Adrenal fatigue & iodine supplementation - need advice please...

Hi all

Reading through forums, and I see that a lot of users take Iodine for hair loss (probably for a lot more too!)

After doing a bit of research, I was set on taking some Iosol every day. Wanted to start with 1 drop a day (I know users here advocate more), just to see the reaction.

However, after doing a bit more research, I understand that taking Iosol could make my adrenals work harder. Also, having looked at the following http://www.drrind.com/therapies/metabolic-symptoms-matrix, it seems to me that I'm having more adrenal issues rather than thyroid issues (struggle to gain weight, dark eye circles etc)

So, I wanted to ask if its even worth taking Iosol at all without doing some work on getting my adrenals stronger? I have worked in high stress jobs for extended periods of time for the better part of a decade.

I already take about 5g of ascorbic acid in my drinking water throughout the data. Also take Maca regularly and was taking Sensoril for a while. Lastly, I take a good Vitamin B supp too (Jarrow's brand)

I have diffused thinning with severe miniaturization, so it's just not growing longer than 4-5mm anymore (and it takes ages to grow!), which had led to a few sparse areas.

Any thoughts?

Im confused about thyroid/adrenal symptoms.

I have lack of energy, fatigue, depressed mood, lack of feeling etc. But my finger nails are fine, BUT my toe nails are horrible and my hair is dry. However I also get (not as often now) dark circles. So when I read through symptom guides 1st im like oo yea its thyroid, then im like oohh maybe its adrenal fatigue. So confusing!

This is a very complex question to answer. The reason is because everyone is different. Generally though, a holistic approach, meaning to address the whole body. Because the thyroid, hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands all work in concert, if one of them is under functioning can affect the other.

Iodine is used in every tissue and organ, and things such as vitamin C and magnesium are helpful in this regard.

It is the correct thing to do to supplement iodine if you are deficient and therefore your thyroid is working sub-optimally. Don't worry about thyroid causing the adrenal glands to be overworked. This would only happen in a state of HYPERthyroid and would not be caused by one or a couple drops of Iosol Iodine.

The best natural way to work out adrenal issues is Earthing/grounding. Studies have shown that it very significantly normalizes cortisol levels. You can do this by placing bare feet on soil or grass, or buying Earthing products that plug into the wall. Additionally, working out a regular and restful sleep schedule where you have a pitch black bedroom will also help your adrenal gland. You can take 1 to 3mg of melatonin before bed to allow you to sleep easier and deeper.

Additionally you can test thyroid (T3, T4, TSH) and adrenal function (24 hour cortisol) to see where your problem really lies.

Using iodine or boosting your thyroid in any way if your adrenals are already compromised will cause problems. Boosting thyroid will boost metabolism, and if your adrenals can't support that boost, you'll wind up worse than before. That's what happened to me, and if you search the web you'll find lots of anecdotal evidence to support it. Good news is, since I've fixed my adrenals I am doing well on high-dose iodine. My thyroid function and my hair has improved.

If your adrenals are not compromised, boosting your thyroid with iodine or whatever shouldn't cause you any problems, as DavidRodgers noted. But before using anything besides iodine, recommended to get thyroid function tested. And iodine could cause it's own set of problems if you're mineral deficient, so please go slowly with it. Salt loading helps with iodine side-effects as well as adrenal fatigue.

For adrenal fatigue issues, try vitamin C, salt loading (especially in water upon arising), magnesium in multiple forms, and a good adrenal cortex supplement. Get James Wilson's adrenal fatigue book for good background on this condition, its causes, and some things to help it. Take his therapy recommendations with a grain of salt (no pun intended), however...for example, the proprietary adrenal supplement he sells is expensive garbage (I've tried it), and some of his recommendations are just not possible for normal people with lives and jobs (like, he says go to bed before 9p and don't get up until 9a, riiiiiiight). But I also got some good recommendations (like the salt loading) that helped me tremendously with my adrenal fatigue. You can't beat his book for giving thorough background on the condition.

FWIW, I had bad experience with melatonin. Be careful with it. Overused or used in place of a regular sleep schedule can ultimately cause sleep problems. My opinion is to take it only if you feel you need it, and then taken only very small dose, like 0.3mg. The recommendation of working out a sleep schedule and a pitchblack room will likely fix any sleep problems over time.

Good luck!

whodathunkit

What do you think about starting with pregnenolone supps instead of glandulars for adrenal fatigue?

MikeBison said: whodathunkit, What do you think about starting with pregnenolone supps instead of glandulars for adrenal fatigue?

Can't really comment on pregnenolone, as I've never tried itand know almost nothing about the ramifications of supplementation with it. I know CS recommends it for some things (not sure about adrenal fatigue), and some people have had good results with it for other conditions.

However, I did try DHEA for a while (pregnenolone is a DHEA precursor), and I believe the DHEA drastically worsened my hair problem in a very short amount of time.

