Palpitations, High Blood Pressure, worried about taking levo as hypo, endo has now prescribed T3..here are my results..help pls x

[carlie62]

Firstly thank you to everyone and Carolyn B for replying to me previously so much appreciated x Latest results finally had T3 done ..T3 4.3 (3.5-6.5) is this ok???..TSH 0.83 (0.35-5.50) was 2.60..T4 14.5 (10.3-22.7), yet AGAIN the crappy lab has NOT done antibodies, + vit D (although this was prev 50 (75-200) and B12 275 (200-900)..have been taking vit D3 and B12 patches, but they have not retested either of these. My question is my endo was very concerned about raising my levo Im on 50mg as my heart is constantly racing and blood pressure high, so he has given me in addition 10mg of T3 to my 50mg of levo. I have been on it over a week now and heart is racing from time i get up til i go to bed. My TSH has dropped from 2.60 from 3 months ago to 0.83 but T4 hardly rasied and not sure if I am ok with my T3 results?..am I on the right meds please? thank you peeps x

[Angel_of_the_North]

If you are taking t3, your T4 and TSH will drop. T3 is still quite low for someone taking T3. However, you are unlikely to feel well if your ferritin and B12 are low in the range, or if your adrenals aren't working well. You might do better to halve the T3 tablets and start by taking 5mg and work up to the 10 over a few days and still take in two doses. You might find Paul Robinson's Circadian T3 Method useful. You can get a D3 test (from an NHS lab) for about 25 quid from vitamindtest.org.uk/.

[carlie62 in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Thank you Angel I had my D3 done 3 months ago and it was 50 range being 75-200 and Im on 2000 D3 gel capsules daily and have been for 3 months now. Damm labs refuse to retest as its not been 90 days since last test!..can you believe..gods sake its been something like 88 days since last test..

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to carlie62]

You might need more than 2000iu a day to get to a decent range then. Need to aim for low 100s at least.

[ukangell in reply to carlie62]

I take 10,000iu with K2 per day. My vit d was 57 and that was after a sunny summer where I spent every moment in my garden and a 2 week holiday in Rhodes.

[shaws Administrator]

I had awful palpitations on levothyroxine and T3 calmed them down. I am now on T3 alone and don't have palpitations and have one daily dose. I also had no palpitations on natural dessicated thyroid (NDT) either.

I wonder if you drop your T4 and although it takes weeks to diminish, you may feel better but take your T3. 10mcg of T3 is low and you may have to increase it to maybe 20. If your palpitations and blood pressure drop you can advise your Endo and he may prescribe T3 alone. You could be having reaction to the fillers/binders in levothyroxine.

[carlie62 in reply to shaws]

Thank you Shaws Im sort of thinking on the same lines as you just stated. I dont want my tsh to drop any further but my T4 has barely risen and Im not sure if my T3 is low range or ok??..can you tell me your thoughts on this plese. By the way my bloods were taken before I took T3, as only been on them a week now, but I have waited for a reply from the site this morning before I took any of my meds. If I only take T3 how will this effect T4 and TSH levels please?..thank you for replying so quickly to me x

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

carlie, I think both Shaws and Angel may be correct. Most FT3 levels posted here are around 4.8 but you may be having a problem with your T4 hormone.

Many of us are doing okay with T3 only.

stopthethyroidmadness.com/l...

[carlie62 in reply to Heloise]

Hi Heloise thank you for your reply. Its the palpitations and high blood pressure that worries me very much which is why my endo did not want to increase my 50mg levo. I have taken 20mg of T3 only today and no levo, was I ok on doing this?..but from what i have read t3 will not raise my t4 as that it seems in the low end of range and B12 is also low. I have been on the patches recommended by the site for 6 weeks now but labs wont retest me yet or vit d, im at a loss of what to do now tbh just very concerned about high blood pressure and my racing heart. I am 52 in a couple of months still menutrating, so docs tell me im not going into the change and have always had healthy blood presssure, cholstrol is also high..

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

Carlie, your 20 mcg. T3 is equal to about 85 mcg of levo. so you have increased your hormone. I've been reading about thyroid for 20 years since I started having problems myself with Hashimoto. I do not like levo (I was on Synthroid) and then on Armour but as I aged, I didn't handle T4 well at all. I don't know if it was turning into reverse T3 or if it was just floating in the bloodstream. There is so much we don't really understand so you are stuck trying different methods and see what works.

It is not going to hurt you to take T3, I think it's easier on your system and you can get results quickly enough that you can cut back or raise the dose in small increments and find out within three days if it is too much.

What this does to your pituitary output of TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, I don't know, but in the long run, it doesn't really matter because your body isn't really listening when you have Hashimoto.

But you have raised your dose which is probably what you needed to do.

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

Notice if your heart racing is better with the T3 in a day or two. I have sometimes just stopped all hormone for a day. Some people have done that and said they felt so much better. I don't know why that is either. Your levo is going to be in your system for at least two weeks I would say.

Don't worry about your cholesterol for the moment.

Your D level is low and often prescriptions of 50,000 i.u. per week are used for a couple of months to raise them. I took 5,000 per day and raised mine by only 2 points. The sun would be the best although that didn't work well for me probably because I tan too quickly. I doubt if you increased your levels at all with only 2,000.

