Im posting here regarding my adrenal fatigue issues because i think i need as much info and much insight as possible.
A brief summary of my medical history
4 yrs ago took finasteride for 6 weeks and had to stop (cold turkey) due to libido issues.
Symptoms manifested within the 2nd-3d week of finasteride administration and got seriously worse 3 months after i had been off it.
-decreased sex interest
-inability to get an erection
-numbness and loss of sensation in genitals
-stubbing pains in scrotum
-decreased volume of ejaculate
-shrinking of about 2inches of penis and narrowing
-loss of all types of spontaneous and morning erections
-no more nocturnal issues
basically it felt like i was chemically castrated, i was dumbed quite soon by my girlfriend (who thought that i didnt want her anymore thats why i couldnt get erected!!) and could not have a proper relationship since that point on, since each time it came down to sex women were trying to locate were my penis was and i was trying to delay things as much as possible.
Thus i tried to change my life aspects (forgot about the importance of sex in my life) and went on doing other things like excess sports and reading. I started doing weights and playing a whole bunch of basketball and started supplementing with whey protein and some herbs. Soon i cut down all herbs since they had rather awkward results, some made me feel drowsy, or overally excited others made my sexual sensation fluctuate even more, one day giving me hope and then next making me feel worse.
2 yrs went by with no noticeable changes. Later on i concentrated on weight lifting even more and playing basketball, and started to feel like something was finally happening. I noticed that the more i worked out and the more whey protein + carbohydrates i supplemented with i started feeling better, stronger and could get finally erected if i girl touched me. Offcourse my penis was still shrunk and i could not have proper sexual intercourse but was rather trying to go for the oral thing.
Thats considering my sexual history. Now the correlation with what is going on now. Within those last 4 yrs i have noticed that some days i would develop sudden and extreme headaches and hands were trembling and sweating. I visited a cardiologist and he told me that what i have is a panic attack. That was the first time i heard of such a thing in my life or seen it on me.
Now this summer i was doing so much sports and drinking so much coffee before practice i developed an overtraining sickness. I was confined in bed for like 6 weeks doing nothing. My symptoms were
-Constant Fatigue
-Very heavy,painfull and sluggish legs (they felt like moving concrete cement)
-Increased heart rate and pulse while walking to the point i had to sit or lie down to get better
-Some type of compulsive deep breathing that happened each time i lied down (later on i read that that was the parasympathetic way of trying to compensate for the sympathetic overdrive i had caused)
-Unrefreshing sleep
-Nausea, headaches
-Irritability
and other weird symptoms.
As soon as i got better i went back to weight lifting and basketball. Four months, of very stressful reading(i am in medicine currently), working out at the gym, and part-time working Fridays/Saturday nights at a friends restaurant were just enough to bring me back to another overtraining state.
I managed to overcome it this time by having a very good diet (high in complex carbohydrate,proteins), with warm/cold baths and masages.
Nevertheless thats what i thought. Within a week after symptoms resided i started having bronchitis, feeling shivers in my arms during nightime , my hands would tremble and feel very cold and i just couldnt sleep more than 4-5 hours a night.
For the next two months i got a mixture of previous overtraining plus new symptoms which i couldnt really explain.
-Hypoglycemias after lunch and retrosternal burning after drinking cofffe that lasted for hours
-Severe headaches and nausea
-Low back pain and stiffness
-Muscle and joint pains
That lasted from March till mid May.
Then i started doing some swimming, had talked to a sports doctor he told me swimming would revive me so i went daily to a nearby beach. Within one week i felt a bit better, started getting out of the house again, and my energy levels would be a bit better, fatigue was not there so intense any more.
For two weeks i felt i was getting back in track. Then and after two nights of staying up late and doing some minor drinking like 1-2 drinks i started feeling insomnia and irritability.
