Adrenal Exhaustion And Celiac Disease

[Flor]

Hi all,

I would love to hear from others who have adrenal fatigue/exhaustion. Who else has done saliva cortisol testing and/or from symptoms lists thinks this is part of their issue? And has anyone done research on the possible links between Celiac and adrenal fatigue and/or links in terms of recovery?

I am going to do some research and will post back here. There's some great books and online articles now about adrenal fatigue and I have a sneaking suspicion that the burden on the whole body of eating gluten while undiagnosed with celiac for years may contribute to adrenal exhaustion so that there may be folks out there for whom going gluten-free doesn't do it because the adrenals are worn out.

I have been gluten-free for four years and now eat paleo/GAPS diet -- ie, no grains at all. I had to get off grains entirely (and corn and potatoes) for the gut issues to resolve. My guts are mostly healed and the joint pain much better, but it was followed by increasing exhaustion and muscle pain and a host of other symptoms that at first I misdiagnosed as CFS/FM.

But when I did day-long saliva cortisol test, turns out I'm in stage three adrenal exhaustion but don't otherwise have any inflammatory process going on (based on extensive blood tests). The adrenal exhaustion requires other treatments and lifestyle changes beyond what the gut healing required.

I searched for "adrenal fatigue" on this forum and found a number of mentions in different threads but wondered if it might be helpful to have one place where we share information about this specific inter-connection?

Totally fine if it's not helpful. But I'll put it out there and come back with some links and see if there's a need for this thread.

Thanks!

F

[eatmeat4good]

Dr. Peter Greene refers to adrenal problems in the section of Autoimmune Diseases common in Celiac patients.

I'm very interested in the topic.

What kind of Dr. did your saliva cortisol adrenal test??

[Looking for answers]

About two years ago, I also did saliva testing and was treated with hormones and lifestyle changes. The hormones screwed my system up, and I ended up with an ovarian cyst as a result. In hindsight, I shouldn't have taken the hormones. I was diagnose by a natural practioner who was not a licensed doctor. The treatments did little to help. I actually got better once I found other food intolerances that I was unaware of (had alomost no relatable symptoms). For instance, my licensed doctor did a food panel test via blood work and it showed up that I was allergic to eggs. I would have had no idea without the test...never had any symptoms. However, once I stopped eating them, my fatigue lightened and I no longer get these mystery sore throats that used to come and go. Anyways, I absolutely believe in adrenal fatigue, but I'm also somewhat skeptical of the number of people being diagnosed with this and how accurate the tests really are.

BTW, if it helps at all, my test showed extremely low cortisol in the morning (the practioner even remarked that I shouldn't be able to even get out of bed at my levels), slightly elevated cortisol at noon, a drop during the afternoon and then normal in the evening.

[Flor]

I had the saliva test done through Enterolab and my cortisol levels barely get up off the floor in the morning and then crash the rest of the day. And my symptoms indicate I'm estrogen dominant. So I am taking hydrocortisone in very small doses and bioidentical progesterone half the month, both topically so as to not go through the gut.

Were the hormones you were given bioidentical or was it pharma pretend estrogen? I also got an ovarian cyst when I took estrogen make by pharma companies -- it's not the same estrogen as in your body, not the same molecule, but you probably already know that.

My doc is an internist but an osteopathic one, a medical license but not an MD. She works only with women and is also a gyno.

I haven't done the food allergy testing -- who did that for you? What is the test called? I know my niece had it done but I can't remember how. I gather that it turns up a lot of false positives though. She's gone on to eat many of the foods that showed up in her test. So I don't totally understand how much or how long one uses them for guidance.

I had hair analysis done too -- I want to do some research on how well or not well-regarded hair analysis is as a sampling method. In my case, the interesting thing is that they didn't know my other labwork or any diagnosis and the one thing they came up with most clearly was that my low sodium and potassium indicated adrenal exhaustion, so it seemed confirming in that way.

I will be back with some links I've found useful later.

I have serious orthostatic hypotension -- my blood pressure drops a lot from sitting to standing -- which surprised me and is another indicator of adrenal fatigue.

Lots of people I gather are treated for adrenal fatigue without hydrocortisone, using just supplements and adrenal cortex (bovine sources) -- I'm still trying to understand the science of how eating ground up cow adrenal glands helps a person's adrenal glands.

Other than the GAPS diet and the supplements I was already taking to heal my gut, the changes I've made are to go to sleep earlier and stay in bed until at least 9am. I am getting more sleep. I lie down later afternoon every day. I take Taurine and Ashwaganda in the morning (there are other herbs recommended as well but I haven't gone there yet). I had lost my appetite, which is common in adrenal fatigue, so while I was eating mostly meat and vegetables, I still wasn't getting enough protein. Too many nuts which don't have enough protein if you aren't taking in a lot of calories. So I am eating meat with every meal. This isn't permanent but my body wasn't getting and/or assimilating enough protein. I"m taking digestive enzymes with every meal now. And I am taking much larger doses of Vit C and Magnesium than I was before.

And I've started doing Qigong and going to acupuncture, both of which I think are helping energetically, though the acupuncture leaves me feeling WIPED for a day afterwards.

There's a pretty informative thread on the Mothering Magazine boards called THE adrenal fatigue thread -- it got so long they had to split it. But it's not as active as the celiac forum and they aren't addressing the specific relationship between gut health and this other stuff. Though interesting to read all these other women with crashing cortisol.

Thanks!

[Flor]

Sorry, correction, that's Tyrosine I take, not taurine, though I think taurine shows up in some other supplements I take. But Tyrosine is specifically recommended for adrenal fatigue.

