3 years Thyroidectomy

palberts01

You might want to run a 24 hour adrenal tests w/DHEA . Any T3/NDT can unmask adrenal insufficiencies make it difficult to raise T3/NDT . Meanwhile I would suggest Vitamin "C" , B-12/folate Iron If you test low (ferritin) , B-Complex , Selenium .

Please read SeasideSusies Excellent Posts on the right Nutrients for us .

SlowDragon Great Posts on Gluten Free .

Best Wishes .

Hi palberts01, Your thyroid results show that your freeT3 is too low. This is the result that most closely matches thyroid symptoms. Ideally it should be close to the top of the range but your is well below halfway.

Your freeT4 is fairly high, so you don't necessarily want to increase that. You've got a conversion problem. When you take Levothuroxine, which only contains T4, your body has to convert that into T3 to use it. T3 is the active form, and T4 is an inactive storage form. Many of us, especially when we're ill, are not so good at doing this conversion. The solution to this is to take T3 itself.

You've struggled to raise T3 in the past. This is quite a common problem, and is caused by having sluggish adrenal glands. All you can do is work towards the point when you'll be able to take T3 and raise your levels. There are 3 routes to take, ideally work on them all at once.

1) Get the 24hr saliva cortisol test and see where you are. The NHS won't do this, so you'll have to go into it yourself. The ThyroidUK website has advice for how to do this. Then you'll need to look into improving the levels.

2) Make sure your vitamins are good, they probably won't be, as that contributes to unpleasant symptoms when trying T3. Get tests for ferritin, folate, vit B12 and vit D. Sounds like you are already working on vit D. With a level like 22, which is very low, you want to take high loading doses for a couple of months, maybe 5 or 6000 international units.

3) Try to raise T3 super slow. This means getting a razor blade or pill crusher and finding the tiniest piece of tablet you can reliably set aside. Try taking this tiny bit and see if you get the racing symptoms. If you feel okay, stick with this daily dose for several weeks. Then try to add a second tiny piece. If you get symptoms, drop back, if you feel fine, stick with that for several more weeks. I've heard it can take up to 12 weeks for some, although usual raises are every 6 weeks. Your goal is to get up to about 10mcg, and see what your blood tests look like at that point.

These three all support each other, so once you make progress on one the others will come easier.