Quote:
Originally Posted by GerryW
Back around the time of my diagnosis my life extension doctor thought I was suffering from adrenal fatigue brought on by severe stress. She measured my cortisol level and found it to be so low I should have almost had Addison's Disease. Yet my symptoms were, in retrospect, more Parkinsonian than Addisonian. She thought my adrenals were burned out. The low cortisol apparently followed an extended bout of excess brain damaging cortisol.
Sometime later I read in a PD blog that someone else had the same experience with low cortisol about the time of diagnosis and lack of cortisol deficiency symptoms. I wonder how common this is. Does anyone else here have this experience?
Here is an article about how stress affects PD.
http://www.dopadoc.com/2011/06/10/di...ts-parkinsons/ |
Hi Gerry,
I had the same issue. It was thought that I was adrenal deficient, and when I had two cortisol test done they both showed extremely low cortisol. I did the tests where the cortisol was measured through out the day - it was all super low. I too, was coming off a period of extreme stress, I had suffered a trauma and was in a constant state of fight or flight.
I was having severe insomnia and anxiety, and that is when I was doing the testing - then the motor symptoms began.
Going through stress and having these high/low cortisol and adrenaline fluctuations cannot be good for our brains!