Adrenal glandulars

[Shawnamarie]

Hey Shelley!

I used to post here a lot back in the day... good to be here again.

I went to an iridologist about a year back and she said that I have little black dots where my adrenals should be, which indicated that I needed to really work on building my adrenals back up. I am 30 years old, had a pretty stressful and intense childhood, and have been trying to get to the root of my multiple food/chemical sensitivities for a while now. I am also very sensitive to the cold, and have many other symptoms that go along with what she said.

My body seems to react to most supplements, including adrenal support herbs. I've been taking homemade bone broth for about a month now on a daily basis and recently started taking the Standard Process Dessicated Adrenal.

What do you think of adrenal glandulars? I was warned that they may make me quite tired, which they are, and I've been getting headaches a bit more frequently. But at this point, I am willing to try most anything to try and strengthen my body again and try to reduce my sensitivities.

Just wanted to get your .02 on these...

Thanks!
Shawna

[shelley]

Hiya ShawnaMarie! Good to hear from you.

I never found that glandulars did anything. I researched into it, and it seems their best use is when someone has an auto-immune disorder. They can take the glandulars and have the body attack the supplement rather than the real thing.

My favorite form of adrenal support is to take a tiny bit of Tin (it's in nutritional yeast flakes or you can get a liquid colloidial from nutrition geeks), then feed it with Bieler Broth and Gotu Kola. Gotu Kola is pretty powerful, but I've never had any side-effects from it outside of an ache in my adrenals when it first hits them. It's estrogenic but I must have needed it.

If you want, give me a complete list of symptoms and I'll see what I can see. I don't entirely trust irridiology. I went to two practitioners within the same week and was given completely different stories by each.

[Shawnamarie]

Hey Shelley!

Okay, here are some symptoms:

Low blood pressure
Cold hands/feet
Strong sensitivity to the cold
Occasional dizziness upon standing (this used to happen every day last year)
Prone to constipation (better when I take a magnesium supp daily)
Seborrheic derm on my face
Low appetite in the AM (don't know if this is abnormal to begin with)
Prone to catching whatever cold/flu comes around (I was sick for most of Sep-March this past season)
Headaches
ACNE
Multiple food sensitivities (esp gluten, dairy, soy, garlic, anything with Vit D added)
-I react pretty strongly to flax seeds or anything estrogenic
-I react really strongly to alcohol so I avoid it entirely
My blood tests show I am deficient in Vit D, but I react to any supplemental form of it

My nutritionist told me to drink daily herbal infusions of nettles, oatstraw, or red clover all made with 32 oz of water and 1 oz of herb. The nettles give me gas and abdominal pain and the oatstraw/red clover give me horrible acne, so I stopped that.

The acne is capitalized because it is my most obvious symptom and the first way my body will react. I have done so many cleanses and watch my diet carefully. I am just so tired of this. My health goals are to be able to eat a piece of pizza and drink a beer without reacting, you know?

I react to most supplements and herbs, so that kind of rules out a lot of therapeutic options. I am not quite sure how to get my body stronger and less sensitive. For the moment, I am doing bone broth, grass-fed beef 3-4x/week, and the adrenal glandulars.

Thoughts?

[shelley]

Yep, that sounds like adrenals all right! I wouldn't recommend oatstraw and those other herbs. However, the herbs that help the adrenals best are estrogenic so ... don't know what to tell you about that. If you can stand a few doses of Gotu Kola it works wonders.

Have you had a thyroid panel done?
Have you had hair loss, such as thinning eyebrows?
are you eating healthy sea salt? Some people need much more salt than others or their adrenals just give out.
Have you taken any iodine supplements or eaten iodine rich seaveggies?

First thing you should do is get a tin supplement, and take a tablespoon of NYF every day for 10 days. Don't take an entire scoop, just a tablespoon or two. You gotta try and see if you can stomach it. The best tin supplement I've found is a liquid one from nutritiongeeks.com.

Then find a way to get at least the RDA of the following:

Vitamin E (wheat germ oil), iron, iodine, Vit B6 (NYF takes care of this), sodium (Beiler Broth takes care of this, see recipe in FAQ), calcium, magnesium ((Cal-Mag Fizz)), EFAs (lecithin is best, coconut oil maybe), Chromium. (chelated or GTF)

And you absolutely must avoid caffeine and sugar!!!

Probably the reason you're reacting to so strongly to D is because you're so low in Calcium, C, E and Selenium. What happens is, sometime in our lives we get exposed to toxins. Maybe we sat too long in a new car, maybe there's too much smog where we work, maybe our fillings have mercury, maybe our diets are too one-sided, that kind of thing. So our essential minerals and anti-oxidants get taken out of the body by fighting these toxins and we're left completely deficient. Until we replace what we've used up the body can't work right. Take very small doses of selenium and build up. Same with C.

For the acne I would take Taurine supplements to ensure your body is making enough bile. This is something all vegetarians should do. It's a protein that you don't get enough of if you cut out dairy and meat. 500 mg a day should be safe and easily assimilated. Or eat a version of Bruddig's Cottage Cheese and EFA mix, or just the cottage cheese. It has tons of taurine.

And I would definitely get a physical and have them check your thyroid and your iron levels and perhaps get a B12 shot so you can start feeling better fast.

[Shawnamarie]

Hi Shelley,

Sorry it's been a while! Thank you so much for your response....

[shelley]

Beef doesn't have much in the way of B vits except for B12, which is essential. Liver is good for B12 too. Wheat germ is a good source of E and B vits if you can't handle NYF. But the great thing about NYF is it has absolutely every mineral in an easily assimilated form. so if you can't do NYF you have to find a mineral supplement you can handle.

Anything new is a risk, but a B12 shot shouldn't affect you the same way as NYF.

Okay, if you're willing to take some estrogenic herbs your adrenals will heal faster. Gotu kola is the best, I was able to take it for a long time without messing anything up. licorice is also good for a week or two especially for people with salt issues, but it tends to bring on estrogenic issues faster so only for a week or two. Taking Lecithin and a liver herb like Milk Thistle will help your body shed estrogen as needed.

A bit of dark chocolate now and again is perfectly fine. If it's rich in copper and causes easy bruising just up your C.

Brazil nuts are awesome and should be enough for selenium for awhile. If your symptoms of toxicity persist, however, I'd do a small amount of synthetic for a week or two.