I want to update you guys with where I am at now. TSW has been hell, my last 3 years using no steroids was the hardest time of my life. But I do not regret the suffering one bit. I learned a lot from it and came more in touch with my body then ever before. The Summer of 2017 was actually not that bad, as long as I was getting sunlight. But once Winter hit around November I was in bad shape again. As mentioned in my last post. And as a result I encountered the devil (steroids) again! But after doing some research I decided micro dosing on the devil might be an option. Let me explain.
I decided to do some research on exactly how much steroids I was on, compared to how much your body should naturally produce. What I ended up finding is that a normal health body should produce 40 mg a day or more of hydrocortisone. Note hydrocortisone is different then pednisone. Prednisone is 4 time stronger then hydrocrotisone and there are many other more potent versions of the steroid/ hormone as you can see on this corticosteroid calculator http://clincalc.com/corticosteroids/.
According to this article some people produce up to 200mg a day hydrocortisone. Now remember, hydrocortisone is the same hormone as the stress reducing cortisol hormone our bodies naturally produces to fight inflammation, but hydrocortisone is the synthetically man made version used for medication . And it is said, taking over 40mg of a day of hydrocortisone can result in damage to the adrenal glands. As stated in this quote from this site: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/adrenal-info/faq
"How much cortisol does the body normally produce? In doctor Peatfield’s book, he says “The natural output of hydrocortisone is actually variable and may be as much as 200 mg. daily under stress and 40 – 60 mg. in a normal resting state. Obviously then, a dose significantly greater than 40 mg. daily will tend to take over the adrenal production of cortisone, and the adrenals could shut down completely. It must be said at once, so long as this suppression doesn’t last too long, the adrenals will pick themselves up again, and restart producing the necessary cortisone for themselves as before.” Thyroid patients who need ACE or HC doesn’t normally get that high, though."
Ok. This is important! Going over 40mg a day can result in damage to the adrenals. And in theory, you should not take more then 10mg hydrocortisone a day to be safe.
So lets set the daily limit to 10mg hydrocortisone a day just to be on the super safe side...
So how much each steroid should last you if you stayed on the super safe side of 10mg of hydrocortisone a day? Lets do the math!
Here is a corticosteroid calculator that is really helpful and everyone should know about! http://clincalc.com/corticosteroids/
- 1 20 mg pill of prednisone
- 1 mg prednisone = 4mg hydrocortisone
- So 20mg prednisone = 80 mg of hydrocortisone.
- 80mg / 10mg daily safety limit = 8
- One 20mg pill should last you 8 days if you follow the safety limit.
- Note the doctor prescribed me 60mg per day of prednisone! Which is ludicrous because that 60mg is like 1 month of steroids if you follow my safety limit...
- 1% hydrocortisone cream - 1 tube 28 grams/ 1oz
- 1% hydrocortisone cream means 10mg hydrocortisone per gram of cream.
- It has a 12hr half life. = .5 day half life.
- So one tube has 280 mg of hydrocortisone.
- 280 / 10 mg / day = 28 days * .5 day half life = 14 days.
- 1 Tube should last you 14 days if you follow the safety limit
- .1% triamcinalone - 1 tube 28 grams/ 1oz
- .1% means it contains 1mg hydrocortisone per gram of cream
- Triamcinalone has a 24 hour half life = 1 day half life
- 1mg triamcinalone = 5mg of hydrocortisone
- 1 tube 28 grams/ 1oz of .1% triamcinalone cream = 28 mg triamcinalone * 5 = 140 mg of hydrocortisone
- 140 / 10mg / day = 14
- 1 tube should last you 14 days
- .1% triamcinalone - 1 Jar 454 grams
- .1% means it contains 1mg hydrocortisone per gram of cream
- Triamcinalone has a 24 hour half life = 1 day half life
- 1mg triamcinalone = 5mg of hydrocortisone
- 1 jar contains 454 mg triamcinalone
- 454 mg triamcinalone * 5 = 2270 mg hydrocortisone / 10mg/ day = 228 days
- 1 jar should last you 7 months and 16 days
- betamethasone .1% (super potent!) - 1 small tube 15 grams
- 1mg betamethasone = 25mg hydrocortisone
- betamethasone has a 4 day half life
- 1 small tube contains 15mg betamethasone
- 15mg betamethasone * 25mg hydrocortisone = 375 mg of hydrocortisone in a tube.
- 375mg / 10mg / day = 37.5 * 4 day half life = 150 days
- 1 small tube of betamethasone should last you 5 months...
Now, my hypothesis is this. Cortisol is a natural hormone. And I have come to the realization that my body might be damaged. My adrenal glads simply do not produce enough cortisol resulting in inflammation and damage to the body. So for the winter months I have been taking 2.5mg a day of prednisone to keep me from going crazy. This is the "safe" threshold of what I described up above. And this has helped tremendously, and the side effects have been minimal so far. My daily life has returned to normal. I know I might be damaging my adrenals even more and this has me a little scared... But really 2.5mg is very little. So for now it's a decision I chose to go. Eventually when the Sun returns, I want to try and cut the devil off totally again. But micro dosing has ended my winter depression and I am doing really well. I will not let myself go over 2.5mg a day and if anything I want to switch to 2.5mg every other day starting in the spring, then stopping in the summer.
Thanks for reading,
Happy Healing to you all!
