Does anyone have high cortisol levels because of stress?

[traci]

I was wondering if anyone had high cortisol from high levels of stress? I had my cortisol tested and it was a little high. My family doc said stress wouldn't cause high cortisol levels, it had to be tumors etc.(cushings disease) I went to my immunologist and he put me on herbs to relax my body L-theanine, phosphitidyl serine, ashwaganda. I need to go have it retested. I honestly think the stress of a RAD has effects on our body. My husband starting doctoring high blood pressure 3 years ago. We've had ds for 6 1/2 yrs. He's a very fit athletic man. Just curious if anyone else was experiencing high cortisol? I would enjoy hearing what you're doing to get the levels down.
Traci

[Don M]

Hi Traci;
   I've never thought of having MYSELF tested for hormone and electrolyte balance during a family crisis.  That may be an excellent idea.

   In a quick check, I came up with the following link that seems to be opposite what your doctor said.  He may have other reasons for thinking your reactions are not just stress so you will have to go back and ask again after you do some of your own research.

http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm


I grew up thinking of this as Adreneline since it is a product of the adrenal gand, but when I did a little checking I hit another name -- epinephrine

It seems all three are closely related and have similar effects.  All have been useful in treating some heart disease and accute alergic reactions.

[justine]

What a great site Don....I do many of the ideas listed and always look for new ways to de-stress.   I saved it to my "favorites" list for future reference...    (like when ds calls to say he is getting out of jail and "what should i do?"  )

Traci, i havent had my corisol levels checked but i too had a doctor, one of the best in our area for neurological disorders tell me that stress does not "cause" auto-immune problems.

I have one mild auto-immune d/o inherited on my mom's side of the family.  fine.

BUT By the time my oldest/worst rad left home at age 18, at the age of 40-ish, i developed full-blown asthma and almost died during my first (and last) attack while doctor's tried to figure out what i had...as asthma didnt seem likely.  During the tests they discovered that my lymph nodes were HUGE and i was diagnosed with another more serious auto-immune d/o.

That's when i saw this doctor (my 4th one thru all this)....he was GREAT and figured out what i had in one visit....after the others trying to do so for 4 MONTHS of pain and weakness.   During that visit, i mentioned my life with my "emotionally ill" children and the huge stress levels...

And he dismissed it!   But i didnt.   I began to slowly change my life.   I never had another asthma attack and take very very little asthma meds as i am weaning my self off them and have virtually no symptoms left.    I had only one other attack of the more serious d/o but that was 3 plus years ago.   I am praying that it was the last....

So obviously, I dont buy that stress doesnt cause physical ailments.  The site Don referenced even mentioned "immune" problems as one result of high cortisol.    When my son went to jail, i had physical heart pain/palpatations and often couldnt catch my breath several times a day for about 3 weeks.   I HAD to deal with the stress, and i did.   the symptoms went away within days.

We all here need to take seriously finding ways to lower our stress levels....even in the midst of radland crappola.  I would love to here if others here have had their cortisol levels checked!   

Eat well, exercise, pray, pray, get enough sleep, say NO to anything that is not essential in your life right now....   Your raddishes ARE your ministry, your contribution to society, your community "project", your school support project, your fund-raising project, your....well, you get the idea!

When i was pressured into working more hours at my job, i bluntly, kindly told my boss about my "other job" in radland.   He was blown away...and gave me his blessing!      

As our mantra in radland goes, "take care of yourself, take care of yourself, take care of your self."    (should that go on the daffynitions post as "TCOY3"? )   

[traci]

Don,
Thanks for the wonderful web site, it has a lot of good information. The main one being take care of you!
The reason I was tested was because I have developed a lot of cushings disease symptoms, mainly belly fat but with skinny arms and legs.  I also started developing a small hump on the back of my neck, not to mention some anxiety and depression. I really truly know it's stress and that I need and will take better care of me.
Thanks again!
Traci

[tnrthoma]

Local GP voiced his opinion "you two have way too much stress in your lives." He dx both of us ( at different times) with various diseases. He always chalked them up to stress & our responses were the same. Stress.

We both had impaired thinking, illogical at times, Doc thought we had Bipolar!!!! Lowered immunity as we caught everything, autouimmune for me but my mom had this also- she had 8 kids. sooooooooooooooo.... LOL

(She died from Lou Gehrigs- autoimmune disease.)

Yes , this may be ten fold in our kids but RAD does affect the parents in many physical & mental ways.

[momof3]

I read an article (and now I can't remember where to save myself) that it takes the brain three years to recover from increased levels of cortisol over an extended period of time in the brain.  I know for the past year my brain does not work right anymore and I am wondering if it is from increased cortisol levels due to stress.  If it is not that, then I am well on my way to being a victim of alzheimers.   

Has anyone else read this?

[blessingsindisguise]

Don,

Great web site.  Thank you.

My two cents, nursy hat on.

Anectdotal experience says that yes, stress affects the body.