I mention this because that experience made me very leery of supplementing with OTC steroid hormones in general. As far as gross physical harm, I didn't suffer any, but it was completely unexpected (and psychologically devastaing) when my hair worsened rapidly after only a couple of months of low-dose (< 5 mg/day) DHEA. Plus, hair didn't get any better when I stopped the DHEA. Based on that experience I would only use pregnenolone or any similar steroid hormone under the close supervision of a physician, because you don't really know what the substance is going to do once it's in your body.

But everyone reacts differently to stuff, and it could be that my hair would have deteriorated that badly during that time, anyway, and DHEA is not the same as pregnenolone in any case. But IMHO the other recs for adrenal fatigue (glandulars, vit. C, salt loading, mineral supplementation, and lifestyle modification) are much less "fraught with peril", so to speak, than supplementing with steroid hormones.

whodathunkit wrote:
For adrenal fatigue issues, try vitamin C, salt loading (especially in water upon arising), magnesium in multiple forms, and a good adrenal cortex supplement. Get James Wilson's adrenal fatigue book for good background on this condition, its causes, and some things to help it. Take his therapy recommendations with a grain of salt (no pun intended), however...for example, the proprietary adrenal supplement he sells is expensive garbage (I've tried it), and some of his recommendations are just not possible for normal people with lives and jobs (like, he says go to bed before 9p and don't get up until 9a, riiiiiiight). But I also got some good recommendations (like the salt loading) that helped me tremendously with my adrenal fatigue. You can't beat his book for giving thorough background on the condition.

FWIW, I had bad experience with melatonin. Be careful with it. Overused or used in place of a regular sleep schedule can ultimately cause sleep problems. My opinion is to take it only if you feel you need it, and then taken only very small dose, like 0.3mg. The recommendation of working out a sleep schedule and a pitchblack room will likely fix any sleep problems over time.

Good luck!

Can you tell me which adrenal cortex supplement you used? I was thinking about buying Dr. Wilson's adrenal rebuilder?

steve215 said: Can you tell me which adrenal cortex supplement you used? I was thinking about buying Dr. Wilson's adrenal rebuilder?

That's the one I consider to be expensive garbage. Not only did it not work for me, but it's horsepill size and has dicalcium phosphate in it, which I understand is hell on digestion. Presumably they put that in to counter potential stomach upset, but it also probably prevents you from getting the full benefit of the supplement since it inhibits digestion. I don't ever buy supplements with that as an ingredient. I tried the Wilson's only because my Dr. said it was good.

Plus, it's like $50 for a 30 day supply, if I remember correctly. I don't mind paying $$ for good supplements that work, but I saw no improvement after taking Dr. Wilson's for 2 months. IMHO there are several other better adrenal supps that cost a lot less. The one I like best is "Adrenergize" by Enzymatic Therapy. It's pretty cheap on Amazon.

So what improvements do you notice after taking these supps? And how long before they kick in?

Improvements:

--"awake" upon arising instead of stumbling around in fatigue for an hour, or being so tired it almost made me nauseous to get out of bed;

--Profound decrease in premature awakenings (awakening about four hours after falling asleep and then not being able to go back to sleep is a primary symptom of adrenal fatigue);

--less prone to anger, and and it passes much quicker;

--I don't feel physically ill after becoming extremely irritated or angry;

--higher tolerance for fatigue;

--more stamina over all.

All of these improvements are huge for me. I literally used to get physically ill because I had to get out of bed at 5a even though I was so tired. Through a saliva test I found out morning cortisol was essentially flatlined (which is a later stage adrenal fatigue symptom).

I also used to get irrationally, extremely pissed about the dumbest shit, and then the irritation would hang around for hours afterwards. I'd relive it again and again and get mad all over again.

Or if I got deeply angry I would have this gigantic scary outburst and then it would leave me shaking and ill.

When I arrived on this board, that's about how I was.

Now I'm like "whatever" about a lot of stuff that used to leave me sputtering mad, and when I do get justifiably angry, I tolerate it much better and recover more or less like healthy people do. The acute anger phase passes quickly, like it does with "normal" people. Although I've been working on becoming more self-aware, I can say these changes are not primarily the result of any psychological coping mechanism, as I haven't had much success in implementing too many of them. Rather, they're the result of getting control of my body chemistry. Once I improved my body chemistry, *only then* did the psychological coping strategies began to work.

It's not just an adrenal thing, though. You have to get your other body chemistry in order, too, with diet, etc. But without the support of the adrenals, the thyroid and sex hormones can't do their thing, and all kinds of biochemical mayhem can ensue.

As far as how long they take to kick in...depends upon how sick your adrenals are and how drastically you attack the problem. After I got disciplined it only took a couple of weeks before I noticed an improvement, although it took at least six months to get "well". And I'm not "cured"...severe adrenal fatigue is something you have to work with forever if you have it. I made the stupid mistake when I was feeling at my best last year of going out with some old friends and getting really hammered and doing blow for the first time in over a decade. I thought I could handle it because I had been doing so much good clean livin', I'd detox quickly, and that would be that. But that night set my adrenals back months of hard work and I haven't got back quite as good again. I will get back, but I hope you see my point about being kind to your adrenals for the rest of your life.

