The diagnostics values were 13 to 24 is the range. So 15 put this patient at the bottom end of the range. And then DUTCH waking and morning cortisol and cortisone are borderline high and lab high respectively. Afternoon cortisol and cortisone normal, and the night sample was sky high, practically same value as the morning sample.

Chris Kresser: That is interesting. I mean there is a lag for, what, the DUTCH morning sample. But the waking sample of free cortisol being borderline high versus the borderline low saliva cortisol reading and the blunted cortisol awakening response is really interesting in  that situation.

I mean, what we can conclude is that there’s obvious HPA axis dysregulation in that patient and in that case when there’s equivocality, some results pointing to high, some results pointing to low, I would focus less on trying to achieve a particular result, i.e., lowering or raising cortisol and focus more on regulation. Which is what the protocols do for the most part anyways.