I just started Nature Throid yesterday with 1/4 grain i.e. 16.25 mg and I'm meant to increase it by 1/4 grain once a week until I have 65mg (4 weeks). Does someone have experience of this kind of dosage? I was told by someone that it's too low. Did your symptoms get worse while increasing the dosage as your own productions got less? Although I read somewhere that with natural thyroid your own production shouldn't get less. So any experiences on starting it?
I had lots of tiredness and get exhausted after any activity. My metabolism is totally stuck. Weight loss impossible and weight gain super easy. Numbness and tingling on skin, dry ears, bad brain fog, dizziness.
Labs:
TSH 1.75 mlU/l (Range 0.40-4.00)
Free T4 15.39 pmol/l (range 10-21)
TyglAb <15 (range <60)
TPOAb 69 kU/l (range <60)
These had increased and got better, but my functional doctor thinks that my thyroid issues have been for some years and have got on cell level so medication might help. By now the TPOAb should be normal as it's been treated with dairy-free, gluten-free diet.
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Many get confused with the mg or mcg and 65mg of NDT is equal in its effect to 100mcg of levo. So half tablet is around 50mcg of levo. Usual increases are by 25mcg so I'd take 1/4 tablet of NDT every week (or two) taking note of your pulse/temp. Any overstimulation, drop back to previous dose and that should be your optimum. Slow and steady is best. This may be helpful:
Thank you. This sounds like my dose of 65mg should be enough. And according to what you wrote my increases should be fine. We'll see how it goes. At the moment I'm feeling super tired with the first 16.25 mg.
Thank you. I fixed the 1/4 grain in the original text. I somehow wrote incorrectly. My tablets are 32.5mg so half a grain tablet so I think this got me confused. I'll see how it goes with the increases. I'll raise it to the next level next week, but then depending on how I feel I'll increase it a bit slower. How does the 65mg full dose sound to you? Is it a normal dose or could it be too low? My labs weren't the worst anymore without medication.
It's now been my second day on Nature Throid 1/4 wafer. I'm feeling worse than before. I have absolutely no energy. I had not much energy before the meds, but now I can't do much else than sit or lay down. Does this mean that my own production has got less than what the meds are giving me? And should I be worried? I really feel noticeably worse, tired and weak. When I increase the dose, does it mean that I'll feel a bit better or does my own thyroid production just get further suppressed and I'll feel worse? Thanks.
I noticed that the 1/4 wafer of Nature Throid is making me quite stimulated. With heart doing skips and just feeling jittery. This is probably why I'm also feeling very tired. I'll see if it goes away as I've understood that the T3 in it can be VERY stimulating to people who have never had it before. So the tiredness comes from the overstimulation.
I can comment about Nature Throid only from my point of view as I have no thyroid gland (RAI). I feel normal after a very slow start over a year ago. My Endocrinologist (NHS) is happy to support my self medication but cannot prescribe. He is actually a Thyroid specialist and emphasised to me the importance of keeping T3 in range and always monitor it also to note early morning temp and pulse - before sitting or getting up from bed!!
I note that you do not state T3 reading. This is now not often done unless private testing. Does your doctor understand that this is important?
Thank you for your advise. I thought I put my Free T3, which is 4.15 (range 3.5-6.5). I have a private doctor. My labs had all improved since last time even without medication. So we are monitoring the T3. I just forgot to put it in my post. I'm feeling still a lot worse today. Nausea, unbelievable fatigue (which I had already mostly stopped having without meds), heart doing big moves and a multiple ones more. Last week I was travelling and now I'm pretty much in bed. I have so many side effects with the meds that I decided not to take it tomorrow and call the doc for the first thing on Monday morning.
There are a variety of reasons that you may not be feeling well, including adrenal issues, iron levels, allergy to the NDT, etc. My guess is that it's because you are under-dosed however.
Our bodies produce roughly the equivalent of 3-4 grains of NDT per day. This is a ROUGH estimate and an average - we're all individual. Keep in mind that not everything you ingest gets absorbed 100%. I don't know what the absorption rates of NDT are, but levothyroxine (Synthroid) has approximately a 60-80% absorption range in most people for example. The rest is waste.
When you start supplementing thyroid medication, your own thyroid decreases its own production of hormones fairly quickly. This is especially true when you take T3 in any form (including NDT). The pituitary gland is VERY sensitive to the T3 you've ingested and will therefore stop signaling your own thyroid gland to produce hormone within a matter of days/weeks. As a result, you end up MORE hypothyroid than before you took medication.
Most of the top docs that have used NDT over the years have stated that most of their patients end up in the 2-4 grains/day range with 3 grains being the "average" dose. This has been stated by Dr. Lowe, Dr. Starr and many more.
So basically, you are giving your body a little hormone, your thyroid drastically cuts its production as a result and you end up with lower levels of hormone than you had previously. This is one reason why it's almost impossible to "supplement" your own thyroid production in the long run. Eventually, most people have to fully REPLACE what their own thyroid gland would output due to the "feedback loop" where your pituitary gland stops signaling your thyroid (via TSH) to produce hormone due to the high circulating hormone levels resulting from the ingestion of your thyroid meds.
Again, there is no way to know for sure why you are feeling poorly, but this scenario I've described has been true for many people. Many people don't feel well until they increase their dosage (slowly) and get towards the 2-3 grain amount. Others seem to do well on lower doses - we're all individual!
Thank you very much! I was in contact with my functional doctor and she advised to stop taking the NDT. Within a couple of days I felt noticeably better. As my own thyroid levels are pretty much normal but I have a small amount of hashimotos, we tested medication. It seems to me that the problem now is that I still have some food intolerance that needs to be discovered and some nutritional deficiencies. I will go and have some tests taken early next week. I don't seem to be absorbing the hormones into the cells.
I have recently switched ftom 100mcg Levo to one grain of Nature Throid 65mg. Reading the above do you mean I should be increasing the NT as time goes on as you state that most people are on 2/3 grains. Totally confused!
Thank you. I was testing Nature Throid a year ago and I'm not on any medications anymore. I have Hashimoto's but the antibodies are down and no hypothyroidism anymore. I have a functional doctor and a functional nutritionist I've worked with and have got good results.
Thank you for your reply. I think most of my problems are due to malabsorption and some food intolerances as I seem to fluctuate between feeling great to having brain fog, constipation and fatigue. Would love to find a functional doctor to work with and get off all thyroid meds so fingers crossed!
I had a lot of issues with malabsorption and lots of food sensitivities. Gut health is the number one thing to take care of with thyroid issues. A lot of thyroid issues come from the gut and/or stress. I had a bad Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth that caused bad malabsorption and a whole stack of food sensitivities and made a big mess of my hormones. I had a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (in bed/sofa most of the time for 1.5 years). Now I still have some issues with food sensitivities and some other things, but I'm able to go to part time work now instead of staying in bed and sofa. So I definitely recommend a functional doctor together with a functional nutritionist (for supplements and the correct diet for the situation). And I find that my own initiative has been very important. I've studied everything possible involved as much as possible so I can understand everything that was/is happening.
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PLEASE HELP - Should I increase NDT?
need help understanding my results pls!
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