I wanted to write an update on how I've been doing going off of hydrocortisone.

First, if any one on this board is prescribed HC and you didn't have the saliva cortisol test done to test your levels across a day.... don't take HC! My endocrinologist put me on HC about a year and a half ago without knowing my cortisol levels (he only did the ACTH test.) That is the worst thing my doctor could have done for me. I didn't know about Cure Zone back then, but I sincerely wish I did, because I could have circumvented a year and a half of back peddaling.

Second, I would like to thank everyone on this board that explained their low and high cortisol symptoms for me in minute detail a couple months ago... I am so grateful. Your personal experience and descriptions of low vs high cortisol helped me extremely, and has been the first big turning point for me in improving!!!!! Being on HC, I wasn't able (still am not able)to take the cortisol test. I am fairly certain that I have much higher than normal cortisol in the morning (between 10-noon), and lower than normal in the evenings (7-9 pm).

I used to be on about 11 mg of HC, and my doctor told me to take most of it in the morning (when my cortisol was already too high at that time of day.) Seriously. So a year and a half ago when I first started the HC, I first started getting panic and anxiety, something I had never experienced during AF prior to taking the HC. The panic and anxiety was horrible in the mornings between 10-noon. Every single day around this time, my muscles would get very tight in my neck and shoulders and my body would be a ball of nerves, very anxious. The HC was shooting my already high cortisol even higher. Then suddenly, in a matter of seconds, I would have a major crash and suddenly get extremely tired and limp... all the tension was gone but I would feel like a rag doll, in serious crash phase.

I have been cutting back the HC by a little less than 1 mg per week, and am now on 2.5 mg HC. I take this small amount only in the evenings when the cortisol is lowest.

I haven't had panic or a crash in the mornings for about 16 days now (and I used to crash in the morning every morning at the same time)! My body is so glad to not have the HC in the mornings! I've also slowly added in L-theanine and Holy Basil in the mornings right before I ususally would start feeling anxious, and as I write now, I feel like a normal person, calm, chill, but with normal energy. Yay!

Since cutting back the HC dose, I've been getting nauseas and very tired almost every evening for 2 hours in a row, during the window of time my cortisol is really low. For the last year and a half while I was on 11 mg HC, I never had nausea in the evenings at all. So at least the HC had at least one benefit for me. But now that I'm down to 2.5 mg now, in the evenings it gets to the point where I'm almost vomitting, and I have to take ginger, but even that doesn't work all the time. I think that the 2.5 mg HC is not enough to push my very low cortisol up in the evenings. It's funny, if I hear someone make a loud noise or someone even speaks to me in the evening when my cortisol is low, the minor stress of that makes me feel instantly sick to my stomache. However, I'm still planning on weaning off of the HC completely.

I'm trying to replace the evening HC with herbs or things like an adrenal glandular or isocort. I can't take licorice because it gives me a migraine that lasts till the next day. I've taken licorice after 1 gram of HC in the evenings for the low cortisol and it worked very well... I wasn't tired and I didn't have the regular nausea at all. I felt like I had a normal person's energy. I tried a "raw adrenal glandular" yesterday in the evening, and had very little if any nausea, and no tiredness.

Question: which is better to take for low cortisol, an adrenal glandular or isocort? Has anyone had problems with adrenal glandulars? I don't have any isocort, but am planning to order it soon to help me through the evenings.

Another question: Has ginger ever stopped working for anyone? I've had paradoxical reactions to many things (vit C, valerian, etc) and the last thing I need at this point is for the ginger to not work anymore, which I think is happening.