Overdid it on my thyroid meds and having hyper symtoms

How many days should I refrain from taking medicine before resuming a lower dose. Was taking 100 mcg for a couple of weeks and should be taking 88 or 75 mcg

All input appreciated.

[Hidden]

I took more since I was having increased joint pain and fatigue which turned out to be the flu. Are you suggesting leaving out the 5 mcg of T3?

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

So, you've been taking 100 mcg Levo and 5 mcg for the last two weeks, is that correct? Well, that's hardly an enormous dose. Do you feel hyper? If not, I would just go back to the 75 Levo you were on before and continue that plus the 5 mcg T3. It's not going to do you any harm that small extra dose for such a short time.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Yes I still feel hyper so I'm thinking of taking a day off from all thyroid meds.

[faith63]

Do you have any labs? You may not be hyper, but t4 toxic, if you don't convert well. Continued hypo symptoms, plus added hyper type symptoms, mean possible toxicity.

[milkwoman in reply to faith63]

Curious, what are the symptoms of T4 toxicity?

[faith63 in reply to milkwoman]

trembling, racing heart, anxiety, diarrhea..same as hyper. This is why i ask if you have free t4 and free t3 labs for me to look at.

[milkwoman in reply to faith63]

Thanks. I'm not the original poster but was just curious as to what "T4 toxicity" was. I had not heard of it before.

[Hidden in reply to milkwoman]

Hyperthyroid symptoms some of which are in the previous post which could leaf to serious health problems.

[Hidden in reply to faith63]

No current labs but am due at the end of the month.

[faith63 in reply to Hidden]

will you be able to get free t3 and free t4? It could shed some light on this. The truth is many need t3 meds, to do better.

[Hidden in reply to faith63]

Yes. The scientific literature indicates that T3 need is a low percentage but I am open minded about the future.

[faith63 in reply to Hidden]

i am snot sure what you mean by what you said..t3 is the active hormone...it is converted from the t4 in levo. T4 is a pro hormone and does nothing. t3 does it all..

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Sorry for the smartphone takeover.

I was trying to say that the scientific literature sez that conversion to T3 is a minority percentage of cases.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I meant poor conversion to T3 is the exception to the rule per scientific literature.

[eeng]

100 mcg is not very much more than 75 or 88. One or maybe two days without T4 should be enough. Do you actually have any symptoms?

[Hidden]

Yes. Frequent bowel movements, joint pain, insomnia. Thanx for the reply.

[Heloise]

It's anyone's guess without know more. Since you have started T3, I'd be inclined to drop all levo for two or three days and just continue T3. The two-week half life of Levo will drop so slowly that it won't be that noticeable. If that doesn't help, you could also drop T3 until you do improve.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Thank you all. I Probably will stop the T3 since it has a short half life and return to 75 mcg, maybe 88 mcg of levothy and sweat it out for a week or so.

I weigh 53 kg and have subclinical hypothyroid so I probably don't need a large dose.

It remains to be seen how well I convert to T3. I get very impatient with the process since I haven't yet felt myself for any period of time. AND the fact that I work in a medical clinic and catch numerous viruses--8 last year--further confounds the issue.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Have you checked your vitamin D level; it's very involved with immunity.

Weight and metabolism are not that interdependent.

"It remains to be seen how well I convert to T3."

If that is still questionable, it probably wasn't a good idea to raise your levo.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Vitamin D is fine.

Thank you

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Being 53 kg has nothing to do with your dose. Nor does so-called 'subclinical' hypo. I Don't believe in subclinical hypo - either you are or you aren't. And as doctors really have no idea whether you are or not, it doesn't mean much.

What were your results when you were diagnosed? If the TSH was over three, then you were hypo. No subclinical about it. The ranges are a nonsense.

So, all that to say, you can't judge your dose by that! lol You can only know if you are on the right dose when your symptoms go away. You can't guess in advance how much you are going to need. And, if you have Hashi's, you are just going to go on needing more and more until your gland is completely destroyed.

