adrenal fatigue

Which blood and/or salvia test should be done to test if one is suffering from this condition??
Talked to my doc and he has no clue about it an which parameters should be tested????
Does anyone know what an how should be tested??

4x cortisol saliva test. Better to do the ASI (adrenal stress index) test that has a few other items in there as well (Cortisol, DHEA, Progesterone, SIgA). And you can go from there. I did it thru my doc and it costed $160 - you can do a little bit better if you look around, but not by much.

I am sure this has been discussed before - so read up on previuos posts on this topic.

I am currently researching this as my results came back depressed -

tao81 - Take your blood pressure while sitting down. Then, stand up and immediately take your blood pressure again. Your systolic (first) number should have raised 8 to 10 mm. If it dropped, you probably have adrenal fatigue.

CS - I thought this test (laying down and then standing up) would only show up if you are low on Aldosterone (generally when the adrenals are insufficient and in later stages of the adrenal disease). If the person is in initial states of Adrenal Fatigue, the body is producing more cortisol and Aldosterone - and the BP tends to be on the normal/high side.

Please correct me If I am wrong here. I think the suggested test would come up +ve only in later stages of AF - in earlier stages it should be negative?

lund an immortal thx! Your help is very apreciated!
I will go for this and speak with the doc. Already have a consultation for We- let´s see...

ah I forgot: If you have some good links for adrenal fatigue or information, it would be nice if you share it.

CS or anyone else who can answer this question:

www.drrind.com suggests taking DHEA (25 mg a day) and pregnenolone to recover from adrenal fatigue. For someone like myself who is diffusely balding at a young age and has high free testosterone and low total testosterone, would taking these hormonal supplements push my free testosterone even higher? Or will it help to balance everything out by raising total testosterone?

I'm wondering if I should just take all the other supplements he lists and skip the hormonal ones.

tao81 wrote:ah I forgot: If you have some good links for adrenal fatigue or information, it would be nice if you share it.

Tao81- dr rind's site which i linked to in my above post has the most expansive information on adrenal fatigue, how to test for it, and how to recover from it. From the main page just go to the "Treatments" tab and click on "Metabolic Energy".

www.drlam.com

and navigate to Adrenal Fatigue - pretty good info.

I was treated by Dr.Lam for 5 months on end for adrenal fatigue--he was convinced I had it, had me buy a truckload of supplements (his) and I'm not doing better at all--in fact I got worse while I was on the supps.

I had a 4 points cortisol and DHEA saliva test which showed normal cortisol with the exception of a slight drop in the lat PM (providing further evidence as to why I usually get reactive hypo in late PM), but my DHEA was quite a bit off the chart.

I started back on pantethine, magnesium and B complex, but it's not doing much to be honest.

I found out that eating apples does improve my libido--might very well have to do with it having quercitin.

I'm also very likely zinc deficient since my ALP is at the lowest normal end of range.

My last uric acid is also high, pointing to insulin resistance.

My libido is still most of the time quite low.

I usually crave carbs like there's no tomorrow--Magnesium helps in curbing carb craving btw.

What I'm not sure I like about Dr. Lam, though he's very kind is that he keeps advising people to get treated by a doc who really knows AF, and as it happens he's one of those--the reason I bring this up is he didn't help me at all and he kept asking more money. There's no way I'm doing business with him again however nice he may be.

chipdouglas - Have you tried a good probiotic to kick your carb carvings?

Let PM you are supposed to be near zero (1-4) on the cortisol level anyways. What symptoms did you have to begin with?

There are a truck of symptoms for being in AF - which were you experiencing?

Just about anything recommended by Dr. Lam is widely prescribed by anyone fmailiar with AF to be the course for recovery - in fact if anything he is more conservative, recommends against the glandular (Isocort) / cortef (hc). He wants to rebuild using basic supplements. His methods are for slow recovery but to heal the adrenals internally vs shotgun approach of stimulants.

If you are waking up with low blood sugar (assuming you have tested the levels), it would seem AF linked. You can try some stuff at night to slow down your metabolism or increase cortisol mildly. Eat some protein with Fiber as you goto bed (something that will last you sometime - bedtime snack, hopefully something dense). Perhaps a little Licorice (tiny amount in the evening) - be careful you do not want to stimulate too much.

chipdouglas wrote:I was treated by Dr.Lam for 5 months on end for adrenal fatigue--he was convinced I had it, had me buy a truckload of supplements (his) and I'm not doing better at all--in fact I got worse while I was on the supps.

