Cortisol, Adrenals insufficiency, Hydrocortisone, Pain

The Natural Pain Reliever They Don’t Want You to Know About

By Owen Fonorow Copyright 2019

The number of people who experience chronic pain in their daily lives increases as the population ages. This pain equals profit for the drug industry, which sells an astounding number of pain-relieving drugs such as Tylenol® or the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin. What most people don’t know is that most of this pain and suffering is caused because our bodies are making a reduced amount of a natural hormone. This hormone is essential; without it humans can only live a day or two.

Many people, and most doctors, do not know that a simple and natural bioidentical hormone replacement would relieve the pain in millions of people who experience symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, asthma, polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), and other conditions mislabeled as “autoimmune” diseases. This kind of hormone replacement would relieve the pain from any disorder with symptoms caused by inflammation.

Small so-called physiological dosages of this natural hormone have been clinically effective in treating other conditions such as chronic allergies, various autoimmune disorders, ovarian dysfunction and infertility, gonadal dysfunction, allergic rhinitis, hyperthyroidism and diffuse goiter, chronic thyroiditis and diabetes mellitus, functional hypoglycemia, hirsutism, acne, and chronic cystic mastitis.

Taking this hormone is surprisingly safe, despite the fact that most medical doctors will tell you it is the most dangerous drug that they can prescribe. Unlike Tylenol®, which sends thousands to emergency rooms with liver failure caused by glutathione depletion every year, or aspirin, which damages tissues in the stomach causing ulcer-like lesions, there are no adverse side effects at safe physiological dosages of this natural adrenal-produced pain-relieving hormone.

There is a deliberate campaign to steer doctors away from prescribing the hormone. Like vitamin C, this essential hormone is inexpensive and threatens the profits of the drug industry. This hormone is one of several produced in every human body by the adrenal glands. Its discovery in 1949 garnered a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the Mayo Clinic in 1950. The hormone? Cortisol, the natural steroidal anti-inflammatory.

Author’s

Experience

with Addison’s Disease

During the summer of 2012, about one year after my brother and business partner Mike Till, Sr. died, I developed a pain in my back and a shortness of breath that persisted. When I finally saw a doctor, the physician suggested that I go to the emergency room. I was admitted for very low blood pressure. From an ultrasound, they determined that I had fluid in the pericardium, a sac that surrounds the heart. This fluid made it harder for my heart to beat. After an immediate surgical procedure to drain the fluid, I remained in intensive care for ten days. A team of specialists tried to determine what was wrong. These experts suspected that I had a serious infection, but they could not culture any organism.

Before this episode, I had waited too long before seeing the doctor. I tolerated the pain in my back and shortness of breath. Next, around thirty days after I was discharged from the hospital, the same symptoms appeared again and this time I immediately went to the ER. I was put into intensive care while another team of five specialists tried to figure out what was wrong, again suspecting that I had an infection. No infection was cultured; and because I had no idea what was wrong with me, I began documenting this experience at the Vitamin C Foundation’s online forum.

After the second ten-day stint in intensive care during the span of two months, with no infection cultured or real diagnosis, one of the more brilliant specialists recommended high-powered IV steroids. Completely ignorant of steroids and cortisol, I resisted and asked my primary care doctor for intravenous vitamin C (IV/C) instead. Without apparent options, she ordered the IV/C at the hospital. However, as Dr. Levy points out in his book Primal Panacea, no hospital in the United States at that time used intravenous vitamin C. In my case, the pharmacy wasn’t equipped to supply IV/C, so I never received the vitamin C intravenously at the hospital. I did receive the IV/steroids and was discharged.*Barb, please put this footnote (at article’s end) at the bottom of the page. Thanks.

My then primary care doctor prescribed a methyl-prednisolone steroid pack after the second hospitalization. She hoped that these steroids might help keep me out of the hospital for a third time. Like everybody else, I was afraid to take steroids and set them aside in favor of IV/C.

Outside the hospital, I began a series of intravenous vitamin C infusions that may have reached 200 grams per session. I hoped and believed that these infusions could cure whatever was ailing me; however, vitamin C could not cure my inability to make a necessary hormone. My ailment, general, body-wide pain, and malaise resembling rheumatoid arthritis was not caused by an infection after all. Later I learned that the hormone that I wasn’t making enough of is the steroidal anti-inflammatory cortisol.

