My levels
Kinda confusing. My levels don’t seem to make sense.
Probably important to know, my mom has cancer. I’m the one who takes care of her hospital stuff. Yesterday was supposed to be her day for treatment but there were some issues. Really rough day.
Anyway, I never realized how difficult these hospital days were on me. But I feel noticeably shitty today. Exhausted. Walking slow. Can’t think straight.
Also, been having some strange symptoms the past few days.
Digestion feels funny, my throat is constantly dry, chapped lips, feeling cold, joints are starting to ache a little, and nose bleeds two days in a row. Hadn’t had a nose bleed in 5 + years.
I wonder if the supps have anything to do with it. I reduced the vitamin d dose. Everything else is pretty reasonable. Maybe the raw thyroid?
Maybe the mineral supp.
idk
Body temp in the morning was lower. 97.2
Edit -
Temp at 9:00pm was 99.1 99.0
Raw thyroid, dried thyroid gland? Many benefit of that may be its iodine content.
You sound like a poster boy for adrenal fatigue [AD].
Not able to sleep? Trazodone can help with that and depression. See my comments in my thread this date.
You need to be waking up at 97.7 or better and 98.6 during the day.
Tell doc about vision disturbances, might justify a MRI
IR is done, rT3 remains an explanation and AD explains that.
[quote]KSman wrote:
Raw thyroid, dried thyroid gland? Many benefit of that may be its iodine content.
You sound like a poster boy for adrenal fatigue [AD].
Not able to sleep? Trazodone can help with that and depression. See my comments in my thread this date.
You need to be waking up at 97.7 or better and 98.6 during the day.
Tell doc about vision disturbances, might justify a MRI
IR is done, rT3 remains an explanation and AD explains that.
[/quote]
Yeah. I thought I would try it out.
I get really wired at night. Resist sleeping. Mind races. I don’t know if I want to take anti depressants. Do you think I need it?
Hmm, okay. I thought i was doing good on morning temps.
I don’t have a doctor or insurance. Would a free clinic be able to help at all?
Okay. Will keep fighting the adrenal fatigue fight.
For me, traz does not feel like an AD med at all. No problems starting or stopping like a SSRI AD med. So you can try it and no problems if you do not care for the result.
[quote]KSman wrote:
For me, traz does not feel like an AD med at all. No problems starting or stopping like a SSRI AD med. So you can try it and no problems if you do not care for the result.[/quote]
I think I’ll try the caber first. See how lowering the prolactin makes me feel. Then maybe try the traz. I was depressed for most of my childhood. Always foggy.
My estrogen levels are really tripping me out. I can’t find much info on low estrogen in men. Only thing that comes up are body builders who lowered their estrogen too much.
But I never did anything to lower it. The DIM was for two weeks and that was months before my test. Besides, I don’t think DIM really works that well.
The saliva test showed low estrogen as well.
Idk, makes me wonder if I have some kind of liver issue.
Turned 21 last week.
Had a few shots of alcohol. Didn’t seem to respond well in the morning. Ears starting ringing and I felt like I could experience vertigo at any moment. Also a slight episode of sleep paralysis. Feels like my hearing has been shitty the past couple of days.
I only had about four shots, but that must have been what caused this. I never felt like this before.
Makes me wonder about meniere’s disease. Might just have a slight ear infection or something.
Energy and well being have been less than stellar the past week. Lots of anxiety. Afternoon crashes. Hard time waking up. Very bloated.
Found a pretty good doctor. One of those chiropractor/acupuncturist/herbologist types. Very knowledgeable about adrenal fatigue, proper thyroid and testosterone levels. Prefers higher cholesterol.
She is worried about my thyroid and insulin levels. We ordered an anti bodies test. Also suspects adrenal fatigue and can’t stand my test levels.
I’m worried about my insulin. My fasting insulin level is 9.1. Googled it a bit and this seems high. Fasting insulin should be lower. This could explain why my vision is so inconsistent and why I feel so bad after meals AND the bloating. My dad is diabetic. This could explain a lot.
Found this about my elevated tsh
Some ideas…
Then I found this…
I think Lyme disease is very possible. Testing is a bitch though. Could explain the platelets, prolactin, gh, heart rate, insulin, light stools, lymph nodes under neck always hurt, one by the groin hurts every few months. This could explain the thyroid issue. I honestly go through everything on that list fairly often.
I got bit by dozens of mosquito’s as a kid.
So I tested my blood glucose levels during one of my crashes. Vision started getting blurry. Felt bloated and really tried. This was around 7 o clock and two hours after my carb pre workout meal.
Blood glucose was 120. Normal.
The insulin resistance thing makes sense. I think increasing T levels and losing more fat will help though. So I’m not really worried.
I’ve read that low carb dieting could cause pathological insulin resistance. Might change diet for a few weeks. See what happens.
This new doc is a mix of really good info with some hocus pocus bull shit. Very nice and open minded though.
Cortisol lab.
Perfect day to do this test.
Had a hard time waking up and going to bed. Was tired throughout the whole day. The mid day cortisol labs were both done during a crash. Walking was a chore.
So far I haven’t been able to find anything in the labs that point to adrenal fatigue. Just symptoms.
I don’t know if these labs actually reflect anything though. Will look into it more.
Anti-bodies test
Negative. Good thing. I know you have to test a few more times to be sure but I think I’ll hold off for now.
Cortisol:
We do not know your individual needs. The lower cortisol aligning with your ‘crash’ is an observation that should not be ignored. And lower cortisol effects can be additive to whatever else is not right. Suggest that you talk to your doc and see if you can get some cortef as a trial. First take when you feel your self going into a crash and observe. Then take cortisol first thing in the AM and see how that alters your functioning. Then use your observations as a diagnostic input.
