judi
Member
Hello
Sorry about the provocative title of this thread - I'm not getting many views or answers on my original thread here:
Bioenergetic View Of Autoimmunity: Struggling To Understand Cortisol's Action
To reiterate, after listening to Haidut talking to Danny Roddy in A Bioenergetic View Of Autoimmunity [Generative Energy #12] I was questioning how cortisol could be in excess in "autoimmune" conditions (leading to tissue breakdown and inflammation and subsequent immune system's over-reaction), but supplemental hydrocortisone / prednisone etc. would be able to relieve the symptoms of inflammation and pain (please see the original thread for more details).
I haven't been able to explain the mechanism.
It seems to me that the more logical explanation could be an inability of the body to produce sufficient cortisone in the presence of hypothyroidism, leading to chronic inflammation, which would then explain the symptom relief after supplementation of physiological dose of steroids.
Please see this quotation from Ray Peat's article Blocking Tissue Destruction:
Real life example: After prolonged stress at work, my friend has developed what seems like rheumatic arthritis or soft tissue rheumatism, was prescribed 5mg prednisolone daily, took that for 3 weeks and experienced symptom relief. Now off prednisolone her condition has worsened. (Confounding variable= cholesterol of 150 mg/dl (4.0 mmol/l))
I would be grateful for any explanations/opinions.
Thank you
Judi
Sorry about the provocative title of this thread - I'm not getting many views or answers on my original thread here:
Bioenergetic View Of Autoimmunity: Struggling To Understand Cortisol's Action
To reiterate, after listening to Haidut talking to Danny Roddy in A Bioenergetic View Of Autoimmunity [Generative Energy #12] I was questioning how cortisol could be in excess in "autoimmune" conditions (leading to tissue breakdown and inflammation and subsequent immune system's over-reaction), but supplemental hydrocortisone / prednisone etc. would be able to relieve the symptoms of inflammation and pain (please see the original thread for more details).
I haven't been able to explain the mechanism.
It seems to me that the more logical explanation could be an inability of the body to produce sufficient cortisone in the presence of hypothyroidism, leading to chronic inflammation, which would then explain the symptom relief after supplementation of physiological dose of steroids.
Please see this quotation from Ray Peat's article Blocking Tissue Destruction:
· While normal thyroid function is required for the secretion of the adrenal hormones, the basic signal which causes cortisone to be formed is a drop in the blood glucose level. The increased energy requirement of any stress tends to cause the blood sugar to fall slightly, but hypothyroidism itself tends to depress blood sugar.
· The person with low thyroid function is more likely than a normal person to require cortisone to cope with a certain amount of stress. However, if large amounts of cortisone are produced for a long time, the toxic effects of the hormone begin to appear. According to Meerson, heart attacks are provoked and aggravated by the cortisone produced during stress. (Meerson and his colleagues have demonstrated that the progress of a heart attack can be halted by a treatment including natural substances such as vitamin E and magnesium.)
· While hypothyroidism makes the body require more cortisone to sustain blood sugar and energy production, it also limits the ability to produce cortisone, so in some cases stress produces symptoms resulting from a deficiency of cortisone, including various forms of arthritis and more generalized types of chronic inflammation.
· Often, a small physiological dose of natural hydrocortisone can help the patient meet the stress, without causing harmful side-effects. While treating the symptoms with cortisone for a short time, it is important to try to learn the basic cause of the problem, by checking for hypothyroidism, vitamin A deficiency, protein deficiency, a lack of sunlight, etc. (I suspect that light on the skin directly increases the skin's production of steroids, without depending on other organs. Different steroids probably involve different frequencies of light, but orange and red light seem to be important frequencies.) Using cortisone in this way, physiologically rather than pharmacologically, it is not likely to cause the serious problems mentioned above.
· Stress-induced cortisone deficiency is thought to be a factor in a great variety of unpleasant conditions, from allergies to ulcerative colitis, and in many forms of arthritis. The stress which can cause a cortisone deficiency is even more likely to disturb formation of progesterone and thyroid hormone, so the fact that cortisone can relieve symptoms does not mean that it has corrected the problem.
· According to the Physicians' Desk Referenc, hormones similar to cortisone are useful for treating rheumatoid arthritis, post-traumatic osteoarthritis, synovitis of osteoarthritis, acute gouty arthritis, acute nonspecific tenosynovitis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, acute and subacute bursitis, and epicondylitis.
· Although cortisone supplementation can help in a great variety of stress-related diseases, no curewill take place unless the basic cause is discovered. Besides the thyroid, the other class of adaptive hormones which are often out of balance in the diseases of stress, is the group of hormones produced mainly by the gonads: the "reproductive hormones." During pregnancy these hormones serve to protect the developing baby from the stresses suffered by the mother, but the same hormones function as part to the protective anti-stress system in the non-pregnant individual, though at a lower level.
· Some forms of arthritis are known to improve or even to disappear during pregnancy. As mentioned above, the hormones of pregnancy can make up for a lack of adrenal cortex hormones. During a healthy pregnancy, many hormones are present in increased amounts, including the thyroid hormones. Progesterone, which is the most abundant hormone of pregnancy, has both anti-inflammatory and anesthetic actions, which would be of obvious benefit in arthritis.
Real life example: After prolonged stress at work, my friend has developed what seems like rheumatic arthritis or soft tissue rheumatism, was prescribed 5mg prednisolone daily, took that for 3 weeks and experienced symptom relief. Now off prednisolone her condition has worsened. (Confounding variable= cholesterol of 150 mg/dl (4.0 mmol/l))
I would be grateful for any explanations/opinions.
Thank you
Judi