I just found out that the effects of an overdose of thyroxin can last for weeks. My docs don't feel qualified to answer my question. So I'll ask here: My uninformed doc upped me by 62mcg in one dose (without checking my adrenals or heart). When I had a terrible reaction, I pulled it back to 50 the next day then tried a 27mcg increase the next. So I switched to a natural supplement but I am still having some hyperthyroid episodes 12 days later. My numbers are normal. Would you stop supplementing thyroxine completely?
Thanks for your suggestions.
FYI I have *finally* been referred to an endocrinologist, so hopefully I'll get some better care.
EDIT:
TSH 4.06 (0.40 - 4.50)
FT4 0.9 (0.8 - 1.8)
FT3 3.0 (2.3 - 4.2)
B-12 575 (231 - 931)
Folate 15.4 (>=5.0)
Total 25-hydroxy vit D 52 ng/mL (30-80)
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Jampuppy
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Can you give us some idea of the time scale, here? How long after taking the extra levo did you have the reaction? Increases and decreases should only be done by 25 mcg at a time.
How much were you taking at the time of the increase? What 'natural supplement' are you now taking? It's difficult to make any suggestions without more details.
OK, so Thyro Life Force doesn't have any hormone in it, so you've been ten days without any hormone at all. It should be almost all out of your system, now. If you're still having the symptoms, then it was probably nothing to do with the levo.
Well, it's impossible to check the ingredients on the site, because you have to register. But, it says it's vegetarian, so I don't see how it could contain bits of cow. I don't know.
100 mg hypothalamus?!? Whose hypothalamus? How can they call that 'vegetarian'? Is it cabbage hypothalamus? Or pineapple hypothalamus?
Other than that, it's just the usual mishmash of bits and pieces that people think help their thyroid. Although I don't see how hypothalamus helps thyroid... Or am I missing something, here?
Oh, yes. Missed that. But, it's just the Dessicated glands, no guarantee there's any hormone in it. If there were, they wouldn't be allowed to sell it OTC.
There's also rather a lot of iodine in it. I don't think that's a very good idea.
How are your levels of ferritin - folate - B12 - VitD ?? - if low in range could be the cause of symptoms you describe. Are you taking other meds ? Gut issues ?
I am sure the adrenals were severely impacted by the overdose. I just want to make sure that by completely stopping the Thyro Life Force I won't be making things harder on myself. I'm tired of these spikes. They are almost always between 10am and noon but yesterday I had a bad one from 12:30-1:30. It was scary. I have never ever had this experience before the doc shot my dose up by 60mcg.
Thankfully I ran for years and have a very strong and healthy heart!
Hi Jam, I've read your responses. If your thyroid goes too low, your adrenals will go high. So, adrenaline will be very strong in order to make the difference. This may make it difficult to know whether you are over medicated and having hyper reactions or so low your adrenals are running to your defense. I totally stopped everything when I felt over medicated but not for long. Give your adrenals support.
Ranges ? Were you supplementing B12 at the time of the test ? Folate works with B12 in the body so it would be good to have that result. No Ferritin result - or VitD. Good levels needed for thyroid hormones to work well even in perfect health š
If those numbers represent your current thyroid status , youre hypo .
I would be upping my meds and making sure I was taking something which contained a known amount of actual thyroid hormone ,t4 or real ndt such as thyroid -s
Really? So you think I should stop the ThyroLifeForce add the Levothyroxin back in and that'll stabilise me? I do have a pill cutter and could take a very low dose - say, 25-30mcg.
I don't know anything about thyroid life force except for the discussion in this thread , but those blood levels are low for someone with hypothyroidism and the tsh is higher than recommended , suggesting you are either youre not taking enough meds or you are taking meds without enough actual hormone content .
On those bloods , i would up the t4 , and consider ditching the thyroid life force due to being unsure as to what benefits it was giving my hormone levels.
If I was disappointed with using t4 only , I would use a real ndt which has varifiable and stable t4 and T3 contents . Thyroid s can be sourced relatively easily online.
