PE is often driven by excess norepinephrine. How's your thyroid?
My thyroid is okay as far as tests but you are right on as far as excess norepinephrine,
I have the COMT+ gene and it causes excess norepinephrine,
Any suggestions on how I can lower it?
I use magnesium at night which has been great to promote sleep but has not done anything for PE
Oh wow, I didn't even think of that connection! I'll be looking into genetic testing.
As for lowering norepinephrine, it's hard to find good substances, but from what I can tell l-theanine and rhodiola are known to lower norepinephrine. I'm taking an adrenal supplement called "Adrenal Health" by Gaia, and it's been the only supplement that has made my erections and libido better, indicating lowered NE (it has rhodiola and ashwagandha).
http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2011/3/the-chemistry-of-calm/Page-01
The above link has inositol, omega-3s, and n-acecyl-cysteine (NAC) as other supplements. I'm currently thinking my problems are caused by excess norepinephrine (though I don't have PE, except every now and then). Theoretically, if you have lower than optimal cortisol, this would mean higher norepinephrine, given that cortisol is what lowers the stress response (including NE, which is what starts it via the locus coeruleus in the brain stem).
The reason I mentioned thyroid is that hypothyroidism involves elevated levels of norepinphrine (lots of people, including doctors, don't know this). Do you have your thyroid numbers? I think shooting for the upper fourth of the range for free T3 is the way to go, so there's usually room for improvement in most people. Gaia makes another supplement for thyroid that I'll be asking my doc about in a few days, so that might be enough to give it a bump.
ETA: how's your sleep and stress level, btw? Any chance you get brain fog?
Wow, I had no idea there is a correlation between Cortisol and Norepenephrine.... I have high Cortisol too, no wonder
when I take P.S. to lower Cortisol I get really bad headaches and anger..... It's probably jacking up my Norepenephrine...
This is been a real problem for me... I wish there was a supplement that would lower each one without effecting the other.
Out of the supplements that you mentioned I have pretty much tried all (Ashwaghanda, Rohdiola, Omega-3 and NAC) and the first 3 cure my P.E. but give me anger and headaches...
As far as Thyroid, here are my numbers:
TSH 2.58 (Range 0.45-4.5)
Pregnenolone 97
T4 = 1.39 (range 0.82-1.77)
Reverse T3 14.3 (range 9.2- 24.1)
So my thyroid is in check.
Those numbers look good, but have you had a free T3 number pulled? It's probably fine, but it's also the most important thyroid number you can get.
I don't have Free T3 on Blood Plasma but I do have it from my 24 hour urine test:
649 (300-1100)
Your post has really made me think though, if lowering Cortisol increases Norepenephrine then that's exactly my problem... I try to lower Cortisol and my Norepenephrine shoots up! That's pretty abnormal.
I don't have experience with urinary free T3, but if that translates smoothly to serum levels, that's just barely below the middle. I think it would be worth it to get a blood level pulled, and if it's below 3.3 pg/ml or so you should try and find a doc to put you on a trial of Armour or T3/T4, or give a good thyroid glandular or supplement a shot.
If you have less cortisol to reign in norepinephrine, then this means that for each burst of norepinephrine, NE shouldn't be higher than if you had higher cortisol, but it should
decrease at a slower rate. Which means that with multiple stressors (i.e., real life), your NE will pile up faster with lower cortisol than higher cortisol. Dr. Mariano talks about a positive feedback loop with NE:
"Norepinephrine increases adrenal hormone production by stimulating the release of Corticotropin Releasing Hormone (CRH) from the hypothalamus. CRH then increases Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) release from the pituitary. ACTH then travels to the adrenal glands to stimulate steroid hormone production - the primary one being Cortisol.
Norepinephrine also triggers a signal that goes through the sympathetic nervous system nerves which travel parallel to the spine. These nerves then trigger the production of Norepinephrine and Epinephrine from the center of the Adrenal Gland. The adrenal gland, itself, is an enlarged ganglion of the sympathetic nervous system.
What is interesting about CRH is that it travels not only to the pituitary to stimulate ACTH production, but it also travels to the rest of the brain, where it stimulates Norepinephrine release.
CRH thus participates in a positive feedback loop - where increased Norepinephrine results in increased CRH - which then increases Norepinephrine release. If this positive feedback loop is not stopped, the stress signal is magnified repeatedly. If not curtailed, this stress signal snowballs and causes panic attacks. If it is stopped, then the stress signal is stopped."
He goes on to say that it's cortisol that stops this positive feedback loop, because cortisol loops back up to the hypothalamus and tells it to put the breaks on CRH. I wouldn't recommend *increasing* cortisol without a doctor's supervision, but it would be worth considering to get a 4x salivary cortisol test and see where your levels are at.
