink straight water, so I drink a lot of homemade electrolyte.

I do feel so much better this year.

Have you had a diurnal cortisol done, or at least checked fasting AM cortisol? DHEA? How did those tests turn out? Have you checked your FT3, FT4, and RT3 to see if thyroid function is part of the issue?

 

[drob31]

I think it depends on if you have high or low cortisol.

Currently my blood sodium level is above the normal range, and I have adrenal issues. This tells me I most likely have high cortisol.

****THIS IS MY OPINION****

The universal solution for adrenal fatigue is undisturbed sleep. You may have to take a hell of a sleep pill to achieve this, but I think the benefits out weight the risks. On the nights where I can sleep and only wake up once or twice to urinate, and otherwise I'm out like a light, I feel MUCH better the next day.

This takes about 2 mg melatonin, and 25 mg diphenhydramine. If my cortisol is too high before bed, it will cause me to go to bed later, and have disturbed sleep. For this I take phophatidylserine (200-400 mg).

This is just my perspective. My morning and afternoon cortisol levels are normal.. .rather low normal. My 6 pm cortisol is really high.

 

[concepcion]

My daughter was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue (salva & urnine) a few years ago, and was on many supplements for that - ortho adapt, adrenal rebuilder, salt, vitamin C, just to name the name supplements. She had tried Cortef a couple of years ago, but it only made her more tired. She tried it again this year using the protocol outlined on stopthethyroidmadness.com, and the accompanying book, which meant she needed to take temps and start at a much higher dose. This has made a noticeable difference. It's not the solution to her problem, but it has really helped with afternoon crashes and ability to have longer conversations and listen to audiobooks for over an hour at a time. Before the Cortef she could only talk for a few minutes, and could only listen for about 15 minutes.