[carlie62 in reply to Heloise]

Aww thank you Heloise, god this is such a horrible problem isnt it?..It doesnt help when the labs will not retest when they are asked by the specialist..i have even contacted pals, they said spk to end, which i did, and aslo his secretary this week when i knew the tests were not dont and she said she would call me back that day..needless to say she never did..so im going to call them myself on monday..when you feel so crap the last thing we need is to have to keep fighting!!..sorry that was me ranting, but god it does make me mad..im going to do what you say and also what shaws said, just stick with t3 for a few days and see what happens needless to say my poor little heart has been thumping away all day..guess i need to be patient x thank you

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

Carlie, please let me know how it goes. I am going to send you a private message by clicking on your icon or avator (don't know what to call it) and you can reply to me directly. That's in case I can't find your later posts.

[carlie62 in reply to Heloise]

Aww Heloise thank you so much, thank god for this site and the people on here, I dont know what most of us newbies would do without you xx

[Marz in reply to carlie62]

Once on B12 - it is worthless having the test done as the results will be skewed....

[carlie62 in reply to shaws]

I should also add I do react badly to certain things ie have not drunk caffeine for over 20 years as I have a serious reaction to it, certain antibiotics etc..so allergy could be right and also just had a terrible hives/itchy stinging rash which is just going past fews weeks all over my legs and chest and neck area..

[shaws Administrator in reply to carlie62]

I am not medically qualified but, yes, it does sound as if you are allergic to something or other with hives etc. Most uncomfortable.

When on T3 alone we usually have a high T3 and very low TSH and obviously a very low T4 but the TSH in itself doesn't mean we are going hype. This is an excerpt from an article:-

Some critics have said that most physicians are “treating the TSH,” rather than the patient. If TSH is itself pathogenic, because of its pro-inflammatory actions, then that approach isn't entirely useless, even when they “treat the TSH” with only thyroxine, which often isn't well converted into the active triiodothyronine, T3. But the relief of a few symptoms in a small percentage of the population is serving to blind the medical world to the real possibilities of thyroid therapy.

TSH has direct actions on many cell types other than the thyroid, and probably contributes directly to edema (Wheatley and Edwards, 1983), fibrosis, and mastocytosis. If people are concerned about the effects of a TSH “deficiency,” then I think they have to explain the remarkable longevity of the animals lacking pituitaries in W.D. Denckla's experiments, or of the naturally pituitary deficient dwarf mice that lack TSH, prolactin, and growth hormone, but live about a year longer than normal mice (Heiman, et al., 2003). Until there is evidence that very low TSH is somehow harmful, there is no basis for setting a lower limit to the normal range.

raypeat.com/articles/articl...

This is re T3 which in the USA brand Cytomel has no common side effects have been reported:-

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[carlie62]

Thanks Shaws instead of cutting my T3 in half today I have taken a full one ie 20mg..,do you think I should stay off levo completely then or add 25mg insteead of my normal dose of 50mg daily..ive not taken any today as yet only T3.. sorry if i sound igronant but if I do take it on its own and as you say it lowers T4 which mine is already low range will that not cause more problems??..i thought hypo should be aiming at high end T4..and any thoughts on my T3 level result please? many thanks

[Hidden in reply to carlie62]

Our need for T4, which is an inactive pro hormone, is that it is converted into the active hormone T3 which is then absorbed by every cell of our body. Therefore, if you are taking T3, you are in part circumnavigating this process because you are taking in T3 directly. Therefore, T4 levels do not need to achieve the top quartile which we would aim for when on mono T4 therapy.

[carlie62 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you hypnoteq, its a very long confusing learning curve, as a newbie to this frigtening to say the least as you combat some things and cause problems in other areas..

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

Carlie, if you are taking T3 and in good range, you don't need ANY T4. T4 is a hormone that becomes T3 (supposedly as you need it) but otherwise is goes into storage or WORSE

it can become reverse t3 which only interferes.

As long as your body has enough T3, it should be sufficient.

I like these videos which explain low thyroid and their root causes. This one is because of progesterone deficiency.

youtube.com/watch?v=U15Pcov...(Not working as expected?)

[carlie62 in reply to Heloise]

omg that was amazing!!..I have a mirea coil with progestrone, I had severe pnd when my son was born 25 years ago! saw Katrina Dalton who wrote books on having a progestrone deficiency especially after child birth at UCH in London, I was put onto progestrone hormones (natural) and now im hitting 52 im also feeling that it is due to hormones which is why i have this thyroid problem. May i just add that last year they thought i had cancer for non stop bleeding for 5 months, after changning the mirea and numerous biopsies its settled down, hence the progestrone me thinks.Thank you so much for this video..why do we not have doctors here in the uk that understand like this guy seems to do..??

[Heloise in reply to carlie62]

Wow. It's amazing how early some of these hormone problems can begin. I'm sure it goes back to our processed food, pesticides and such in our food and other environmental chemicals that doctors have no idea about.

Functional medicine (Dr. Clark) looks at symptoms not just test results. A valuable website I followed suggested a whole foods diet, exercise and a technique to reduce stress overload in the hypothalamus called a relaxation response. What it takes to counteract the abuses our bodies face every day is a full time job I'm afraid.