Rufus wrote:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02351.html
Tweaking Hormones Might Ease Chronic Stress
TUESDAY, Jan. 27 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. and Canadian scientists say they've devised a potential new method of promoting recovery from chronic stress disorders by utilizing the natural dynamics of the body's "fight or flight" response.
The approach focuses on the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal (HPA) axis, one of the body's major control systems. The HPA axis uses hormone feedback regulatory loops to help maintain body homeostasis (balance of systems).
A team led by Amos Ben-Zvi, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, say that when the HPA axis is pushed far from its natural homeostatic rest point, it may be unable to fully recover. When that happens, HPA axis dysfunction may become permanent, according to background information in the study.
HPA axis dysfunction has been linked to disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers created a short-term intervention designed to help restore normal HPA axis. This method involves temporarily reducing the availability of cortisol, a hormone involved in immune function. Reduced cortisol levels prompt the HPA axis to overcompensate and re-set itself into normal regulation.
This new model, which needs to be tested in clinical tests, was described in an article published Jan. 23 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
After being hit by 3 different types of CFS (viral, hormone tampering drug induced and overtraining, and antibiotic drug induced again) I pretty much can say that this is a major iatrogenic mistake to try and tweak hormones or push cortisol down via binding it or decreasing its production at several levels. Have read the article completely and was astonished by the complete lack of medical information from the people who develop it --- computational biology---- what goes on inside a human body is far away from computations at this period of time (I wanna see such a clinical case for sure, depressing cortisol without overcompensations by other parts of the stress system). CFS is not a single disease but a complex of diseases which seem to have similar symptoms but those authors prob don't know it for sure.
For example its not similar to have low response of adrenals to ACTH, to having low basal CRF levels, or low basal hippocampal efferent or afferent frequency, to having an overinhibitory signal from cortisol to CRF/hippocampus, or overinhibitory signals from hippocampus or CRF/AVP to cortisol or have mild adrenal atrophy or PVN nuclear, suprahypothalamic or amygdala damage, or neurotransmitter receptor binding activity issues or or or... There's like more than 10-15 known reasons of HPA axis integrity dysregulation and probably more than twice as many exist which we don't know that manifest as similar symptoms and they all pack up in one big basket called chronic fatigue syndrome. Well this is a joke of course to try and mess with hormones, I have done it and found myself in VERY BIG PROBLEMS.
To take hydrocortisone for example, 5-10 mg per day a minimal physiologic dose is ok for some in whom it will signal the CRF to not shut down, and this is a very limited group of CFS patients whose HPA axis works in the paradoxical way of amplifying its activity after introduction of a low dose of cortisol. It is really paradoxical but this is what has been found to happen, the exact opposite of negative feedback.
Some others benefit when trying sleep deprivation. The people that suffer from this sort of chronic fatigue could benefit from sleeping later than normal and waking up later than normal, (due to morning cortisol levels that don't respond properly to ACTH stimulation) or even avoiding sleep every once in a while (not more than once per week). They will definitely see a difference in their levels of alertness and concentration (amazing but true).
Last but not least other benefit from exercise (graded).
Some other doctors* and people confuse adrenal fatigue with chronic fatigue syndrome (this is a big mistake). Adrenal fatigue is another case where due to low gonadotrophins, cortisol has to overcompensate for stresses and this drives the gland either to exhaustion or nearly almost to a breaking point (after this breaking point there could be major HPA axis suppression or death ??? few people know that for sure!!!). In cases of adrenal fatigue, you need like 25-30 mg of cortisol, thyroid hormones and testosterone to get better, some psych docs claim to do it via antidepressants(!) instead of cortisol and others by plain rest (for months and years) and so other herbs/vitamins (tried many ways). It's almost impossible to shut down the norepinephrine signal in a short time without high cortisol levels or suppressing the whole axis with sleeping aids for long lasting periods of time.
There is also a case of overactive autonomic systems but this is similar to adrenal fatigue in a sense that when your HPG axis is low and your HPA axis is a bit weak then your LC-NA-adrenomedullary system takes over and each average stressor can signify problems (this is also similar to adrenal fatigue in the end result or it could be worse).
The brain will re-train itself just the way neurofeedback has helped train my brain to stay focused and in a more alpha state... 