I had a 4 points cortisol and DHEA saliva test which showed normal cortisol with the exception of a slight drop in the lat PM (providing further evidence as to why I usually get reactive hypo in late PM), but my DHEA was quite a bit off the chart.

I started back on pantethine, magnesium and B complex, but it's not doing much to be honest.

I found out that eating apples does improve my libido--might very well have to do with it having quercitin.

I'm also very likely zinc deficient since my ALP is at the lowest normal end of range.

My last uric acid is also high, pointing to insulin resistance.

My libido is still most of the time quite low.

Lund :

My major symptom has to do with zero sex drive, or the desire to have sex with either with my better half or any other women out there (I'm not gay btw...I say this seriously)

I do not wake up with low BG. I've however experienced reactive hypoglycemia in late PM for years, though there have been lull at times, like recently, I haven't really experienced anything like that.

Sometimes my libido does spike, but it's usually very short lived.

I'm thinking I might be low in zinc because my ALP has been very low--that is, lowest normal range is 54 and I'm consistently 52.

I'm shaking my head in disbelief, I've seen so many MDs, psychologists, even a psychiatrist, Braverman in NYC, Dr. Lam, I really don't know who t turn to anymore.

I do not even know whether I have AF or not. One thing I know I'm ''desperate'' to recover my life.

I couldn't even begin to tell you how ''tired'' I am of all this. It's been 11 years now, man that's a heck of a long time and my relationship is beginning to suffer.

I'm not an expert by any means but everytime I hear people talk about individual elements like Zinc, Copper I'm thinking this : why not just take a good multivitamin daily and forget about these. Vitamin Code for Men is a very good product, if I am not wrong it's available at iherb. Iodine has to be considered separately, Europharma recently came out with 12.5mg Iodine per tablet, this is a miracle for folks not wanting a liquid supplement, Iosol is not that bad, I just take 8 drops daily with half a glass of juice.

Sex drive :

Maca, Tongkat ali, Tribulus, Horny goat weed, damiana, passionflower.

Exercise goes a long way for sex drive, seriously man get moving, your tiredness maybe just a result of lack of it. Start weight training, this can go a long way in improving your sex drive, testosterone levels, confidence levels.

Watch your diet : meat, chicken, eggs, brown rice, potatoes daily : don't be scared of eating.

Glacier,

FWIW I take a good multi and still find that I need added magnesium/vit c/zinc, etc. over and way above even the high amounts in the multi relative to the RDA. Zinc is an important one for libido IMO. I wish it were as easy as taking a multi, I would eliminate most of my pills.

Chip, What is going on with your endocrine system? What are your hormone levels? If you can afford it I would consider changing Dr.s (preferably a ND) and or getting a complete lab workup and taking care of one thing at a time. If you have a problem with digestion/absorption then you could be wasting supplements. That is just an example. I am kind of in the same boat. Some different out of norm-range numbers for me, but the most pressing is my newly discovered sensitivity to gluten, so I'm healing my GI tract before I move on to say taking supplements to increase my test and lower est for instance.

I am just about ready to embark on the AF / Thyroid recovery - so I cannot tell you anything from experience, but I have read and read and read just about everywhere of value. If your Adrenals are not working correctly you will have all sorts of issues.

It is a delicate balance to achieve with glandulars, hyrdrocortisone, minerals, supplements, herbs. And even then it is expected to take 6-18 months for full recovery, but you should begin to feel better gradually within 2-3 months , given you are on the right track.

Id Dr. Lam did not work for you may be you want to try someone else. BUT - if your adrenals are not working good, your answer will come from recovering it. As far as your libido is concerned, again Adrenals play a nucleus role there as well - all master sex hormones are controlled by Adrenals.

If you have been to so many docs - where are your labs, post them here and we will see what you got?

Glacier :

You're right so far as exercising, however I have a $5k gym downstairs and have been doing both weight lifting and cardio (both steady state and interval) and I too would expect this to help with sex drive, but for some reason it doesn't.

At this point, I'd be interested in finding out which system(s) are defective so to say. I do not think this is just one element that's out of balance. It think it's an interplay of various factors.