Cortisol Lowers Estrogen - Cortisol Used To Treat Cancer, Autoimmunity, And More

[dookie]

I know Peat is against using cortisol, but what about doctors like William Jeffries and Al Plechner who use cortisol to treat very serious diseases? Al Plechner's theory is that cortisol lowers the feedback loop from the pituitary to the adrenals, and stops the excessive production of estrogen (and androgens). For this reason, he says, it is appropriate treatment for cancer, autoimmunity, and a host of other diseases - even blindness. The doses they talk about are physiological ones, for instance, Jeffries recommended 2.5 mg of hydrocortisone every 8 hours.

Anyone who has used cortisol? Did you notice estrogen lowering effects? Any improvements in health whatsoever?

Thoughts?

 

[mujuro]

I feel that for whatever the cortisol does to estrogen levels, the cortisol analogues themselves will do damage enough. Surely he is aware that the feedback loop can be compromised. In schizophrenia and bipolar disorder this feedback loop is broken. The pituitary is essentially insensitive to glucocorticoids, and suppression tests do not work. Symptoms for these disorders don't surface until late adolescence and childhood stress seems to be a universal catalyst in bipolar and schizophrenia, hence a potential epigenetic mechanism Only tricyclics and atypical neuroleptics seems to restore GR signaling and resensitive the feedback loop.

 

[Ella]

I know Peat is against using cortisol, but what about doctors like William Jeffries and Al Plechner who use cortisol to treat very serious diseases? Al Plechner's theory is that cortisol lowers the feedback loop from the pituitary to the adrenals, and stops the excessive production of estrogen (and androgens). For this reason, he says, it is appropriate treatment for cancer, autoimmunity, and a host of other diseases - even blindness. The doses they talk about are physiological ones, for instance, Jeffries recommended 2.5 mg of hydrocortisone every 8 hours.

Anyone who has used cortisol? Did you notice estrogen lowering effects? Any improvements in health whatsoever?

Thoughts?

I am having problems trying to work this out. I am going to have all my hormones and metabolites tested and then know for sure.

 

[sele]

I know Peat is against using cortisol, but what about doctors like William Jeffries and Al Plechner who use cortisol to treat very serious diseases? Al Plechner's theory is that cortisol lowers the feedback loop from the pituitary to the adrenals, and stops the excessive production of estrogen (and androgens). For this reason, he says, it is appropriate treatment for cancer, autoimmunity, and a host of other diseases - even blindness. The doses they talk about are physiological ones, for instance, Jeffries recommended 2.5 mg of hydrocortisone every 8 hours.

Anyone who has used cortisol? Did you notice estrogen lowering effects? Any improvements in health whatsoever?

Thoughts?

I used hydrocortisone for 3 years.
I am still recovering from its damage.
After what I went through, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I do not wish it on my enemy.

Those who do not know that stress response can be controlled by metabolizing glucose usually suggest the use of cortisol.

 

[lollipop]

I used hydrocortisone for 3 years.
I am still recovering from its damage.
After what I went through, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I do not wish it on my enemy.

Those who do not know that stress response can be controlled by metabolizing glucose usually suggest the use of cortisol.

@sele congratulations for recovering and understanding the stress response.

May I ask what specific damage did you experience? I ask because I have a friend who is choosing to use it for arthritic pain in her knees. I feel it is a wrong move - but no "proof" or "experience" to justify my claim.

Thank you in advance!

 

[sele]

@sele congratulations for recovering and understanding the stress response.

May I ask what specific damage did you experience? I ask because I have a friend who is choosing to use it for arthritic pain in her knees. I feel it is a wrong move - but no "proof" or "experience" to justify my claim.

Thank you in advance!

Hi Lisa

The #1 damage after using cortisol is chronic insomnia.
Sleepless nights are very debilitating to normal life.
Constant headache.
Indigestion and diarrhea.
Symptoms of menopause and severe hormonal disruptions.
Night sweats.
Dental gum loss (periodontitis).
Hair loss and skin looks like 60 year old.
Zero libido.
All the above before I even reached my 30s.
My GP even sent me to an oncologist based on my blood tests.

I am finally starting to recover physically and mentally after I stopped cortisol for many years. :)

PS: I have read William Jefferies book.

 

[sweetpeat]

Peat actually mentions using hydrocortisone in small doses for a short duration in the article "Blocking Tissue Destruction":

While hypothyroidism makes the body require more cortisone to sustain blood sugar and energy production, it also limits the ability to produce cortisone, so in some cases stress produces symptoms resulting from a deficiency of cortisone, including various forms of arthritis and more generalized types of chronic inflammation.

