T3

When starting t3 only is it life threatening to go without it for a day . I've heard you can go into a coma if you miss it.

All sound very worrying to me.

Risky.

[Hidden]

I have never heard that before. I think you can go into a coma if you are an untreated hypo person but certainly not for missing a dose of T3. I suppose if you missed a dose you might feel a bit tired but nothing serious.

[Hidden]

Why would you go without it for a day? It has a shorter half life although can't remember the number. It's riskier to not take any thyroid meds if you need them.

[Justiina]

I have heard that too but it has been doctors over here in Finland scaring patients not to take t3. "That if you run out or miss a dose you will end up in hospital so we don't prescribe t3".

[shaws Administrator in reply to Justiina]

See my response below.

[Eddie83 in reply to Justiina]

OH NO! Sorry to hear you have ignorant docs in Finland, too.

[Ruthi]

T3 has a serum half life of 8-10 hours. So if you miss a dose there will be hardly any in your blood any more. But once in the cells it's a different matter. The late great Dr Skinner said it's effects lasted two weeks! So no, you won't be able to use it as a suicide method.

[jimh111]

Liothyronine (L-T3) tablets have a half-life of 1 to 2 days in adults. Half-lives get difficult to understand as sometimes it is not clear whether they refer to T3 from tablets or T3 in the blood from the thyroid. Also as concentrations fall I suspect the half-life increases as the body adapts and slows down.

You would only go into a coma after a number of days without L-T3 if you have no thyroid output. I've never heard of this happening. The simple answer would be to include some levothyroxine (say 50 mcg), there would be a safety net.

It is important to monitor signs and symptoms, especially pulse and hand tremor in order to avoid over-treatment.

[shaws Administrator]

No, it is not life-threatening or go into a coma missing one day's T3.

I think a lot of rumours abound about T3 as the doctors/endos don't want to prescribe and for that reason misinformation is the result.

Even though T3 (liothyronine) is absorbed into our blood stream quickly it's effect doesn't begin until it is in our Receptor Cells, thereafter one dose will last for between 1 to 3 days.

I myself have deliberately missed a day's dose before a blood test and I had no bad 'affects' whatsoever.

If you look up side effects for levothyroxine as compared to Cytomel T3 you will find:-

Levothyroxine may cause side effects. Some common ones include:

Weight loss

Tremor

Headache

Nausea

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Stomach cramps

Nervousness

Irritability

Insomnia

Excessive sweating

Increased appetite

Fever

Changes in menstrual cycle

Sensitivity to heat

Temporary hair loss, especially among children during the first month of treatment

More serious side effects can also occur. If you have any of these side effects, stop taking levothyroxine and get medical treatment right away:

Chest pain

Rapid or irregular heartbeat or pulse

everydayhealth.com/drugs/le...

Your doctor’s false belief about the use of T3 isn’t unusual. Many doctors believe that T3 is dangerous. When pharmacists fill prescriptions for Cytomel, however, they often give patients a leaflet that makes the safety of T3 perfectly clear. Verbatim, the leaflet reads: "NO COMMON SIDE EFFECTS HAVE BEEN REPORTED with the proper use of this medicine." (Medi-Span, Inc.: Database Version 97.2. Data © 1997.) When used with reasonable precaution, T3 is perfectly safe.

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

[Hidden in reply to shaws]

Thank you for that information, it is very reassuring to me.

I feel more confident in using t3.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Hi jobeth, I had a friend whose thyroid was removed due to cancer that had spread to her lungs. She was treated with radiation for the lung cancer but before they treated her she had to abstain from her thyroid meds for thirty days. I don't know how she managed but she did that each year for five years. The body is remarkable though and will find a way to serve the purposes of survival and no one may actually know how.

[SilverAvocado in reply to shaws]

Just to agree with Shaws, I have experienced going from all T3 to breaks of 10-17 days several times. I have no thyroid so that is total cold turkey!

In the UK this is the routine method of taking thyroid cancer patients down to a no-thyroxine state so they can have RAI treatment.

Absolutely no comas involved, and not even any special monitoring, I was at home alone most of the time. I had TSH in the 200 range was rather grey in colour, and about as mobile and cheerful as you'd expect. But it wasn't actually as bad as I was thinking it would be.

[Hidden in reply to SilverAvocado]

Unbelievable, well that's remarkable. It's awful for people to be made fearful by some doctors when everything has failed treatment wise and t3 alone is something that can really change your life for the best in some.

Thank you

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

I'm sorry to say but I think doctors use the fear "tool" quite often.

[Heloise in reply to SilverAvocado]

I should have read your reply first.

[shaws Administrator]

Just another point re T3 - extract:

My impression is that most endocrinologists have had little-to-no clinical experience with T3-containing products. Perhaps because of that, they haven’t learned that the adverse effects from peak T3 levels that they so often warn against seldom if ever occur. Their false belief that adverse effects do occur, however, serves well the financial interests of corporations that market T4 products, such as Synthroid. Some endocrinologists may not be cognizant of it, but when they parrot this false belief, they’re taking part in their profession’s quid pro quo for the enormous financial and nonfinancial incentives that T4-marketing corporations lavish on their specialty

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

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Coma is a late-stage symptom - before the days of thyroid hormone medicines, typically after ten or more years of progressively worsening hypothyroidism.

Go to this page and search the age for the word "coma":

thyroidmanager.org/chapter/...

[Clutter]

Jobeth, Thyroidless thyCa patients are typically off Levothyroxine 4 weeks and T3 2 weeks to clear thyroid hormone prior to RAI. I was off T3 for 4 weeks with no T4 in my system. I was very hypothyroid with TSH 107, could hardly get out of bed but I don't think I was anywhere near approaching serious illness or coma.

[Hidden]

Omg, you're brave.

[Eddie83]

Assuming you achieve euthyroid status, you can expect the half-life of T3 to be ~12 hours. So if you dose yourself only once/day, your T3 level could drop to about 1/4 of its peak value. I don't see how that could be life-threatening, at all.

Keep in mind that some people who use T3 can get along quite nicely on one dose per day. The late John Lowe stated that he took just one dose (150mcg) per day, and did quite well on that regimen. Some of us who are or have been on T3-only, who were exposed to (what I now consider) the B.S. of Wilson's Syndrome and time-release T3, did dose ourselves multiple times per day with non-time-release T3. For instance, I was on 5*12.5mcg Cytomel doses per day while on T3-only, because i did not like the expense of, and additives in, time-release T3.

I am now back on T3+T4. I take both once/day.

[Hidden in reply to Eddie83]

Thanks for that information. May I ask what time of day do you dose the full amount.

[Eddie83 in reply to Hidden]

I dose everything at bedtime, mostly because T3 is known to support the adrenals when used at bedtime or during the night. (See Paul Robinson's book.)

[Hidden in reply to Eddie83]

Thanks I'll read it. I just noticed with small amount I've started on, that the bed time dose makes me sleep great but ndt never ever did that. Well good health for new year to you. Thanks again.

[Eddie83 in reply to Hidden]

My recollection is that NDT has T3:T4 ratio of 1:4. But some people do benefit from more T3 than that.