Anyone have a saliva test for adrenal function?

[ellenrr]

I've suspected for a long time my adrenals are not in such good shape.
I got the test kit from one dr, and it costs $120 to have the lab do the test - which must be a profit of about 8 million times.
Then return to the dr to have the results analysed.
Except that this dr is a dick, and I am not going back to him.
I have a referral for another doctor. There also is a Dr Richard Shames who has written a book about the glandular system and he does consults over the phone which I think are very expensive.
But I have read his book and learned a lot from it.
So I may arrange with him.
his website: http://www.feelingfff.com/

[ncpmd]

1. Hi. I was so amazed to see your topic!

Hi Ellenrr, it was the a bit of a woo-woo moment to see your thread. I have recently begun researching adrenal fatigue and learning all I can about it. I just happened upon the term as I was google searching "burnout". I have so many of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, I thought I had found the answer to why I feel so drained all the time. But I am also reading that it is not a recognized medical condition and medical doctors warn of the dangers in trying to treat it via supplements offered by the "internet practitioners".

I would love the opportunity to communicate more about this but don't know how to so via DU. I'm mostly just a reader of DU and don't post very often and don't fully understand the features available. Is there a way for us to email each other via DU?

I'm going to check out the web link in your post. I'm also checking into the book by Jonathan Wright, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome.

Again, I was amazed to see your post, given that I was up this morning with the goal of continuing my research and just "dropped by" DU before I began.

Regards,
K.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Use the PM private message system on DU

Click on the tiny yellow envelope icon

[ellenrr]

5. K, I tried to send you a private message...

(thanks liberalesto - )
I got a msg that said you could not receive private msgs yet.
Perhaps you are new?

I don't mind communicating publicly, but if you want to wait until you can send/receive private messages that is ok with me too.

One thing that Dr Shames says, as you said, is that some doctors don't consider it a "real" medical condition, but that is changing, as the two drs. that I've seen so far, do.

I diagnosed myself a few times over the past years, due to symptoms, and by being very careful about my diet, I have brought my adrenals back to health.
This time, tho, I am so exhausted all the time, that I want to find out how my adrenals are doing and rule that cause in or out.

I don't have much faith in drs and so I do my own research to supplement whatever I learn from them.
One of my drs doesn't even think that coffee has anything to do with my adrenal issues, altho
first- my experience proves it does, and
second - research on adrenals suggests there is a connection, at least for some people.

[MineralMan]

3. I found some on a Google search, including one on ebay that

includes the lab fees in the price. No prescription needed. The real issue is in properly interpreting the results.

[Celebration]

4. one of my daughters did this once

The justification for doing it is that cortisol levels change during the day, and one level, a blood test, doesn't tell you everything you know, because, well, it is done just once. The saliva levels are done because you can get various levels at different times of the day.

Thus, she had her saliva levels done four times over a twenty four hour period. Then, a rather trained nutritionist discussed the results with us. One issue, though, was that the week prior to doing the test she had a traumatic event (flipped her car over, though not physically hurt much at all). That affected the results of the test. Actually I think she had become somewhat dehydrated in the ER from that. So, the whole test didn't really show us that much about how her levels were normally. We never really repeated this test under more normal circumstances, but I think the talk with the nutritionist did give us some insight. I don't think that this particular package is still available.

One saliva result wouldn't tell you any more than one blood test result. You need more.......and how many more probably depends on who you talk to.

There is something called an ACTH stimulation test that is the more traditional test done for adrenal gland function (or something like that). For that I think you need an endocrinologist.