What Addison's Disease Is

What Addison's Disease Is Dr. Travis Stork: You know a lot of email requests from our webpage called “Produce the Doctors” and one in particular was a request from Ellen in Coral Springs, Florida to bring awareness to something called Addison’s disease. So we have Ellen on the phone with us right now. Welcome to the show, Ellen. Ellen: Hi, how are you? Dr. Travis Stork: We’re doing well. Well, you knew something wasn’t quite right with your body. Your doctors couldn’t figure it out and this was many years ago, right? Ellen: Yeah, it was when I was 17, about 30 years ago. Dr. Travis Stork: So tell us your experience with Addison’s. Ellen: Okay well, my blood pressure was really low. My skin kept getting darker and darker and I wasn’t even going in the sun. I kept losing weight. I was nauseous, dizzy, dehydrated. I would faint. I went to several doctors. They thought I have nasal infection or there was something mentally wrong. And about three years later when I couldn’t lift my head, I was vomiting and my blood pressure was so low, I had to be rushed to the hospital. And when I finally got there I was having an adrenal crisis and thank God, they found that out or I wouldn’t be here today. And unfortunately, that’s when most people find out they have Addison’s. Dr. Travis Stork: Well, and you mentioned Addisonian crisis which is truly a dire emergency so you wrote in to ProducetheDoctors.com. Really what goes on here is your adrenal glands which sit on top of your kidneys produce very important hormones. In Addisonian, you're not producing the right amount of hormones in particular usually cortisol. And one of the things is I have to confess is the symptoms, I want to show everyone a graphic here, they’re pretty non-specific, muscle weakness, weight loss, decreased appetite, nausea and vomiting. Like you said, low blood pressure and we had a picture here of darkening of the skin that can happen in people who have Addison’s disease and this was happening with you, right Ellen. Ellen: Yes, I was so dark that I basically changed to different color and they still didn’t know what it was. Dr. Travis Stork: Well and it’s difficult as a doctor things we look out for if you have low blood pressure and you have abnormalities in your sodium and potassium. That can key us in. But what’s interesting Lisa is that hormone replacement can really protect people from all the negative effects of this. Dr. Lisa Masterson: Absolutely, there is different treatments, you know, cortisols and steroids as well so the diagnosis is the most important. Dr. Travis Stork: So Ellen, how has it been for you ever since you’ve been put on replacement therapy? Ellen: Oh, it’s been great. When I went at the hospital they gave me Cortef, and in 24 hours, I was actually walking again and not crawling around and now I'm fine. I just have to take medicines everyday. As long as I take my medicine, if I'm under stress or I'm sick, you have to take extra cortisone and now it’s great. But unfortunately, 30 years later, people are still getting misdiagnosed and I just want to make people aware of it so the doctors will be aware when they go to the ER or when they go to their regular doctor. Dr. Travis Stork: And there are different types of Addison’s disease. There is primary which directly affects your adrenal glands and there is secondary which actually arises essentially in your brain. And what we see very often nowadays with a lot of people taking long-term steroids. Steroids actually suppressed your body’s natural mechanism to produce natural cortisol. Ellen: Right. Dr. Travis Stork: And in those people if they abruptly stop taking steroids they can have one of these crises. Ellen: Oh, definitely. Dr. Travis Stork: And so that’s actually something that people at home if you're on chronic steroid therapy and you abruptly stop taking them, you better believe your blood pressure may go into the tanker and you may experience a true crisis that requires an urgent attention. Dr. Jim Sears: And that can happen after just five days on steroids if you're using it for asthmas, even short terms or just a couple of weeks. If it’s been low in five days you can’t just stop it. You have to taper it very slowly. Dr. Drew Ordon: And the opposite being Cushing’s disease if you have too much going on with your adrenal glands and it’s basically the symptoms in reverse. Dr. Travis Stork: It is. Well, Ellen we thank you so much for your question. And we’re so glad that you're doing well. Ellen: Okay, thank you.