[burdee]

I had the saliva test done through Enterolab and my cortisol levels barely get up off the floor in the morning and then crash the rest of the day. And my symptoms indicate I'm estrogen dominant. So I am taking hydrocortisone in very small doses and bioidentical progesterone half the month, both topically so as to not go through the gut.

I couldn't find anything on the Enterolab website that says they do a 'saliva test' for anything. I know they do stool tests and DNA mouth swab tests, but I never saw anything about Enterolab doing any kind of saliva test.

[Flor]

Whoooops so sorry, my brain not working.

Labrix did the saliva test. There are three or four main labs now that do this saliva cortisol testing (it's four samples throughout one day), some of which require a doctor's order and some of which you can do directly with them. It costs about $140. I think even Medicare pays for it. You can also ask them to add estrogen/progesterone/DHEA (all of which the adrenals are responsible for, at least in part) to the test, though if you're still cycling you need to do that at the right time of the month (I think days 19-22).

I dug up all the labs I found for my cousin and can go find that email to her and will post back here. I think you can even order them through Amazon.

Anyway, duh, Enterolab did my celiac gene test (cheek swab) and I crossed them in my brain.

F

[Flor]

The lab recommended by one of the docs who "wrote the book" on adrenal fatigue and that also accepts direct orders by patients is ZRT lab:

Open Original Shared Link

The MD is Dr. Wilson and his book is:

http://www.(Company Name Removed - They Spammed This Forum and are Banned)/Adrenal-Fatigue-Century-Stress-Syndrome/dp/1890572152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296166228&sr=8-1

It's a quick read and is useful for having a many-page questionnaire in it that almost makes doing the cortisol test unnecessary. My results from the survey correlate so closely with the lab results.

I've also found Dr. Lam's information to be helpful but you have to work around the ads:

Open Original Shared Link

The Mothering Mag thread is here:

Open Original Shared Link

The compounding pharmacy my doc works with is:

Open Original Shared Link

They make customized topical creams for things like hydrocortisone and bioidentical progesterone, but also for Vit D and B vitamins, to bypass the gut.

I assume there's discussion elsewhere on this forum about the GAPS diet, but here's the main website:

Open Original Shared Link

And there's a yahoo list for followers of the diet (a ton of traffic so I stopped following but also a ton of information) here:

Open Original Shared Link

[hanumandrea]

Yes, yes and yes!

I began investigating adrenal fatigue 6 years ago due to hypoglycemia and insomnia. I was told by 3 or 4 alternative healt practitioners that my adrenals were weak. 6 months of licorice root and thyroid supplements led to heart palpitations and worse insomnia. I gave up on the alternative practitioners and had an ACTH stim test on Feb. 14 which showed my adrenals were weak but not too weak, whatever that means. On March 14th I was diagnosed formally with celiac disease.

One thing that I find interesting is that, according Dr. Wilsons site, adrenal fatigue can cause or worsen food allergies. So if you consider the number of celiacs who have food allergies, and the inflammation caused by celiac itself, it would make sense that the bodys cortisol supply migt become drained. Personally I am allergic to dairy, peanuts, soy and have a reaction to chicken, pork, tuna, almonds and maybe rice (god I hope not). I am here looking for the best way to handle this.

My family doctor referred me to an endocrinologist due to the abnormal ACTH results. I am in the process of a slew of tests to determine if I have congenital adrenal hyperplasia, haschimotos, or metabolic syndrome. It will be interesting when he rules these out (which I think he will, lol) to see if he acknowledges the gray area between working adrenals and complete adrenal insufficiency.

To good health!

Andrea

[Minnie777]

My Dr had me take an salivary Adrenal Stress Index test (Diagnos-tech lab) a couple of weeks ago and the result was "extremely high" cortisol.

She was puzzled by the extreme results and she got back with the lab to discuss my test.

They made me retake the test and I just mailed it back yesterday and I should have the new results in a week to ten days.

Even though I mostly have a low-stress life, she suggested I take the adrenal test because my immune system is/was constantly battling my food, which is high stress for the body.

[liss7217]

A year ago I was diagnosed with Hashimotos along with being gluten intolerant, having PCOS and extremely low progesterone.My cortisol levels were so low with barely any cortisol in the morning and nothing in the afternoon and evening. Since going gluten free my cortisol levels have improved overall but occasionally I feel like my adrenals get very stressed.I did take a very low dose of hydrocortisone for a few months and it seemed to help but I also thought it was bothering my stomach, looking back it could have been a variety of different things because I now know I am allergic to dairy, soy, gluten, and most grains. I wanted to make sure they was no gluten in hydrocortisone and was wondering if anyone had any information about this?

The past month I have been traveling a lot for work and even though I try to eat out as little as possible and always order gluten free, I feel like I am getting effected from some cross contamination, and it is effecting my adrenals along with many other things. From now on I am packing a cooler any only eating at restaurants that can avoid cross contamination. My adrenals feel so fatigued again that I have zero energy for the past week and I am considering going back on a low dose of hydrocortisone so I can function. I don't like taking it because it's not natural but I have tried a lot of other things and nothing is seeming to help. My period is running over a weak late which is only adding to me feeling tired. Does anyone know if hydrocortisone has any gluten in it? I would hate to take it and make myself more sick. Also does anyone have any other suggestions for the adrenals. Over the past few years I have tried.

Adrenal Dessicated (Standard Process)

GA Adrenal (Systemic Formulas)

Adrenal Response (Innate)

Super Adrenal Stress Formula and Adrenal Rebuilder (Dr. Wilson)

None of these products seemed to help very much. I am very fatigued this week and still not sleeping well at all. Does anyone have any other suggestions on this or something else I I could take?

Thanks so much for any advice you may have.

[CR5442]