I don’t know what to do or who to talk to - so I’ve come here.
Usually I’m on 100mcg T4 and 25mcg - there’s more in my last post - but I reduced my T3 about 10 days go to 20mcg which after 3 days was clearly not enough. So I have reinstated my 25mcg for the last 4 days. A change I made was taking 15mcg at 7 and 10mcg at 13.30 (close to lunch) because of talk here about keeping T3 away from food.
Last night at 23.00 lying in bed my heart rate went to 140 for about half an hour. For the rest of the night it was in 90s, high and low. Although I did see a 79 even now at 08.00 it’s 90 again.
I wonder if I am now overmedicated as I move to taking more without food. Or if there is another reason.
What does anyone think about how I should take my T3 today ? I’m scared to take any - but also scared not to. (I have already taken my T4 today)
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hobbycat
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Hi Hobbycat, I have looked at your previous posts where you said 'I don't experience flares or hyper times', but what you are feeling now could well be an autoimmune flare. Symptoms are very similar to being overmedicated. Removing gluten from my diet made a huge difference to me and my body's ability to deal with T3 (I take NDT). Unless you give it a go, for a month, say, you won't know if that is what is causing these unpleasant symptoms. Dairy can also be problematic. I took the diet one step further and adopted the Autoimmune Protocol, but this is not for the faint-hearted. I went from bedridden to recovery in about two years. Here is a really good article about gluten by Amy Myers, a doctor of functional medicine:
Another reason for not being able to tolerate T3 is poor adrenal function, with high or low cortisol. This page from Stop the Thyroid Madness explains adrenal fatigue:
In terms of dosing, if I were you, I would leave out the T3 today and start tomorrow on a dose in between 25 and 20, as you say 20 isn't enough and you feel over medicated on 25. Can you chop a 5 mcg pill in half so you take 22 1/2?
Once I had removed gluten from my diet I was able to raise the NDT to an optimal dose i.e. whereby I was symptom free and my free T3 was in the upper end of the range. Before that I was unable to take enough T3, my free T3 levels were always on the low side, despite having medium range free T4, which means I was not converting T4 to T3. Chronic inflammation meant reduced production of thyroid hormones from my already damaged thyroid gland. Although my thyroid gland is now too small to ever function properly, I am able to maximise the replacement hormones I take.
Yes, I had a lot of classic symptoms of gluten intolerance, which you can easily look up on the internet. I chose to go gluten free because I followed the Autoimmune Protocol, which excludes gluten, along with many other inflammatory foods, and felt much better.
In case anyone is interested I am two days on from my obvious overmedication (fri) I took 5mcg on sat at lunchtime and had 120 heart rate at 2am. Today (sun) I have only taken my T4. Today is the calmest and liveliest my body has been for a while. My resting heart rate is back to mid 70s which is normal for me. I would love to think I don’t need T3 though I expect the pendulum will swing very soon. Does anyone think NDT would be a softer option for me ?
And a further update on Monday, my resting heart rate this morning was 63 (before T3 it was 60-62). So I think my body couldn’t take my normal T3 dose when I took more away from food ! And the excess T3 has kept me going for the last couple of days. Well there’s a learning !
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