Review of my cortisol saliva test

[WrenchHead80]

I got my results back. Looking for input and suggestions. The lady on the STTM forum said I need to lower my evening / night levels and my morning is low and needs to come up. I read her suggested link which sounds likes I should do the lowering part first which may raise my low level morning. Suggested using Wild Jujube Extract or Relora or Phosphatidylserine to lower my evening highs.

I'm surprised it shows high cortisol at bedtime, since I have no problem falling asleep when I want to go to sleep. The morning one I'm surprised wasn't higher because I literally jump out of bed no problem at 530am and do crossfit Monday threw Friday without a problem and with no stimulants like coffee. Is it because I started the test at 530 am? That's when I normally wake up though. And I technically don't go to sleep at 830 more like 9:30 but the test said to space out the four times by 5 hours which is what I did starting at 5:30am.

Edit to add: Are these results good enough right now to go back on NDT without a pooling problem?

 

[Vvs1]

I got my results back. Looking for input and suggestions. The lady on the STTM forum said I need to lower my evening / night levels and my morning is low and needs to come up. I read her suggested link which sounds likes I should do the lowering part first which may raise my low level morning. Suggested using Wild Jujube Extract or Relora or Phosphatidylserine to lower my evening highs.

I'm surprised it shows high cortisol at bedtime, since I have no problem falling asleep when I want to go to sleep. The morning one I'm surprised wasn't higher because I literally jump out of bed no problem at 530am and do crossfit Monday threw Friday without a problem and with no stimulants like coffee. Is it because I started the test at 530 am? That's when I normally wake up though. And I technically don't go to sleep at 830 more like 9:30 but the test said to space out the four times by 5 hours which is what I did starting at 5:30am.

Edit to add: Are these results good enough right now to go back on NDT without a pooling problem?

I recently saw a YouTube video that stated cortisol was highest at 8-9am.

Ashwaghanda is the typical supplement for regulating cortisol. P-serine can lower cortisol, but when to take to achieve lower night cortisol is a better question.

 

[WrenchHead80]

I recently saw a YouTube video that stated cortisol was highest at 8-9am.

Ashwaghanda is the typical supplement for regulating cortisol. P-serine can lower cortisol, but when to take to achieve lower night cortisol is a better question.

I remember reading the same thing about highest time in morning being around then.

Read on the STTM forum you take the lowering pills a hour or two before the time you need to lower. I'm assuming it may differ per each individual.

Anyone else want to chime in on my cortisol test results? Suggestions, opinions?

 

[lemonflavor]

Do you have symptoms? You didn't mention that. Sounds like you have energy in the morning and can get to sleep at night.

I don't really have anything to add. I deal with fatigue, anxiety, depression, and my cortisol is raised either a little in the morning, or some at night, depending on which of two test results are looked at, but P-serine and Ashwaganda didn't help at all.

 

[Vince Carter]

Im used to seeing more set timetables than morning/noon/evening/night, like more specific times of the day than these subjective windows. For instance one comes to mind was midnite for the 4th sample IIRC.
Not sure if your daily routine would impact the test result if it were calculated that way.
But based on what you've got there it is a curious piece that it says youre peaking at night time yet have no trouble going to sleep.

 

[Vvs1]

Your results are good, and your lucky to have those numbers if you feel great.

I would focus on raising the morning one if you do have any symptoms.

 

[WrenchHead80]

Do you have symptoms? You didn't mention that. Sounds like you have energy in the morning and can get to sleep at night.

I don't really have anything to add. I deal with fatigue, anxiety, depression, and my cortisol is raised either a little in the morning, or some at night, depending on which of two test results are looked at, but P-serine and Ashwaganda didn't help at all.

I don't have what you would call cortisol symptoms I'd guess. I do have low thyroid symptoms though. The reason I did the test was I started thyroid treatment using NDT towards the end of last year. I uploaded my follow up thyroid labs on here and members said I was pooling. Members commented that pooling is usually caused by cortisol or low iron numbers. I didn't have good iron levels and not knowing the state of my cortisol it was decided it should be ruled in or out. The thread is here if your curious. My start on NDT I'm guessing it was my low iron then that was causing the pooling issue?

