what would illness do to cortisol results

[SarahB79]

Would a common cold or other infection alter the normal results of a cortisol, alderosterone, thyroid, etc blood test?  If so, how?  Raise or lower normal values?

[SarahB79]

Thanks for the feedback.  Now I am worried my test will again be inaccurate.

My last round of tests were done when I had an antibiotic resistant strain of a staph infection.  This time I was in a hurry to get the tests done before I go to the Cleveland Clinic next week and I had a cold.  I was no longer running a fever on Monday when the test was preformed, but I was still pretty run down.  

Today is the first day that I felt better from my cold but my morning was also back to normal where I woke up exhausted and nauseous. :-(

[enzymelover]

   I think an infection does raise your cortisol level, especially if you have a fever with it. This is why, if you are on replacement med. for cortisol insufficiency, you need to double, or even triple your normal dose when you have an infection - because your body needs the extra cortisol to help deal with the immune reaction to the infection.
I don't know if you would see a change in thyroid levels due to a cold or virus, especially if it's a short term infection, since blood thyroid levels don't alter as quickly as cortisol can. However, if cortisol is sharply raised for a period of a few days or longer, I would think this could lower blood thyroxine.

I love these kinds of questions. I can almost feel my brain neurons jumping as I'm thinking this through!  ( Or is it a hamster running in a wheel?)  :)