McPhee Family wrote:
capturing this. Person reports feeling overly anxious about all she has
Hi,
A LOT - nearly all - of this is pure typical cushing's syndrome -
namely high cortisol probably from tumours (unless she is on high
prednisone). It damages the thymus and is VERY hard to work with in
homeopathy. (Obviously I can't make a diagnosis here - but I manage a
cushings email support list and the symptoms stick me in the eye.....)
If it helps, I can suggest based on the couple hundred cases on my list,
which symptoms are less universal cushings symptoms and more individual
specific ones here. I think the more individual ones would be most
relevant towards important rubrics - and that a general view of this may
help you in finding out more of what you need for the case:
McPhee Family wrote:
to do
typical for all cushings sufferers - and it is an intense anxiety - can
be overwhelming (without understanding why it is even there)
.....this response is individual, the not doing anything - though a
fear-paralysis is typical.
A problem is that with high cortisol if one DOES do anything the
syndrome gets worse fast, as cortisol is the hormone to get you to run
from the tiger to the cave and doing tasks or any kind of concentration
at all, is no way to achieve that so there is a built in mechanism to
stop it.
Check whether she can read a fiction book - follow a complex movie,
or anything else that takes concentrated time with attention in one
place.... even long phone conversations are hard for many - just a
doorbell ringing (or letter arriving or whatever) can initiate anxiety.
Feeling overwhelmed all the time is typical and aggravates the anxiety.
The person with cushings will FEEL very busy and in truth is trying to
be active and busy but cannot do it and feels bad for accomplishing
"nothing" and does not realize how slow they are at achieving anything.
Initially they may be fired for being slow, but think they were working
flat-out for example. The real reason is a combination of anxiety about
everything (without knowing why) and a lack of energy. Later you see it
is difficult to stand, they are out of breath etc.
She does do *something* - even though it is typical i Cushiongs to think
you get nothing done. The thinking is very negative. Ask her to describe
a typical day in her life - what she DOES do all day - so YOU can get a
feel for it - she won't be able to.
Typical cushings has anxiety about being overwhelmed (and constantly
feels that way) , and anxiety about not completing a to do list - (but
makes it as they WANT to accomplish things) but does not realize how
long a normal thing takes them to do - and they are distracted due to
lack of short term memory and lack of ability to concentrate attention -
so they are side-tracked into doing something other than they had in
mind. Teh7 may sit down to do A and an hour later try to rememebr (after
doing B ) what they sat down to do- rememebr perhaps - and then feel
total frustratioj that they "did nothing" - meaning nothing that was
planned.
Suggest you probe gently to get a better understanding of her feelings
and situation, as she likely has no clear ability to describe it.
All cushings symptoms. Cortisol breaks down muscle and turns it to sugar
- then dumps it as central fat. (1 lb of muscle turns to 5 or 6 lbs fat
and makes the person weak and short of oxygen.) Hence the thin limbs and
big abdomen.
Often there is a fatty hump/lump somewhere on the back as well, skin
tags round the bra line, stretch marks, thinning hair where you want it
- and SOMETIMES hair where you don't want it.
Erica, this looks like classic cushing's syndrome - everything you say
fits it. It's a very serious condition but extremely difficult to
understand as the symptoms are body-wide, hard to explain, and people
who have it may (erroneously) easily be considered fat and lazy.
Not sure if you are interested in a diagnostic confirmation but if so
the "gold standard" test is a 24-hr Urine cortisol measurement. (Saliva
cortisol and spot blood cortisol are useless.)
If confirmed I'd NOT go for the next test the allopaths like -
dexamethozone suppression test - as it aggravates the conditon. They use
it to tell if tumours producing cortisol are from adrenal
(overproduction of cortisol in adrenal gland) or pituitary origin (ACTH
overproduced, which then triggers cortisol) - but you can use O A
Julian's repertory to do that instead - the ACTH proving will fit pit
tumours and the Cortisol proving will fit adrenal cushings. And anyway
the test misses other forms of cushings altogether.
Also know that this disease (if present - it just LOOKS obvious to me)
does body wide damage. For example it raises insulin, causing insulin
resistance and diabetes to follow; it blocks fat metabolism causing
increase in cholesterol production and all that this means; it has a 50%
cancer rate; it changes the thyroid hormones to LOOK normal but the T3
produced is actually not active T4 but reverse T3 - so there are
hypothyroid symptoms with "normal" T3 test results (unless they check
for active - and you get a T3-uptake test which shows HIGH if active T3
is low.); it causes enlarged weak heart and/or angina; and can cause
serious kidney damage. The list of damage from cortisol goes on an on.
This is SMALL sampling of what it does.
So I hope you are not up against such a complex case, but I strongly
suspect it.
And if so - homeopathy is the way to go, but it helps to have the
allopathic tests on what is damaged at each stage and it helps to
pre-empt damage if possible.
Hope this helps somehow.
If you want more info on cushings, please feel fre to join my email
support group list at
cushings-friends@yahoogroups.com
There are discussions on aspects of this illness, the various forms,
issues and on supplements that help.
Supplements and diet are essential elements IMO - to support a simillimum.
Namaste,
IRene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."