29 replies to this topic

[acantelopepope]

I abused caffeine supplements for three years in high school before burning out entirely and being forced to switch to antidepressants after the crash. During those three years I had a wild home life, I played 3 sports, got little sleep, and demanded straight A's of myself. Not recommended.

With a highly controlled schedule of nutrition and exercise and sleep, with various supplements like L-Tyrosine and Wellbutrin and finally Piracetam, I seemed to recover rather well...

But that only lasted a few months, and then following a series of stressful events, I was back to square one.

Whatever damage I did to my adrenals over the past 5-7 years has obviously not been undone: I am irritable, I don't sleep well, I'm constantly fighting brain fog, I crave refined carbs, salts, and sugars, I recover from exercise ridiculously slowly despite proper nutrition and otherwise being in good shape, I'm in and out of depression... the list goes on. Not pleasant.

Right now I'm taking pregnenolone, dhea, tribulus terrestrius, ashwagandha, panax ginseng, bacopa, a multivitamin, fish oil, magnesium, phosphatidyl serine, and GABA...

I try to do all the right things... not staying up late (very difficult to pass up social opportunities as a college student, but I do it in the hopes of feeling better), avoiding sugar, grease, refined carbs, high glycemic food, etc.

....but I still have no energy, I'm plagued by stress, and it's a good day when I can concentrate well on my work. There has to be a better way.

I'm not even sure whether I have too MUCH cortisol or too LITTLE; or if focusing on cortisol is the wrong approach. I know that I should have some tests done, but I am so low on money right now and my doctor doesn't seem to like ordering them anyways.

[1kgcoffee]

I feel for you man. I drank a lot of coffee in my younger days, literally ran myself into a state of poor health.
It takes YEARS to get into such a condition and it will take at least as long to fully repair. Fortunately you're young enough that your body will bounce back with the right care.

Here's a decent video on the subject

-Don't skip meals
-High quality protein based breakfast
-Eat every 2 or 3 hours
-Snack low GI foods, nuts seeds, eggs
-Avoid juices
-Avoid all stimulants (which you're probably doing)



Don't stop there though. Be aggressive. Are you on any kind of supplement regimen right now?
If you're going to take herbs, here are some reccomendations:
Eucommia, reishi mushroom, ho sho wu, schizandra berries, rhodiola, goji. Maybe astragalus too. Go to mountainroseherbs.com and order a bunch I can vouch for their quality. Or take a trip to china town.

I've found from experience that abstaining from too much sexual release can help. It's worth a shot.

Here's a good, though unscientific article from the TCM perspective:
http://www.sooperart...icine-4866.html

[lynx]

....but I still have no energy, I'm plagued by stress, and it's a good day when I can concentrate well on my work. There has to be a better way.

What you are describing sounds an awful lot like depression. Pure, unadulterated, non-nutritional, un-self-diagnoseable depression. I think you are not as good a doctor as you think you are, if you were, you would have cured yourself.

[kismet]

What is grease and why should I avoid it? If you eat low fat, this will contribute to your decline, not help. "Adrenal fatigue" is not even a real disease. So find a better doctor, get a real diagnosis.

[acantelopepope]

What is grease and why should I avoid it? If you eat low fat, this will contribute to your decline, not help. "Adrenal fatigue" is not even a real disease. So find a better doctor, get a real diagnosis.

By "grease" I was using an informal term for excessively deep fried foods, like french fries, and most other things you find at McDonald's, for example. I do not eat "low fat" and have never desired to. Also, I never said I had a "disease." But the condition referred to as "adrenal fatigue" is very real. Whether that is my problem or not is not certain, but given my history and symptoms, it would be a logical inference. So of course the best thing to do would be to have tests done-- but this is costly and time consuming and quite honestly I'm sick of the medical world in general. From the insurance companies who spend more time trying to deny me care than help, to the doctors who immediately write off fatigue and foggy-headedness as "simple" depression and prescribe band-aid treatments. There is much more to this than a psychosomatic explanation-- and if you can't see that from what I've said about my stimulant abuse and chronic stress, then I must not be emphasizing that clearly enough, or you are refusing to see it.

