BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health What are the names of the tests to check Adrenals?

Jim, I just read your article on Adrenal fatigue. What tests should be given to test my adrenals? (I see my endo. June 16th) I have walked into a few pharmacies and asked for Saliva Test kits and they look at me like I am nuts! Do these have to be purchased online?

Much thanks,
Stacie

Stacie,

It could be that the saliva adrenal kits are available more in some states than others. The kind pharmacies will carry are the "ZRT Labs" brand. My pharmacy provides them and even gets the results in and calls me to go over them.
Your Dr. will likely want to run an "ACTH Stimulation" test on you, which is good for ruling out full blown adrenal insufficiency but it won't diagnose mild forms (sub-clinical). Some Dr.s do not believe in milder forms (adrenal fatigue), so will not recommend tests other than the one for full-blown (Addison's Disease).
Here is a link directly to ZRT's products. They have a large number of Doctors ordering these tests from them, so there are those out there who do recognize adrenal fatigue.
Link>> www.salivatest.com

There are simpler test kits that test your morning and midnight cortisol/DHEA levels, made by GSMDL, Inc., another approved blood and saliva labin the U.S.. There brand is called "BadyBalance StressCheck".
Here's the link to an online company who offers these:

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Look forward to checking this stuff out, Jim. Thanks so much!
Stacie

You're welcome Stacie.

I wanted to add another source, plus was needing to test our upgraded forum.
I found a really good brief overview about adrenal fatigue, published by a 22 year pharmacy in Lakewood Colorado.
Here's one sentence from the article and below that is the link to the full article:

"Intense or prolonged physical or emotional stress commonly associated with modern lifestyles or chronic illness can lead to Adrenal Fatigue, which is an important contributing factor in health conditions ranging from allergies to obesity."

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Wow, that would be me....prolonged physical/emotional stress!! Thanks Jim. I wish my endo would get on the ball, and test my adrenals, the labs I am doing next for him are just thyroid stuff.....as always.

Saw my endo. yesterday afternoon....actually, I only saw his nurse asst. & asked for adrenals to be checked out. She only wrote A.M. cortisol on my next lab slip.....??

Sometimes they test the A.M. level because your cortisol peaks in the morning a few minutes upon waking and stays geberally at the higher level for a couple of hours. They feel if that level is low, this indicates that it remains low throughout the day.
I would ask for a copy of that lab result because some Dr.s are sticklers for lab ranges. If they see a low-normal or borderline low reading, they pronounce it as "normal", the same as some Dr.s calling a TSH result of 4.99 normal when a lab range has 5.0 as the upper normal cut off value.
If you get that result and can post it with the reference range, that would be interesting to look at and possibly comment on, from non-professional, fellow-patient opinion.

I will Jim, I ALWAYS get copies of my labs, and will let you know. I got to go off the PTU and Atenolol (started it March 28, 2008) My T4 Free was in range at 1.1, and my TSH rose to 0.02 although I know that is still considered "suppressed" or low. They told me to just watch myself & call if I feel like I start going HYPER again. They also mentioned RAI as my ONLY option...they don't know me very well yet! Why would they want to do RAI after such a short stint on the ATD's? I have read you can go into remission after 1-2 years on them. (Don't know how accurate that is) My next question would be, is it typical to go from Hashimoto's to Graves as I have? What do I put on my emergency medical form?? It's confusing when you fluctuate from hypo to hyper, etc. what diagnosis do you go with to explain your condition?? Autoimmune thyroiditis?? THANKS! :-)

I have "heard" it is typical for some of us to go from Hashimoto's to Graves as I have, but what do I put on my emergency medical form?? I had Hashimotos, and now have Graves.....I saw my endo 2 days ago, and was taken OFF PTU after 2 months because I leveled out again. ....I have moments during the day when I can feel very woozy, weird, just ill....I'm not enjoying it, and now understand why people decide they just want their thyroid killed off...I hate to do that because it is such an important gland. It's confusing when you fluctuate from hypo to hyper, etc. What diagnosis do I use to explain my condition?? Autoimmune thyroiditis?? THANKS! :-)