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Can we potentially exacerbate HPAD if those are taken in inappropriate times and doses? How can we be confident that we are dosing those appropriately?

Chris Kresser: Follow-up question about [how] GABA and phosphatidylserine can reduce cortisol levels: “Can we potentially exacerbate HPAD if those are taken in inappropriate times and doses? How can we be confident that we are dosing those appropriately?”

Yes, generally, we don’t give phosphatidylserine to someone with low cortisol, and the risk here is not huge, and if you’re doing retesting as we recommend, you can see it go down. I’ve seen that happen before from people that were taking it on their own, not under my advice. It can cause an issue, but it’s not a life-threatening problem. Retesting is helpful by customizing your treatment based on the test results and using the steps that we talked about in the course that raises or modulates cortisol when it’s low, and then using things like PS to help reduce cortisol when it’s higher is helpful. The thing that you’ve got working for you in terms of the HPA stuff is most of the HPA stuff works in a more regulatory modulating fashion, so adaptogens can raise or lower cortisol depending on what’s needed and a lot of the compounds that we use for adrenal treatment can be used in both situations.

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