I take Dexedrine. An amphetamine aka "speed". I take it everyday due to my ADD. Will this med affect my thyroid? Will it cause it to slow down within time?
I take Dexedrine. An amphetamine aka "speed". I take it everyday due to my ADD. Will this med affect my thyroid? Will it cause it to slow down within time?
One thing to consider is that constant stimulation from stuff like adderall, dexedrine, ritalin, etc can create a stressful environment for your body to be dealing with. This could fatigue your adrenal glands causing you to produce less cortisol.
Less cortisol = less T3 getting into cells = reduced metabolism. Basically hypothyroidism.
This is just a possibility as I've heard some doctors say that amphetamines can put strain on the adrenal glands. Don't know if it's true though.
And what does my doc have to check for? ACTH? Or cortisol itself?
Doesn't taking steroids do the same thing to the adrenals?
You could check by blood, with an AM Cortisol test but that only shows you an early morning reading.
ACTH is just a signaling hormone, it's somewhat useful but doesn't necessarily say how much cortisol is actually being produced by the adrenals.
Best bet is a 4x saliva test, that measures your cortisol amount and rhythm throughout the day (zrtlabs has a saliva test for around 120 bucks). You just collect spit 4 times in a day and then mail it in.
It is supposed to be highest in the morning and gradually decrease at night.
http://www.acupuncturehealth.net/images/cortisol.gif
Excessive steroid use could potetially fatigue the adrenals or reduce the building blocks (pregnenolone conversion from cholesterol) necessary to produce sufficient cortisol. That's probably why guys that do crazy long cycles end up with fucked up endocrine issues. When you shut LH/FSH off and you're not replacing this function (by something like HCG) bad things can happen. In some cases, HCG isn't enough to stimualte pregnenolone conversion from cholesterol.
I was on TRT for about 2 years and my preg levels were at 12 (range 20-120). My cortisol was low even though my life was much less stressful, i was constantly fatigued, hard to think straight, hypoglycemic, hypothyroid, etc. I had NONE of these problems prior to starting TRT.
In my case HCG didn't do enough. I could have used transdermal pregnenolone cream or something, but at this point i was just fed up and didn't want to add anything else. I wanted to get back to "normal".
No it shouldn't... it might appear so since you're used to the meds and they do artificially increase your BMR. Get a quick thyroid panel just to make sure but you're probably fine![]()
You could check by blood, with an AM Cortisol test but that only shows you an early morning reading.
ACTH is just a signaling hormone, it's somewhat useful but doesn't necessarily say how much cortisol is actually being produced by the adrenals.
Best bet is a 4x saliva test, that measures your cortisol amount and rhythm throughout the day (zrtlabs has a saliva test for around 120 bucks). You just collect spit 4 times in a day and then mail it in.
It is supposed to be highest in the morning and gradually decrease at night.
http://www.acupuncturehealth.net/images/cortisol.gif
Excessive steroid use could potetially fatigue the adrenals or reduce the building blocks (pregnenolone conversion from cholesterol) necessary to produce sufficient cortisol. That's probably why guys that do crazy long cycles end up with fucked up endocrine issues. When you shut LH/FSH off and you're not replacing this function (by something like HCG) bad things can happen. In some cases, HCG isn't enough to stimualte pregnenolone conversion from cholesterol.
I was on TRT for about 2 years and my preg levels were at 12 (range 20-120). My cortisol was low even though my life was much less stressful, i was constantly fatigued, hard to think straight, hypoglycemic, hypothyroid, etc. I had NONE of these problems prior to starting TRT.
In my case HCG didn't do enough. I could have used transdermal pregnenolone cream or something, but at this point i was just fed up and didn't want to add anything else. I wanted to get back to "normal".
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