I have similar symptoms, I wake up and walk around and sometimes feel like im in a dream and just floating about, I feel so detatched and covered in brain fog, I have never felt nauseus because of it though. But my legs feel so heavy and all I want to do is just lie down somewhere.

I get the anger aswell, really bad it often mounts up and I explode at someone at the slightest thing, and im so irritable and easily angered at work it even annoys me.

The times Ive gone to bed at 'normal' times I have woke up at say 5am and had to read for half a hour maybe to fall asleep again.


Did your changes come about from ONLY adrenal related supps (excluding diet etc) or where you doing thyroid stuff aswell?

Also are there any dietry things you can recommend for adrenal fatigue?

Thanks!

Nuu, I feel for you. But do some research and try some things on your own. Everyone's different, and what I've done may not work for you. First step is to get James Wilson's adrenal fatigue book. The background is invaluable. Then go from there.

Salt loading is crucial. Adrenal fatigue does something to the potassium sodium balance. If you need extra sodium, 1/4 teaspoon in 8 oz of cold water will taste wonderful to you. Do that several times per day.

Basically a good diet for me is animal protein, fruits, and veggies. Little to no grains or starches. Wilson says no fruit for adrenal fatigue people but I like fruit too much so I ignore that rec. Read my other posts in this thread for the rest of what I think is important. I've done lots of things to improve my body chemistry, inclduing iodine supplementation for thyroid. But I could only tolerate iodine after improving my adrenals.

Can't stress enough that what works for me might not work for you, so you have to be your own detective.

I also have many of these symptoms (dark circles, skinny body but have a fat belly, bad sleeping patterns, always tired feeling, irritable, and last but not least miniaturizing diffuse thinning hair).

My blood test showed my thyroid (TSH levels) to be fine. Anything else that may be causing all these thyroid-like symptoms? I hate to be a supplement junkie, but is there something I can take?

qzack97 wrote:I also have many of these symptoms (dark circles, skinny body but have a fat belly, bad sleeping patterns, always tired feeling, irritable, and last but not least miniaturizing diffuse thinning hair).

My blood test showed my thyroid (TSH levels) to be fine. Anything else that may be causing all these thyroid-like symptoms? I hate to be a supplement junkie, but is there something I can take?

Ive read that thyroid tests can be innacurate because they are just to general or something like that, I think cortisol test is more important. How did you get your thyroid tested btw? I cant really imagine going to my GP in uk and saying oh can you do my a thyroid test, lol. He would probably just fob me off with words of wisdom and leaflets.

Nuuu_Dx wrote:

qzack97 wrote:I also have many of these symptoms (dark circles, skinny body but have a fat belly, bad sleeping patterns, always tired feeling, irritable, and last but not least miniaturizing diffuse thinning hair).

My blood test showed my thyroid (TSH levels) to be fine. Anything else that may be causing all these thyroid-like symptoms? I hate to be a supplement junkie, but is there something I can take?

Ive read that thyroid tests can be innacurate because they are just to general or something like that, I think cortisol test is more important. How did you get your thyroid tested btw? I cant really imagine going to my GP in uk and saying oh can you do my a thyroid test, lol. He would probably just fob me off with words of wisdom and leaflets.

That's because he/she's a GP, who may be unable to assess treatments for anything apart from cuts and scrapes. Also, you guys are on universal health care, so I suspect it might be more cost prohibitive and puts added pressure on him to not hand out blood tests freely. I go to an endocrinologist and he gives me a sheet with hundreds of items you can check off as to what you want tested for in your blood. I check off all the stuff I want tested, and take it to the testing lab of my choice where they leech my blood . A few days later, my blood test results are up online.

Anyway so I'm looking at that blood test sheet right now, and in regards to cortisol, I can choose between:
Urine Cortisol
AM Cortisol
Saliva Cortisol

Which one do I pick?

Hi,

Most important with supplementing iodine is the strenght of your adrenals. Bothe adrenals and thyroid are part of the HPA-axis and if you supplement with iodine your thyroid will be functioning at a faster rate, problem with this is that your adrenals will also have to work harder. There is a reason why the thyroid is often malfunctioning when you have weak adrenals, because this is a mechanism for healing the adrenals.

In the past i also used iodine, because i thought i only had a malfunctioning thyroid, so i used iodine every day and i got a real adrenal crash. In two months my adrenals went from bad to worse. Luckily at this time i am much much more wiser and more informed about my condition. Knowledge really is power! Because without it, you will never recover, this is also why it usually takes multiple years to recover completely, you have to find root causes, explanations and you have to school yourself!

I am wondering if at the moment i will be ready for iodine, but i want to play it save, so i want to support my adrenals with adrenal glandulars. I am thinking about using this problem: adrenal supplement. Does anybody has experience with this product or does anybody has experience with using adrenal grandulars?

MY top 1 rule, find the root cause, else progress will be slow or not even possible!