I have some problems maybe some of you can help me with. I have had CFS for years and a couple of years ago a doctor put me on Cortef 5mg-am and 10mg-pm. I did a saliva test that showed I was in stage 4. I took this for 7 months. Then I weaned off of it because I started having problems with my Autonomic nervous system. My adrenals were overactive for the next 6 months or so and now they have shut down. My ACTH is low, cortisol is low. Could this be from the Cortef? Wouldn't they have shut down when I went off it, not months later? What do I do now? I dont want to take the cortef again. Thanks for any help.

How do you know you were having problems with your autonomic nervous system?

Your dosage schedule for the cortef also looks sort of weird; physiologically, you should have the higher levels in the AM, so why are the meds the reverse?

If you DO have problems with your autonomic nervous system, the only connection I know of with steroid levels is diabetic neuropathy. If you're diabetic, taking steroids will certainly hurt your glucose control.

I have episodes where my heartrate shoots up to 200bpm and my bp shoots up. Blood pools in my legs when I stand and bp drops. Hundreds of PVC's a day, SVT, etc.

I know my cortef dosage was messed up. I didnt know that at the time and appareltly my doc at the time is an idiot.

I do not have diabetes.

Thanks for replying