If you are not a registered member of our community, please click here to register...

 Home Message Boards Health Guide Join for Free Testimonials About Us
Search
   
  


PDA

View Full Version : Cortisol reference levels


 

 

 
opalfirejucika
05-24-2006, 11:08 AM
Hi, I'm new to this adrenal stress stuff. My doc ran cortisol fasting and feasting. Results came back as 17.7 fasting and 5.3 feasting. What are the reference ranges? I'm also hypothyroid and taking Armour thyroid 120 mg each morning. Can't shake that dead feeling on waking up and falling asleep in the afternoon. Hate to eat breakfast from nausea and definitely get a second wind around 7 p.m. I also have all the usual symptoms of low functioning adrenals, including dizziness from walking upstairs, low blood pressure, pupil reaction to light, mildly achy joints, nearly everything on the list...and this after 2 years on this dose of Armour??? New doc said these were "normal" values. I don't trust "normal" values anymore. Please help!

Sponsor
 



WandaB
05-26-2006, 12:44 PM
I was hoping someone had an answer for you. I'm not familiar with the tests you had. Was your testing done by an endocrinologist?

Find an endocrinologist & have the ACTH stim test. Get copies for yourself & post results.

Hope you find some help quickly.

Wanda

opalfirejucika
05-28-2006, 01:40 PM
Thanks for getting back with me Wanda. It was done by a doctor who specializes in interpretive medicine. All that means, in my book, is that he is not going to nix my Armour thyroid. He also uses Chinese medicine and is at present, unaware I'm sure, dosing me with a mixture that includes bovine cortisol extract. No wonder I'm feeling a tad bit better (mostly I feel dragged out in the late afternoons, but not so hard to wake up after three weeks on the stuff that this doc gave me). I asked him to test my cortisol level and it came back as 17.7 in am and 5.3 at 4 p.m. Okay, granted it's within the "normal" ranges, but I still have a sneaking suspicion that it's not normal for me. I went through all this, regarding what's really normal for me, with my thyroid until I found a doc that was willing to go by my guidelines, learned with great effort on my part through the thyroid board on this site. Those people were absolutely wonderful!
Now I'm trying to learn all I can through this board about variations regarding your adrenals. Some of what I've read on other sites is that some people benefit from a short 2 week course on an adrenal supplement extract (not DHEA) even though they have perfectly normal test results, such as mine. I will mention to him about the ACTH sim test. If I can't get him to do it, I'm afraid my endo (who handles my Armour thyroid) is going to be a deadend. He's already told me that has nothing to do with how I feel. He's trying to tell me that I have a "touch" of narcolepsy...and that while he had me on Chlortrimeton to help me sleep at night! I stopped taking it after a year when my ever-aware husband said to me, don't you remember it used to make you real sleepy when you took it occasionally for your allergies?
Any help hugely appreciated!

WandaB
05-28-2006, 02:54 PM
Tell your endo to humor you & do the ACTH stim test. He is "working" for you...so you are the boss. Of course it must be done correctly or is worthless.

Take care,
Wanda

opalfirejucika
05-28-2006, 08:35 PM
Tell your endo to humor you & do the ACTH stim test. He is "working" for you...so you are the boss. Of course it must be done correctly or is worthless.

Take care,
Wanda

Thanks.....I have an appointment on the 20th and will insist on it!
Judy





Site owned and operated by HealthBoards.com (TM)
Copyright and Terms of Use © 1998-2010 HealthBoards.com (TM) All rights reserved.
Do not copy or redistribute in any form!