Posted by Racer on September 7, 2004, at 12:32:53
In reply to Re: To Scott (SLS) Cortisol question, posted by greenwillow on September 7, 2004, at 3:48:39
My mind isn't all here right now -- new med making me miserable and incapable of thinking very well -- so I can't give you a definitive answer, but I can tell you as much as I remember, to tide you over until someone else answers.
There are two different types of receptors that shake hands with cortisol, but only one of them gets friendly with dexamethasone. I suspect that the normal DST would mean that you're experiencing more activity in the cortisol specific receptors, thus not a lot of suppression from the dexamethasone. That's only a guess.
When you got these results, did the doctor tell you how high your results were? Where within the normal range your DST results landed? What the normal ranges were? In fact, why didn't your doctor explain all this to you in the first place? (Answer: just to confirm my opinion that a lot of doctors should really be duct taped to a chair so that someone can explain the facts of life to them. It irritates me beyond belief that so many doctors don't bother to explain tests and test results to patients. Another of my soapboxes.) It may be that your high results were only marginally high, or that your DST results were borderline. That's another thought.
As far as all the rest of it goes, I'd look around for all the factors that are contributing to the difficulties with sleeping, etc. It may very well be that this is all related to your HPA axis, but it may also be caused by psychological factors, like worry, or by more mechanical factors, like sleeping from 6:30AM until 2PM and not being able to get to sleep because you haven't been up long enough. That's the problem, especially with psychiatric difficulties: too many variables to analyse. And it's usually a combination, rather than just one.
Another factor to consider is diet. I wish I could remember where I read this, but sodas -- especially diet sodas -- seem to interfere with the normal circadian hormone cycle. Since cortisol needs to rise shortly before you wake up, it could be that eating or drinking artifically sweetened products is whacking out your hormonal systems, thus keeping you up. While it won't be definitive, you could try adjusting your diet to avoid all those nasties for a while and see what happens? Can't hurt, and might help. (Especially since another study regarding the effect of aspartame on depression was halted midway because the negative effects on the study participants were so pronounced. Their depression was so much worse that the researchers halted the study entirely, because they believed it would be unethical to continue it.)
I know it's not much, and doesn't really answer your questions, but it's the best I could manage in my current state. I'm sure someone with a working brain will happen along soon.
Best luck.
poster:Racer
thread:386371
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040904/msgs/387641.html