IsoCort

IsoCort is a natural therapy for damaged and exhausted adrenal glands that are unable to produce adequate cortisol. Bezwecken, the manufacturer, sells this product primarily to alternative health care providers for resale to their customers. Its main active ingredient is freeze-dried extract from sheep adrenal glands. By various reports, each pellet typically contains around 1.5mg to 2.5mg of cortisol in addition to other ingredients. It is a natural alternative to oral hydrocortisone medication and is simply swallowed much like most dietary supplements.

Before you consider using IsoCort or any other type of therapy for adrenal fatigue, you must do testing to determine your cortisol levels.

We recommend that you run a series of four cortisol saliva tests for the most accurate understanding of your cortisol levels because they vary widely throughout the day in a circadian pattern in which cortisol is typically lowest at bedtime and highest at waking.

Treating a person who suffers from high cortisol levels with a product such as IsoCort will worsen the health problems.

The best use of this product is for those who suffer from consistently low levels of cortisol.

Those people who often have low cortisol levels but sometimes experience high levels may be able to use IsoCort by taking it at times of the day in which their cortisol is consistently low.

Those who suffer from high and low cortisol levels probably should avoid the use of IsoCort. Instead, investigate adaptogens that normalize cortisol levels such as ashwagandha.

People with frequent low cortisol may also benefit from the use of licorice root as it blocks the actions of enzymes that degrade cortisol in the body. This helps the IsoCort and any cortisol the adrenal glands are able to make last longer. It may also help reduce the necessary dosage of IsoCort. Licorice root is considerably less expensive than IsoCort, so it may help to potentiate the effects of replacement cortisol at a small additional cost or, in some cases, even a net savings.

When using cortisol boosting therapies, you should periodically recheck your cortisol levels. As an added safeguard, check your blood pressure and body temperature multiple times per day to monitor for changes.

Adjust your cortisol replacement dosages to keep the levels within normal ranges. For instance, if you find that your formerly low blood pressures and temperatures are rising to normal or even high levels, you may need to reduce your cortisol replacement because your adrenal glands are recovering and are again able to make enough cortisol on their own.

An added caution is that taking too much cortisol can further damage the adrenal glands. This is true of both IsoCort and the conventional medication hydrocortisone. It is best to start with a low dosage and gradually increase it based upon how it helps your symptoms and whatever side effects it may cause.

When starting IsoCort, some people report initial discomfort that may be tied to the body resuming normal metabolic processes that were suppressed due to low cortisol levels. For instance, some people report worsened nausea and even vomiting which is confusing because they are also common symptoms of dangerously low cortisol levels. Be especially cautious about such symptoms because they can also be caused by a sudden drop in cortisol levels due to illness, acute stress, or injury that causes an adrenal crisis that may necessitate immediate emergency medical care to save your life.

Related Supplements

Ashwagandha
Licorice Root

Comments

IsoCort — 5 Comments

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Jason on March 10, 2012 at 8:14 pm said:

Thanks for this post. I was looking for information on how to combine licorice root with isocort – this is helpful
Thanks
Reply ↓
- Alison on March 10, 2012 at 10:46 pm said:
  
  Jason,
  Combining licorice root and IsoCort is an excellent idea if you know you have low cortisol levels. Licorice root is quite inexpensive, IsoCort is more expensive. I think you may find that you can lower your overall cost and get similar effect if you take the two combined and lower the IsoCort dosage somewhat. It’s hard to say how much to lower it as this is going to vary from person to person, but say if you’re taking 8 tablets per day you might try lowering it to 4 or 6 per day instead while taking with licorice root and then adjust upwards or downwards from there based upon how you feel, your blood pressure and body temperature (both tend to change when cortisol becomes low or high), and cortisol tests.
  One method I’ve heard a person say worked fairly well for him is that he stopped taking IsoCort by around dinner time but continued to take licorice root all the way to bedtime to help cortisol coast at a little higher level throughout the night without it becoming as high as it would if another IsoCort was taken. I recall mention of taking around 8 to 10 licorice root capsules per day, with the IsoCort taken from morning to evening and the licorice root taken from morning to bedtime. This person suffers nighttime pain that may be related to low cortisol, but found that taking one last IsoCort at bedtime or shortly before sometimes interfered with sleep although it did help with the pain.
  In a healthy person, taking so much licorice root could produce cortisol levels that are too high and could boost blood pressure, but in somebody with low cortisol it probably would not do that.
  Alison
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