Hi all: I was wondering if anyone has experience treating their CFS by focusing strictly on adrenal insufficiency. I know that many CFS symptoms parallel the symptoms of Addison's disease. Also, there are several Adrenal focused CFS books promoting excellant treatment results. For example:         From Fatigued to Fantastic , by Jacob Teitelbaum         Chronic Fatigue Unmasked , by G Poesnecker And there are references to Hypoadrenocorticism , (de_script_ion, cause and cure) from many years ago that parallel CFS precisely. (See the URL: http://www.fred.net/slowup/tint01.html ) . I am new to this newsgroup, but have searched the archives and can find no adrenal references. Thanks in advance for any input Ian

Hi all: I was wondering if anyone has experience treating their CFS by focusing strictly on adrenal insufficiency. I know that many CFS symptoms parallel the symptoms of Addison's disease. It seems to me that this group hasn't gotten good results with this.  There are some people in the cold body chat that are on small doses of hydrocortisone and small doses of Cortef (ala Teitelbaum) and swear by it.  I have heard just as many here swear against it.  And the ones on the Cold Body Chat haven't been on it but a couple of months, so who knows.  Some other things tried by people on the cold body chat are herbs called Adaptogens.  This is a bunch of different herbs, Siberian Ginseng is the only one I have heard of.  I think they may work by affecting adrenal function.  I am waiting to see how one other person does with these herbs before giving them to my daughter. BL

I don't have a lot to add to this discussion (yet), but since a couple of people have raised the issue recently, I wanted to throw in my penny and let them know I'm out here and pursuing this track. Having read Teitelbaum's book and some material from Posenecker's web site, I feel like adrenal dysfunction is probably a big issue for me, at least in the current phase of my illness (meaning the past 2+ years). I have had a cortrosyn stimulation blood test, which didn't show abnormality according to my doctor, but which she did not conduct strictly according to Teitelbaum's directions, either. I haven't had any more sensitive testing done. I started taking Cortef 3 to 4 weeks ago; I asked for info here on the list before starting. I hope I managed to thank everyone who responded. I am taking the lowest dose Teitelbaum recommends: 5 mg at breakfast and 2.5 mg at lunch. So far, no side effects and no dramatic change for the better. For me, I'm doing relatively well the past couple of weeks, but I'm reserving judgment as to whether I'm really seeing an improvement. If so it is subtle, not like Teitelbaum describes. I gather that the dose of this stuff (Cortef, i.e., oral hydrocortisone) used for arthritis and such ranges from 20 to 500 mg daily (don't take that as fact, though, and please correct me if you have better info). Teitelbaum says to work up to 30 mg before giving up on it. That doesn't sound too scary to me (short-term of course) because it's still at the low end of the anti-inflammatory dose. Since I haven't had bad effects, I think I will as my doc to increase the dose soon if I don't feel any better energy-wise or NMH-wise. (BTW I was hoping for a side effect of decreased back pain; I have chronic inflammation from an injury

I was wondering if anyone has experience treating their CFS by focusing strictly on adrenal insufficiency. I know that many CFS symptoms parallel the symptoms of Addison's disease. I know this sounds bizarre but I am so certain that any endocrine dysfunction in people with CFS can be traced back to the pituitary gland, with other intracerebral structures causing perhaps additional problems.  I don't know why, I just am convinced. Please.  Does it make sense to you guys? There was a slight abnormality of my pituitary gland on MRI, but nothing that was outside the normal limits.  It's time for another one, I now realize, because the last MRI was a couple of years ago.  But it explains why female CFS patients see different things than males and why the previously stable monthly patterns of womens' menstrual cycles (and all that THAT implies) have so much variance  (hormones that are released as a result of altered pituitary function). Until you fix the original problem that affects so many different body systems, you're gonna always be chasing symptoms.  Hydrocortisone here to correct some adrenal deficiency, Synthroid there to correct some thyroid deficiency, DD?VP to correct some hypophyseal pituiary dysfunction over there.  You can't put out the fires of everyone if every system is at risk, and you spend an awful lot of time running around to keep track of different research that is interesting but not especially helpful. And look.  Anyone who believes that a musculoskeletal/immune problem such as fibromyalgia can cause the confusion, brain fog and memory problems that is seen in those who have fibromyalgia first followed by CFS in definitely looking at this problem backwards. Everything follows the brain. We need more people who have memory problems, cognitive dysfunction, speech difficulties, sensory abnormalities, and  depression as a prominent feature in their presentation to have SPECT scans.  We also need MRIs.  These are the two procedures that currently will give us the best and most accurate information (PET scans do not; they show us glucose _meta_bolism and you can go a lot longer between meals than you can between each breath.  Same goes for nerve cells in our brains). Sorry, I know it's off topic for hypoadrenocrotcism, but on the other hand, it may just be the most on topic possible. Anxious to hear what others think, Jena

I do think that the adrenals play a big part in this from my own test results. Check out Poseneckers website and contact him, he gives his e-mail address and welcomes e-mail. He will let you know how he deals with the adrenals. He does not use cortisol, but goes natural. He has much experience with this disease, 40 yrs. Long before other doctors rec. it.                             GINNY

In a message dated 98-01-07 07:53:47 EST, you write: <<  I do think that the adrenals play a big part in this from my own test results.  Check out Poseneckers website and contact him, he gives his e-mail address and  welcomes e-mail. He will let you know how he deals with the adrenals. He does  not use cortisol, but goes natural. He has much experience with this disease,  40 yrs. Long before other doctors rec. it.                              GINNY    Well for those of us who are new would you mind giving that website URL?