Addison's :: Understanding Low Cortisol

About two months ago, I had mentioned to my personal trainer that I was feeling very tired with low blood pressure. This had been going on for a couple months, on and off every couple of weeks. He mentioned that it could be cortisol-related.

I went home and did a lot of researching about the issue and found that I matched a lot of the symptoms of low cortisol. I went in to see my doctor a couple days later. When I mentioned that I thought it was low cortisol, he said that the adrenal glands usually do the job and that it probably wasn't that. He tried to prescribe me anti-depressants which I declined, and then ran a few blood tests, along with an AM only cortisol test (it was about 11AM).

The test came back with a level of 17 mg/dL of cortisol taken at 11AM. However, he said my blood sugar was 54 which was very low. Also, my Vitamin D was below normal ranges. Some other counts were off, but nothing that really pointed to anything that could be causing what I was feeling.

I took a multivitamin for a few weeks. I had also been congested in the back of my throat for two months, so I went back to see the doctor if he could do anything about that. He determined it was a sinus infection, and prescribed Cefuroxime for two weeks to get rid of the congestion. I asked if that could help my fatigue to which he said it could help.

So I finished the two week round of antibiotics, and now it's two weeks later and I still feel horrible. Here's the main things that I am experiencing. I really don't feel depressed and feel like I enjoy life a lot.

- Inability to wake up for work. I wake up around 9AM, and feel like I haven't slept at all. I previously had to wake up around 5AM to get everything done in the morning

- Feeling of drowsiness through the morning, up until noon. Sometimes like today it will last all day.

- Extremely low blood pressure while standing. This starts around 2PM every day and lasts until around 5PM. I usually don't fall down and just black out, but recently I fell because after standing up and injured my knee.

- Fluctuations in appetite, I will eat a TON of food with out gaining any weight (5-6 meals a day), but I exercise a lot so this isn't super concerning. My weight is constant.

- Itchy red eyes when I wake up

- Exhaustion when sitting, feels like I should lay down but not low blood pressure

- Hypoglycemia, my blood sugar is really low in the mornings, and then again in the evenings before dinner. Between that it feels fine but I don't do regular testing on this to know for sure.

Also I am 20 years old male and a competitive cyclist. I eat very healthy foods (although a lot to keep up my activity). I live at a high altitude (7,400ft).