Jen and I have always been avid researchers in respect of things we find interesting or which we need to know. When she had her stroke we learned a lot from the net about the causes, effects, symptoms and treatment pertaining to stroke and that enabled us to help her on her route back to normality over the several years since 2005.
One of the main things which has cropped up since the cancer diagnosis is this "low level" stuff: potassium and cortisol especially. Those who have worked with me over the years will attest to the amount of coffee I used to drink when at work. While I mostly drank tea at home my drink of choice at work was always coffee. Because I have been at home since the diagnosis for some reason I have virtually stopped drinking coffee, preferring tea as that's what Jen drinks during the day. I probably haven't drunk more than a dozen cups of coffee since February, which for me is unbelievable, as I would probably have drunk a dozen cups a day while at work.
Some of the more noted effects of low cortisol is aching all over the body, low back pain, shaky hands, and various other effects that I can relate to. Another factor is sleep: sleep itself increases cortisol levels, but I am presently not sleeping well: two hours at most then wake for a while then doze again, but through the night my sleep is very interrupted.
There are some natural herbal remedies which one can take to help but while I am on the chemotherapy I am advised it's not a good idea to take too many other things which may suppress the effects of the chemo drugs (they have already told me to stop taking my daily cod liver oil, which of course helps joints, and co-enzyme Q10 which I was taking to counteract the muscle and joint ache effects of the statins prescribed for cholesterol. In fact for the moment I have chosen to not take the statins as my cholesterol is not raised to any extent anyway.
So I am going to try going back to drinking coffee during the day, to see whether there's any improvement. For those interested there's an article link below that also suggests other things which are good to help cortisol: grapefruit, and licorice neither of which I like! So for now lets see if returning to coffee drinking will help the aching muscles a bit.
Read the article here
The sudden realisation that you have cancer hits you like a sledgehammer. On 9th February after 2 months of tests and all sorts thats what they told me. In more ways than one it's a life-changing moment and your mind goes into overdrive thinking all kinds of worst case scenarios.
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