I'm just wanting to stabilise. These feelings are awful. If some of the t4 I have will even me out I'll gladly take some until I can get on something I prefer.
I would increase by 25mcg as you say you had a bad reaction to too high an increase. Then get your levels checked again in 4-6weeks.
Your t4 and T3 are well low in the range so you have some way to go , but remember,with your levels low and the higher tsh ,your own gland is giving you some hormone at the moment and when you increase your tsh will come down and your own gland will produce less , so you may feel a little worse before it gets better and think you are hyper,which would be almost impossible from where you are at the moment. Best of luck.
One quick question - how worse? I can't afford worse. I am dysfunctional as it is. I'm even thinking I should take 12.5 tonight to divert another spike and 25 in the morning.
When my T4 and T3 were normal, my TSH was 12. So I assume by lowering the TSH my thyroid stopped producing enough to keep me stable.
Yes they were checked and within range. By spikes I suppose I mean the adrenals - shaky, etc.
if your adrenals are fatigued then any increase in thyroxide will give a bad reaction as the T4 is not converting to T3 and will increase your chances of having toxaemia.
my adrenals where in failure and the Gps still told me to increase thyroxide.. hence this resulted in toxaemia . I stopped 150 at one go ... and now take natural supplements for both adrenals and thyroid ?
In January as I stumbled blindly / crawled out of the Gps room.. she said
" you can't live without thyroixde.. you'll be back begging for some "
5 months later feel better than I have in 25 years...
Well I don't know if they're fatigued. They certainly seem to be reacting very strongly to this new arrangement. Before this my levels were completely normal except for TSH, which as 12.1
I know everyone is different, but whenever I make ANY change to my Levo dose, no matter how small and no matter if it's an increase or decrease, I go through 5-6 weeks of "symptoms" before the new dose settles in and my body adapts to it. I don't care if there is any medical evidence to back it up - I know my body and after many years of dealing with this, I have seen what will happen to me, physically and emotionally, whenever I have to change my dose. Or even when I am taking temporarily taking another drug (totally unrelated to thyroid) that affects the absorption of my Levo, I go through the same thing. Once my levels are steady, I feel fine, but while they are transitioning, I feel it for 5-6 weeks.
They don't come all at once but instead fade in and out for the duration of 5-6 weeks. Irritable, moody, angry, crying, light-headed, dizzy, nauseous, diarrhea, ANXIETY, depression, rapid heartbeat, palpitations, pins and needles/tingling of skin , headache, too much energy, then crashing fatigue. Just to name a few. It throws my hormone system totally out of whack whenever I change doses.
Acceptable? Not really, but what choice do I have? I have a very sensitive system and I am very aware of every little thing that happens in my body. Knowing in advance that this is part of the process and that it won't last forever helps a lot.
You can't just assume your adrenals are playing up. Have you had a cortisol saliva test? I can't work out if you think you have low or high cortisol. Without evidence, you cannot blame your adrenals - they may be working perfectly. It could just be hormone medication or mins and vits. To be sure, you need all the information at your fingertips.
Of course I don't know. No one does. But I'm not going to sit around doing the same thing that has landed me in the ER. It is likely that the severe and sudden dip in all my levels - TSH, FT4 and FT3 has stressed my adrenals. That's all I have to go on.
Yes they do - know that is. They, like me and many others here, have had a 24 hour cortisol saliva test. It's inexpensive and accurate. You simply cannot just guess that this is your problem. Sorry, but I'm right on this.
I am in the US but this helps me to see what the test is and how to choose the right one. Unfortunately, they appear to be 3-4 times as costly here. š„
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Will leaving a 12 hour gap after a 12.5mcg dose of T3 before a TSH test be likely to spark it out of a suppressed (0.01 ) state? 
Is this as good as it gets?
Increasing NDT dose
Why is fasting important before a blood test?
How do people stop themselves from increasing their dose in desperation? 
