Seven days into the 50mcg/day of levothyroxine experiment...

...and all is going swimmingly. Better than I could have hoped, actually--I'm scared of jinxing it by writing that. But I already feel so much better (yeah, yeah, placebo effect maybe). I'm not quite so tired. I can actually get up in the morning without wanting to cry. In fact, it's the improvement in my mental health that's been the most surprising. I was on the point of restarting antidepressants. But miraculously, the constant anxious feeling I had has just disappeared--it was gone within a couple of days of starting the Levo. I feel like I can cope with the stress of my job again.

For those of you who don't know the history, I'm officially euthyroid with a TSH of 2.71 with no prescribed meds. I'm self medicating with levothyroxine. Not a route I'd ever advise anyone to go down, but one so many of us feel forced to take. I will of course do bloods in a few weeks, just to see what's going on.

It's interesting that both Levo and liothyronine are known to be useful for treating psychiatric disorders. What I hadn't appreciated until I did some research recently was how much Levo/Lio some mental health patients are prescribed. It makes a mockery of the fact that so many of us struggle to get sufficient Levo from our doctors. Have a read of this (I couldn't quite believe it): psycheducation.org/thyroid/...

Not only were people on doses of 400+ mcg/day Levo, they seemed to suffer very few side effects.

[Clutter]

Well done for biting the bullet, LilyMay. I'm so glad it's helping you .

I read an article which said it seemed impossible to commit suicide by overdosing on Levothyroxine. The body simply doesn't convert excess levels of T4 taken orally.

[foxglove in reply to Clutter]

Do you have the link to this article? Could you send to me?

[Clutter in reply to foxglove]

Foxglove, this isn't the specific article I mentioned but discusses T4 suicide attempts ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

Wow, just goes to show, doesn't it? Interesting read, thank you. You can't help but wonder though whether the people mentioned wouldn't have been depressed in the first place if they'd been on the right amount of medication!

[Clutter in reply to Hidden]

Yes, that's true. I thought describing one of the attempted suicides as a "14 year old attention seeking girl" quite chilling.

[Fruitandnutcase]

Good for you. I know I would / will do exactly the same if I were in your shoes.

[Hennerton]

I am truly amazed by this study. Why are patients held to ransom by dire warnings of heart and bone problems and kept on ridiculously low doses of Levo, when this is what is happening for people with depression? Anyone struggling to get an increase of Levo should print this and take it to their GP, particularly if they have been prescribed anti depressants because their thyroid results are so called "normal" yet they are suffering with a multitude of symptoms. Makes me so angry...

[shaws in reply to Hennerton]

I can quite understand your ire. It does make no sense. It is just that the 'outdated' guidelines laid down by the BTA who insist that only levo is to be prescribed and, even worse, not until the TSH reaches 10 and to get the TSH within 'normal' range . They have made false statements about NDT (rebutted by Dr Lowe) even though they have been in use for more than 100 years. They are also more expensive than the £1.50 per month for levo. (plus all our other medications given for symptoms due to lack of thyroid gland hormones). T3 for some reason in this country as become astronomical in price. There is a monopoly in its supply. This is an excerpt I've just read:-

Why would T3 help? What does T3 do in the central nervous system? Well, a lot. The thyroid has fingers in almost every physiological pie, after all. And T3 not only may act as a direct neurotransmitter, but it also seems to increase the efficiency of serotonin signaling, much like a modern SSRI. T3 also enhances neurogenesis in the central nervous system and could also enhance noradrenergic signaling. The conversion from T4 to T3 occurs all over the body, but in the central nervous system it uses different active genes than in the periphery and occurs within the cells. These differences could explain my own clinical observations--that T3 augmentation seems to work best in folks already diagnosed hypothyroid that are on T4 monotherapy. And the literature (such as it is) seems to support my observation (1).

evolutionarypsychiatry.blog...

[busybird55]

I can identify with your post - I too noticed a significant difference soon after taking levothyroxine (50mg). The anxiety was greatly reduced along with the brain fog that was seriously affecting my work and although still frequently tired, it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad as it was. In my case, I somehow managed to get referred to an endo - even the GP was surprised that she agreed to see me, and was very reluctant to prescribe as I was of course in the 'normal' range of function tests; and after the three month check, that turned into seven as I was obviously not a priority for a very busy clinic, has accepted that it has made a difference and is allowing me to stay on this dose with six monthly blood test. I would add that I practically had to go into meltdown at the first appointment to get prescribed. I do have antibodies so am aware that at some point I may have a further battle on my hands and I have definitely benefited from the excellent advise on this forum as I now supplement with Iron, D3 and B12. It's hard to believe that a tiny tablet makes so much difference. Like you though, I am scared to put this into print in case of jinxing the improvements. Good luck and I hope you continue to feel well.

[nightingale-56]

So glad you are feeling better LilyMay and thank you for posting this link - so interesting and something to take to the Doctors. Wonder if they are having better quality Levo than we are? Janet.