[Jules]

Hi there,

So if you’ve got a decade or so on these drugs, and you’re only in your late twenties..you went on them pretty early on eh??

Actually, I’ve weaned down on cortef but not totally off, and I’ve gone back up too. This time around I am around 22mg at this time, come down from a high dose actually, it’s been really rough, losing my hair and losing my appetite and such, but im going super slow (2.5mg every 10-12 days or so, or 2 weeks). i’m not feeling too too terrible now.

but i am very low cortisol, like dizziness, very low blood pressure, symptoms that looks like hypothyroidism (dry skin, low appetite, sluggish digestion) but i am not hypothyroid. low cort can look like hypothyroidism. but if i take thyroid hormone or anything that makes thyroid work more efficiently (like iron, b12), i get adrenaline right away, hypoglycemia, that type of thing so i know its my hpa output is too low because that’s a symptom of low cort. the thyroid uses up the cort.

the thing i find interesting is that these drugs (antidepressants) have been observed to increase the glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors in the brain, which increases negative feedback of cortisol and results in the pituitary shutting down its ACTH sooner – which results in lower cortisol levels. and since many people get this low cortisol thing after coming off of an antidepressant, i wonder if this is what’s at work.

there’s alot of studies being done on the HPA axis, to try and understand it better, its not very well understood. hypercortisolism seems to be associated with depression, insulin resistance, hypocortisol seems to be associated with chronic fatigue, atypical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder.

if your cortisol is high now, you’re lucky, its easier to lower cort. levels than it is to raise them. best things to lower cortisol is probably vit C and magnesium. and ginger and garlic. i have to stay away from all those things. so you were low, and then you stabilized and now you’re high? or are you still on the HC. u know if you take the test while you’re on hydrocortisone it will be useless. mine was also very very low and flatline and i havent measured it since.

cortef has been kind of a life saver, i was extremely hypocort. for a yr after coming off of effexor, and nothing changed, so when i finally got on cortef i improved right away like 30%. but its been more or less the same over the last 10 mths. ive been on lower doses and ive been on higher doses. higher doses i feel less ‘hypo’ i have better circulation, more appetite, i lose weight, my hair gets more thick.

the thing is, to stay on cortef long time isnt good because your adrenal glands and pituitary get lazy and can potentially stop working. my dr. prescribed me 20mg and wishes me to stay on it, but id like to give it a chance and try to get them to do a little more work so i’m taking my time to come down and get off of it. supposedly 20mg is a non-suppressive dose, but i’ve been on doses like 40mg so im sure there’s been some suppression in there at some point.

if i feel like shit after i get off, and nothing changes, i’ll probably give it some time and then figure out whether i want to go back on the cortef or else i have no idea what else i can do. i dont want to go the antidepressant route because 1) i am not depressed 2) i dont want to go thru withdrawal all over again which i would eventually have to do 3) it may not even increase my cortisol levels and so itll be big risk with no reward. 4) it could make me feel worse

the problem with the current medical treatments for low cortisol, is, Drs. treat it often like an immune dysfunction, and i’m sure in alot of cases, it is, but in some cases, it is certainly not. i dont have any infections or viruses or allergies or any of the rest of that. my body just produces very little cortisol now. a clean diet and lots of vitamins and cleanses dont work for me – they actually seem to make me feel much, much weaker and more hypocort.

[Jules]

i would add cortisol to that, indirectly but still definitely affects hairloss. probably as optimal cortisol level is required for thyroid hormone to work effectively?

i am hypocortisol and when i started taking cortef my hair suddenly grew in thick and i had all this new babyhair too. and when i started weaning slowly from cortef i lost like half my head of hair in the period of about 6 weeks. sucks

[Jules]

Hey there,

I had a similar thing happen to me also.
I’ve been healthy, very healthy, my whole young life, active, fast metabolism, but I always had anxiety and depression. After a stressful/upsetting event, my GP put me on venlafaxine, I was on it for 10 mths, I still had good energy etc on it but I developed hypertension and facial fluid retention which was quite noticeable (resembled ‘moon face’) which was odd because i was thin and active. i weaned off, pretty quick, over 2 mths, horrible withdrawal, and once the withdrawal was overwith, I was extremely “hypo” – weight gain ,constipation, low stomach acid, dizziness, serious hypotension, hypoglycemic, hair loss, dry skin, trouble sleeping, profound exhaustion, low neutrophil count, etc.

Anyways I’ve been this way for 2 yrs now, I tried the natural route under an integrative physician – vitamins, herbs and such – and I’ve been diagnosed by 2 MDs as hypocortisol, based on symptoms, signs, ruled out hypothyroidism, and a really really low saliva free cort. result.

it seems like downregulation of the HPA axis is occurring for some people with the use of these drugs. I know hypercortisol is bad, but hypocort is bad too.

I really hope they figure this stuff out.

I did low dose and replacement-dose hydrocortisone for a while and I’m slowly weaning back and starting to feel more ‘hypo’ again. It helped me also, I felt warmer, my hair grew back, I lost some weight, etc. But I can’t see it being a long-term solution. and now that i’m slowly weaning off of the HC (2mg every 2 weeks or so) i have to figure out another solution, and i’m worried about rebound inflammation and possible autoimmune issues. i dont have autoimmune disease, but i’m beginning to experience pinching in arms and hands and my GP thinks there may be inflammation so sending me for tests. possible arthritis. i’m 26!!

What worries me, is that elevating 5HT and NE levels increases or stims. CRH, at least acutely, so do these drugs do something to the interaction bw 5HT neurons and the HPA. Or, these drugs also observed to increase MR and GR expression in the hippocampus, and that would also decrease HPA activity, so is it that?

[Author]

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