Posted by bleauberry on July 22, 2009, at 15:51:17
In reply to what would be the point in measurings one's cortis, posted by obsidian on July 21, 2009, at 19:19:41
It is my belief that cortisol plays into a great many cases of anxiety/nervousness. When cortisol is either too high or too low it provokes strong anxiety. When too high, it is an energetic anxiety. When too low, it is a fatigued anxiety.
The Adrenal Stress Index test is a good one. A bit over $100. Measures saliva cortisol 4 times over 24 hours so you can see the daily curve. A single sample will tell you absolutely nothing, since cortisol has quite a wide normal curve during a 24 hour period. You need to see whether it is below that curve all the time, above all the time, or whether it has peaks and valleys slicing through the normal range at particular times of the day.
In my own personal battles with both low cortisol and then wildly fluctuating cortisol, the two best remedies were:
1. Super low dose hydrocortisone (.75mg-2.5mg)
2. Reuptake inhibitors that are strong on norepinephrine, but with some action on serotonin as well. Milnacipran did the job well. Nortriptyline not bad either.It is odd to think that boosting noradrenaline to fix an anxiety that feels like too much noradrenaline would work, but that is what can happen, and did happen with me, probably due to feedback loops kicking in and slowing down production of noradrenaline. When I see people failing anxiety treatments with the common assumed treatments such as benzos, ssris, or antipsychotics, I immediately point the finger at a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor as the missing link.
poster:bleauberry
thread:907825
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090721/msgs/907979.html