Part of the fear of this hormone is that like cholesterol, vitamin D, and other similar substances formed out of cholesterol, this adrenal hormone happens to have a specific chemical configuration that makes it a steroid.

The intravenous vitamin C provided temporary (several hours of relief) but was not a cure. Desperate, with ever-increasing pain all over my body, I began taking the methyl-prednisolone prescription that my primary care physician had given me. These tiny pills worked quickly. I started taking 8 mg of methyl-prednisolone (that I now realize is a concentrated form of cortisol, a drug on the order of prednisone) and felt cured; at least for 24 hours, so long as I continued the daily pills.

I began reading about cortisol after realizing that my extended hospital stays were the result of my body’s failure to make cortisol and that steroid pills quickly cured what was wrong with me. Many authors characterize cortisol as the “stress” hormone, which it is because under stress we need and produce more, but usually “health” books depict cortisol as generally bad for us. Most books on cortisol detail the “scary” effects of stress or taking too much.

Eventually, I read Safe Uses of Cortisol (3rd edition) by William McK. Jefferies, MD, and the proverbial light bulb went on. Not only did I need cortisol, the right bio-identical form, but it was far from harmful at the correct dosages. My cortisol deficiency is something like an insulin deficiency in the diabetic. I learned that the 8 mg of the methylprednisolone that I was prescribed was almost a total replacement dosage, as if my adrenal function had completely shut down.

Jefferies’ book begins, “Cortisol is the only essential hormone.” We humans can live without every other hormone for long periods. However, if we are completely deprived of cortisol, even for a single day, we suffer and then die a painful death. The only ways to die faster are from trauma, heart attack, or suffocation (lack of oxygen). We can live as long as seven to 10 days without water, perhaps two to four weeks without food. Without vitamin C we would die of scurvy in about a month.

This means that all of us are making some cortisol. (Or like me, we are supplementing it daily.) Production of cortisol varies and blood levels are higher after we wake up and during the day and begin to lower during the afternoon with the lowest levels during sleep. However, if our adrenal glands are not able to make a sufficient supply, the result is pain. Ever-increasing pain occurs in the tissues that are deprived of our natural steroidal anti-inflammatory.

“That cortisone and cortisol are normal hormones of the adrenal cortex implies that in physiologic dosages they must be safe,” wrote Dr. Jefferies. In his book, he focuses the discussion on the bio-identical version of cortisol, i.e., hydrocortisone. (The dosage of hydrocortisone is different from its drug counterparts. The bioidentical hydrocortisone replacement dosage is something like 4 to 5 times the 8 mg methyl-prednisolone, or 35 to 40 mg.) Most doctors are unfamiliar with the hydrocortisone, and are more familiar with the more toxic steroids, such as prednisone and methyl-prednisolone. Fortunately, hydrocortisone is what the endocrinologist who finally diagnosed my adrenal insufficiency prescribes.

I also learned that today’s doctors are misinformed. They are taught and firmly believe that cortisol analogs, the so-called glucocorticoids (e.g., cortisol, hydrocortisone, prednisone, and methyl-prednisolone) are the most dangerous drugs in their medicinal arsenal. This may be true for the drug analogs, the prednisone, in my opinion, this fear is completely unfounded when prescribing the correct dosages of hydrocortisone. Every cell in the body expects and relies on cortisol. Yet, before my correct diagnosis, it was almost impossible to get a long-term prescription for a natural hormone that kept me out of a wheelchair and that as an Addison’s patient, I attribute to saving my life.

My mother spent most of her life in pain after she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Her search for pain relief led her to Linus Pauling’s book on vitamin C. The adrenal glands also have among the highest concentrations of vitamin C of any tissues in the human body. Sometimes vitamin C can wake up the adrenals, and thus persons supplementing vitamin C experience pain relief simply by taking high-dose vitamin C. (One theory as to why vitamin C may have such a profound effect on the common cold is that higher dosages allow the adrenals to make more cortisol.) For my mother, vitamin C was the only substance that helped mitigate her pain, except for one cortisone shot she received at the Mayo Clinic circa 1974. Had my mother known what I now know, her life would have been pain free, and I would probably know nothing about vitamin C.

From these experiences, I began to understand that most of the chronic pain suffered by humanity is because of too low levels of cortisol in the blood caused by an adrenal or brain malfunction.

Does Cortisol Harm or Enhance Immunity?

