That is a very nice link, melon. Thank you.

I really love our cats now and past. My new kitten Houdini has a very loud purr! He likes to warm up on my chest every day, and he relaxes and shares his energy with me.
Weez sleeps with me most nights, sharing hers. Her purr is very quiet, you have to have your hand on her to know she is purring.
She lies against my side and stays most of the night. I believe she helps me sleep in a less restless way.

I do think pets share their positive energies with us. That is if we treat them kindly and with respect. Oreo, our elderly cat with the suspected cancer is still doing well, and is still active with her new treatment from Vet #4. She has passed her two month expiration, easily, and next will be the 6mo milestone.

So I totally agree that pets, and in my case, cats, but for others any pet really, can further connect us to the life force that frames our world. We just have to open our hearts and minds to them, for it to work! I have photos of my cats in my profile album that illustrates their joy of life, for anyone who wants to share them with me.

In that case, I'm not sure it would be of much help, because those posts all include links to be followed up on as well.

Rather than my trying to find & list them all, it might be easier to do an advanced search for posts by me that include the words adrenal suppression hormone

Doc

I wish I had a cat , I was even glad for the company of seagull I meet in the graveyard of church ( it had nice view ) when i was non-housebound last year . However hes probably cursing me under his beak , because it turns out local Chinese establishment I occasionally went too had been using seagull instead of chicken on the menu !

Heres the link I meant to post that I thought was interesting.

Your cat pics are nice ,maybe I can persuade my landlord to let me have one as I miss animals ( including humans ) sometimes.

melon

Did it really say that? I must have missed that part. I haven't gone back to check, but my impression was that it was talking about nerves "burning up (or out)" figuratively. Sure, electrical impulses travel along nerves, but the amperages, voltages, and impedances/resistances involved are so low as to have little, if any, effect on body temperature. To produce heat electrically, a combination of high voltage/amperage and (especially) impedance/resistance are required.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential

Body temperature (and changes therein) in endotherms (like humans) is accomplished by chemical reactions - the "burning" (oxidation) of fats & sugars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endotherm

Maybe I didn't sleep through most of high school biolog after all(?) :o

Doc

As skeptical as I am, I'm inclined not to disagree with that. We have an old(er) (1986) book entitled, Dogwatching - by Desmond Morris (Same author also wrote Catwatching, Catlore and a slew of other animal & human behavior books) which attempts to explain the actions and "language" of dogs. I have a couple of shelves of books on dogs, their behavior, psychology, training, etc. but this was the first that popped into my mind for some reason or other.... (ramble, ramble...)

I've been "dogwatching" since long before that - seriously since ~1970 when I got my first dog and spent the bulk of my spare time studying/communing with him.

The last two have been therapy dogs - my therapy dogs, and they keep me going pretty darn well.
http://www.amazon.com/Dogwatching-ot.../dp/0517880555

Doc

Well , they've actually done research in pets abilities to detect things i.e. owners returning before they do , and even the paranormal so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of psychic connection .

Even James Randi had to eat his words over it, though sheldrake is no idiot imo

melon

complicated..
 

I tried to find some information that would clarify some of the ideas here but didn't have much luck so the best I can say is that there does seem to be a trigger somehow between cortisol levels and the pain of PN.

I've been on a steroid inhaler for 7 years that can "rarely" cause adrenal suppression. My pulmonologist likes to 'mushroom' his patients (keep them in the dark and feed them BS) so I can't say for sure I have it, but I've developed weird allergies and apparent asthma, went into hypovolemic shock from the laxative when I had a colonoscopy (eek) and a few weeks later had what appeared to be a convulsion in response to extreme stomach pain. My COPD isn't severe enough to make me that fragile and from what I've read problems in tolerating physical stress are characteristic of adrenal suppression. My body temperature dropped a degree at some point after I started it as well.

I didn't have any PN until I'd been on the meds for 2-3 years and there seems to be a pretty direct linear relationship between the amount of steroid I'm taking and the degree of pain, more drug = more pain. I tried to go off it entirely but couldn't breathe (it can 'worsen' asthma, I think it can GIVE you asthma). I stopped it a couple of times and the first time I restarted it I could feel a burst of burning/prickling in my feet shortly after I took it, and the second time I could actually feel it traveling down my thigh and hitting my feet to cause burning. I don't know if I was feeling nerve transmission or if the sensation was vascular but I felt it. It is known to cause muscle rigidity and stiffness that seems to target the small neck muscles and I also felt a little 'herky-jerky' sensation in my neck that felt like you might think a nerve transmission could and my neck stiffened back up. I don't know if that was nerves or muscles though.

I'm not sure how much of this is relevant to people who may have natural suppression but cortisol levels vary throughout the day and maybe pain could occur when you get a burst and your nerves just don't appreciate too wide of fluctuations. I don't know what is going on with the heat, my feet get hot to the touch too but I thought that was vascular. It does feel like the nerves are revved up and generating heat more than the warmth you get from a hot bath or something. My pain is rarely if ever triggered by a bath, etc, it takes prolonged exposure like hot weather.

I'm not sure if I exactly fit here, but I really admire the people in this forum. I know how much it hurts and you keep on truckin' and trying to learn. '
Zygo

"Take 2 cats and call me in the morning"..

Well, using external steroids, tends to suppress your own adrenal steroid production. There are several steroids in the adrenal cortex.

These are the steroids made in the adrenals:
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks.../steroids.html

It is possible that commercial synthetic steroids suppress ACTH in the pituitary, and hence everything then gets out of whack.

This is what happens with patients taking long term opiates for chronic pain. The hypothalamic/pituitary axis gets suppressed, and the whole adrenal system becomes depressed.

Cortisol is necessary for just about everything. Too much= bad results --elevated blood sugars, and many other nasties.
too little= and all the functions that cortisol supports, suffer.

This is seen in people and other mammals suppressed for long periods, who then have the external steroid discontinued suddenly. They often DIE as a result! That is why people on oral steroids are tapered carefully off, to avoid what is called an adrenal crisis.

I also don't know whether heat is vascular or nerves. I'd done research on hot flashes, and even adipose fat (?) that acts insulation. (The heat seems to get trapped.)

I've done an experiment a few times where I put a cool pad along my spine while I'm trying to sleep. This has taken away the feeling of extreme heat. I got to sleep quickly.

I got the idea from an experiment I found online on dogs where it was determined when you cool their spines, they feel cooler.

What do you think about this has any one tried it ?

melon