Can you do ct3m when You're taking both t4 and t3?

[Clara9]

Or will it only work if you're on t3 only?

[shaws Administrator]

I wouldn't think so as T3 has a short half-life and T4 a long one. This is an excerpt:-

The half-life of T4 is 5-7 days; the half-life of T3 is only 1 day. Approximately 99% of the circulating thyroid hormone is bound to plasma protein and is metabolized primarily by the liver. Levels of thyroid hormones in the serum are tightly regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis.12 Oct 2016

fluoroquinolonethyroid.com/...

[Clara9 in reply to shaws]

Thanks.

I was thinking that since I'm taking 20mcg t3 I could take 10 as a ct3m dose in the middle of the night but do you think that won't work?

[shaws Administrator in reply to Clara9]

The expert I follow (he's now deceased) took T3 only himself and at a dose of 150mcg of T3 in the middle of the night so nothing interfered with it. He stated that the 'action of one daily dose of T3' was to be absorbed directly into the T3 receptor cells and then its action was by sending out 'waves' throughout the day. He had Thyroid Hormone Resistance himself and that's why he had to take a higher dose. These are three links to his Chapters on improving our health. You have to copy and paste onto a new page.

tinyurl.com/ycxpz565

tinyurl.com/ya5blrr2

tinyurl.com/y7ejh9sh

[marsaday]

I think t4 will have a positive impact on cortisol generation but it won’t be as strong as t3.

I take t4 at bedtime and it has a beneficial effect on cortisol generation but I don’t need to wake in the middle of the night to take it. Because it is slower acting, bedtime dosing works fine.

I have cortisol saliva data from myself showing t3 (taken in the early morning) really boosts cortisol production but not for the t4.

However I find t4 at bedtime does a much better job longer term and I also now don’t really use any t3.

[Clara9 in reply to marsaday]

Thanks.

I was thinking that since I'm taking 20mcg t3 I could take 10 as a ct3m dose in the middle of the night but do you think that won't work?

[marsaday in reply to Clara9]

You must become your own experiment.

Take control of changes and keep notes on the effects. Some things will work out and other things won’t.

I can’t say what level will work for you and you mustn’t follow anyone who says the opposite. It may work for them but will it for you?

My overall approach is about using smaller amounts of hormone than usually talked about and spaced out a bit more (see my reply lower down).

Dr Blanchards book on thyroid is very good to read and he believed in very small amounts of t3 being better for us. He thought just 1mcg of t3 per day was very powerful mixed with some t4.

Certainly worth looking at how a 2.5-3mcg amount of t3 works out. If I take t3 now this is the maximum I can use. Otherwise I close down. T4 is really all I need. But going back many years when I took 150 t4 and 50 t3 I discovered the small 5mcg doses of t3 at the time worked best. Quite simply I was on far to much thyroid meds and this had the effect of closing down all my natural operating systems (as alluded to by hadhihouseman).

[Hashihouseman]

I do it with both. much better results for me. T4 does have its own biological effects as part of the feedback mechanism particularIy on rate of T'3 conversion via its effect on D2, it is not inert until translated to T3 as some describe it and levels rise to a peak before equibilirating after Levothyroxine doses. The normal production of T4 in a healthy body may well be around the levels that l00mcg or so of Levothyroxine but it's never dumped into plasma all at once like a big single dose of Levthyroxine! we are told to take it all at once first thing on waking to maximise absorbtion and avoid inconsistencies in dose replacement. However, this comes at a cost of unphysiological T4 loading which for some people could adversely affect homeostatic responses such as intracellular Diodinase type 2 enzyme levels which are thought to generate more than half of all T3 ! Anyway, since we are all different to varying degrees we can only be guided by research and opinions and theories, the proof we need is sometimes only found in trial and error on our own responses to subtle changes in replacement therapy . Anything over 25 mcg Lerothyroxine at once doesnt feel right to me so I take 4 x 25 every 6 hours and add the amount of T3 my thyroid gland should have been producing (about 6 - 8 mcg ) mostly during the night, starting with 1.5 mcg on retiring and 3.5 between 3 and 5 am whenever I naturally wake and then sleep again almost instantly , which feels right if only because I seep much better with this regime and it fits the circadian rythym model. I never take T3 after midday and I regularly test for ft3 ft4 and TSH . I no longer experience hyper thyroid / thyroxic dose effects from either T3 or T4 and plasma T3 is more stable on both test and subjective feelings.

[marsaday in reply to Hashihouseman]

There is some great information here.

You have explained what I discovered myself but I wasn’t sure why smaller doses of t4 worked better spread out.

I always found a 25 mcg dose works better than say 100.

I have actually reduced my t4 dose further this year from 125 to 112.5 and more recently to 100 per day. I am also doing a split dose routine where I take 50 t4 at bedtime and the other 50 at breakfast approx. So I have an approx 12h split.

I am doing better than ever and it has continued through the colder winter months as well. I may need a weekly 25-50 mcg top up but I am not strict on this.

I need new bloods to see where I am at in January as I tend to only have these bloods done once per year as I go more on how I feel, but it is nice to see what the bloods are doing.

I will certainly look at trying out a 4 x 25mcg split routine with the t4 but i have been stopped from doing this in the past regularly just because of the inconvenience of having to multi dose. However with your info it may mean I give it a go in the new year.

[Hashihouseman]

. . . that's 4 doses of 25 mcg at 6 hourly intervals !

[FancyPants54 in reply to Hashihouseman]

Do you stick to the "nothing to eat or drink except water for 2 hours before and 1 hour after a dose" when doing 4 split doses a day? That must be very hard.

I've not come across this type of dosing before. I tend to feel rubbish all day until about 4pm when I feel a bit better. I take all my 125 levo and 6.25 of T3 first thing. It's not working for me.

[Stourie]

Paul Robinson is a thyroid sufferer and has written 3 books I think. You can find him on Facebook . I don't have his details to hand but think that its Recovery with t3. Jo xx