Question about cortisol?

Question

if you receive a little bit of excess cortisol from a topical medication, would your body stop producing cortisol naturally, or would you just have excess cortisol in your body? please reference why you know this, or where you found it in a article or something. thank you so much to any one who may be able to help me

Answer 1

If people take tablets ot have injections with lots of cortisol (or medication similar to cortisol), then yes, it can stop the body producing its own cortisol. There are tests that can be done to see if the body is still producing its own cortisol.

But if you are using a topical medication, this is extremely unlikely to affect your body's own production at all. The dose you are getting will be very small and only a little bit will be absorbed. Unless you are using loads of it and plastering it everywhere, I wouldn't worry.

Answer 2

Cortisol is produced in the body by the adrenal glands because of stimulation by the pituitary gland in the brain.  The pituitary produces something called ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) that makes the adrenal produce the cortisol.

Another hormone called CRH (cortocotropin-releasing hormone) is needed to cause the pituitary to release that ACTH.  CRH is made by the hypothalamus.  BUT!  There is what is called a "negative feedback loop" for CRH production--if the hypothalamus is receiving feedback, it doesn't make CRH, so the pituitary doesn't make ACTH, so the adrenal doesn't make cortisol.

What provides the negative feedback?  Among other things--cortisol.  *g*  So it's a checks-and-balances kind of system--it's set up so that when there's enough cortisol, its very presence will prevent more from being made.

This is all just background so I can answer your actual question, which is that a little bit of excess cortisol is not really a problem, because it's not an on/off switch, it's upregulated or downregulated based on what conditions are at any given time.  If we give larger amounts of glucocorticoids or they are taken or used over a long period of time, then we do indeed need to taper them off gradually, because the whole system will have downregulated to the point where no natural cortisol is being produced and you have to give the system time to re-regulate itself without the exogenous (external) cortisol.

People who have very high levels of cortisol due to a pituitary tumor (Cushing's disease) or adrenal tumor (Cushing's syndrome) or because they have been treated with corticosteroids for other conditions can go through something called cortisol withdrawal if the taper isn't slow enough (or even when it is), which is marked by depression, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and even neurological symptoms or death.