[acantelopepope]

I feel for you man. I drank a lot of coffee in my younger days, literally ran myself into a state of poor health.
It takes YEARS to get into such a condition and it will take at least as long to fully repair. Fortunately you're young enough that your body will bounce back with the right care.

Here's a decent video on the subject

-Don't skip meals
-High quality protein based breakfast
-Eat every 2 or 3 hours
-Snack low GI foods, nuts seeds, eggs
-Avoid juices
-Avoid all stimulants (which you're probably doing)



Don't stop there though. Be aggressive. Are you on any kind of supplement regimen right now?
If you're going to take herbs, here are some reccomendations:
Eucommia, reishi mushroom, ho sho wu, schizandra berries, rhodiola, goji. Maybe astragalus too. Go to mountainroseherbs.com and order a bunch I can vouch for their quality. Or take a trip to china town.

I've found from experience that abstaining from too much sexual release can help. It's worth a shot.

Here's a good, though unscientific article from the TCM perspective:
http://www.sooperart...icine-4866.html

It's interesting that you mention abstaining from sex-- I have suspected that this wears me down more than is "normal" for awhile now, but haven't had any evidence or explanation as to why.

I won't be able to buy those herbs for quite a while, as I'm low on money right now. I've spent most of my extra money on nutritional supplements in the hope that they would rectify these problems, but overall, I can't say that it was worth it right now. DMAE seems to be the only thing that consistently helps me. Without ~2g DMAE I feel... stupid. I am pretty much dependent on it.

-Why are juices to be avoided?

-Anyone know of a good transdermal Phosphatidyl Serine product? I read somewhere that these are more cost effective at delivering the kind of dosages that are helpful for repairing the cortisol system.

-If, hypothetically speaking, everything that I am experiencing is merely "depression", then what? More Wellbutrin? How long would that last? SSRI's? And how long would that go on for? In this hypothetical, am I just supposed to keep taking anti-depressants indefinitely?

[acantelopepope]

You mentioned in another thread how Piracetam wasn't working so well anymore... is it triggering negative symptoms or just not providing good results?

Even without adrenals, some positive effects of piracetam should remain, like increased membrane fluidity, better oxygen utilization by mitochondria, better blood flow thru thin vessels (thank yea, enhanced platelet deformability!).

Also, what doses of piracetam and what schedule were you on?

Unfortunately, I have strong negative reactions to both piracetam and choline.

On November 24th of 2008 my first shipment of Piracetam & Choline arrived in 500g containers from 1fast400/BN. By December 1st, I knew that I had something special. Combined with other factors, I had, probably, the best 2-4 months of my life. Then, just as "it" came, "it" left, and it left me wildly depressed, cynical, lethargic, and... stupid.

I was taking roughly 1.5g piracetam 3-4x/day and 2g choline during this time, and added roughly 500mg Aniracetam 2x/day in February.

I have empirically determined that any dose of Piracetam causes the following, consistently: confusion, lethargy, and irritability. Even more surprising is the way my body reacts when choline is added to the mix. We all know that Choline & Piracetam are supposed to be positively synergistic. Well, for me, they are also synergistic: together, the effects I just described are extremely pronounced to the point of debilitation (I will spontaneously fall into hopeless fits, negative thoughts will flood my mind and I will begin crying, and I will not be able to formulate complete sentences out loud, literally).

I was hoping that the adrenal mechanism theory of piracetam would lead to its efficacy for me. For those of you who have not heard this theory, it goes like this: researchers removed the adrenal glands from mice and then gave them piracetam. No effect. In some cases, they performed worse. I don't know what they were measuring them on right now, but that's beside the point. With piracetam, they performed better. So it was posited that the adrenals are directly involved in the positive effects of piracetam.

