JaimeS
Senior Member
- Messages
- 3,408
- Location
- Silicon Valley, CA
Am poster-child for this particular brand of weirdness: normal cortisol levels mean nothing about your ability to produce it. Allow me to explain.
I have low ACTH. My values range from wtf low to barely normal. However, my cortisol levels are (usually) normal but (rarely) low. What appears to happen is that, when I'm puttering along as normal, I produce cortisol at a slow rate but get it up to normal levels. If a stressor comes along, however, I run through my cortisol levels like mad. What's worse is that unlike the rest of the planet, I don't seem to up my cortisol production during stressful times.
Keep in mind that a 'stressor' can be anything from an infection to a car accident. People consider stress psychological, but in many ways to the body it's all the flavors of the same thing.
I got all this information from the following tests:
1) Cortisol measurements (usually normal, but rarely very low)
2) Low ACTH (from repeated, repeated, repeated testing -- note that rarely, it was in normal range)
3) A proper ACTH stimulation test (that showed I made cortisol in response to ACTH just fine)
4) An ITT test (that showed that I don't make more cortisol than usual -- and the same goes for any other stress hormones -- in the presence of a physiological stressor. In fact, my levels drop, showing I'm 'using up' these hormones far faster than I can make them).
This is my long way of saying that you still need the ACTH test (and maybe the ACTH stimulation test, and maybe the ITT) to get the full picture. Again, this is if you're well enough for stimulation tests, which are rough on the body. During the ITT my blood sugar went down to 28-mmol/L... not for the faint of heart.
But again! Speculation! Potentially useless!
....but since you said it's making you feel better.
-J
I have low ACTH. My values range from wtf low to barely normal. However, my cortisol levels are (usually) normal but (rarely) low. What appears to happen is that, when I'm puttering along as normal, I produce cortisol at a slow rate but get it up to normal levels. If a stressor comes along, however, I run through my cortisol levels like mad. What's worse is that unlike the rest of the planet, I don't seem to up my cortisol production during stressful times.
Keep in mind that a 'stressor' can be anything from an infection to a car accident. People consider stress psychological, but in many ways to the body it's all the flavors of the same thing.
I got all this information from the following tests:
1) Cortisol measurements (usually normal, but rarely very low)
2) Low ACTH (from repeated, repeated, repeated testing -- note that rarely, it was in normal range)
3) A proper ACTH stimulation test (that showed I made cortisol in response to ACTH just fine)
4) An ITT test (that showed that I don't make more cortisol than usual -- and the same goes for any other stress hormones -- in the presence of a physiological stressor. In fact, my levels drop, showing I'm 'using up' these hormones far faster than I can make them).
This is my long way of saying that you still need the ACTH test (and maybe the ACTH stimulation test, and maybe the ITT) to get the full picture. Again, this is if you're well enough for stimulation tests, which are rough on the body. During the ITT my blood sugar went down to 28-mmol/L... not for the faint of heart.
But again! Speculation! Potentially useless!
....but since you said it's making you feel better.
-J