My anxiety and insomnia has gotten to the point that I am going to ask
for some Ativan in the hope that I can at least get some temporary
relief.
@Rednose : I had some pretty bad insomnia a few years back. Here’s some things that helped:
Shut out the lights an hour or two before bed.
Install cf.lumen on phone and f.lux on laptop to dim the screens at sunset.
Play music softly when I’m trying to go to sleep to block out my thoughts.
But what really helped was I stopped drinking alcohol. It was really messing with my sleep and the funny thing was that I thought I needed a beer to get to sleep. I had a few rough nights, but after a week, I sleep much better now.
Appreciate the tips. I have been looking at my sleep issues as needing to sleep longer by figuring out how to not wake up so early. Maybe I can try going to bed sooner, I don’t know. Yes, I know alcohol can cause sleep problems. Can’t seem to tolerate much alcohol now. Used to enjoy some beers but damn gluten issues ruined that for me.
If you need something to get you through for a while, melatonin works pretty good and it’s cheap. You might want to get a time-release one if waking early is your issue. Doesn’t make me hung-over the next day either.
edit: BTW, no caffiene past 2pm for me either. I still adhere to that… Not even a soda.
Thanks GTB, yes I have tried small doses of melatonin in the past.I think Sam-e may help your body make melatonin. Think I read that. I have to stop all the coffee. If I really do have stressed out adrenals, I guess the caffeine is not good at all.
I’m 47. I suspect adrenal problems are at least part of the problem. Went to Dr Wilsons site and took the quiz’s, the results were eye opening. Ordered his book.
I drink coffee like a fish drinks water, its a vicious cycle, I’ll be switching to decafe.
I also rarely have problems getting to sleep, in bed by 8:30 lucky if I make it to 2:30.
My thinking is that if TRT, Iodine replacement(some positive effect) and SSRI"s cant completely resolve this issue, then Dr Wilsons suggestions may be the finale key, certainly cant hurt to try.
The 18 - 24 month recovery period for adrenal fatigue seems daunting.
I’ll be following this thread closely and will contribute when I feel I have something relevant.
Thanks brother, I don’t want to hijack tdsg"s thread to badly, but I have tried everything from amitriptyline to Xanax. Xanax brings the devil in me out, lol.
This June will be 14 years, without alcohol.
I have to wear earplugs to sleep and have for at least twenty years, the slightest noise and sleep is shot. Same with light.
The thing that often wakes me up early is having to pee. Once I’m up, it is hard for me to fall back asleep. I typically stay up to 11 and then wake up around 4. Sometimes do a little better by getting to sleep around 10. I hear you Rednose about the long recovery time. That is concerning to me too. I have been drinking way too much coffee too. I don’t think this affects my ability to go to sleep since it is always early morning, but from what I have read, it just further agravates weak adrenals. I did drink green tea this morning which has less caffeine and some antioxidants. Not sure I could go cold turkey with no caffeine. Tea is okay as long as you’re not expecting coffee. Rednose, did you do the 24-hour cortisol saliva test? Might be worth getting some numbers to see where you are at. My low morning number on my first test, along with irregular numbers later in the day, makes me think I am in stage 3 at least. That would make sense since I have been under stress for a long time. Interestingly, I used to get some panick attacks many, many years ago. Was that when my cortisol was too high? Maybe. I am pleased that taking some pregnenolone brought up the morning cortisol a little. And, it would appear from my DHEA sulfate number, that the pregnenolone did not all convert to that instead. I’m not positive, but I may be sleeping a little better on the preg.
The half life of caffiene is 3-7 hours in “health adults”. In pregnant women, it can be as high as 15 hours. Low T I would assume is at the higher end of the “healthy adult” scale.
So, if you drink 4 cups in the morning, and are awake for 16 hours, you can still have (4/2/2=1) 1 cup of coffee in you by bedtime, and 1/2 a cup in you by the time you wake. Drinking coffee later in the day will increase this number as will drinking more caffiene.