Next days i woke up very very exhausted and weak and with a lower body temperature. I didnt know what was wrong that time, i just couldnt get out of bed, walking was now like impossible,walking and breathing was not fun, it made me sick, breathing not lying down was also making me sick, i felt so nauseous and so ill like i had some serious viral infection. I waited in bed two-three weeks then forced my self back to swimming. Instead of feeling any better i managed within two days to cause some biceps muscle weakness and atrophy as diagnosed by a neurologist with the help of an EMG.
I stayed in bed another 2 months not knowing what to do at that time thinking that i was so severely overtrained.
In august i was so pissed off, i just couldnt help looking out of the window at people enjoying their lives and me being in bed for 6 months and noone being able to give me an explanation. All my blood tests were normal, apart from the low free testosterone that kept rising 1 unit per month apprx to reach within the bottom normal range by August. Yet i still felt sick, weak and nauseous, walking out was impossible i felt hypotension and needed to sit down every other minute, watching tv was killing me, i had serious light sensitivity issues.
Being pissed off and desparate i went and bought some dumbells and tried doing some arm and chest exercises to see what happens and if my weakened muscles would get any better. Sooner than later i got so much into trembling, felt fidgety and irritated by the slightest of noises. At nights i couldnt sleep more than 3-4 hours thus ended up in the ER were i had a total nervous break down after 2 hours of begging my fellow future colleagues to seriously look into what is wrong with me or give me something to relax, i started involuntarily shaking and pulling and throwing things (chairs and tables) like a madman. Doctors injected me some sort of tranquilizer and took me to the neurology clinic prescribing me diazepam every 3-4 hours. I explained them i was so severely overtrained that my sympathetic nervous system was overcharging and i just couldnt stop it and i had probably some sort of catecholamine disorder. They laughed and told me that overtraining syndrome didnt exist and wanted to prescribe me major antidepressants and other weird drugs.
I had to call up a sports doctor at 3 am to verify to them that i was not mad, and that i was doing too much training and i had been suffering from this for months (but not even he could explain this constant fatigue and irritability for so long)
As soon as i left the clinic being on diazepam daily and nightly and feeling as a total wreckage i started doing some investigating concerning all my symptoms one by one. I just couldnt believe that being a med student i couldnt explain what was wrong with me. Finally i read about adrenal fatigue, from a friend of mine who had similar problem after overexerting him self for yrs in the gym.
I took the blood pressure test and the pupil dilation/constriction test and was shocked to see that i couldnt stand bright light for more than a minute, explaining why i couldnt watch tv or play with my computer at all or very little for so many months. I recall one day i forced my self to watch tv and within 10 minutes i almost jumped out of the window. I went mad from watching TV!! Initially i couldnt breath, then i felt my heart rate increasing rapidly and then i just had to ran away from the screen. Thats how funny and sad it was at the same time.
Two weeks later and while i was trying to put together the puzzle of my condition i started feeling the same hypoglycemic effects i had when i was on coffee in the initial months of overtraining. I decided to go for a glucose tolerance test, and within 3 hours i had to leave the lab due to trembling and shaking. My blood glucose at 1st hour was 189 and at the 3d hour was 51.
Next day after lunch i almost collapsed. Energy levels dropped from barely being able to walk all those month to bed confining again and i started shaking and feeling weaker than ever. I reentered the hospital and they made me take a 30 hour fasting glucose test. I took 10mg of diazepam before starting the test and entered a deep relaxation and sleepiness phase to deal Surprisingly the glucose levels were almost constant after 30 hours but i couldnt stand this hunger any longer so i left the hospital with a terrible eye strain and headache.
I contacted a doctor through diagnostech who told me that symptoms i am facing are 99 percent due to adrenal fatigue. He sent me the saliva tubes to take the tests and now i am waiting for the results.
I am also expected to go to my sports doctor and do an epinephrine/norepinephrine blood stimulation test (since i was overtrained maybe there is some close relationship to those hormones)
I also ordered dr. Wilsons severe adrenal fatigue formula just two days ago.
