AutismWeb Forum

My son's blood cortisol was low and so our DAN has prescribed 5 mg hydrocort. Since it is a corticosteroid, I am a little worried.

Anyone used hydrocortisone or cortef? Please let me know good and bad experiences. Thanks very much!

If it were my child, I would get a second opinion from a pediatrician or a pediatric endocrinologist.

Cortisol can be dealt with in natural ways. I agree, this in my opinion, will make things worse. It is a band-aid and coming off of a steroid will cause rebound inflammation that is worse than the origianl inflammation. Anything that tricks the body is not good for the body. Adrenal's control cortisol. Look into an Adaptogen supplement. cortisol is out of whack because the body is understress and the adrenal's are burnt out and can't do their job because of the chronic infections our kids have.

Jen

Thanks! I agree. Is there a particular adaptogen supplement you recommend?
I have been giving him adrenal glandulars but they don't seem to be helping.

Mom2, I'd like to know which test you did to measure blood cortisol levels as I would also like to do this for my child.

Just reading about this lately, and I think your doctor made a good call. Dr. Sidney Baker and others talk a lot about low cortisol and what a huge difference correcting it can make. The 5 mg. dose you are doing is what they recommend; it is only enough to bump the levels up to where they should be, and is not the same as hydrocortisone treatment that is given to people with things like fibromyalgia--they take much, much more. I think that what they do in their protocol is start with 5 mg and up it to 5 mg up to 3x a day; they then work back to the lowest effective dose. Dr. Baker says this can be one of those "miracle treatments" for people that makes a huge, huge difference in how they are able to function. He discusses it at length in his book, "Detoxification and Healing." He is talking about its use with adults, though.

I have been trying to figure out for myself how to get my doctor to test me and prescribe 5 mg. hydrocortisone for me. I even toyed a bit with topical hydrocortisone, but am not sure how much to use.

IMO, I'd go with the doctor's suggestion and see if it makes a difference. That amount should not do any damage--it is a very low dose. That way you'll know if it makes a big difference or not, and can decide later if you want to try naturals instead or stay with the Rx while you get other things in place.

Kastania, It was just a blood test we used from Quest. It's not very accurate. Better would be to do a saliva cortisol test which measures cortisol 4 times in the day.
Amanda, thanks for this info. I am still hesistant to use hydroxort coz any amts will essentially shut down the adrenals, and may not be good for our kids. Still looking into what to do!