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has anyone had any experience dealing with this correlation? in my ongoing battle to save my life i have come to the tentative conclusion that i have adrenal fatigue in addition to my IBS and auto-immune issues. here's the observational data:

i am "good" when i fast for as long as possible. the problems happen when i ingest food of any kind, in any ratio, i have experimented with everything. raw/cooked, veggie/animal, etc etc.

during this leangains-ish style fast i drink lots of water, sea salt, l-glutamine, vitamin c, TMG, and many PHD and Kruse recommended supplements as well as a bit of coconut oil and stronger-faster-healthier brand fish oil for the fat soluble supplements. obviously the missing ingredients are protein and amino acids and glucose.

i "diagnosed" the adrenal fatigue because back in june i seriously injured my back and was given a 10-day taper of prednisone, and saw a sports chiropractor and exercise rehab specialist. (i was also seeing an acupuncturist 3x a week even before this injury)

i recovered and by august i was feeling better than i had in ten years. i was eating in an 8 hour window, wild-caught non-bpa canned salmon primarily with some grass fed red meat, spinach, some safe starches, coconut oil, and my usual deluge of supplements. i should mention that i have been taking tons of supplements for a long time and never experienced this level of health and energy.

i hadn't correlated this to the prednisone back in june, but once i moved apartments in september and caught a common cold due to the increased stress... well let's just say this common cold spiraled into all my old symptoms times ten (peeling sometimes itchy skin on feet, IBS pain, bloating, diarrhea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, brain fog, depression, no libido).

and i'm still not better, in fact i'm as bad as ever. My IBS is insane. the only way i'm being this articulate is because i'm fasting right now (hour 15).

since prednisone increases energy but suppresses the immune system, i'm correlating all of this right now. sorry if this post is hella long but i wanted to give as much data as possible.

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How's your Vitamin D level? You sound really depleted. I'd also check out FODMAPS intolerance for the IBS. Kombucha may be helpful, too. – Dragonfly Oct 24 2011 at 11:03
vit d is very high. i supplement many 5k iu drops/day. kombucha and all yeasty, vinegary things are not helpful. – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 23:23

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Prednisone is so not good for you. I have ulcerated colitis caused by c. Diff. I had to have my colon completely removed. I still have problems with Underactive thyroid and adrenal fatigue. I eat fermented foods with give you beneficial bacteria and enzymes to break down my food. I carb shift. Every 3-5 days I'll eat some nuts or some fruit. Other than that it is meat, cultured dairy, veggies, and fermented foods. I feel better. I also started drinking this stuff called Karlovy vary(Carlsbad) thermal spring salt. Supposed to be almost like human plasma. Another thing to take into account is your liver and kidneys. You will feel horrible if these aren't in good working order. My kidneys get double the work because of my lack of colon and I can easily get a uti only drinking green teas. So if I start to feel bad a do a course of grapefruit seed extract, goldenseal root, and if I have a uti meadowsweet. You take a ton of supplements like I do. It is a heavy load for your liver and kidneys. You may need to detox and add fermented foods to feel better. One sure way to know your body isnt eliminating properly is things like eczema and psoriasis which I have and will become horrible if I need a detox.

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Thanks for your story! – grace Oct 24 2011 at 2:03
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Dsohei,

I'm sorry to hear about your back. Hang in there!! Have you tried isocort or hydrocortisone orally? I entirely concur with ASHley on Prednisone. PRednisone is a synthetic pharmaceutical entity and can cause in fact dysregulation, devastation, havoc on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-gonad axis much like synthetic birth control and progestins have been known to do. I have metal issues and it is a catch 22 -- you need a healthy gut to eliminated metals yet metals prevent a healthy gut...

My thoughts: Gotta burn the candles as best one can on both ends until once side bests itself...