So I started supplementing with pregnenolone, etc. and after a week tried 2g piracetam, with absolutely no improvement. This does not prove anything conclusively, but it was disappointing. Another theory that's been tossed around is that excess cortisol inhibits the effects of piracetam...

[acantelopepope]

Oh, and also thank you to everyone who responded I'm sorry if my responses were caustic, but as you could guess, the issues being discussed are kinda personal to me.

[nowayout]

-Anyone know of a good transdermal Phosphatidyl Serine product? I read somewhere that these are more cost effective at delivering the kind of dosages that are helpful for repairing the cortisol system.

I thought PS effectively lowered cortisol, in which case it may be just the opposite of what you need if you do have adrenal insufficiency.

[rwac]

You should get your DHEA, cortisol levels tested.
That will let you know what your adrenal status is.

Have you considered adding a good choline source like CDP-choline ?

Perhaps also try Pantethine, Vit C, Rhodiola ?

Also, make sure you cycle the Ashwagandha.

[kismet]

But the condition referred to as "adrenal fatigue" is very real.

The name implies that it is an adrenal condition, which is not proven by any science; so blaming the adrenal gland for what could be something entirely different is rather arbitrary (IIRC many things go by that name sometimes chronic lyme, overtraining, burn-out? etc - there's really so much stuff I've seen attributed to adrenal fatigue).
The adrenal glands could play an important role in some chronic diseases; but that's not "adrenal fatigue" as it is commonly understood.

[acantelopepope]

I went to my doctor today and he referred me to an endocrinologist.

The website "stop the thyroid madness" was very helpful. I had a blood profile done a few months ago and my TSH was 3.5, which was supposed to be in the "normal" range. It turns out, 95% of people with healthy thyroid function have TSH below 2.5, so there is a very good chance that I was subclinical hypothyroid, and now may be full out hypothyroid. I have begun to get searing headaches more frequently, and sometimes when I stand up I get dizzy... in other words, the symptoms of hypothyroidism are becoming more apparent.

"Until those data become available, a more precisely determined reference range for TSH of 0.3–2.5 (Fig. 1) will permit detection of individuals at risk of overt thyroid disease and should prompt their additional follow-up to confirm progression into thyroid dysfunction and thereby justify initiation of therapy. We will probably never have an absolute cutoff value for TSH distinguishing normal from abnormal, but recognition that the mean of normal TSH values is only between 1.18 and 1.40 mU/liter (7) and that more than 95% of the normal population will have a TSH level less than 2.5 mU/liter (10) clearly imply that anyone with a higher value should be carefully assessed for early thyroid failure. Thus, we believe that a TSH level between 5 and 10 mU/liter deserves confirmation and, if confirmed, warrants treatment. More judgment is required until more definitive data are available for the management of those patients with TSH values between 2.5 and 5.0. Assessment could include a review of their personal and family medical history and serum cholesterol and TPOAb levels, and the decision as to whether to initiate a trial of levothyroxine therapy is based more upon the "art of medicine" at this time than the science.

Pasted from <http://jcem.endojour...ull/90/9/5483>"

I will schedule an appointment with the endocrinologist on Monday, and then hopefully get to see them within the week. Then it will take another few weeks for me to have results sent back... and if it confirms my suspicions, I have wasted 2-4 weeks where I could have been getting better. Any ideas? Should I try to get a prescription for Armour or T4/T3 somehow?

[kismet]

So if you want to break something down (I'm addressing the previous poster) then you ought to have something to replace it with - as in "adrenal fatigue" which is a phrase used to refer to a set of symptoms which may or may not be related to adrenal glands. That's as close as common knowledge has resolved the issue.

Are you seriously suggesting that an arbitrary and misleading term is better than calling it what it is? (a set of symptoms which generally cannot be explained?) I've already suggested equally useless labels, I hope that counts.

