BUSINESS WIRE - 44 Montgomery St, 39th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104; Tel: (415) 986-4422; FAX: (415) 788-5335 - Tuesday, 9 September 1997.
Correcting Misleading Laboratory Reporting Could Lead to Use of New Diagnostics, Anti-Cortisol Treatments
A study published in the September 1997 issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology, Oxford, U.K., reveals information about the role of cortisol in health and disease.
Cortisol (hydrocortisone) is a hormone manufactured by the adrenal gland. When it is within normal levels it helps individuals cope with normal everyday stress. When manufactured in large amounts or found at elevated levels as a result of chronic stress, genetics and other factors, cortisol becomes a killer, affecting practically all cells, tissues and organs in the human body.
Elevated levels of cortisol have been reported sporadically in the literature with regards to AIDS, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, all forms of cancers, aging, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, ALS, scleroderma and psoriasis.
However, the paucity of information, and the sometimes contradictory results, have been largely ignored by the medical community.
In a paper titled "Cortisol, High Cortisol Diseases and Anticortisol Therapy," by Alfred T. Sapse, M.D., director of research, Steroidogenesis Inhibitors Inc., Las Vegas, strong evidence shows that high cortisol is playing a major, destructive role, previously unknown, in aging and many other diseases.
This destructive role was previously not recognized because of defective reporting of cortisol values, or as Sapse said, "due to massive blindfolding of both physicians and patients on a worldwide scale."
He added that cortisol values vary many times during the day and night due to its "circadian rhythm." Present reporting by reference laboratories use measurements at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If cortisol levels are normal at these times, they are reported as "normal."
However, new evidence shows that cortisol values are high, even at immunosuppressive levels, during the night and sometimes during the day, outside the 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. measurements.
Sapse said that had cortisol been measured every three hours during a 24-hour period, for example, dangerous levels would have been observed, even in conditions labeled "normal."
If physicians knew about this faulty reporting, they might have treated their patients with anti-cortisol drugs. He added that many diseases presently plaguing large masses of population could be helped by these treatments, including diseases with no known treatments.
The hidden role of cortisol and other matters, including a new diagnostic test on cortisol and anti-cortisol therapies in diseases (some with unknown treatment at the present time) will be presented at the Second International Conference on Cortisol/Anticortisol, to be held Nov. 9-12, 1997, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
This conference will be attended by top researchers from universities and research centers from three continents and more than 20 countries.
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