My limit is 2 cups a day. Any more than that and I end up with problems.
Good to know on the caffeine half life. Interestingly, 23 and me DNA info says I’m a fast metabolizer of caffeine. Not sure how that affects my half life though. I love the stuff. Been drinking about 4 cups in the 4 to 6 AM time period. Cutting that out now though.
Moved this question/discussion topic from a new post to my main post here so there is context for my inquiry. Deleting new post.
Anyone had any success or failure using low dose Doxazosin combined with pde5 inhibitors for ED issues? I’m considering asking my doc for a script for 2mg per day. Supposedly, greatly enhances the effects of pde5 drugs. For some folks, myself included, pde5 by itself is not that helpful, but Doxazosin added may change that. I searched “Doxazosin” on this forum and did not see much, if any, discussion. This combo is mentioned on other forums.
I need to update this page with some new labs - hopefully soon. In short, only thing new is that I stopped taking anastrozole due to lower than ideal estradiol numbers (16.5 range 8-35 labcorp sensitive test). Estradiol has been pretty consistently 20 or below. I do still daily take a DIM product 100 mg. new labs are still a few months away to see the effect.
Reason I am asking about Doxazosin paired with pde5 is that I may need some help with my plumbing system. HRT numbers are for the most part pretty good. Again, I’ll add full set of labs soon.
I would post some links to journal articles, but afraid I’ll mess that up. Anyone can google “Doxazosin and pde5” and get some links to articles and also this combo is mentioned on other forums. There is quite a long thread on all things male site (have not read all of it) and excel male site. The latter falls under “Gene’s nitric oxide stack” I believe. The former is “Ultimate Adrenergic Control of Erections”.
Hello Kakarat, I take the Seeking Health brand multi (4 capsules instead of 8) with a meal mid-day and also their B complex plus on an empty stomach in the morning when I wake up. I think for those who are hetero for the 697 and 1298 mutations, that is sufficient. I do not feel overstimulated so that’s good. Sleep is not too bad lately. I wake up fairly rested in spite of not getting as much as I would like. I take many of the same things before bed.
2000 mg Vit C
800 mg Magnesium
4000 mg fish oil
200 mg 5HTP time released
I suspect adrenal issues are about the same. Back in January, I did the 24 hour salivary cortisol test again. Results are lopsided with highest number before bed. I have taken a break from the hard bike riding I was doing every other day.
Had appointment with doc today. Obtained script for doxazosin 1 mg. Will take half tonight before going to bed likely along with 5 mg tadalafil. I will update results as they become noteworthy.
New here. First post. Read through this thread and noticed a few mention anxiety. I have been on Buspar and it has been great for me and it isn’t one of the 'pams so you don’t get groggy and addicted. Just thought I would through that out there.
I tried buspar for a few weeks. For me, the dizziness never went away and I could not tolerate it.
New news: up to 2 mg per day (1mg 2X day) of Doxazosin. For me there is definitely a synergistic effect when combined with pde5 inhibitor.
Newer news: saw a functional medicine doc today. I am starting on thyroid medicine, 1 grain of Nature Thyroid, tomorrow morning. Have suspected thyroid/adrenal issues for years and finally found a doc who takes low body temps and symptoms, in addition to labs, into consideration. I have new July labs to post. Will try to do that soon.
Functional medicine doc indicated a quick and dirty method for determining what range one’s estrogen should be in. I had always thought/heard that 20-30 was good. But, it always bothered me that that did not account for changes in other things like total T or free T. What this doc said is that a way to determine the low E is to take total T and divide by 20. Likewise, high E is total T divided by 14. If you look at my January 2017 labs in the spreadsheet above, total T is 1323. 1323/20 = 66.15. 1323/14 = 94.5. Using this method, acceptable range for estradiol is roughly 66 to 95. This is a lot more than 20-30. I have no idea if this is a good method or even if this represents optimal range. I do like that it accounts for changes in total T. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
