Posted by barbaracat on June 23, 2005, at 10:39:46
In reply to Re: Growth hormone levels, posted by Declan on June 23, 2005, at 1:54:57
It absolutely makes sense to me. It's the protocol and the hypothesis I've been following for the past 4 years since I got severely sick with it. It had been building forever it seems but it got to the point where I couldnt' work, drive, walk, and my lifetime mood disorder became severe. This happened right around menopause when all my hormones did a nose-dive. Fibromyalgia occurs primarily in women. Duh! a hormonal connection might be made here.
So, getting them in balance was the first thing, but not so easy if there's a malfunction in the HPA-axis. The hypothalamus needs to be in good shape to signal various brain structures to produce and uptake the various hormones in the proper amounts. A theory goes that structures within the limbic system get clobbered by early constant stress, which I had in a physically abusive childhood. In fact, it's estimated that a good 90% fibromyalgia sufferers are women (hormonal connection) who have had abusive childhoods (HPA connection).
The problem was that supplementing with hormones wasn't working because my hypothalamus and pituitary weren't talking to each other. The hypothalamus depends on the pituitary, which depends on growth hormone and if everything is malfunctioning, no amount of externally supplemented hormones are going to 'stick'.
So, the big piece for me was to get my pituitary functioning so it could be strong enough to cascade the signals down through the HPA-axis, and that's where the human growth hormone shots came in. My IGF-1 test showed a very low level which confirmed that something wasn't right. Since there was so little bulk product to work with, secretogogues were moot, so I started injecting HGH 6 mornings a week. It took about 4 months to feel the difference, both the strength and flexibility that comes directly from HGH, but more importantly, the ability for my hormones to work as they should.
They thyroid is sooooo important to fibro. Most of the symptoms of hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia are identical and I really notice it when my thryoid is malfunctioning. This is one of the reasons I've decided to wean off lithium, since Li can cause increasing damage to the thyroid. I've tried this before and always came running back, but I'm hoping with all my other systems finally running smoothly, this is the time to give it another try.
I'll contact LEF and try to get that article. I'm so glad others are beginning to recognize and treat this condition because it IS REAL and even though there could be many reasons for this syndrome, the HPA-axis one sure makes the most sense to me - and treating it has helped immensely. - Barbara
> Well I've got the actual magazine here, but as you've seen it's not on the website, at least not by typing in "July 2005 Life Extension magazine" to the search engine there. Thought it would be. A pity, it's 6 pages, by Sergey Dzugan. Hormones dealt with were DHEA-S, pregnenelone, total estrogen, progesterone, total testosterone. Here's a quote: "The HPA axis appears to play an important role in fibromyalgia. Both hyperactivity and hypoactivity of the HPA axis have been reported in patients with fibromyalgia. Some scientists have hypothesised that fibromyalgia is caused by an irreversible disturbance of the neuroimmunoendocrinological system. We partially support this hypothesis and believe that fibromyalgia patients have a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system as a result of a hormonal deficiency associated with a loss of sensitivity of cell membranes to hormonal impuses. We do not agree, however, that this condition is irreversible......"
> Very likely, (I hope), this means more to you than it does to me.
> Declan
poster:barbaracat
thread:503930
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050612/msgs/517498.html