Cushing’s Disease

Cushing’s disease and its closely related cousin, Cushing’s syndrome, is a condition that affects your body’s Endocrine system.   Basically, both conditions occur when there is an overproduction or too much glucocorticoid hormones in the body.  Although Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome can be unpleasant, the good news is that there are lots of treatment options available, both herbal remedies and remedies prescribed by your doctor are very effective at treating the symptoms of Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome. 

The symptoms of Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome include obesity that is localized to the upper body.  Legs and arms actually become thinner as weight shifts to the body’s trunk, neck, and face. The shift in weight can cause stretch marks in the stomach, thighs, buttocks, arms and breasts.  The skin also changes as a result of Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome.  Often times, the skin will become very fragile, bruising at relatively light touches and heals very slowly. 

Furthermore, Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome cause the bones to become very weak.  Even picking up a heavy object or getting up from a sitting or prone position can break ribs or cause spinal fractures.  Most people who are suffering from Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome are very fatigued, and feel very weak.  High Blood pressure and elevated blood sugar are also common among people with these disorders. 

They are oftentimes also anxious, irritable, and depressed.  Women with Cushing’s disease or Cushing’s syndrome will often have excess hair growth on their faces, necks, chests, and stomach and will often stop menstruating.  Men will suffer from decreased fertility and no Sex Drive.

As stated earlier, Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome are caused by too much glucocorticoid hormones in your body; the most commonly known of the glucocorticoid hormones and the hormone that is most commonly the culprit of Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome is cortisol. 

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal glands, the glands which sit atop both of your kidneys.  The body creates cortisol to deal with stress. Cortisol has powerful anti-inflammatory properties which is why the hormone is used in medication to treat Asthma, rheumatoid Arthritis, and lupus among other things. 

Indeed, Cushing’s syndrome is strongly linked with the prolonged use of these medications.  However, Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome can arise spontaneously in people who have nave taken drugs that contain a glucocorticoid hormone. 

Cushing’s disease is different from Cushing’s syndrome in that Cushing’s disease is associated with non-cancerous tumors in the pituitary gland.  These tumors start producing excessive amounts of a hormone called ACTH.  This overproduction of ACTH causes overproduction of cortisol which in turn cause Cushing’s disease.  Cushing’s syndrome on the other hand can be caused by several factors.  Both benign and cancerous tumor cells in the body outside of the pituitary gland can begin making ACTH. 

The ACTH stimulates the production of cortisol and causes Cushing’s syndrome.  Cushing’s syndrome can also be caused by tumors in the adrenal glands that make too much cortisol and release it into the body.  If the Cushing’s disease or Cushing’s syndrome is caused by a tumor, in the pituitary, adrenals, or anywhere else, surgery, and possibly radiation or chemotherapy, if the tumor is already malignant, must be performed to get rid of the tumor as they can easily become malignant and spread very rapidly.

On the other hand, if the Cushing’s was caused by the use of medicines containing glucocorticoids, then there are lots of herbal remedies that can help you.   Usually, stopping the offending medication will do a great deal in helping your body heal.  As your cortisol levels drop, your systems should get back to normal fairly rapidly. 

However, you will still have your rheumatoid Arthritis, Asthma, allergies or lupus to deal with, and that is where herbal medications can be helpful.  Since glucocorticoids are used to help inflammation, you should be looking for herbs that help inflammation.  For example, people who have Asthma may consider milk thistle, butterbur, sylimarin, ginkgo, and boswellia to help in their treatment of Asthma.  Licorice, onion, and garlic have also been found to help people who have Asthma. 

Lupus is another disease for which a glucocorticoid based medication is commonly prescribed.  For lupus, common herbal treatments include dandelion, yellowdock, licorice, ginseng, cheladonium, taraxacum, and garlic. 

Echinacea may also be commonly prescribed but lupus patients should be very careful.  Echinacea has immune system stimulating properties and lupus should not take it for more than two weeks at a time under any circumstances.  However, if you are fighting off a cold, you may take echinacea for a week at a time. 

Some people who have Cushing’s syndrome related to their medication were originally diagnosed with rheumatoid Arthritis.  There are many herbal and naturopathic options to treat Arthritis. Some of these herbal options include cat’s claw, Tea/" title="Green Tea">Green Tea extract, curcumin, guggul, and lyprinol. 

There are also a lot of herbal options to get your body back to normal after you have discontinued the offending medication and have made sure that your Cushing’s disease is not being caused by tumors. For women whose periods have stopped, kelp, milk thistle, black cohosh and chaste tree berry may help.  For excessive hair growth, fenugreek, goats rue, chaste tree and black cohosh are helpful.  You can help strengthen weakened bones with oatstraw, nettle, and red clover.  To treat high Blood pressure associated with Cushing’s disease and Cushing’s syndrome, try forskohli, hawthorne, mistletoe and raowolfia. 

If you have had chemotherapy, surgery or radiation to deal with tumors that were causing the Cushing’s disease, there are herbs you can take to help with the healing process.  For example, ginger and caraway seeds are helpful in treating the Nausea that often accompanies chemotherapy while soy can help the immune system, which chemotherapy depresses. 

For patients who are undergoing radiation therapy, ALOE VERA and calendula can help your skin heal after radiation therapy.  Zinc, on the other hand, can help restore your sense of taste if you have had radiation therapy on your head, which is where your pituitary gland is.