I'm (finally) Optimal or Am I?

[GKeith]

I've been taking 50mcg of T4 & 30mcg of T3 for 8 months and feel good on it. I decided to up the T4 (self-dose) to 75, 3 weeks ago, and it appears to make no difference except to raise my temperature(s) which are lower with the 75mcg T4 than the 50mcg. And when I lowered the T3 with the 75 mcg T4 the temp's went even lower. Obviously T3 will not only raise your temperature but also your heart rate: beats per minute. My bpm never reached more than 70 and my temp's never went over 98, the lowest was 96.9.

Of course I'm not done looking for my optimum dose. The reason my endo doesn't want to raise my T4 is because he put me on the T3 to begin with and when he gave me more he never (thought) of the T4, until I asked him for a raise, just to see if I could convert it, which he wouldn't do without lowering the T3 to 20mcg; so, having some old unused 75mcg T4, I self-dosed.

I may ask him for more T3 if I go back to the 50mcg T4, even though I know he won't give it up easily. My problem was being 26 years on the same dose of T4-88mcg's and never having it go up or down—the GP's interested in only the TSH number, I was under-dosed, as I now know, having temps as low as 94 and ice-cold hands & feet, in Tampa, Fl., for years and never having any doctor even addressing it when I mention(ed) my cold hands and feet and thinning hair & 'brainfog' headaches, the usual hypo symptoms.

BTW, does anyone have an opinion on this: I take no Levo the night before a morning blood test, about 32-hours with no Levo, but my endo doesn't care what the TSH# is, he knows it's (supposed) to be depressed. So, why should I not continue taking it. Besides the TSH what numbers does taking your dose without Levo overnight, affect?

I may look to NDT soon, just to try it.Anyone else experience this (particular) path?

[RockyPath]

If I understand correctly (bandage for brain injury), your metabolism slows down when you increase the T4 to 75 and reduce the T3. Therefore, the 50 mcg T4 and 30 mcg T3 is optimal, presumably because you're not a strong converter of T4. The ratio is definitely an outlier, but whatever floats your boat. Your metabolic rate when well would normally be what a normal body temperature is, and not some weird low number that causes you to wear turtlenecks when its 72 degrees and slippers when the A/C is set on 78.

The most interesting long-term question is how that all supports healthy bone remodeling. None of us wants to end up with increasingly porous bones and fractures of the spine or hip from a simple tumble.

[GKeith in reply to RockyPath]

Yeah, the ratio of 50 mcg's of T4 to 30mcg's of T3 is (definitely) an outlier because I wasn't taking any T4 at all, due to, after 26 straight years of taking 88 mcg's of Levo-only, a bad reaction from taking the Levo, I stopped cold-turkey and blamed my headache brain fog on the Levothyroxine, as it was the only pill I was taking, and/or ever took, (for 26 years) until I was (finally) prescribed one 10mcg pill of T3, which I took all alone, while swearing off all T4, for the next three months, I felt I had figured it (my optimum dose) out, until, that is, after taking a prescription of 50 mcg my endo kept writing for me, one night, (I took one pill), with the 30mcg I was taking three times a day, by now (6 months) and, walla, it didn't bother me one way or the other and so, naturally (curiousity) when I saw it was converting (to T3) after a blood-test, I felt I wanted (needed) to try (some) more to see what would happen, which, as I said has felt "normal" in that it provided no abnormal feelings, i.e. headaches, etc. So, as my energy level feels the same, or, even slightly better, I want(ed) to see if it will convert at a higher level (of T4) remember I started out feeling I would only feel good on T3 alone and that T4 was, forevermore, my "enemy," which could still be true but appears not to be. So, having done this dosing in such a backwards, horse before the cart fashion, as I raise my T4, I don't need to lower my T3 level because it is probably close to optimum as it is now, as the T4 shoud have been raised (on it's own) many times before (anyway). Hard to comprehend, I realize. Peace be with you.

[Angel_of_the_North]

Taking levo before a blood test will raise your free T4 (taking T3 will raise free T3) so the blood test ends up measuring the dose you just took, not what's "normally" in your blood

[GKeith in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Makes sense to me; now, why didn't I think of that?