“We now know that the influenza virus attacks the human body by impairing the production of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which, in turn, impairs the production of cortisol, the only hormone that is absolutely essential for life,” William McK. Jefferies, MD, Safe Uses of Cortisol.

Medical doctors are taught to be cautious of prescribing cortisol-like steroids because of their negative effect on immunity. This wrong interpretation of the literature is yet another illustration of how medical doctors are steered away from a lower-cost alternative to newer, more expensive prescription drugs. World-expert endocrinologist William McK. Jefferies, MD, wrote:

Concern regarding the occurrence of respiratory illness in such patients was enhanced by the knowledge that large doses of glucocorticoids (prednisone, hydrocortisone, etc.) could impair resistance to infection while masking the symptoms.

It was, therefore, a finding of some surprise and considerable relief that years passed with patients consistently reporting that they had either no common cold or only very mild attacks. Most of these patients had no symptoms even suggestive of such disorders; but when symptoms did occur, a prompt increase in the replacement dosage of glucocorticoid was often followed by a disappearance of the symptoms with recurrence when the dosage was returned to maintenance levels. During this time, other members of the patient’s families seemed to have the usual quota of respiratory illnesses, so the absence of such illness in the patients could not be attributed to lack of exposure to the viruses.

An additional reassuring observation was that when patients with adrenal insufficiency developed respiratory infections, the increase in dosage of replacement glucocorticoid did not cause an increase in complicating bacterial infections such as sinusitis or bronchitis, and unless a bacterial complication developed, antibiotic therapy was not necessary. (Jefferies 2004, p. 127-128)

The possibility that cortisol might enhance resistance to infection was so contrary to the well-known effect of its impairment that it was initially considered with skepticism. Yet, Jefferies’ review of the medical literature revealed an impressive amount of evidence that physiological amounts of glucocorticoid (e.g., cortisol) can have a protective effect against infection.

What Cured My GERD?

Postulate: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD, commonly known as heart- burn is caused or magnified by low cortisol levels in the blood and tissues.

Recently, I missed a couple of my hydrocortison dosages and woke up unable to walk or hardly move. I suffered a massive lung “infection” that resulted in my again investigating a major hospital from the inside. Diagnosed with sepsis, kidney failure, and low blood pressure, this time (March 2017) the doctors knew exactly what to do. They gave me lots of IV steroids. I was only in intensive care one night.

The next day, after they switched me to a regular room, the cortisol was accidentally dropped from my chart. The first symptom I experienced was heartburn; meaning that my GERD had returned. Later, with generalized pain, I started to question whether I was getting the cortisol. It turned out that I wasn’t. This experience reinforced my theories and educated me on how it feels when I am not getting enough of this hormone. It is not a pleasant feeling, but it is one experienced daily by millions of older Americans.

I have had similar experiences after lowering my cortisol dose for one reason or another. One time, pain started in the fingers, with typical rheumatoid arthritis-like pain, all because I missed 3 mg of the methylprednisolone I was then taking. It took seven days of normal dosing for the pain and inflammation to subside. I should also point out that this delayed response issue doesn’t seem to be a problem for the bio-identical hydrocortisone, which works in 30 minutes, and remains in the blood for six hours. A brother-in-law has had chronic heartburn or GERD for years. We were discussing it over dinner. It was then that I realized that my own esophagus had recently healed, and I no longer had chronic GERD pain. It causes me anger to think of all the people (including my late mother) who had no idea that medical science had discovered exactly what causes and how to stop the chronic pain: simple, natural hormone replacement. With this angst off my chest, the following is a copy of the letter that I sent my brother-in-law. I include it in hopes others suffering heartburn and GERD might find it helpful.

Dear brother-in-law,

I could tell that you are still suffering from “heartburn”/GERD, and I know from experience it is torture. Let’s review how I cured mine. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I now sleep through the night without any heartburn.

There are two valves or sphincters in the stomach, one to the connection to the intestines, where digested food is supposed to go, and the other at the top of the stomach, connected to the throat/esophagus.

It is the upper sphincter on top of the stomach that causes the problem. It is supposed to keep the acid contents of the stomach, in the stomach.

The stomach is designed for high acid, but the throat/esophagus is not. If stomach contents back up from the stomach through the open sphincter into the esophagus, it will burn and damage the throat. This is the cause of the pain. And “they” are right in the commercials, in that this must be allowed to heal.

