T3 dosing questions

[Kc885]

I take 50-75mcg of t4 and 12.5-15mcg of t3 per day. I recently have been toying with dosing times in hopes of finding balance. I take 7.5-10mcg of t3 with the levothyroxine two hours before other supplements and breakfast, and have tried adding in the remaining 5mcg in the afternoon, around 6-8 hours after my initial dose, but have felt a little off for an hour after. Today almost immediately after my second dose I noticed I felt a little less mentally sharp, almost dumb/couldn't think as clearly and had minor coordination issues. I recently upped my dose of t3 to 15mcg due to lab results coming in low. Is this common or has anyone else experienced this cognitive effect? I also tried for 4 or so days taking it all first thing with the levo, but found myself a little more tired later in the day, though I could think more clearly. Would it be wise to take the second dose perhaps before bed or just all at one in the AM?

My last labs came in back in October, with my previous dose of 50-75mcg levo plus 10mcg of t3 and showed as follows:

TSH: .29 (.4-4.2)

FT4: .9 (.8-1.9)

FT3: 2.8 (2.3-4.2)

I had mistakenly taken my morning dosages 1 hour prior to labs being drawn, thus I believe my free t3 likely was lower than indicated.

As for my present situation, I'm still generally fatigued and heavily depressed, and ultimately have only upped t3 by 5mcg. I have experimented with higher t3 doses in the past, and found no issues taking a larger (20-25mcg) dose in the morning. Perhaps the afternoon dose triggers anxiety upon its onset of dispersion? Any thoughts are much appreciated.

[marsaday]

Your reaction is a good indicator of what is happening. It is ilkley you do not have enough cortisol in the afternoon to use the t3. The extra small amount of t3 has upset your balance.

How do you feel not taking any more t3.?

You may have reached your limit with the daily amount of t3 you can use. Many people over use t3 and actually need only small amounts per day eg 5mcg.

However your blood results do look low but your tsh is also very low. This means you are carrying a low level of thyroid in your system but the body thinks it has a lot.

When this happens it indicates your thyroid hormone is not getting into the cells and is sitting around in the blood. Again this indicates low cortisol levels.

Taking the t4 at bedtime can aid cortisol production and is more natural for us to take it at bedtime. So give this a try.

I would lower the t3 intake as well at the moment and increase t4 to 100.

However don’t do theses things all at once. If you are going to change the timings do this first and wait 2 weeks before any increase

[Kc885 in reply to marsaday]

Thank you. If I skip the t3 I feel very slow/cold/foggy and can't wake up in the morning. I may try taking t4 at bedtime as you've advised and see how it goes.

[Clutter]

Kc885,

FT3 is very low so why not try 10mcg T3 with Levothyroxine in the morning and a second 10mcg dose T3 at bedtime.

[Kc885]

I'm trying this today and will report back on how I feel.

Thanks