Get a diagnosis first, then think about thyroid meds. I am also hypothyroid by those standards (and I may very well be, because I feel like it), but: More judgment is required until more definitive data are available for the management of those patients with TSH values between 2.5 and 5.0.
Especially if you're interested in life extension as (different types of lowish) thyroid levels are correlated with *longevity*. It's an incredibly complex topic and I promise jumping the gun won't help anyone live longer. Therefore, perhaps only consider thyroid medication if quality of life is at issue and you can't cope otherwise...

Using a cut-off value of 4.5 mU/ml (!) (or 10 mU/ml) the risk was only borderline significant and it may reverse and completely vanish in the elderly.

Ann Intern Med. 2008 Jun 3;148(11):832-45. Epub 2008 May 19.
Meta-analysis: subclinical thyroid dysfunction and the risk for coronary heart disease and mortality.
Ochs N, Auer R, Bauer DC, Nanchen D, Gussekloo J, Cornuz J, Rodondi N.
http://www.annals.or...full/148/11/832

Edited by kismet, 01 November 2009 - 03:04 AM.

[ajnast4r]

"Adrenal fatigue" is not even a real disease. So find a better doctor, get a real diagnosis.

winner

what youre describing sounds like depression not 'adrenal fatigue' as there is no such thing

[nowayout]

what youre describing sounds like depression not 'adrenal fatigue' as there is no such thing

I don't think this helps much.

I suspect "depression" is as arbitrary, misleading, and useless a label as "adrenal fatigue", insofar as both mean "I'm feeling bad for reasons that generally cannot be explained".

[acantelopepope]

what youre describing sounds like depression not 'adrenal fatigue' as there is no such thing

I don't think this helps much.

I suspect "depression" is as arbitrary, misleading, and useless a label as "adrenal fatigue", insofar as both mean "I'm feeling bad for reasons that generally cannot be explained".

Amen. At least use of the word depression to describe a particular disease has been thoroughly rebuffed.

The logic of those who say "if it looks like depression, it must be depression" completely astounds me. It's infuriating.

Most "depression" has a medical disease as its cause.

For example, if someone's ADRENAL GLANDS have been overtaxed to compensate for a HYPOTHYROID condition, then they are most likely ADRENALLY FATIGUED and must work with an endocrinologist to address the ADRENAL FATIGUE and HYPOTHYROIDISM concomitantly, with treatments that have been proven to work FOR THOSE PARTICULAR MEDICAL CONDITIONS.

Want to treat that same person with SSRI's and Wellbutrin? Sure, you could. Those drugs will very likely cover up that person's "Depression" which they are feeling. They may even feel better for a few months. But then, because these band-aid drugs are just BAND-AIDS, the person will inevitably relapse, and their REAL condition will probably be worse because idiots who follow Kismet's line of thinking (which, unfortunately, is still extremely proliferative in the helping professions) were too ignorant to look more deeply into the patient's condition than calling it "simple depression."

It makes me sick. In 30 years, the medical community will joke about the dolts who tried to fix abused parts of the body (i.e., adrenals, thyroid) by feeding patients pills that alter their brain chemistry while simultaneously ignoring the initial problem.

Edited by acantelopepope, 02 November 2009 - 04:53 AM.

[kenj]

Nah, dude you're just 'depressed'.....

Need MOAr SSRI...... *sarcastic*

Edited by kenj, 02 November 2009 - 05:25 AM.

[acantelopepope]

After seeing an endocrinologist, I've had some tests done. I won't get most of the results back until December 8th, but I've attached the results I have.

Here are the highlights:
1) Abnormally high levels of Iron. Initially I had this tested to see if I was Iron deficient, so this was a surprise. Now I'm wondering whether I have Hemochromatosis

2) High levels of EBV antibodies. I am still confused by this one--I didn't get a chance to speak to my PCP in person, but over the phone he briefly told me that this was nothing to worry about.

