Hello there. I am hypothyroid and take 3 grains of dessicated thyroid a day. My hair has been falling out very excessively for 2 months. I believe half is gone. I am starting to panic. I had my blood work done and my levels are within range. I am wondering if I would benefit from adding synthetic t4. Any advice would be welcome. Thank you.
Free T4: 15 ( 11-23)
Free T3: 5 ( 3.5-6.5)
Just being 'in-range', is not good enough. It's not the same as 'optimal'.
The most important number is the FT3. Yours is just exactly mid-range. That is too low, for the majority of people, so you have plenty of room for an increase.
And, it does seem rather low for someone taking NDT. So, the next question is : how do you take your NDT? Do you take it on an empty stomach, at least an hour before eating or drinking anything other than water, and at least two hours away from other medication or supplements?
Your FT4 is under mid-range, but that is usual when taking NDT. I cannot see the utility of taking extra T4 - and, frankly, synthetic T4 could make your hair-loss worse. What you need to do is work on the absorption and conversion of the hormone you are already taking.
To that end, have you had your vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested? These all need to be optimal for your body to be able to absorb and use NDT. And, how about antibodies? Have they been tested?
Both T3 and T4 are important. I couldn't be on just NDT. I had to add some levothyroxine to the mix. On just NDT alone, my T3 was too high, my T4 was too low. I was hyper and hypo at the same time. I did some research and found that the problem with using pig thyroid in humans is there is too much T3. Pig thyroid has 1 part T3 to 4 parts T4. Humans are 1 part T3 to 15+ T4. A human just won't feel good on pig thyroid alone. You will continually crash or be hyper. My knees are wrecked because of this. What I'm doing is slowly switching out some of my NDT with levothyroxine. I am sleeping so much better, feeling so much better.
What amazes me is NDT people are just as extreme as T4 people. There's no flexibility in their thinking. It's all or nothing. Some of us are not OK on either of those options. A combination. It is not rubbish. It's science and another reminder that we all are not the same.
I absolutely agree. It's horrible for anybody to believe their way is the only way, and they should know better, assuming they were sick once also. Thank you for sharing your experience, I am going to start to try this. 💕
I am currently on 1.5 grains of NDT and 50mcgs of T4. My thyroid was destroyed by radioactive iodine for Graves 40 years ago. My thyroid is functionally dead. I need to try and replicate the natural function of my thyroid as best as I can. I'm not a pig. I need more T4. What's interesting is it was recently discovered that the brain has T4 receptors. I couldn't sleep well with low T4. Adding T4 did the trick
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