Do not start taking cortef all day or every day, this is a trial and you do not want to get your body adapting to this at this stage.
Note that some supplemental progesterone might help you make cortisol. Take when you wake up, not at night. 2% progesterone is OTC and at amazon.com, get “KAL” brand. Your wife might find useful as well!
[quote]KSman wrote:
Cortisol:
We do not know your individual needs. The lower cortisol aligning with your ‘crash’ is an observation that should not be ignored. And lower cortisol effects can be additive to whatever else is not right. Suggest that you talk to your doc and see if you can get some cortef as a trial. First take when you feel your self going into a crash and observe. Then take cortisol first thing in the AM and see how that alters your functioning. Then use your observations as a diagnostic input.
Do not start taking cortef all day or every day, this is a trial and you do not want to get your body adapting to this at this stage.
Note that some supplemental progesterone might help you make cortisol. Take when you wake up, not at night. 2% progesterone is OTC and at amazon.com, get “KAL” brand. Your wife might find useful as well![/quote]
According to STTM, I have pretty low cortisol levels…
"8 am: at the literal top of the range
11 am-noon: in the upper quarter
4-5 pm: mid-range
11 pm to midnight: at the very bottom."
My morning cortisol isn’t even mid range!! No wonder I can’t wake up.
Should I try the progesterone cream before the cortef? Or should I get some more adrenal tests done first? Like ACTH? Any tests you think I should get?
KSman, at what point do we start considering more severe adrenal issues instead of just fatigue? I’ve felt like this for years. And I’m only 21.
I’m working on getting a pituitary MRI. I’ve got to have some kind of pituitary thing going on. I have caber but I don’t want to start anything until I get the MRI.
I have to say, I’ve felt terrible the last few weeks. Waking up has been impossible. Been late to work for the past two weeks. Going to sleep is a bitch. The fatigue in the day is fucking horrible. I can’t even believe how tired I feel sometimes. Sex drive has noticeably declined lately. Haven’t felt like having sex. Couldn’t even get hard yesterday. First time in my life.
Things were getting better but I don’t know what happened. I was waking up easier and going to sleep with no issues. I keep thinking back to about a month and a half ago. I was walking to my car, and I felt good. Not like high, but like young. Never felt that good in my entire life. I can’t even describe it.
Edit -
Also, anxiety has been CRAZY the past two weeks. I can’t stand it. I’m randomly really anxious and angry with people for really small reasons. Then like 20 minutes go by and I’m fine. It’s maddening. I imagine this is from the low estrogen.
So you need to improve your cortisol levels. You do not want to become dependant on cortisol meds for life. So you need to try to get the problem fixed/healed. Progesterone would help. Wilson’s book is a must read. Sometimes cortef is used as a bridge. I still would like to see a trial so you can see if higher levels make you feel right. If you feel better, at least you will know where the answer lies.
I saw that doctor today. Very impressed with her. She was concerned about everything I wanted her to be concerned about. T levels, tsh, e2, cholesterol, cortisol. Liked the progesterone idea.
She wants to treat the adrenals and fix my circadian rhythm. Then start working on improving digestion. Really thinks there is something up with my digestion. Could explain the cholesterol issue. Might want a poop test and some kind of liver cleanse. Any kind of cleanse sounds like horse shit to me but hey, I’ll try anything once.
So to start, she gave me isocort and melatonin drops. In a few weeks she wants me to start taking one of Dr. Wilsons supps.
Then I’m going to cut out wheat a gluten (which I already pretty much have done) and start taking these digestion supps. They seem like quality stuff.
I hope it helps.
[quote]KSman wrote:
So you need to improve your cortisol levels. You do not want to become dependant on cortisol meds for life. So you need to try to get the problem fixed/healed. Progesterone would help. Wilson’s book is a must read. Sometimes cortef is used as a bridge. I still would like to see a trial so you can see if higher levels make you feel right. If you feel better, at least you will know where the answer lies.[/quote]
Thank you. I will try progesterone cream since it’s easy to buy. Brought up the cortef idea to the doc and she wants to wait to see how the isocort and melatonin make me feel. I think isocort is cortisol actually.
Edit -
Being stressed out during pregnancy can fuck up your baby. Who knew.
My mother was VERY stressed when she was pregnant.
KSMan,
Like a week ago I couldn’t stay hard during sex. Ever since that night my penis doesn’t feel right. It’s like limp all the time. Unresponsive. Havent had a good erection since. Feels like I have no control over it when I try to flex it. Like the surrounding muscles flex but not the penis.
Could it have been the licorice I was taking? I was taking 3 900mg pills a day. And drinking the tea. I stopped after that night.
If so, how long will this last? This is really scary. I can’t even have sex with my gf. I never had morning wood but when I needed to I got hard.
Edit
I was also taking nettle root.
Do not know about licorice. Nettle root might lower DHT a bit.
From Wikipedia:
In 2012 Iranian researchers of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran have found that liquorice - especially used in sweets, tea and herbal remedies - can lower levels of testosterone. Glycyrrhiza, the compound in liquorice root contains phytoestrogens and has been shown to affect the endocrine system. The findings backs up a previous Italian study about the hormonal effects of liquorice whose results could not be replicated in other studies by University of Texas and University of Michigan in the past. The Iranian scientists came to the conclusion that the regular consumption of liquorice can lower libido of men and in high doses may even increase the risks of sexual problems including impotence. However, the study also showed that the level of testosterone normalizes after abstinence of liquorice within a few days and the effects completely disappear. For women, the consumption of liquorice has an opposite effect on their sexual desire and can improve female libido.[6]
FYI, licorice supposedly helps with adrenal fatigue issues per Wilson’s book.