Hey guys just curious to know typically how long before people who have had their doses increased or reduced noticed a change in their well being. It's been just over 2 weeks since my Levo was increased and I have to say I feel so much better already. My hair loss is slowing down and my weight has stablised. Brain fog seems to be lifting also.
After I got my dose increase I also started taking selenium with zinc as I've read some great studies about it reducing Thyroid antibodies and inflammation along with the Zinc helping support immune system function.
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Karenk13
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There are no rules or timescale...depends on things like how long or how severe you have had low thyroid hormones, whether your Vit D, b12, folate, ferritin etc are optimum or deficient etc in the first place, whether you convert T4 to active T3, whether you are Hashimoto's and having 'flares' , whether low gluten diet works etc....But I am surprised you've noticed any improvements with hair - usually takes 3 months to make a difference. Sounds like your hypothyroidism has been caught early..hope improvements keep on coming, and remain.
Judithdalston of course there are alot of variable and everyone will be different it's more from a curiousity point of view. Unfortunately I've been hypo since my daughter was born 10 years ago and up until recently it has been fairly well managed but in the last few months my TSH has gone up significantly. I've had alopecia type hairloss since I was diagnosed and always have patches I regularly loose handfuls of hair in the shower but over the last few days I've noticed very little coming out. No regrowth of the existing patches but I wouldn't expect that this early. I'm just glad it's stopped falling out to some degree.
Also had shocking low Iron levels along with a saturation level of only 6% so perhaps it's the Iron supplements which have cause the improvement rather than the increase in Levo.
I nearly asked how your iron was doing re hair loss, though of course it could have been low zinc etc etc too; hopefully that was the problem identified/solved. I'm still waiting for hypo (and fibromyalgia- undermedicated hypo) improvement 12 years on, but early this year added T3 too..optimistic I'll get there soon, but so many of those who are active on the forum are problematic , the 'cured' aren't on here, so it's biased! Good luck.
It takes around 2 weeks for increases to be absorbed and for us to feel an improvement. However, if you are still symptomatic in some areas you should get a small increase in levo every two weeks (but doubt your doctor will do what I've sugested as is not what he's been told to do. I wont say 'trained' because they are usually untrained in clinical symptoms as that is what thyroid hormone replacements are supposed to do - by gradual dose increases until all symptoms are relieved.
Your B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate should be checked. All have to be optimal.
Thanks Shaws yeh I'm back in with him in 4 weeks for a review of dosage and repeat bloods. in Fairness my GP is pretty good with these things only thing deficicent for me was Iron which I've been put on a strong supplement for and he's also temporarily stopped my periods (with my agreement) to help me recover as my levels were very very low. He already got me checked via scopes for other causes of anemia too just to rule other causes out so we have agreed it is most definitely being caused by 2 things both diet and the Thyroid issue. I've had experience with one of the other doctors in the practice in the last few months while my normal GP was on holidays and lets say it went pretty badly to put it mildly.
We'll be kind to your doctor. Has he checked for pernicious anaemia as that can be quite common with autoimmune disease. If we've got one we can get more than one - which isn't welcome news.
if your levels are mid range there's a problem. We should have our numbers towards the top. If he's sure you don't have P.A. you can supplement with Methylcobalamin B12 sublingual tablets to bring it towards the upper part of the range.
I find that improvement creeps up on me very slowly, it's very subtle, I notice sometime between 6-8 weeks that I feel different, and it needs 8 weeks to show in my blood results.
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yeh I'm back in with him in 4 weeks for a review of dosage and repeat bloods. in Fairness my GP is pretty good with these things only thing deficicent for me was Iron which I've been put on a strong supplement for and he's also temporarily stopped my periods (with my agreement) to help me recover as my levels were very very low. He already got me checked via scopes for other causes of anemia too just to rule other causes out so we have agreed it is most definitely being caused by 2 things both diet and the Thyroid issue. I've had experience with one of the other doctors in the practice in the last few months while my normal GP was on holidays and lets say it went pretty badly to put it mildly.
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