Often, a small physiological dose of natural hydrocortisone can help the patient meet the stress, without causing harmful side-effects. While treating the symptoms with cortisone for a short time, it is important to try to learn the basic cause of the problem, by checking for hypothyroidism, vitamin A deficiency, protein deficiency, a lack of sunlight, etc. (I suspect that light on the skin directly increases the skin's production of steroids, without depending on other organs. Different steroids probably involve different frequencies of light, but orange and red light seem to be important frequencies.) Using cortisone in this way, physiologically rather than pharmacologically, it is not likely to cause the serious problems mentioned above.

Stress-induced cortisone deficiency is thought to be a factor in a great variety of unpleasant conditions, from allergies to ulcerative colitis, and in many forms of arthritis. The stress which can cause a cortisone deficiency is even more likely to disturb formation of progesterone and thyroid hormone, so the fact that cortisone can relieve symptoms does not mean that it has corrected the problem.

Perhaps this is what is happening to the people in the situations mentioned in the original post - they are finding short-term relief but not addressing the root of their problem? Agreeing with sele that caution is advised when considering hydrocortisone. @sele, how much hydrocortisone were you using? If you don't mind me asking...

 

[haidut]

Hi Lisa

The #1 damage after using cortisol is chronic insomnia.
Sleepless nights are very debilitating to normal life.
Constant headache.
Indigestion and diarrhea.
Symptoms of menopause and severe hormonal disruptions.
Night sweats.
Dental gum loss (periodontitis).
Hair loss and skin looks like 60 year old.
Zero libido.
All the above before I even reached my 30s.
My GP even sent me to an oncologist based on my blood tests.

I am finally starting to recover physically and mentally after I stopped cortisol for many years. :)

PS: I have read William Jefferies book.

Glad things improves for you.
I heard about periodontitis before but I think the high cortisol in that case is to control the inflammation from the high endotoxin (which seems to be the direct cause of periodontitis)
Btw, what changes did cortisol cause to your blood tests that freaked the doctor out?

 

[lollipop]

Hi Lisa

The #1 damage after using cortisol is chronic insomnia.
Sleepless nights are very debilitating to normal life.
Constant headache.
Indigestion and diarrhea.
Symptoms of menopause and severe hormonal disruptions.
Night sweats.
Dental gum loss (periodontitis).
Hair loss and skin looks like 60 year old.
Zero libido.
All the above before I even reached my 30s.
My GP even sent me to an oncologist based on my blood tests.

I am finally starting to recover physically and mentally after I stopped cortisol for many years. :)

PS: I have read William Jefferies book.

Thank you @sele. Also like Haidut said, glad you are recovering - no fun.

 

[sele]

Peat actually mentions using hydrocortisone in small doses for a short duration in the article "Blocking Tissue Destruction":

Perhaps this is what is happening to the people in the situations mentioned in the original post - they are finding short-term relief but not addressing the root of their problem? Agreeing with sele that caution is advised when considering hydrocortisone. @sele, how much hydrocortisone were you using? If you don't mind me asking...

I agree.
The keyword is 'short-term'.
I was taking 100mg hydrocortisone in divided doses. Everyday for 3 years. Along with Armour thyroid.
This idea was from William Jefferies, STTM, and a few adrenal fatigue Yahoo groups.
I had little knowledge of science, health and nutrition at that time.

Thank you @sele. Also like Haidut said, glad you are recovering - no fun.

Thank you @lisaferraro .
Thanks to @haidut for being so patient with us.

Glad things improves for you.
I heard about periodontitis before but I think the high cortisol in that case is to control the inflammation from the high endotoxin (which seems to be the direct cause of periodontitis)
Btw, what changes did cortisol cause to your blood tests that freaked the doctor out?

Thanks.
I did not have any dental issues before starting cortisol.
I think once you go above a certain dose of cortisol you start to see its immune suppressing and tissue breakdown effect.
It was probably destroying gut lining and allowing more endotoxin to get thru.
Abnormal CBC readings, high serotonin, and high lymphocytes freaked my doctor.

 

[haidut]

Abnormal CBC readings, high serotonin, and high lymphocytes freaked my doctor

Interesting. We have a few people on the forum who also reported abnormal CBC in the presence of high cortisol. I think their WBC was low, which cortisol can certainly cause.

 

[Orion]

Hi Lisa

The #1 damage after using cortisol is chronic insomnia.
Sleepless nights are very debilitating to normal life.
Constant headache.
Indigestion and diarrhea.
Symptoms of menopause and severe hormonal disruptions.
Night sweats.
Dental gum loss (periodontitis).
Hair loss and skin looks like 60 year old.
Zero libido.
All the above before I even reached my 30s.
My GP even sent me to an oncologist based on my blood tests.

