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nutrition and supplements for adrenal glands

Messages
75
Does anyone knows about or has experience with vegeterian and unstimulate supplements for adrenal support?
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
I would not embark on adrenal supplementation without doing a saliva cortisol test because symptoms of high and low cortisol often overlap and can be very confusing. Further, herbal adaptogens may help mild cases of HPA dysregulation and adrenal fatigue but are unlikely to solve more severe cases and it is hard to know the difference without testing. A saliva test can be gotten without a doctor's order through ZRT/Canary Club for about $125 in most states.

Without testing, I would simply focus on good basic nutrition - a good B complex, methyl B12, and Vit C for a start.

I would also consider adding Celtic sea salt as adrenals need salt to function correctly. Make sure it is unrefined. Most people start with 1/4 -1/2 teas once or twice a day.
 
Messages
75
I would also consider adding Celtic sea salt as adrenals need salt to function correctly. Make sure it is unrefined.
I assume the celtic sea salt is prefferential. That's what I found on curezone website. I'm not sure some of the ingredients- aluminum, copper, flouride, are so appropriate for adrenal fatigue/chemically sensitivity and I don't know if I trust the companie's lists and there are no other heavy metals.
"Most recent analysis demonstrated that Celtic Sea Salt® contained at least 75 minerals and trace elements. The following lists the most predominant elements revealed by this analysis."

mg per 1/4 tsp % mg per 1/4 tsp %
Chloride 601.25 mg 50.90% Zinc 0.03 mg .00275%
Sodium 460 mg 33.00% Copper 0.02 mg .00195%
Sulfur 9.7 mg .820% Erbium 0.02 mg .00195%
Magnesium 5.2 mg .441% Tin 0.02 mg .00192%
Potassium 2.7 mg .227% Manganese 0.02 mg .0018%
Calcium 1.5 mg .128% Cerium 0.02 mg .00172%
Silicon 1.2 mg .052% Fluoride 0.01 mg .00109%
Carbon 0.6 mg .049% Rubidium 0.01 mg .00084%
Iron 0.14 mg .012% Gallium 0.01 mg .00083%
Aluminum 0.11 mg .0095% Boron 0.01 mg .00082%
Praseodymium 0.04 mg .0029% Titanium 0.01 mg .00079%
Strontium 0.03 mg .00275% Bromine 0.01 mg .00071%

 

caledonia

Senior Member
I've been all through this adrenal thing. Can't tolerate any glandulars or stimulating supplements no matter how many I tried or what form. If you have adrenal fatigue, you will be unable to hold on to your electrolytes. You may have symptoms like heart palps, craving salt, low blood volume, restless legs, etc. Right now I'm doing salt, magnesium, and vitamin C. You could also add potassium but that doesn't seem to be needed in my case.

Rich Vank says that in ME/CFS adrenal fatigue is actually caused upstream from the adrenals - a lack of glutathione in the hypothalamus and pituitary stops the signals the adrenals need to put out cortisol vs. any problems with the adrenals themselves. The solution would be to raise glutathione by working on methylation.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
If looking into adrenal hormones like dhea and pregnenolone, i would start with using just one, probably dhea and slowly increase it using very small doses eg 1-2mg of dhea a day and increase in 1-2mg increments until maybe 25mg or what u can handle without any symptoms. Its seems that many with cfs/me have problems tolerating adrenal treatments and can get overstimulated very easily, especially by the recommended doses for non cfs/me people. Generally pregnenolone its said to start at 50mg and increase upto 200-300mg, now this type of dosing would blow our minds, 50mg sent me tropo. After trial and error i found 5mg to be more then enough but eventually found that dhea had more benefits for me then pregnenolone so stopped pregnenolone.

So start really low and go slow, and like already mentioned get all your hormones tested not just adrenal hormones as these treatments can affect sex hormones too so good to see how they affect them too.

cheers!!!
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
Aldosterone is another very important hormone manufactured by the adrenals. If adrenals are not functioning correctly and a saliva cortisol test indicates low coritsol levels then it is almost a certainty that your levels of aldosterone are low as well. This is going to hold true for any hormone produced in adrenals and quite possibly any neurotransmitters as well.
Unfortunately, there is only one place that produces a natural aldosterone hormone replacement wich is a compounding pharmacy in Canada. Florinef is not a complete alternative for aldosterone.
You have to be careful with some of the extracts as well because they will only include one of the two componebts of the adrenals, that being the medulla and the cortex.
Adrenals are controlled by the hypothallmus and pituitary, but is also controled by Angiotensin II.
I bring this up because there could potentially be some people that only pay attention to cortisol and androgen hormones and may be getting their system even more out of balance, but this can all be alleviated by getting proper testing done.
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
Aldosterone is another very important hormone manufactured by the adrenals. If adrenals are not functioning correctly and a saliva cortisol test indicates low coritsol levels then it is almost a certainty that your levels of aldosterone are low as well. This is going to hold true for any hormone produced in adrenals and quite possibly any neurotransmitters as well.

It's not a given that aldosterone will be low when cortisol levels are low. Most people with secondary adrenal insufficiency will not have aldosterone affected while most people with primary adrenal insufficiency and HPA axis dysregulation may need replacement.

