Adrenal Insufficiency Support Group

I wonder if it would be worth it to buy one of these kits and take a good day.......and see what my levels were at different times of the day......

That way I would know what is good for me.........and what I need to try to stay near etc.

Thoughts?

I think that's an EXCELLENT idea!! I've many days when I awoke feeling great w/out the HC. After dosing, I sometimes do the 'fast-forward' thing. I never thought it would be that my cortisol level may be high enough to not need HC bright and early. [duh for Corri] If you can afford it, I think it's worth the try!

Corri

- Keep a mind that cortisol is kind of a catalyst. ie Its needed for a further reaction elsewhere to take place. Example, if your blood sugar was already okay and under insulin control then there will be some "lag" between using up the energy and the need to break starches down for more. This can explain waking up feeling good vs not and also the wide range of possible values. You'll note that BG is a far narrower range percentage wise than cortisol. You can almost think of cortisol as a control system like a car accelerator pedal. Vehicle velocity is NOT directly proportional to pedal position unless the system is perfectly balanced. (Its actually a rate of change control)

- Good old test and measurement. Look at the size of your steroid pill. Big isn't it? How much starch and/or blood sugar do you think you are carrying? The less amount of what you want to measure in its carrying material, the more difficult it is to do so accurately.

BG is around 60-100 mg/dL. That's 60 milligrams for ever tenth of a litre... A milligram is a 1000th of a gram. Your 20mg MC pill is actually far more filler than HC. You'd be hard pressed to even feel a 1 gram weight on your hand. A pencil weighs about one ounce or 25 grams. Try to get in your head how tiny that is. Cortisol is maybe 3-20 ug/dL. That's a millionth of a gram measurement!.. What happens with a saliva test if you have a drink of water first?

So urine based tests with test strips have a high percentage of material to use. Preg tests are basically yes/no for presences of a certain chemical. They don't have to be accurate so much as above a certain level. Most importantly though the demand for a measuring instrument is low...

Oh and if you have secondary AI with "Low" levels your morning levels can in fact be high enough to feel okay. My morning level was about a 4. Lousy for that time of day but okay for say 5PM onwards.. That's why I would crash after midday, every day, as the cortisol fell to follow the diurnal curve.

Apologies for harping!

Bob

Deb

Corri

Corri...Yes, I feel some kind of a blessing that we can play around with the HC, fortunately, it's quite user friendly. Perhaps as long as we are on a 'normal' routine life and we know what to expect....we can be on our own self dosage.