3) A TSH over 5.0. This doesn't surprise me because I've been 95% sure that I'm hypothyroid for awhile now--but it's good to know that now I'm actually in the "abnormal" range on this scale that conventional medicine places so much dogmatic value in. What pisses me off is that a few months ago my TSH was 3.5 and it was quickly dismissed as "normal". On this recent test, the reference range states that any TSH over 3.0 is abnormal, which means that four or five months ago I really should've been told that hypothyroid was a very real possibility. This could have saved me thousands of dollars and months of anguish.

4) Thyroid antibodies at a level of "12" on a scale of 0-20 as normal. I don't know anything about this, really, but shouldn't ANY level of antibodies present be bad?

5) I'm not sure what to make of a high TSH and normal T4/T3 values. I still exhibit all the signs of hypothyroid (though I'm doing better with Isocort and other supplements).

That's it so far. I'll post more labs when I get them.

 Tests1.jpg   544.22KB   37 downloads

 Tests2.jpg   597.19KB   31 downloads

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 Tests4.jpg   371.57KB   15 downloads

Edited by acantelopepope, 28 November 2009 - 10:28 PM.

[niner]

acantelopepope, it sounds like you might be on the trail now; I hope that you get some relief. Whenever I see symptoms like you describe, one thing that crosses my mind is allergies. Allergies to common environmental antigens like mold, dust mites, or pollen can masquerade as depression or viral infection. Sometimes this triad is hard to tease apart. This may or may not be your problem, but I'll throw it out there. Ever been allergy tested?

[acantelopepope]

acantelopepope, it sounds like you might be on the trail now; I hope that you get some relief. Whenever I see symptoms like you describe, one thing that crosses my mind is allergies. Allergies to common environmental antigens like mold, dust mites, or pollen can masquerade as depression or viral infection. Sometimes this triad is hard to tease apart. This may or may not be your problem, but I'll throw it out there. Ever been allergy tested?

What kind of tests would you recommend? I've heard a lot of mixed things about the ability to actually detect allergies. I have tried going off gluten/dairy for over a month and reintroducing them... gluten seems to be fine, but I think that I'm sensitive to dairy. Other than that, I wouldn't know how to figure out if there's something I should be avoiding.

[niner]

acantelopepope, it sounds like you might be on the trail now; I hope that you get some relief. Whenever I see symptoms like you describe, one thing that crosses my mind is allergies. Allergies to common environmental antigens like mold, dust mites, or pollen can masquerade as depression or viral infection. Sometimes this triad is hard to tease apart. This may or may not be your problem, but I'll throw it out there. Ever been allergy tested?

What kind of tests would you recommend? I've heard a lot of mixed things about the ability to actually detect allergies. I have tried going off gluten/dairy for over a month and reintroducing them... gluten seems to be fine, but I think that I'm sensitive to dairy. Other than that, I wouldn't know how to figure out if there's something I should be avoiding.

The kind of tests that I'm thinking of are skin tests. They put a very small drop of solutions of different antigens on a grid on your back, then scratch them to abrade the top layer of skin a bit. After about 15 minutes, if there is a skin response, (turning red or swelling) then there is a presumed allergy. They can crudely quantify the degree of allergy by the magnitude of the response. The typical environmental allergens mostly hit the mucous membranes which abound in your head, throat and lungs. When your sinuses are inflamed, it can really whack out your sensorium and create all manner of trouble. This sort of thing could be a possibility if you have a stuffy nose or stuffy head, gunky eyes, etc much of the time. If you live somewhere that's very dry, or you breathe really clearly all the time unless you are sick, then it's less likely.

To get a test like this just make an appointment with an allergist. They'll probably measure your breathing as well. Where I live (US East coast), allergies are incredibly common. I would estimate that the majority of adults here would benefit from treatment.

[kassem23]

My father told me to tell you the following (he is an endocrinologist)

"Your case is an example of an iatrogenic disease. I would recommend the following:
1. Withdraw from all current medication & supplements
2. Observe symptoms, and if continued, redo tests.
3. If tests show no indications of disease, I would advice to seek psychological help or lifestyle consultation.
It's very dangerous that you are taking all these supplements, as we don't their interaction and their exact content."


