Well, had you asked what they meant, people would have explained. It means that you have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - aka Autoimmune thyroiditis. It's an autoimmune disease, where the immune system attacks the thyroid and slowly destroys it. Which means that your levels will jump up and down because the dying cells deposit their stock of hormone in the blood.
As you only mentioned conversion, people got stuck talking about that.
looks to me like you’re not absorbing all that levothyroxine at anywhere near the 80% max! Maybe!?.....
You could try splitting the levo dose late pm early am ensure well away from food if not already
You could try taking some T3 either in desiccated thyroid or pure synthetic, that would quieten down your TSH without overloading you with t4. But remember tsh doesn’t just signal the thyroid to produce t4 it also signals intra cellular conversion of t4 to T3 so don’t suppress it?... TSH ranging from 1-4 over the 24 hr circadian rythyms is probably ok and normal.
It could be just as likely that over medicating with t4 is a factor in the ‘I’m a poor converter issue’ ... ... aside from the possible benefit for a euthyroid amount of free t3 as a supplement for a primary hypothyroid patient, allowing TSH to go low is a logical culprit for reduced t4 - t3 conversion, along with overly high free T4, both factors Can have a negative feedback influence.....
The balance is super fine tuning in management of hashimotoes
The less stimulation there is to the gland, the less there is to the immune system to attack the gland.
Obviously over medicating with T4 is a factor in poor conversion, but just one factor out of many possible factors, as is low TSH - although her TSH isn't low in those results above, but they're not even her latest results, so I don't really know why we're discussing them.
We have to make a choice, do we want to keep the TSH in range so badly for the sake of a slightly improved conversion - because it's unlikely to be the TSH the sole factor in the poor conversion - or do we want to even out the misery of swinging between hypo and hyper by suppressing the TSH, and at the same time, slow down the destruction of our gland? Seems like an obvious choice to me. I'm all for adding in T3 and to hell with the TSH.
You need to be properly optimised where the TSH is under 1 (0.25-0.5 ideally) and free T 4 and free T3 in the upper third of their range - your symptoms should abait and you should get better absorption of minerals vitamins etc although you may still need to supplement.
I felt dreadful with a TSH of 6 with Pretty much all of the symptoms you list except I was post menopausal.
Nobody can know, especially from a distance, what someones balanced TSH ‘should’ be.... its a totally unique to the individual dynamic equilibrium with t3 and t4....
Where’s the solid evidence that a particular individual should have a tsh of way less than 1?.....
Thats what the physician to the Queen when she is is Scotland says - he is well respected and called Anthony Toft you should read his statements they are very enlightening. We may not know what a persons optimal TSH is but as the median is between 1 and 2 and if you have hypothyrodism you loose the T3 you used to make then under 1 is recommended by Toft. It was exactly what my endocrinologist aimed for in my case and Guys & St Thomas’ is a well rgespected hospital
Are you suggesting 6 is normal? Where is your evidence to supporters rt - that you could try that joke Pearce who thinks a thyroid hormones is actually a narcotic drug
Hi kaytee... I would say you definitely need all the vitamin supplementation ASAP to bring those up to scratch first as they are heavily involved for converting t4 to t3... it’s no wonder you’re not converting well?
Also removal of t3 so quickly can sometimes make ur body crash and vitamins too.
Get ur doctor to give u b12 injections, loading doses of vitamin D and start supplementing with folic acid also. You’ll never feel well whilst those vitamins are that low (I can personally attest to that too!) most of your symptoms could be linked to almost all of those
In the meantime they could hopefully up your thyroxine again as your 175mcg results showed normal free t4 range at least. May need to source t3 separately but def sort those vitamins out ASAP I would say
Kaytee your ferritin, B12, vitamin D and folate are way too low which I feel would be causing a lot of your symptoms you listed. I would not be able to function if mine was as low as that. Low B12 gives me such a muddled brain I have to be over a 1000.
On a side note, if constipation is still an issue, as a major issue for thyroid problems, try increasing the fat content of your diet. Decrease or cut out the bread, potatoes, sugar, rice, milk and yoghurt.
Oil such as good mayonnaise (no sugar), olive oil, butter, and especially coconut oil and coconut milk. Works well in coffee. Will have you trotting off to bathroom alright - enough fat in our diets helps reduce constipation
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.