LONGECITY

Over the last years I`ve been having difficulties with fatigue, anxiety and dysthemia. I need around 9-10 hours of sleep to function normally, feel groggy in the morning and usually get anxious at nighttime. I`ve been trying to figure out what is wrong with me and I believe my problems are at least partlycaused by some HPA-Axis dysfunction after years of chronic stress. I tried numerous remedies, but none were able to hit the root cause and thereby eleminate my symptoms for longer periods of time.

My symptoms vary from day to day, without me being able to point down a clear cause. One thing however, is that I seem to have an interesting reaction to sauna visits. During and right after my sauna visit, most of my symptoms seem to completely go away. I feel calm, energized and clearheaded at my regular sauna days. But the day after, I always feel some kind of "crash". I feel very "wired but tired", oversleep more then I use to, need coffee to get me going, shaky, brainfogged and very irritable. In short, all my regular symptoms are amplified alot. 

The thing I can come up with, is that my symptoms are linked to low cortisol and the heat from a sauna raises my cortisol levels temporarily. But the day after, I get some "rebound" effect due to the HPA-axis being stressed the day earlier.  Another guess is that the sweating from the sauna causes a depletion in electrolytes, causing me to feel worse. But that doesn`t explain the allmost miraculous disappearance of symptoms during and the night after my sauna visit...

Is there anyone who can provide me with a clearer explaination and maybe give some advice for things to try based on this phenomenon ?

According to the following table, a sauna bath seems to significantly raise hGH, ACTH and Cortisol:

Sauna is a form of heat stress, and has a variety of benefits based on the principle of hormesis;

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/23570942

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19343114

Have you experimented how you react to hydrocortisone?

I think saunas do that simply because they are stressful in general to the body. 

Thought this thread about the hpa axis might interest you: http://www.longecity...is-dysfunction/

Good luck, I share most of the symptoms you describe, it is quite frusterating 

Unfortunately, I havent found an answer to this question yet and i`m still symptomatic :(

You could try low dose naltrexone. It upregulates HPA axis, and normalizes hormonal production. No more than 4/5mg ed before sleeping. A 50mg cap crushed in 10-12ml water, 1ml each night.

Works very well if you have low T levels for some reason, so it could indirectly help. 

Just read a few articles here before trying : http://lowdosenaltrexone.org/

It can be quite magic for some people...