When to take thyroid meds

[Sukiwarrior]

When to take thyroid meds

What time is best to take my Levotyroxine and Armour. Is it best to take apart from other meds like antidepressants and supplements and away from food and should I take them with water.

Many thanks

Suki

[Ruthi]

Yes, the rule is one hour before or four hours after food with calcium (thats almost everything), or drinks with caffeine. So take your thyroid meds first thing in the morning with water, and away from everything else. Wait an hour before eating. Supplements containing iron should be four hours away. I solve this one by taking supplements with lunch and dinner, but not breakfast. I started off trying to take the thyroid meds at night, but you need to eat really early to have a four hour gap, or go to bed late, which is not good news.

You almost certainly won't need your antidepressants once your thyroid meds are working properly. Its possible to be truly depressed AND hypo of course, but too often docs give out antidepressants when what we need is thyroid medication - or more of it.

[Clutter]

Suki, take your Levothyroxine with a full glass of water on an empty stomach, one hour before, or two hours after, food and drink, 2 hours away from other medication and supplements, 4 hours away from iron, vitamin D, calcium and oestrogen.

[shaws Administrator]

Hypothyroidism may be causing your depression and if you are low in T3 (ask GP to test it as they usually don't) it would be very helpful to have some added to levothyroxine. Sometimes doctors prescribe for the clinical symptoms (as being apart from hypothyroidism) whereas they are a bit mean in giving an optimum dose of thyroid hormones.

[Glynisrose]

First of all I don't understand why you are taking levo as well as Armour, there is enough T4 in Armour without having to supplement it. I take my Armour last thing at night, this guarantees my stomach will be empty and I do not take it with water, I crunch it up or put it under my tongue and let it dissolve. DO NOT under any circumstances take any medication before a blood test as it will skew the results, beta blockers and anti-depressants are CONTRA - indicated, that means that if you take them they interfere with the take up of thyroxine.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Glynisrose]

Lots of people find that they need to add a little T4 to their desiccated thyroid medication (I do). The ratio of T4 to T3 in desiccated thyroid does not suit everyone. Some people need to top up the T4, some need to add extra T3.

As with everything thyroid, desiccated thyroid is not a one size fits all solution. We are all different!

[fixit in reply to RedApple]

I'm confused. If FT3 is the active hormone I understood that it did not matter if FT4 was low as long as FT3 was near top of the range.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to fixit]

It's not about blood levels of the hormones. It's about *how you feel*. If I don't add a small amount of T4 to my desiccated regime, I find certain symptoms persist and I simply don't feel right. I don't care tuppence what my T4 blood levels are, only about how I feel.

[fixit in reply to RedApple]

I didn't mean to offend RedApple. I am self medicating with NDT and am just trying to educate myself with the help of this site. I have often wondered if I would be better off on Thyroxine as my FT3 isnt too bad but FT4 is low. I am just working on increasing NDT to improve symptoms as my GP wont prescribe Thyroxine. Thanks for your reply.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to fixit]

No offense taken I assure you fixit! I just get a bit cross when patients try to do exactly what the medics do... which is to apply a 'one size fits all' approach to self medicating!

When the medics have failed us, we have to do our own thing. I gave up worrying about blood levels and worked only on how I felt. I tried increasing my NDT and felt worse. So I tried adding T3, but that didn't help either. Only when I add a little T4 (and I mean a little - 25mcg on alternate days), did I see some results.

If conventional mono therapy doesn't work for you, then experimenting is the only way to find out what does work for you. I wish you the best in your quest for good thyroid health

[fixit in reply to RedApple]

Thanks RedApple, I will bear this in mind when I try and find my optimum. Thanks.

[Lily_Munster]

I am a newbie but why would you take Levo and Armour together?

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Lily_Munster]

See my reply to Glinisrose above

[Lily_Munster in reply to RedApple]

Thanks. Wasn't aware of this.

[Sukiwarrior]

I have been on Armour 1 grain and 75 levothyroxine for about 20 years which I used to have checked yearly privately but can no longer afford to go private and the £50 for 3 months Armour. I am waiting for an appointment with Dr <> at East Surrey NHS I was given his name from a list through the Thyroid Society and I believe he is open to prescribing Armour. Normal GPs do not know how to read the results especially when one is taking something like Armour.

Medically I have been through a lot in the past few years and 3 months ago I was informed by my GP that my B12 was a little low at 160. It was like music to my ears as I found out I had been B12 deficient for many years and 3 months down the line, now I feel like a new woman. I have so much energy, my awful constipation has gone, I am coming off awful Venlafaxine of 225 mg and I am now down to 75mg and hope to be free of it in 2 more months. For the past few years while on this med I was like a zombie and so depressed I cried every day, my B 12 deficiency is no more I have learned how to self inject methyl alarming every 2 days.

Would it be ok to take Thyroid meds last thing at night?

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Suki

[Sukiwarrior]

Sorry I meant Methylcobalamin.

[Glynisrose]

Personally I always take my meds last thing at night because I would forget to take them during the day and I would probably sleep all day anyway!! My late father always said to take any new meds at night so that if there were any side effects they would occur when the body was resting and could cope better, not sure whether this is true but he also said that if given a choice between an old medication and a new one to take the old one as this would have been tried and tested rather than a new medication which may have unforeseen side effects.