Hello. I've been on T3 only for a couple of years but with mixed results. I was very unwell at the start of this year and my new GP has prescribed armour thyroid. She is starting me off very slowly on 1/4 of a grain, gradually increasing to a half and I still take some T3 during the changeover. However, I have tried on a couple of occasions to increase the armour from 1/4 to 1/2 grain and find I get a new and weird tiredness. It is not the awful toxic tiredness I got on T4, almost like a feeling of gentle sedation spreading through every cell in my body. It doesn't make me feel ill or agitated, just hugely tired in a genial kind of way. Really odd.
Last time this happened I went back to 1/4 grain and the feeling went. I have tried again increasing to 1/2 this week and the feeling is back. I just want to sleep and am back to thinking it is time for bed at 7.30/8pm after having slept in the afternoon and having not done much during the day and having to push through to do what little I did.
Both T4 and T3 made me feel like I was being poisoned when I first took them. Is this tiredness with the armour something I just have to put up with initially? I guess in terms of side-effects it is an improvement, because although it is limiting, it is not making me feel ill.
T3 often made me feel agitated and I feel much calmer on armour so I would like it to work. I am quite bewildered by this reaction as my gut instinct has been that armour is right for me.
Has anyone else had an experience like this with armour?
Thanks
Dee
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Dee1
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hi, dee. i don't have an answer for you (sorry!), but just wanted to let you know that i experience something very similar. for me it's actually nice, though: when i take my early morning dose (at around 5 or 6 a.m., when i first wake up accidentally), my sleep for an hour or 2 after the dose is deeper than anything i've ever experienced in my life. it's almost like having taken a sedative and actually feels good and somehow profound. my afternoon dose doesn't do this at all. i wonder if heloise is onto something when she mentions that it might have to do with cortisol. the T3CM method of taking thyroid meds (which i did much worse on) is also based on the effects of the medicine on cortisol production at different times of the day. if anyone has any further thoughts or information on this, it would be great to hear it. i've been going under the assumption that the deeper sleep is an improvement, but have no idea if that's true.
Thanks Julie. That is very interesting. I do feeler calmer on armour and T3 than I did on T3 alone. But the second dose takes me beyond calm into sedated which isn't so good. Maybe my body is just getting used to it and I need to stay longer on the lower dose before upping it. I need more energy as I am still very limited so was keen to get on to the next increase, but it had the reverse effect and the increase limited me further. Most odd.
Thanks so much for your experience. It adds to the picture.
ndt gave me a drugged feeling and a bad brain fog, after awhile i was so ill tht i had to stop it. When i tried to raise i had hyper symptoms. You will just have to try it and see what happens.
hi, dee. i just raised my dose by 1/8 grain and am having the pleasant sedation effect again and it made me wonder about how you were doing and whether or not you ever figured this out. (for me this is much better than the terrible crash i've been experiencing over the past months when trying to do a raise!) were you able to stay on armour, did you adjust, or did you have to take another route?
Hi Julie. As I am away from my doctor staying with family for a while, I have come off armour for now. I felt so unwell and could not face losing any more hair! I am back on T3, it is too early to tell how I'm doing as the body is adjusting. But my mood is ok again. I wish I could be of more help but I am in an uncertain phase re medication at the moment. I would be interested to hear how things work out for you.
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