same thing i thought the other day
your post jan 9
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/chronic-c ... ml#p203083
(as above, or close enough)
my reply jan 10
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/chronic-c ... ml#p203112
clearly strong interconnections. found an amazing article that breaks it all down in super detail
http://dc.library.okstate.edu/cdm/singl ... _container
"In general, cortisol is seen together with pro-inflammatory factors due to the fact that high blood cortisol levels are triggered by inflammatory cytokines. As well, immunological constraints like protein energy malnutriton or zinc deficiency are known to cause high serum cortisol (32, 202). ... low dietary zinc is associated with oxidative damage of DNA ... Zinc status is also associated with cortisol (24). Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone from the hypothalamic-pituary-adrenal (HPA) axis that acts as an important stress marker.
Stress of any kind, such as anxiety, strenuous exercise, inflammation or malnutrition triggers the excretion of cortisol from the adrenal glands (25, 26). For instance, protein energy malnutriton is often seen in conjunction with low zinc intake and increased serum cortisol concentrations. Elevated cortisol in turn suppresses inflammatory cytokines and prevents an overwhelming inflammatory reaction (27-29) by downregulating the expression of inflammatory cytokines (30, 31)."
so given these causes for elevated cortisol: anxiety and exercise both cause nutritional depletion, obviously so does mal- or mis- nutrition, and the inflammation deal is a catch 22 of sorts given that inflammation would increase cortisol resulting in inflammation etc etc etc.
"... Zinc deficiency is widespread in developing countries and can still be found in developed countries. The main reason for zinc deficiency is poor dietary intakes (86). ... In developing countries where women and children are especially likely to have low meat intake, diets are also typically high in fiber and phytate. This may also be true for certain diets found in developed countries (e.g., the vegan diet). Low meat consumption and high intake of minimally processed grains are suspected to be the root cause of impaired zinc status. In plant-based diets with small amounts of animal-source foods, multiple nutrient deficiencies are likely to develop (64, 90)."
and that would be me...
refer also to figure 6 in the pdf doc. note that all causes of stress heading for the HPA axis are either caused by or can cause nutrient deficits:
Figure 6:
Effect of stress from different sources, such as malnutrition, exercise, trauma, inflammation, on the cortisol pathway via the HPA axis, adapted from Bowen, 2006 (200).
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I'll read or should I say re-read up on that once I've gotten over being disgusted with myself. Luckily my short term memory issues should make that happen rather quickly. 
One thing is certain, if my zinc hasn't gotten into proper ranges after 6 months of Clonidine, I'm bringing the zinc back out of the depths of my closet.
