Study Shows Cortisol is Vital to Nerve Survival Under Stress
 

I found an article recently entitled "Is Cortisol Good or Bad?" (Byron Richards) while trying to find out why my nerves seem ridiculously sensitive under stress. You've heard the expression "my nerves are shot"; this study perhaps gets closer to the science behind it. It sounds as if it's not just B12 that can be depleted by stress and cause nerve problems.

**edit

The article, from 2008, can be found here:
http://www.wellnessresources.com/hea...d_or_bad/#ref1

It is interesting stuff, and goes along with what I've been posting in other forums about adrenal hormone (cortisol is one of the adrenal hormones involved) "fatigue"/suppression and chronic/intractable pain.

What I'm wondering now (from a few statements in this article) is if there could also be some kind of connection between cortisol suppression/depletion (which I have) and PN(?) Another possible clue/lead to track down.

Thanks for posting it; I learn something every day here. :)

Doc

I wish I could read the original report instead of the other site's summary. I checked your URL and looked on the nature ** search engine for "How Cortiscol Helps You Adapt to Stress" (Nature Neuroscience), but couldn't find it.

In 1997 I went to an endocrinologist. He ordered a cortisol blood test and the reading came back at 1. He said if it had been any lower, I'd be dead.

I don't know if he was right (cortisol testing now is seen as most accurate when it's by saliva testing), but I always remembered what he said.

Since then I have wondered if my cortisol level has been low, because I've had other symptoms of adrenal fatigue, and fail the pupil test. I've also suspected low cortisol has affected or even caused my current peripheral neuropathy, which I didn't have back in the 90s.

It seems to be a vicious cycle. If your cortisol is low, your nerves overheat; that heat/burning causes you more stress, which in turn drives your cortisol even lower.

Sleep is a huge issue when you have chronic adrenal fatigue. My days are horrible when I don't get enough sleep. I've tried to get my adrenal health corrected but the burning wakes me up, and keeps me up. I don't think my adrenal glands will ever heal until I can get enough sleep every night.

One night about a month ago, when I had my worst sleep in years, the PN burning and prickling was the worst I'd ever experienced. I'm gradually becoming more and more convinced of cortisol's importance for nerve health.

My PN began after several years of chronic pain. I'm not quick/ready to conclude cause & effect, nor dismiss it; I will start looking into it further. Coincidentally, some of the supplements recommended in the article (vitamin E, R-Lipoic Acid, grape seed extract, N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC)) are familiar to folks in this forum. I had already been taking NAC, and when I learned of RLA's potential benefits, I started that too, and all of the burning and most of the prickling/shocks ceased within days.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread130991.html
I experienced further improvement after adding pantothenic acid (B5) to the regimen.

I learned about cortisol's (and other adrenal hormones') connection to chronic pain from several articles by Dr. Forest Tennant. As recommended in one of those articles, I had my cortisol levels checked (along with testosterone & pregnenolone). "Adrenal Fatigue" is not recognized by most of the medical community, but "adrenal insufficiency" is, so that was the approach I took with my doctor, as my tests were extremely low in all three. I began supplementing them by taking pregnenolone with B5 (which I was already taking with the RLA) which is converted to all the other adrenal hormones internally.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread156416.html

Since you're on-board with the article you originally posted, you might look into trying RLA & B5 for your PN pain.

Doc

I have a comment, about this link being discussed here.
I find that a rat study, provoking interpretation of memory signalling in the brain of rats, to be very basic and therefore paraphrasing, to say cortisol is a "nerve lubricant" to be simplistic and perhaps a ploy to then entice people to buy the products that website sells.
This is the article from Nature:

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/...s/nn.2150.html


The following is from Science News Daily: This common science reporting site, was not credited on the Wellness site at all.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0807072125.htm

This is very very early days for this research. As of now, I don't see references to humans.

This later article, 2011, goes into more detail about memory and cortisol:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0406102137.htm
Basically it is a very fine line with brain studies on what is useful and what is not. The brain is so very complex, it will take a long time to understand why some people do well under some circumstances, and others do not. This applies to drugs as well, since many drugs we have today that affect neurotransmitters, do not work the same in all who take them. On the Tramadol thread here, I put up a paper discussing genetic differences in serotonin transporter activity and the mu receptor (opioid receptor).

http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v2.../1395737a.html

yay
 

I don't have time to follow up on any of the links or post anything intelligent (LOL) this AM but I'm all over this one. Dr. Smith, what are the forums re:adrenal supression?
Thanks,
Zygo

"Recent discoveries are furnishing other important clues to the mystery of how the nerves' messages are telegraphed. Actually the nerves 'get hot' while carrying a message said Prof. A.V. Hill, of London University, England. It has even been possible to measure accurately the amount of heat they give off." - Popular Science (Nov. 1929)

The amount of heat my nerves give off is extreme. I virtually burned my hands one day when they were cold and I touched my leg. I could never understand where the heat was coming from because my core temperature is usually low at 96.8F.

I dont if I have it , but I a pretty laconic in general about most things - funnily enough its not until really evening where i " WAKE UP " and I become
more engaged with myself and self aware - but throughout the day im piratically in stasis sometimes.

melon

I searched this concept about nerves giving off heat and found this:

http://scienceblog.com/12738/physici...d-more-likely/

There are heat sensing nerves in the skin as well as cold ones. This article explains that sensations occurring in both may arise along the axon as well as the end points in the skin.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21050282

In general heat sensing neurons are over ridden by cold ones. That is why menthol which stimulates the cold sensory neurons, overcomes sensations of heat when applied to the skin. (when no actual cold is present). It is why menthol is included in many pain rubs, and why Biofreeze feels cold when it does not general cold temperature.

Interesting , I personally think their whole idea and insistence on trying to hold onto cherished theories thats part of the problem .

You might like this MrsD, it might explain why you have so many cats :)

Heres another link that challanges the idea of nerves work.




melon