Testing is the only way to know the levels and it is important to test aldosterone properly - ie up two hours before 8AM fasting blood draw after salt fasting and in the first few days of the menstrual cycle if applicable.


Unfortunately, there is only one place that produces a natural aldosterone hormone replacement wich is a compounding pharmacy in Canada. Florinef is not a complete alternative for aldosterone.

Aldosterone is a very short lasting hormone which is why the structure was slightly changed to create a more stable synthetic analogue form in Florinef. I have known a few people to do very well on bio-identical aldosterone but considering that it is much more expensive than Florinef, more difficult to get and doesn't usually confer any additional benefits to most people, I would personally give Florinef a try first before deciding to go with the bio-aldosterone.
 
Messages
75
I've been all through this adrenal thing. Can't tolerate any glandulars or stimulating supplements no matter how many I tried or what form. If you have adrenal fatigue, you will be unable to hold on to your electrolytes. You may have symptoms like heart palps, craving salt, low blood volume, restless legs, etc. Right now I'm doing salt, magnesium, and vitamin C. You could also add potassium but that doesn't seem to be needed in my case.

Rich Vank says that in ME/CFS adrenal fatigue is actually caused upstream from the adrenals - a lack of glutathione in the hypothalamus and pituitary stops the signals the adrenals need to put out cortisol vs. any problems with the adrenals themselves. The solution would be to raise glutathione by working on methylation.

Do you experience improvement during the salt intake? I guess that due to the poor methylation cycle, many of the CFS/ME people have also weaken kidney, that don't like lots of salt.
 

Lotus97

Senior Member
Messages
2,041
Location
United States
If looking into adrenal hormones like dhea and pregnenolone, i would start with using just one, probably dhea and slowly increase it using very small doses eg 1-2mg of dhea a day and increase in 1-2mg increments until maybe 25mg or what u can handle without any symptoms. Its seems that many with cfs/me have problems tolerating adrenal treatments and can get overstimulated very easily, especially by the recommended doses for non cfs/me people. Generally pregnenolone its said to start at 50mg and increase upto 200-300mg, now this type of dosing would blow our minds, 50mg sent me tropo. After trial and error i found 5mg to be more then enough but eventually found that dhea had more benefits for me then pregnenolone so stopped pregnenolone.

So start really low and go slow, and like already mentioned get all your hormones tested not just adrenal hormones as these treatments can affect sex hormones too so good to see how they affect them too.

cheers!!!

I've been taking 25mg of pregnenolone for the past few weeks, but it's a sublingual so I'm guessing it's equivalent to a 50-75mg oral dose. While there are other factors I need to rule out, I am going to lower my dosage and see if that helps.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
I've been taking 25mg of pregnenolone for the past few weeks, but it's a sublingual so I'm guessing it's equivalent to a 50-75mg oral dose. While there are other factors I need to rule out, I am going to lower my dosage and see if that helps.
Im not sure on sublingual but i have read that transdermal creams work better then oral pregnenolone. its good to try different routes to take it?

cheers!!
 

Lotus97

Senior Member
Messages
2,041
Location
United States
I was reading something about people with sulfation issues have trouble with DHEA. Is that true and if so, would that also apply to pregnenolone?
 

ChrisD

Senior Member
Messages
472
Location
East Sussex
So I used a bovine Adrenal supplement last year when I had very mild CFS and severe Fibro, it helped a lot! Made me less stiff in the mornings and boosted my energy throughout the day and particularly my mental clarity. I have just started using it again for my now pretty severe ME/CFS and it is seeming to have the same positive effect initially.

Some sources say that it can be quite dangerous to use such supplements but I am not sure...
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
So I used a bovine Adrenal supplement last year when I had very mild CFS and severe Fibro, it helped a lot! Made me less stiff in the mornings and boosted my energy throughout the day and particularly my mental clarity. I have just started using it again for my now pretty severe ME/CFS and it is seeming to have the same positive effect initially.

Some sources say that it can be quite dangerous to use such supplements but I am not sure...

I wonder why it would be dangerous? Pregnenelone and dessicated adrenal gland helped me for a time. I may go back to it again.
 

ChrisD

Senior Member
Messages
472
Location
East Sussex
It's recommended that you have an adrenal stress profile/Cortisol test to analyse levels of cortisol/adrenaline over the course of a day. I believe the danger is that you could support the Adrenals too heavily when they are already functioning well and can therefore become dependant on the help @drob31
 

Marigold7

Senior Member
Messages
430
So I used a bovine Adrenal supplement last year when I had very mild CFS and severe Fibro, it helped a lot! Made me less stiff in the mornings and boosted my energy throughout the day and particularly my mental clarity. I have just started using it again for my now pretty severe ME/CFS and it is seeming to have the same positive effect initially.

Some sources say that it can be quite dangerous to use such supplements but I am not sure...

Thanks for this. I found the forum when I was looking at raw adrenal. 2 of my extended family with different problems have found this a huge improvement in many ways, so I am thinking to give it a try, Just now old age issues are adding to the M.E issues. Morning stiffness makes getting out of bed an act of gritted teeth heroism and I do not want to be on the NSAID drugs again.