Best regards,
Anders

[rehabman28]

My father told me to tell you the following (he is an endocrinologist)

"Your case is an example of an iatrogenic disease. I would recommend the following:
1. Withdraw from all current medication & supplements
2. Observe symptoms, and if continued, redo tests.
3. If tests show no indications of disease, I would advice to seek psychological help or lifestyle consultation.
It's very dangerous that you are taking all these supplements, as we don't their interaction and their exact content."


Best regards,
Anders

Actually, what's dangerous is going to a traditional doctor. Adrenal fatigue is real. Modern medicine looks at everything in extremes...you either have a disease or you don't. Seek an integrative M.D. or D.O. and have your salivary cortisol checked, along with T3(free), free T4, Thyroid antibodies, etc. You need to do a round of hydrocortisone most likely. What area of the country are you in?

[robomoon]

The biggest problem in such a case: you know the initial diagnosis, which is called depression. If your health insurance wouldn't be that low in quality, it would allow you to get to a qualified psychotherapist. This way, neither your family nor your friends will even know that this is what you get, because the psychotherapist will tell nobody of them about your condition. http://www.aboutpsyc...credentials.htm explains the practitioners like psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. It's written only psychiatrists can prescribe medication, but I don't know for sure. So it would be required to visit a psychiatrist first to get referred to a different practitioner later. The psychiatrist can check if your illness comes more from the brain or more from the thyroid or something. Actually, I don't know what's up with the term "traditional doctor", so I simply keep switching to the term physician. Perhaps you must be careful if the physician is either overworked or not sufficiently funded by your health insurance. Otherwise, I'm sorry for you getting ripped-off by unqualified supplement dealers and their medically unqualified crew. Better avoid them and their money-motivated sales practices instead of an experienced physician.

My father told me to tell you the following (he is an endocrinologist)

"Your case is an example of an iatrogenic disease. I would recommend the following:
1. Withdraw from all current medication & supplements
2. Observe symptoms, and if continued, redo tests.
3. If tests show no indications of disease, I would advice to seek psychological help or lifestyle consultation.
It's very dangerous that you are taking all these supplements, as we don't their interaction and their exact content."


Best regards,
Anders

Actually, what's dangerous is going to a traditional doctor. Adrenal fatigue is real. Modern medicine looks at everything in extremes...you either have a disease or you don't. Seek an integrative M.D. or D.O. and have your salivary cortisol checked, along with T3(free), free T4, Thyroid antibodies, etc. You need to do a round of hydrocortisone most likely. What area of the country are you in?

[acantelopepope]

Guys, I have been making tremendous progress with this stuff by being relentless in my research and keeping doctors accountable. I have worked my way up to 1.5 grain dessicated thyroid and a number of adrenal/thyroid aimed supplements, and I'm doing better than I have in a long time-- I've cut the antidepressant wellbutrin almost entirely out of my regimen, and I have more clarity and energy than before.

I feel that it's important to further redress the conventional medicine views that some posters expressed in this thread that turned out to be not at all reflecting the reality of my situation. Kassem, it was nice of you to ask your dad the Endocrinologist about his opinion, but for whatever it's worth to you, his advice was typically myopic and unhelpful. When a man develops a sense of self-importance and status based on his training in a specialized field, he will always believe he knows more about a person's body than any layperson can possibly ascertain in non-med school literature. This is only true in the sense that without the amount of time that these people spend in school, the individual patient will clearly not have the ability to learn as much technical information about their body as the specialist has. This is why specialists are useful, and also why they are useless, so often. What I'm really saying is that for thyroid patients, endocrinologists are paradoxically some of the worst doctors to visit for help, because they are so entrenched in their belief that what they were taught in medical school and during their residencies is nearly indisputable, and anybody who comes to them with their own information (a vocal pre-med college student for example) from various sources on the internet, must be completely off-track. When they hear names like "Ashwagandha" and "Dimethylaminoethanol - DMAE" and even "COQ10" which they really know nothing about, they use a term such as that which your father used to patronizingly explain away the problems of their patients. It's sick, really, but only time and education will change the status quo. And make no mistake about it: as more people realize that "conventional" medicine has been deceiving them in many ways, there will be a dramatic shift in medical school education, and at the same time, medical practice. I've already ranted on here about the depressing (pun intended) state of the psychiatry field, which overprescribes medication to obfuscate real diseases, so I won't repeat that.