A lot of hyper and hypo symptoms cross over. So, if you lower your dose too much, you may find they weren't hyper symptoms after all, and you are hypo again. And the fact that you haven't felt well since you started suggests that you've never been on a high enough dose. How long have you been on the 75/88 dose? It is very important to know if you are converting, but with such a low dose, you Don't have very much to convert, really.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

I agree that hypo and hyper share similar symptoms.

Mt TSH on do last fall was 6.6. And much of the literature defines subclinical hypothyroid as 4 to 10.

I started 75 mcg in Nov and My TSH fell to 1.49 after 5 weeks. No values for T3 and t4. Since I still didn't feel myself I increased the dose to 88 mcg plus 5 mcg liothyronine. After a month on this I got hyper symptoms and cut out the liothyronine. Did ok on this. for a 7 to 10 days until I started having aches pains and fatigue which turned out to be the flu. I then gradually switched to 60 mg armour which is roughly equivalent to 100 mcg levo about 2 weeks ago. Just started with the hyper symtoms a few days ago.

The pattern I see is that I am not only changing things around too much but also that hyper symptoms start when I'm around 100 mcg and/or when T3 is involved.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

I agree, you are changing things around too much! You're not giving anything a chance to work.

However, it looks like your body is having trouble dealing with the hormone you're giving it. So, next step should be to check out your nutrient levels - can't see if that's been mentioned anywhere. You need optimal levels of

vit D

vit B12

folate

ferritin

zinc

for your body to be able to absorb and convert your thyroid hormone replacement correctly.

[Hidden]

I'm all good on the nutrient lab work.

I'm just in a quandary of where to restart. I'm thinking of 75 mcg levo and giving that three months. The first time around I gave it six weeks. I've read it can take 4 or more months for things to stabilize. Do you agree?

[Jazzw in reply to Hidden]

So am I right to think that it isn't a question of stopping T3 - you're talking about stopping NDT and returning to Levo?

If so...

60mg is only a grain. I would be astonished if you really were experiencing hyper symptoms on a grain of NDT - that's not a high dose by any stretch and not equivalent to 100mcg of levo in my book - more like 75mcg, although there's no easy comparison as it's like trying to compare apples with oranges.

Frequent bowel movements may have nothing to do with what you're taking, might just be the end of that flu. I'd recommend sticking to your plan, not changing yet again. Your poor body - all that chopping and changing is confusing the heck out of it.

[Marz in reply to Hidden]

Having been on this forum for many years - I have seen many results of vitamins and minerals that are allegedly good.  I do think for people to be able to comment knowledgeably it would help if you posted your levels of B12 - Ferritin - Folate - VitD.  Being in range is not sufficient - but WHERE they are in the range is key.  Being optimal with the aforementioned is so important for you to feel well and for your Thyroid hormones to work efficiently.  I was told my B12 was fine for years - and unkowingly my spinal cord was being compromised ..... so yes B12 is important and needs to be around 1000.

Also post your levels of FT4 and FT3 - I cannot think why anyone would introduce T3 into a regime without knowing those levels and of course changing things often confuses the body even more.  Do you have thyroid anti-bodies ? - have they been tested ?

I did a spreadsheet of all my results over a period of time - TSH - FT4 - FT3 - Anti-TPO - Anti-Tg - to present to my GP.  It clearly indicated that the T4 was not converting into T3 and the latter was prescribed.

If you work in a clinic then surely you must be aware that advice cannot be given without a detailed work-up and background history ......

DlO2 gene anyone ??

[Hidden in reply to Marz]

I was negative for antibodies but the TSH of 1.49 was all that the endo took at the time.

I'm scheduled to have more complete blood work soon by another provider.

[Marz in reply to Hidden]

Oh dear - well that doesn't really tell you anything - does it ?  Hopefully your next blood work will be more thorough.  Don't forget the vitals - B12 - FERRITIN - FOLATE - VITD - if they are not optimal then no thyroid medicine will work efficiently .....

[Heloise]

stopthethyroidmadness.com/t...