G

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i am taking some cortef now (oral hydrocortisone). it is much weaker than prednisone (5mg preed = 20mg cortef). havent seen major improvements yet, but on the pred in june it wasnt until august that i felt normal. – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 2:20
Yes cortef is much weaker and needs multiple 2-3x per day dosing, like Nature-throid or T3 natural thyroid glandular dosing. Are you doing any pituitary or hypothalamus glandulars? Some PH's have posted on this. I believe these have value. – grace Oct 24 2011 at 3:10
The 2 month timeline doesn't make sense? Did the gut protocol finally kick in? Are you on any new probiotics? In ulcerative and Crohn's cases, steroids to prevent gut flares however the risk of dependence and reliance on a 'bandaid' for inflammation suppression is dangerous. – grace Oct 24 2011 at 3:15
i dont see how it finally kicked in basically overnight. it wasnt a gradual process. i felt bad for years, started paleo in aug 2010, started extra gut protocols in march, got the back injury in june, then at the end of july into august i felt awesome. then in sept to now i feel as bad as before. – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 3:48
Was the chiropractic and body work different? I don't know what the biological half life of prednisone is and it may differ among inviduals. Because it is so strong (unlike cortisone/cortisol) it can shut down endogenous production in the long term. What are your salivary cortisol x4 labs looking like? Prednisone is not detectable on labs (like artificial progestins) but they affect receptors potently as well as the affecting CRH and feedback loops at many levels (pituitary, hypothalamus, adrenals). – grace Oct 25 2011 at 0:48
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"i "diagnosed" the adrenal fatigue because back in june i seriously injured my back and was given a 10-day taper of prednisone, and saw a sports chiropractor and exercise rehab specialist. (i was also seeing an acupuncturist 3x a week even before this injury)

i recovered and by august i was feeling better than i had in ten years."

Go back to the people that got you to this point and continue to work with them to improve your health. Obviously what you were doing at this time was working.

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those people was one emergency doc, not a primary care. and it was a (lucky?) accident. besides prednisone long term is disastrous anyway. double egded sword. – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 2:27
Personally..not recommending the prednisone for long term. Prednisone in the short term CAN be OK. Its not frequently necessary in my view, but not my point. The "sports chiropractor and rehab specialist" and acupuncturist. One or both of these practitioners seemed to have had a profound effect. That was my point. – JayJay Oct 24 2011 at 2:45
it wasnt the acupuncturiust because i'd been seeing them for a while before the injury and still had the issues. the exc. rehab guy only helped me with exercise form. and yea, chiropractic is awesome but it's $80 for a 15 minute session. i really think it was a combo of everything, plus the diet and supplements, but all of that was the same as before. the prednisone seems to be the x factor... – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 3:45
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IBS should have gone better on Paleo, for most people it did. Are you sure it's not a parasite or C.Diff that create your IBS problems? I'd have that tested properly, because diet doesn't help much with these organisms (they're mutated to eat everything that falls into the gut, not just carbs).

BTW, are you strict Paleo?

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(nearly?) impossible to be 100% strict robb wolf paleo working in the restaurant industry. metametrix full g.i. stool test last january (been testing on this issue since august 2010) indicated no parasites. dont know what c. diff is, will google. – dsohei Oct 24 2011 at 2:22
On a Genova or Metametrix DNA stool analysis, clostridia is identified if there is overgrowth. You don't necessarily need C. difficile because most of the pathogenic clostridia release muscle and joint toxins which also cause brain fogginess. Candida also in fact causes an auto-brewery effect due to toxic aldehydes and alcohol in the brain and muscles. pubmed 'auto brewery' – grace Oct 24 2011 at 3:12
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I have IBS and had a lot of bloating and gas. The first few days I took the Lady Soma Candida product, I thought I was going to die. It made me nauseous and have diarrhea, but that was just the detox symptoms. They soon cleared, and I noticed I had less bloat and gas. I did the product 3 times a day for a little over a month and felt great. I have no bloating and have hardly any craving for sweets. I now take the product about one time a day for maintenance. Highly recommend this one.

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sounds like your body can't deal with stress because of a sugar deficiency

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Cliff - you are reading Ray Peat, yes? I am a student if not a person who actually eats his way. I have lots of notes on his podcasts if you want them. – none Oct 24 2011 at 0:24
My downvote...your rec sucks. – JayJay Oct 24 2011 at 0:25
hahah i second meredith recent comments are very peat-tard – Mallory Oct 24 2011 at 0:30
@Meredith-Yes ray is the man imo. That would be great, my email is keenanmccrary@gmail.com Have you seen this functionalps.com/blog/?p=2681, it is a master list of all his interviews, I especially like "Politics & Science: A Self Ordering World" – cliff Oct 24 2011 at 0:32
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 Were is the proof sugar deficiency causes a reduced capacity to deal with stress? – JayJay Oct 24 2011 at 0:49
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