Jean-Claude, I'm not sure who you're addressing with this reply, since it includes quotes from both me and Siobhan but... My Addison/paleo story very briefly (hah!) goes like this: During my 13 years as a vegan (1984-1997), I endured a bowel perforation, 15-inch removal and resection and peritonitis (1991--I lived, obviously). Add to that undiagnosed and untreated Crohn's Disease (aggrivated by my high-carbo grain-based diet), among many other maladies like chronic pain and candidiasis. Four years ago to the month (I was only 36), my physical and hormonal state declined rapidly within six months. I was down to 95 lbs. from my normal 125 (I'm 5'6".)--I looked like a wraith with those sunken, dehydrated, dark-circle eyes. Chronic fatigue and pain left me unable to produce my artwork and run my business. Uninsured, I didn't care to put myself through the conventional medical system, so I researched alternatives. With no results from supplements, I changed my diet, albeit very slowly. The nutritionist I was working with didn't have the knowledge to fully interpret many of the tests we tried, but Crohn's and adrenal problems peeked through in things like low sodium and high BUN levels, high mononcyte and erythrocyte counts, anemia, low white counts, numerous food allergies, and of course, the overwhelming evidence of symtoms (like salt cravings, BP's 90/56, just to mention a few). Allergic food elimination and adding animal protien helped somewhat, but the fatigue remained, especially with any exercise. (I've been very physically active all my life. I normally hiked a rugged mountain trail for 3 miles before putting in 8 hours in my home workshop each day.) At one of my prolonged low points (1997-1998), I could force myself up a short slope and back, but then I'd be exhausted for a week or two. Last spring, after trying to reintroduce rice to help gain weight back (silly me!)--the only grain I was able to eat for a few years--it did more harm than good. So I've been strictly paleo since. But I did not improve much, nor did my appetite. I started with a good holistic MD last summer. He immediately wanted to put me on hydrocortisone, but (silly me again) I resisted and stuck with adrenal glandulars and thyroid treatment (My body temperature was around 96.7 degrees F.) I showed a little improvement. So, on one of those "good days" this February (2000), I took a fateful hike. It was a four-miler, with 15 lbs. of photography equipment on my back. To make an already long story short (?:-), I made it home. Dizzy, incredible back pain, barely able to get up and empty an always-full bladder, guzzling water and salty broths for a week, I called my MD. They couldn't give me an appointment for 6 weeks! He called in a script and I gladly started on 20mg./day hydrocortisone. After 3 weeks I was able to drag myself to the allopathic osteopath that the state pays for, just to see if he could do something for my severe back inflammation while I waited to go to my holistic MD. That was useless. I finally got to my doc and he saw how horrible I looked. He okayed me to try a higher dose of hydrocort. I showed improvement on 40mg. and was going to try 60mg. with a short hike. But that same day (late May 2000), I ended up in the hospital emergency room for a Crohn's emergency (partial intestinal blockage, dehydration) and was subsequently put on 125mg. solu-cortef, IV. WOW! Did I ever wake up after 4 years of chronic fatigue!!! So, tapering down on the hydrocort and experimenting with higher doses and exercise since then has only affirmed what my doc and I now believe to be Addison's. That fateful February hike episode was about as close to an Addisonian Crisis as I could get without being taken in for an emergency. I was lucky to have made it out of the Quebec Run Wild Area, because there was nobody else around for miles. Until we get the Crohn's under control (the allopathic treatment for that usually starts at 40-60mg. prednisone), it looks like 30mg. hydrocort will just barely keep me on my feet. I hope to reduce it some time in the next year. DHEA and pregnenolone are working nicely, especially for motivation, creativity, memory, muscle strength and libido (wanna come back to my place, nudge, nudge?;-) I'm also up to 116 lbs., after not being able to get past 106lbs. on a paleo diet of 1 1/2 lbs. of fatty meats/day, with some much-needed hydration. I'm not on Florinef yet, as my water loss seems to be cyclic. When I start to lose too much water, get constipated, or my BP drops, I increase my salt intake. I had a mild dehydration episode a few weeks ago, where it was very warm and humid and I just couldn't hold onto water no matter how much salt I ate. Ended up with abdominal cramping from Crohn's/IBS. So, Florinef may be in my future--don't know yet. I'm hoping pregnenolone might take care of that, as well as helping to reduce the hydrocort. Energy increases I have are cyclic also. I learned that progesterone can be converted to cortisol, and that certainly explained why I would perk up little during that premenstrual time. Well, at least I know the ovaries still work somewhat! So, although it's never been determined what % of my adrenals are kaput, my doc has DXed me with adrenal insufficiency, and I wholeheartedly concur. Is there some way to determine the adrenal output without weaning off cortef and risking a crisis? Pooped out just from writing this long-winded thing, Lois Lois wrote: I've been unable to locate any "alternative Addisonians" either (other >than you, of course). Are there more of us around somewhere? Siobhan wrote: >I have never accepted pharmaceutical drugs for Addison's and have not done >*any* pharmaceutical drugs for about 12 years now. May be we don't talk about the same thing !. I have been told that To be diagnosed with addison disease you need to reach a point where 90 percent of the cortex of the gland has been destroyed. You need to be close to , or in an addison crisis .( that can be fatal if not treated ) With less than 90 percent of the glands ,it is still possible for more than the 10 percent left to produce enough cortisone to function. so apparently you never reach that point or did you go into crisis.? did you or Do you have to take adrenal extract to function or can you produce enough of your own cortisone? if i could start all over again, knowing now what is the consequence of starting cortisone replacement ( complete shut down of the cortex of the gland ,osteoporosis etc...) and knowing better now how to deal with stress i will not start the therapy so blindly. There is many thing that could be done before that. There is one young woman in our local addison disease support group who is a chinese doctor when she got diagnosed with addison she felt obliged to start the therapy despite her resistance to it . She manage now one year latter, to stay on a very low dosage ( little bit more than half normal ) and use many chinese herbs to help. There is a naturopathic doctor close to here who have ben diagnosed too and despite all the research for alternative that he did, he had to take the full dosage of cortisone My self i started the process to reduce below the minimum dosage ( 20 mg cortef) and manage for months with 17.5 only .I think eating lot of animals products helped me to do that on top of the emotional work that i am doing. jean-claude