I hope you get on with the addition of T3. Maybe you've taken a little too much Thybon to start with., i.e. you took 100mcg of levothyroxine and reduced 50mcg (which is correct) but 20mcg of Thybon I believe is equal to approx 80mcg of levo, so maybe drop to 10mcg tomorrow and keep to that for about 2 weeks, then try a further increase of 10mcg. (or even 5) and do the same in the following 2 weeks.
Are you self medicating or did the endo prescribe?
I looked at your previous posts where 100 mcg of Eltroxin gave you an fT4 of just over 14. I would have added just 5 mcg Thybon (1/2 pill) to the original 100 mcg Eltroxin for a few weeks and see if a minor tweak like that is enough.
Previously your ferritin was very low. Do you have any update on that? Adding a lot of T3 to your system if your ability to make energy is low won't really help you feel better.
Redcatstar, T3 is 3 x more potent than thyroxine (T4) so it is usual to reduce T4 by 50mcg when adding in 20mcg T3. It may be a bit much for you to handle in one increment while you still have 100mcg T4 in your system so consider reducing T3 to 10mcg for a few days to acclimatise before increasing to 20mcg. Once you are taking 20mcg you may find it more comfortable to split the dose into 2 x 10mcg 6/12 hours apart. You will have to experiment to find what suits you but if you experience an energy slump in between doses time the 2nd dose to an hour before the slump.
Google Thybon Henning Liothyronine to find an online patient information leaflet and use Google Translate to read it in English.
Hi redcatstar, I am in similar position to you. Am on 50mcg of t4 and introducing t3. I have started on 5 in morn and 5 lunchtime. Even on that dose experienced awful headaches and pounding heart. Just starting to settle after about 10 days. Still feel unwell and unsure what to do next. Guess just saying take things slow. Good luck.
I am about to start taking Thybon t3, but I have been reading up on it all over the place - books, forums, etc - and it seems that one really important thing to take alongside t3 at the beginning is a good form of magnesium.
The reason for this is that magnesium is one of the essential building blocks of ATP, the fuel our bodies use on a cellular level. If we take t3 and are low in magnesium when we do so, then we will feel all the symptoms of magnesium deficiency very very quickly.
This is what Ray Peat PhD (a scientist specializing in women's hormones and thyroid issues since the 1960s) has to say about magnesium and t3 (also known as 'cytomel'):
Ray's response was, "Sometimes I think the products change and European thyroid supplements are unpredictable. Magnesium deficiency can cause those symptoms. Thyroid makes your cells able to use magnesium and take it up. Big organs like your skeletal muscles and bones can take up so much from your blood that your heart and brain have trouble getting any magnesium they need to respond to the thyroid and then you get an exaggerated stress of adrenaline. Doses of about 100mg at a time as you take the 1 - 2 mcg cytomel. 100mg will be enough for a few hours to respond the the dose of thyroid."
So, often when people start taking some form of t3 and have problems, it is not the t3 as such which is the problem, but the lack of magnesium to help create ATP.
I take magnesium glycinate and find that this works well for me. What also helps me to retain magnesium better (according to Ray Peat, hypothyroid people tend to lose magnesium and salt easily) is having extra salt. I had neglected to have my extra salt recently and, even though I had been more diligent about taking magnesium, I started getting toe and calf cramps again. I can testify that in my own case extra salt really helps to retain magnesium.
just so extraordinary, the variety of opinions you get from endos. I have been on Levo 100mcg for a couple of years. After having had a stroke in February 2024 ( i am 58) i discovered that this can knock out your T3. My Endo didn’t know anything about this but agree to prescribe me Thybon Henning at 40mcg a day and said not to lower the levo dose.
I did not get headaches initially but what i have come to feel is a sense of detachment from my body and life in general. I was putting this down to stroke recovery but now not so sure.
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