Taylor Mountain

Cutting things out

Due to the economy, a bookkeeping/office management job I had was given to the owner's partner. For a second, I was bummed out and the next second, I felt a huge monkey come off my back. My winter will be much different because of this huge relief of responsibilities. No having this complication in my life made me realize I was taking care of other's responsibilities much more than my own.

This winter will be different. I will be training for Barkley, whether I get in or not. I will get my personal training certification and find a client or not. I'll volunteer at the middle school library. I am so happy with my ranch caretaking jobs and will continue to do them to the best of my abilities. Most importantly, I will be starting on the path toward legitimately getting into the medical field so that I can make a difference in the lives of diagnosed and undiagnosed Addisonian's. I would like to become an endocrinologist but would be happy becoming a Physician's assistant or Nurse Practitioner. This path will take some time to research and make decisions. Perhaps the decisions will be made for me because I might be too old to go to medical school. We will be moving out of Idaho in 2012 when my son graduates from high school. The climate of the potential place and the proximity to a good school will determine where we move. I'm looking forward to getting out of this ice box!

More reinforcement that you need DHEA in your body

Most Addisonian's don't produce adequate amounts of DHEA. Have your doctor test DHEA-S, the stable form of DHEA in your body before and during supplementation. Thanks to Heather N for passing this article on!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159998.php

Hormone Levels Contribute To Stress Resilience 06 Aug 2009 It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an individual's capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters. Dr. Charles A. Morgan III and his colleagues from Yale University and the VA National Center for PTSD have worked closely with collaborators at the Special Forces Underwater Warfare Operations Center to study special operations soldiers enrolled in the military Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC). Dehydroepiandrosterone, or "DHEA" as it is commonly known, is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress. Although medical scientists have known for over a decade that DHEA provides beneficial, anti-stress effects in animals, they did not know until now whether this was also true for humans. The scientists completed psychological and hormone assessments on a group of soldiers the day before they began the month-long CDQC, and immediately after their final pass/fail exam - a highly stressful, nocturnal, underwater navigation exercise. They found that soldiers with more DHEA performed better during the final underwater navigation exam than those with less DHEA. These findings are being published by Elsevier in the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry. Underwater navigation is a task that relies on an area of the brain called the hippocampus that is very sensitive to the negative effects of stress. "Animal studies have shown that DHEA buffers against stress, in part, by modulating receptors in this region of the brain," explained Dr. Morgan. "These findings are important in understanding why and how soldiers may differ in their ability to tolerate stress and also raise the possibility that, in the future, compounds like DHEA might be used to protect military personnel from the negative impact of operational stress." Clearly, additional research is still needed but these findings are a step forward in the quest to help prevent or better treat the symptoms of stress-related disorders that these high-risk individuals experience. Notes: The article is "Relationships Among Plasma Dehydroepiandrosterone and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate, Cortisol, Symptoms of Dissociation, and Objective Performance in Humans Exposed to Underwater Navigation Stress" by Charles A. Morgan III, Ann Rasmusson, Robert H. Pietrzak, Vladimir Coric, and Steven M. Southwick. Authors Morgan, Pietrzak, Coric, and Southwick are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Morgan, Pietrzak, and Southwick are also with the National Center for PTSD, VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut. Rasmusson is from the Department of Psychiatry, Boston University, and the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, in Boston, Massachusetts. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 66, Issue 4 (August 15, 2009), published by Elsevier. Source: Jayne Dawkins Elsevier Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159998.php Main News Category: Anxiety / Stress Also Appears In: Psychology / Psychiatry, Endocrinology, Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions. Save time! Get the latest medical news headlines for your specialist area, in a weekly newsletter e-mail. See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsletters.php for details.

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