The book entitled Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You by Jonathan Wright and Lane Lenard explains why, surprisingly, low stomach acid often causes GERD because of poor digestion. The fix, if this is the case, is to take stomach acid (betaine HCL) with meals. Not intuitive, so read the book. Taking antacids interferes with digestion and turns the problem into a chronic condition.

What seems to happen when the stomach acid is low, is that the upper sphincter muscle relaxes. (This may be why the vinegar fix seems to work; the acid causes the sphincter to tighten. The only problem is, if the throat is already raw and inflamed, this will cause even more pain. A slice of cheese is a good substitute for the vinegar.)

The other thing I learned is that the stomach completely empties six hours after a meal, and when it empties, as the lower sphincter relaxes and opens, the upper sphincter may open too, especially if you are lying down. (You’ll note the maximum pain and discomfort, like clockwork, is six hours after your last meal at night).

One idea that is not always easy is to eat more than six hours before going to bed and lying down so that you are upright when the stomach empties into the intestines. Barring that, don’t lie flat six hours after the night meal. When I felt the pain at night, I would immediately sit up for a while; or if I lied down, I used enough pillows so I was at a 45-degree angle. This allowed gravity to help drain the stomach from the bottom sphincter.

I know that the throat/esophagus can heal, because mine has, and I now get through the night without any pain; especially if we eat early. But it can take some time, and while it is healing, you have to avoid spicy/acid foods. In fact, instead of taking ascorbic acid vitamin C (a mild acid) I switched to sodium ascorbate vitamin C, which is non-acidic.

Try avoiding acid/irritants going down, and the stomach contents from coming up. You do this by keeping the sphincter tight, and proper acid in the stomach seems to be key to keeping the sphincter tight, unless there is something else going on. (If you remember our friend C., she had a huge hiatal hernia, which was surgically repaired, and now she feels great.)

One other factor in the healing may be due to the low dose prednisone (cortisol replacement) I have been taking (ever since I figured out that low cortisol production by my adrenals caused all those hospitalizations a few years back ). It turns out that if you aren’t making any cortisol, you die in 24-48 hours, so everyone has to be making some. It is not widely recognized, especially by medical doctors, that as we age, like other hormones, we can make less cortisol, leading to inflammation and pain.

Cortisol is the steroidal anti-inflammatory (where aspirin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory: NSAID ). Cortisol stops and controls inflammation. Since the GERD pain is from inflammation of the esophagus, the reason mine cleared up may have something to do with restoring my cortisol levels to normal. It is something you could mention to your doctor, because a short course of prednisone during the attempt to heal the throat may make it go faster and easier.

Saliva Testing

Cortisol levels in the blood vary throughout the day, rising from a low in the early morning to the highest level in mid-afternoon. Blood tests can be used to monitor the varying levels, but having blood drawn throughout the day is challenging outside of a hospital setting. In my experience, all-day saliva testing is as accurate as blood testing (although most medical doctors are taught the opposite– that hormone testing from saliva is unreliable.) A “ZRT” day-long series of saliva samples showed my endogenous cortisol levels to be 20% below the “low” on their assay. This lab result explained the replacement hydrocortisone dose that I required at that time to move my blood cortisol into the middle of the normal range. These tests are available online and do not require a prescription from a doctor. If you suspect that your pain is due to low levels of endogenous cortisol, you can easily find out. If your own cortisol is inadequate, the problem will then become finding a medical doctor who will be willing to act on your lab result.

A Final Thought

There would be much less pain and suffering in the world if medical doctors read William McK. Jefferies, MD’s book, Safe Uses of Cortisol (3^rd edition; 2004), now available electronically online.

Vitamin C is a threat to the profitability of medicine. It is available without prescription, so medical doctors are deliberately made ignorant. They are not informed about any of the existing research or made aware of this essential substance’s medical potential.

Cortisol is different only because obtaining it requires a prescription. It is also essential and poses a threat to the profitability of the drug industry, particularly the over-the-counter pain reliever industry. Even though cortisol (as hydrocortisone) is a natural, bioidentical hormone, it is only available through medical doctors. (The FDA does allow hydrocortisone topically as a 1% [to 2%] cream.) In my opinion, medical doctors have been deliberately misinformed about the supposed dangers of steroids because a lack of cortisol in the human body creates a huge number of doctor visits.

Footnote:

* Dr. Levy had warned me of the possibility of retribution if I asked the hospital for IV/C. And in fact, my primary care doctor, the one who ordered the IV/C, was let go from her practice about two months later.