My patients that just come back from surgery are in pain and stressed and need lots of pain meds.

I do my very best to alleviate their fears, make them comfortable, acknowledge their pain needs, and their pain med needs drop most of the time.

Whenever there is a physical ailment, I always look to the environment to see if there is something I can change.

Another thing about lab values.  Lab values are a range of what is normal in most people.

Because of individual body chemistry/electricity issues, lab values have to be correlated with physical presentation.

Point in case.  My documented body temp is 96.5.  A year of infertility testing backs this up.  So, when my temp gets to normal, 98.6, I am feeling bad.  When my temp gets to 101, what most physicians consider clinically relevent, I am miserable.  and once I ran a temp of 103 and was almost comatose.

So when I go to see my p.a. he knows that my temp might still be 'normal' and I might still be sick.  He has to rely on other indicators to get a good picture of how I am feeling.

All of this to say that lab values are a great tool, but need to be correlated with how you feel, and what is going on.

Right now my stress levels are high, and I am having migraines, problems with my colitis, and not sleeping well.  Fortunately I am to the point where I am listening to my body, being patient with myself, taking better care of myself, and allowing my body to tell me how I am really doing with my stress.

Stress isn't my problem, not allowing my body to recover from the stress is.

Anyway, great thread.

blessings

[traci]

I just wanted to chime in and say,my doc put me on phosphatidyl serine, an over the counter supplement, and it has lowered my cortisol and I feel much better!!

[Don M]

Hi traci;
   I was impressed that your doctor first diagnosed the cortisol levels and found a nutritional supplement to help with it instead of only telling you to see someone about meditation or stress reduction therapy.

   With your hint of the relation between cortisol and Phosphatidylserine, I went back to try to find some documentation of this in a reputable place.  I don't generally like to take nutritional supplement manufacturer's word at face value.

http://www.advance-health.com/cortisol.html

   The article first describes stress and how it raises the cortisol levels, then talks about what can lower them.  It is linked to the manufacturers and not an FDA reviewed and approved source, but seems well written.

[artsymominsc]

This thread has been very interesting to follow.....A while back I mentioned that ds10 developed a peculiar "musty" smell.  It happened shortly after school started--when his stress level peaked and has stayed high ever since.  We've investigated all sorts of possible explanations, and within the past month, my husband attended a conference given by Katherine Leslie (author of "When a Stranger Calls You Mom" and "Coming to Grips with Attachment.")  Dr. Leslie mentioned something during her presentation about the relationship between stress and cortisol levels--and even mentioned that sometimes high cortisol levels can produce a body odor. 

Ds10 has an appointment with an endocrinologist Jan. 13th. and we'll be asking about testing his cortisol levels.  It's day 14 of Christmas vacation now, and he still can't settle in and relax.  I can't really expect him to now because he's building up his anxieties about going back to school on Monday.  We're just muddling through one day at a time.  I can hardly imagine what his body is going through with all that built up stress.  Maybe it's cortisol related....

Liz   

[momof5]

Stess does cause cortisol levels to rise and in traumatized kids who's brains are bathed in cortisol there have been findings of actual structural brain changes. (read Bruce Perry). I participated in a study (Sloan Research study about Parents and Work out of the Univ. of Chicago). They came to my home and measured levels of cortisol in relation to daily activities. Their study also confirmed that cortisol rises when stress levels rise.

After living with the effects of RAD for years I developed a cardiac arrhythmia. When ds would "go off" my heart would race due to the increased adrenalin. Over years of this I would then go into atrial flutter (heart rate up to 400 beats a minute) then as my body would try to compensate I'd go into atrial fibrillation. I had lots of work ups and finally a cardiac ablation. It worked for a bit but then I got the arrhythmia again. I have no structural damage and it was just diagnosed as idopathic. But I was sent for a work up of my autonomic nervous system which I failed. My body was so conditioned to the fight/flight response from the years of stress that my autonomic nervous system was not regulating anything, not heart rate, not body temperature and not body position.

So when I tell folks here to take care of yourselves I truly mean it. I learned to take care of myself. A bit late but I learned the hard way. You absolutly CANNOT deal with the levels of stress we do on a daily basis and not have it affect you. And for doctors who think or say differently well they are just wrong and clearly have never dealt with the kinds of stress we here on this board deal with daily.

I also learned that my boys bodies were most likely responding in the same ways with their own fight/flight adrenaline responses.

This is one reason I wish I'd started my boys on anti anxiety meds earlier. There is also some good responses to giving kids beta blockers to deal with the increase in adrenaline. Many adults with ptsd have had good response to beta blockers.

Anyway didn't mean to ramble on so long but stress is real as is is the relation to increased cortisol.

[justine]

Great info M...thanks for the hard earned confirmations.    I can remember lying in bed with my heart beating so hard i swore I could hear it.   Often it wasnt in the middle of a crisis but nights later when i thought i was "resting".   Scary stuff.   I echo your concerns....Lets all do our best to take care of ourselves!