Now, i have been under diazepam 5mg/night for more or less 1 month (one day on two days of or smthing like that). If i take diazepam i feel i can sleep and my eye strains are not that bad during the daytime. otherwise i start shaking and feel very irritable at nights and this irritability and nervousness is present during daytime as well. Weakness and exhaustion are always present, i rarely ever have the energy to walk outside the house for more than 50-100 meters.
Here is a list of the exams and tests i have done (its 2 months ago - i did another series of testing one month ago but have my results at the physiology department- they are evaluating them in order to go for epinephrine/norepinephrine blood test)
28/6/2007
Progesteron 0.83ng/ml (0.1-1.0)
LH 4.8 (1-15)
FSH 2.5 miU/ml (1.7-12)
Testosterone 4.25 ng/ml (4-11)
free testo 13.8 pg/ml (13-40)
DHEA-s 4.2 (1.6-4.5)
SHBG 13nmol/L (15-48)
Estradiol 35 pg/ml (0-50)
DHt 40ng/dl (30-85)
Albumin 4.7 gr/dl (3.4-5.0)
T3 1.06 ng/ml (0.8-2.0)
T4 6.0 microg/dl (5.0-12)
TSH 2.78 microIU/ml (0.2-5.5)
Ca 9.5 (8.1-10.5)
K 4.2 mmol/L (3.5-5)
Na 138 mmol/L (135-150)
P 3.6 mg/dl (2.4-4.7)
Zn 78 microg/dl (66-150)
Hemoglobin (HGB) 13.5 gr%
HCT hematocrit 42%
platelet count 220
Partial Prothrombin Time Witness 11.5sec
Examinees 14.3sec (10.4-13.0)
Percentage 68% (70-130)
INR 1.3 (0.9-1.2)
Thrombofax aPTT 40sec (25-36.5)
HBsAG negative
HCV Antibodies negative
Ferritin 180 ng/ml (20-495)
vitamin B12 260 pg/ml (160-950)
CRP negative
RA test negative
?-GT 55 U/l (10-80)
SGOT 34
SGPT 70 IU/L (25-65)
ALP 104 (50-136)
IgA 245 mg/dl (76-390)
IgG 905 mg/dl (650-1600)
IgM 46 mg/dl (40-375)
Antithrypsin A1 3972 mg% (1600-3800)
Seruloplasmin 24.2 mg/dl (18-45)
24 urine catecholamines --> metanephrine being at the upper normal margin.
Did Brain and Neck MRI, Liver/Spleen/Chole-bile duct ultrasound ,EEG and bunch of heart exams all ok
ElectroMyoGraph showing weakness of my arm biceps
Waiting on the saliva Adrenal Stress Index Test
Waiting for the norepinephrine/epinephrine blood test (supine,resting and at work)
*I am going to visit a new endocrinologist today to ask him to write me down another series of lab tests, im gonna ask for free T3 and free T4.
My questions are
---- How bad can it be? Not to be able to walk properly, all this exhaustion and the trembling under minimal pressure, the low libido?
a ) does diazepam interfere with testosterone balance and production
b) does diazepam interfere with saliva cortisol tests? How long should i have to refrain from diazepam to have the clearest results for my saliva tests?
c) i am thinking of doing the HPA Profile (urine and saliva) in addition to all previous testing- is there some importance in the urine levels of neurotransmitters?
d) what other tests should i include (apart from the free T3 free T4 and probably and ACTH stimulation test)
e) I used to smoke in the past, before all this started, like one to three cigarettes every other day. Now if i try to smoke i feel like puking, the taste of cigarette in my mouth is completely different. I noticed that since the 2-3d month after these problems started. What could be the reason behind this? Some mineral imbalance?
f) what could be the best approach to treating this condition
Any other suggestions ?
* I decided to write a complete post of my problems in this thread so that most of you may read it and help if possible. I have fractions of this post in other threads already
