Addison's Disease & Shortness of Breath

Hi all -

I'm curious as to how many others who have Addison's or other type of adrenal insufficiency also experience shortness of breath.  It's rarely (if ever) listed as a symptom of adrenal insufficiency, but it's been a persistent problem for me - most notably when my cortisol level is low (e.g. if I have a fever/infection but haven't stress dosed yet, if I'm tapering from a stress dose, etc.)  

I have Schmidt's Syndrome - I've been a Type I Diabetic for 21 years, and I was just diagnosed in February with Addison's and Hashimoto's Diseases.  Since going on hydrocortisone, my weight has increased dramatically - going from 170lbs around March 1st to 200lbs this month.  To try to quell this, we're slightly cutting back my hydrocortisone dosage, and I also just started taking DHEA (levels were low in my labs).  This may help to at least stop the weight GAIN, but I believe the lower hydrocortisone dose is leading to more persistent shortness of breath over the last few days.  Needless to say, it's frustrating, as are so many things when trying to manually balance the very delicate endocrine system!

Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone who has experienced similar symptoms with Addison's or other adrenal insufficiency, how you've dealt with it, etc.  

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[enzymelover]

  My son has secondary adrenal insufficiency, due to a pituitary tumor that caused severe hypopituitarism, including low ACTH, as well as low TSH, LH, and GH. (The tumor was removed last Oct. He also has shortness of breath, even though he has been on Thyroxine and hydrocortisone (now on dexamethasone instead) for 3 years.

Since his diagnosis and symptoms involve the pituitary, he has never had a DHEA level, or even aldosterone, T3, and other related hormones. I think the docs expect his adrenals and thyroid to be okay, because they should only be reacting to the low pit. hormone signaling.
But I'm not so sure. I think he may have adrenal atrophy, as he has severe orthostatic intolerance (he can't stand up for more than 1 minute, without getting weak and dizzy, and this has been going on 18 months) and shortness of breath and tachycardia whenever he moves more than a few feet. Also when he laughs, he gets short of breath. He has also gained a lot of weight on the hips and stomach, even though he isn't eating much. He is only 14.

The docs don't really help much with this. I told them he has dysautonomia, and they agreed, but don't know what to do about it, except to suggest I take him 2000 miles to an autonomic dysfunction clinic!

I am still trying to figure this all out myself. We just saw a cardiologist who didn't even examine him (other than listening to his heart). His pituitary medical history always stops the docs we go to from looking much further. He doesn't seem to have any heart abnormality anyway, so that's good.

I think it all has to do with impaired cellular metabolism and cellular oxidative stress. I've gone over all of my son's tests again, and found much research to support this idea. So now I just have to figure out how to get enough glutathione and other antioxidants into him to do him some good. It's not easily correctable, but I know now what direction we need to go in. No wonder the docs were scratching their heads. This is a problem for a metabolic specialist involved with cellular medicine.

Of course, your problem may not be the same as my son's, but I'll bet you need glutathione also.

Enzy

[scrappinnickers]

I too as well have been suffering from Smidts Syndrome.  I was diganosed three years ago after suddenly becoming very ill.  I had a severe case and spent a week in the ICU and nearly loss my life.  Since then it has been a very hard struggle for me, I am always sick, something always hurts and I feel like its never going to get better, they just push more drugs on me.  I am currently on 200mg of steroids a day, at this rate I am gaining 10lbs per week.  I feel as if there are no answers and have no one to turn to...

[rumpled]

You are gaining due to the high amount of steroids. The doctors need to wean you down as you now have steroid induced Cushing's syndrome from the corticosteroids. Steroids have to be balanced - too much and too little are bad and both ends effect the immune system.

Are you seeing an endocrinologist? Are you on thyroid meds as well? Florinef?