Now, on to some new questions.


My doctor--an excellent ND, which I am told is rare, but that's beside the point--thinks that the rest of my test results were okay besides the high TSH of 5.1, but I noticed that a few of my hormones, namely testosterone and IGF-1, looked low for a young man in otherwise excellent shape (take my word for it).

Here are the results:

IGF-1 (BL) 225 ng/mL (reference range for 19-20y: 281-510, mean: 371 with SD 75)
Testosterone: 527 ng/dL (reference range 280-800)
Aldosterone: 11 ng/dL (reference range 7-30 upright)

Also:
Prolactin, Serum (ICMA): 9.2 (reference 3-18)
FSH, serum: 3.6 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)
LH, S: 2.8 mIU/mL (reference 1.7-8.6)
Iron, serum: 180 ug/dL (40-155) -- "high"

More results available upon request.

[ajnast4r]

2) High levels of EBV antibodies. I am still confused by this one--I didn't get a chance to speak to my PCP in person, but over the phone he briefly told me that this was nothing to worry about.

what you described in your original post is many of the symptoms of chronic ebv infection... i would definitely look into that regardless of what your doctor said. what were your monospot numbers?

[cogitoergosum]

Acantelopepope, i seem to be in a similar situation in a sense that:
1) my TSH is elevated (4,4); as for the antibodies (both mine and yours) their level is completely normal because they are present in small amounts almost in everybody (anyway the treatment would be the same).
2) according to your dhea level it seems that you have a kind of a compensated adrenal fatigue (stage 1: http://www.chronicfa....org/ASI 2.html ). As for me I found myself in the stage 2 with an already slightly decreased level of dhea (stage 2: http://www.chronicfa....org/ASI 2.html ).
3) i have the same iron overload thing but it's mild and negligible (slightly above the ranges); (*though in my case it's caused by beta-thalassemia minor which is absolutely irrelevant to the issue).
4) the same low testosteron problem (in my case testosteron is even as low as 430).
5) the same piracetam intake response.
Besides, I have the prolactin level moderately increased but that is quite common in hypothyroid condition.

Some questions for you:
1) What do you think about this natural thyroid hype? I mean isn't it wiser simply to start with the traditional levothyroxine drug? Or maybe just to try t3+t4? (*Btw, the 'stop thyroid madness' site provides a lot of helpful information but I considered their approach to be too categorical and in this sense it doesn't differ much from the conventional medicine approach with its strict dogmatism thinking.)
2) What supplements for adrenals do you take? Is it appropriate to compensate their functionality simply by taking hormone drugs just as it is practiced in case of hypothyreoidism?
3) Do you feel fatigued all day long? (*I'm asking about that because in my case I have trouble waking up and always feel depressed and inadequately irritated in the morning but during the night time (usually from 21 p.m. till 02 a.m.) I become a kind of an extremely energized person full of hypomanic thoughts and behaviour and having difficulty getting asleep. Recentlly I read that adrenal fatigue can be the cause.)
4) Are you on a diet recommended for the adrenal fatigue case?

I would be very grateful for the response because I think that your experience will provide me with a clue on how to deal with my own case.

p.s. If the way I formulate my sentences seems to be funny or something like that please don't be surprised or annoyed and take into consideration the fact that I'm not a native speaker.

Edited by cogitoergosum, 05 February 2010 - 10:48 PM.