I am finally starting to recover physically and mentally after I stopped cortisol for many years. :)

PS: I have read William Jefferies book.

Tried IsoCort years ago, after reading that cortisol was necessary to get thyroid into cells... those experiments failed miserably, and the induced insomnia was very debilitating for for sure.

 

[sele]

Tried IsoCort years ago, after reading that cortisol was necessary to get thyroid into cells... those experiments failed miserably, and the induced insomnia was very debilitating for for sure.

 

[sweetpeat]

I agree.
The keyword is 'short-term'.
I was taking 100mg hydrocortisone in divided doses. Everyday for 3 years. Along with Armour thyroid.
This idea was from William Jefferies, STTM, and a few adrenal fatigue Yahoo groups.
I had little knowledge of science, health and nutrition at that time.

Wow, that's a lot. No wonder you felt like death. I'm glad you got out from under that and are on the road to better health. I had no idea people were recommending such high amounts. I was tempted to try it myself back when I was first learning about all this too and not doing well with Armour. My saliva cortisol labs showed low levels all day. I experimented with licorice and small amounts of adrenal glandulars, but they interfered with my sleep so fortunately it was a short-lived experiment.

 

[dookie]

I used hydrocortisone for 3 years.
I am still recovering from its damage.
After what I went through, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I do not wish it on my enemy.

Those who do not know that stress response can be controlled by metabolizing glucose usually suggest the use of cortisol.

What made you use it for 3 years if it was so horrible? If a supplement causes me to feel bad, I usually stop it after the first dose.

 

[Bodhi]

Wow, that's a lot. No wonder you felt like death. I'm glad you got out from under that and are on the road to better health. I had no idea people were recommending such high amounts. I was tempted to try it myself back when I was first learning about all this too and not doing well with Armour. My saliva cortisol labs showed low levels all day. I experimented with licorice and small amounts of adrenal glandulars, but they interfered with my sleep so fortunately it was a short-lived experiment.

So how did you fixed your low cortisol state?

 

[Bodhi]

Interesting. We have a few people on the forum who also reported abnormal CBC in the presence of high cortisol. I think their WBC was low, which cortisol can certainly cause.

Haidut, sorry to judge but to me you seem to be a promoter of lowering cortisol substances and i understand that.
Do you recognize that constant low cortisol can create high Rt3 and if so do you know of any "Peat proof" substances that actually up cortisol?

 

[sele]

What made you use it for 3 years if it was so horrible? If a supplement causes me to feel bad, I usually stop it after the first dose.

Dookie, I'm like you now. This is when RP was little known. Every google search came up with adrenal fatigue. The 'theory' I was following at that time was that cortisol was very necessary to activate thyroid in cells. Every bad reaction was labelled as 'detoxing' or thyroid and cortisol needed to be tweaked. So for 3 years I was in the hope that I would get it right and my health will be back. Boy, was I wrong!
It's kind of like a desperate gambler who loses at a poker table: he still sticks around thinking he can win back his lost money.

 

[haidut]

Haidut, sorry to judge but to me you seem to be a promoter of lowering cortisol substances and i understand that.
Do you recognize that constant low cortisol can create high Rt3 and if so do you know of any "Peat proof" substances that actually up cortisol?

I am not promoting anything. Chronically elevated cortisol is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed with a doctor. If cortisol is high the underlying reason needs to be addressed and it can be a number of things including insulin resistance, Cushing, or hypothyroidism. It is the chronically elevated cortisol that I have in mind when I write about lowering cortisol, not lowering normal cortisol even more. There is a Peat quote somewhere on the forum that ALL of the features of aging can be produced by simply giving exogenous supplement of cortisol. So, high cortisol is a problem and my posts are about that. Never said anything about lowering physiological levels of cortisol even more.
Low cortisol can be caused by many things, including biotin deficiency and ineffective enzyme activity in the cortisol pathway. Pregnenolone or progesterone should be able to fill in for low the low cortisol but again, the real cause needs to be addressed.
Btw, I do not see how low cortisol will cause high rT3. If you have a reference that talks about how that happens please provide.

 

[Bodhi]

Let me put it different :

Most of the supplements and research chems from idealabs have cortisol lowering abilities.
If someone suffers from chronic low cortisol, should one avoid substances that lower cortisol even more?

Reverse T3 (also called Reverse Triiodothyronine) - Stop The Thyroid Madness