I do feel I have perfect energy in the morning. Its actually almost strange how much energy I have. It started when I started going to crossfit M-F in April. I literally wake up 10 minutes before my 5:30am alarm goes of now. I'm out of bed in a instant like I wasn't even sleeping but feel fully rested. I go straight to crossfit for the 6 to 7am class, come back home to shower then go to work from 8 to 430. This is with no stimulants like coffee. My job is a warehouse job that's very physical. In the evening around 9 I start becoming tired and by ten if I'm still up I get very tired. Considering my day, I feel this is normal and healthy. I don't even like sleeping in on the weekends. Started my bike rides earlier now just because I'm up. I will say I do sometimes wake up during the night and not because I have to go to the bathroom. So maybe I'm not getting as deep of a sleep. I did get Wild Jujube Extract in today and plan on taking a pill tonight to see if I sleep better. The Relora was on back order. The lady at STTM suggested taking both.

I also suffer from anxiety most of my life and had bad depression from Nov 2018 to Feb 2019. Not sure if it was caused from stopping the NDT (happened a month after stopping NDT) or me being off zoloft . The zoloft I was off for two months before starting NDT with no problems though. Starting TRT treatment definitely helped with my anxiety, recovery ect.

Im used to seeing more set timetables than morning/noon/evening/night, like more specific times of the day than these subjective windows. For instance one comes to mind was midnite for the 4th sample IIRC.
Not sure if your daily routine would impact the test result if it were calculated that way.
But based on what you've got there it is a curious piece that it says youre peaking at night time yet have no trouble going to sleep.

I would say if anything I thought my cortisol would be too low at night because I get tired by 9 and I'll start dosing off by 10 if I try to stay up. The morning is the opposite. I'm wide awake by 5:30am. The results of the test had me wondering... Thought I'd be high in the morning and low in the evening.

Your results are good, and your lucky to have those numbers if you feel great.

I would focus on raising the morning one if you do have any symptoms.

So you guys feel my cortisol is fine for starting NDT again? I have my appointment with Dr Saya at Defy this coming Tue. Looking forward to addressing my thyroid problem.

So I definitely shouldn't need hydrocortisone?

 

[lemonflavor]

I think you're in good hands with Dr. Saya. I'd trust him more than us. I would think that if you're not symptomatic, a doc wouldn't want to put you on a medication just for a change in numbers, unless you really could feel even that much better and be a world class athlete instead, or if it would be needed for thyroid stuff, which I know absolutely nothing about.

 

[WrenchHead80]

I think you're in good hands with Dr. Saya. I'd trust him more than us. I would think that if you're not symptomatic, a doc wouldn't want to put you on a medication just for a change in numbers, unless you really could feel even that much better and be a world class athlete instead, or if it would be needed for thyroid stuff, which I know absolutely nothing about.

Personally I'm hoping I don't need to be put on hydrocortisone. Because I feel it will add more variables, tweaking to find the right dose and another thing I have to take. But if he feels I need it I'll definitely do it. But like you said I really don't feel I show the symptoms of needing it. I'm assuming my cortisol isn't that bad now. Maybe it was bad last year when I was taking NDT, hence why I showed signs of pooling.

When I showed the lady on the STTM forum my labs (the ones I re-took on my own without taking the NDT before labs) she said I showed no signs of pooling and my dose should have been raised. I wrote back mentioning the ratio difference of my FT4 to my lower but still higher FT3 (that Chris and others here mentioned) but got no response back.

Basically I've heard three different opinions from Defy's PA, Chris and others here and the lady at STTM. No wonder why I'm confused and frustrated. Luckily My appointment with DR. Saya at Defy is tomorrow and based on everything I hear here, he's the best. So I'm hoping to finally get this problem addressed.

 

[WrenchHead80]

My appointment with Dr. Saya was great! He felt my cortisol was fine. Which was a big relief for me since it's one less thing I need to take something for or problem that needs fixing. He also mentioned the time table thing Vince Carter mentioned above and how you have to look at the results because of it.

Overall I'm very happy with how everything went and I'm looking forward to starting my new protocol next week.