Heart scares on Liothyronine! Anyone else!?

[Llama1111]

I’m on just 5 mg of liothyronine for the past 3 months. I’ve been inconsistent with taking it, but I notice when I do I feel better in some ways and worse in others. Been waking up multiple times a night gasping for air/short of breath. My heart rate tracker shows my heart rate is skyrocketing and then crashing and all over the place. All day I feel jittery and like my chest is pounding. My resting heart rate has increased too. If I stopped the medicine how long till these side effects would go away? I’ve stopped it before for a week, but was still having these issues as I thought the half life was only a day or two. Anyone have experience with this?

[Heloise]

Those sound like low thyroid symptoms. What are you treating? Do you have blood tests? Are you hypo?

If you are, you can't simply start and stop even T3. There is an effect on your adrenal glands. What happens to your blood pressure when your heart is acting up?

[Llama1111 in reply to Heloise]

Thanks for replying! I have low T3, and my doctor put me on 5mg of liothyronine to help raise it. Was tested for Hashimotos and I don’t have it. I just forget to take it, which I know is bad. Didn’t know it puts stress on the adrenals to start and stop it. My blood pressure is always low (around 90/60) regardless of what my heart rate is doing. I do notice on the T3 I feel more jittery and I get hot more easily when I am usually cold. The blood test showed the 5mg of T3 raised my T3 higher, but my T4 fell.

[Heloise in reply to Llama1111]

Are you also taking T4?

[Heloise in reply to Llama1111]

Your blood pressure is too low, your heart rate goes up to compensate. I think you need to increase your thyroid output. Your adrenals send out adrenaline so that's probably the jitters and heat. But I think you are just hypo.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

I thought that feeling jittery was a hyper symptom? Or can it be both, like many other symptoms?

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Her T3 would be high if it was hyper. She really needs to give more information. I should have told her to take magnesium. Both the heart and the adrenals need loads.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

You mean from that dose? Perhaps, but after three months I don't think so. Need more information for sure.

[Marz]

Have you had B12 - Folate - Ferritin & VitD tested ? They need to be good in range for your thyroid hormones to work well - the ones you take and your own.

[jgelliss in reply to Marz]

Marz It's Great To See Your Wonderful Informative Posts . I'm hoping your on the mend and feeling much better .

Best Wishes For Continued Wellness .

[Marz in reply to jgelliss]

Thank you ☆♡☆

[mourneadventurer]

The heart only uses the active hormone T3. The thyroid is the accelerator.

It is crucial to be consistent however you need the fuel for the accelerator! If you don’t have the fuel (minerals, vitamins etc) then the adrenaline kicks in hence the rapid heart rate.

It would be interesting to find out and monitor your reverse T3 as it’s a governor on the accelerator.

Remove anything that is causing inflammation e.g diet particularly anything that converts to sugar, lifestyle, environmental, underlying infections to name a few.

Replace minerals, vitamins and amino acids. ReMag, ReMyte and ReAlign (Botanicahealth) work for me. Dr Carolyn Deans work is worth reading and her book Magnesium Miracle is enlightening..

Dr Jay Davidson has formulated a detox protocol that might be worth exploring beginning with Drainage,followed by Parasite removal and then Heavy Metal removal. The supplements are made in the UK by Cellcore Biosciences (Amrita Nutrition or Beaumedltd).

[bantam12]

Don't assume it's to do with T3, you need to have some tests done on your heart.

[Naomi8 in reply to bantam12]

I agree.After 16 years on T4,I added 5mcgs of T3 X 3 times a day for 3 days.My heart went into double rate.After 5 hours I went to A&E,it stopped without intervention after 9 hours(I had been having these episodes for years,but they always stopped after lying flat for about an hour max)I was kept in overnight for obs & then had all the heart tests in outpatients.

These showed I did not have AF.I had supraventricular tachycardia & was advised there was no need to come back to A&E for future episodes,but to decide if I wanted keyhole surgery to correct it.

This meant I was able to start T3 again & I now have no problems on T3-only or NDT.

I do have episodes of ectopic beats and long episodes of tachycardia when I take thyroxine.

[Polly91 in reply to Naomi8]

Hello Naomi

I’ve recently been getting similar episodes where my heart rate goes right up like palpitations I guess. Usually comes on early afternoon & can last anything from 10 mins to an hour or so. A few years ago I had ectopic beats but the doctors weren’t worried as they thought it was notmalbto get some of these.

I was worried it could become AF. I have low blood pressure but occasional fast heart rate. I take 75/100 mcg Levo on alternate days. My T4 is quite high (close to top end) & T3 varies from being near low end to middle of range & TSH is around 1.

Is this how yours started and do you have any thoughts / advice?

Thanks v much

[HashiFedUp]

Half life of T3 is hours so wouldn’t think this was causing all these symptoms. Go to your doc and discuss. You can get insomnia on T3. But your dose is quite small. Also you can get the jitters on it but it should calm down after a few weeks. Go back to your doc.

[silverfox7]

Consistency is the key! Put a reminder alarm on your phone if you can

[jgelliss in reply to silverfox7]

Consistency is the *Key* word . We need to give our body *Time* to acclimate to any new changes . Slow and Steady *Wins* the *Race* .

[GERALDDAVID]

I don`t have a thyroid anymore so I take 150mg T4 and 10mg T3 before i go to bed, that way I don`t have to worry what I eat during the day, calcium, iron etc. On rare occasions I might take 5mg T3 during the day if I feel I need it. Working just fine for me.

[Svelsker]

Could it be the brand of T3? I recently bought some liothyronine sodium from on overseas pharmacy after being on Thybon liothyronine hydrochloride for years (stopped by doctor) and I couldn't tolerate it. Everything went haywire - hot and racing pulse etc. Thankfully got a supply of Thybon again now and getting back to normal.

[shaws Administrator]

We have trillions of T3 receptor cells in our body. Levothyroxine is an inactive hormone, i.e. T4, and has to convert to T3 and sometimes we don't get a sufficient dose of T4 or we cannot convert it to T3.

The brain and heart need the most T3 and if T3 is too low, our heart etc can also be affected.

[humanbean]

I get tachycardia occasionally. I have a few things I do to try and resolve the issue.

1) If my iron levels drop my heart rhythm suffers. So I keep my iron-related levels as close to optimal as I can without going over-optimal on any of them. I test my iron, ferritin, transferrin saturation %, a couple of times a year. Obviously fixing a low iron problem is not an instant solution, it could take months, or even years if it is very low. This test is a good one :

medichecks.com/iron-tests/i...

2) I take a magnesium supplement. I don't take it every single day, but if my heart rhythm goes nuts I will take a dose immediately. Do a search for "best and worst forms of magnesium supplement", check 2 or 3 links to see if they all agree on any that interest you and then buy it online.

3) If I haven't had any relief with the magnesium within 10 - 15 minutes, then I take a potassium supplement. I use potassium gluconate 99mg tablets, and the dose on the bottle suggests that up to 4 a day can be taken. I will usually take 2 at a time. If potassium works for you then it would be a good idea to investigate how to incorporate more potassium into your diet, rather than supplement.

4) If I get no relief from potassium then I will take a tiny dose of a beta blocker I'm prescribed. It usually works within 20 minutes. Since you went to A&E for a heart rhythm issue you might be prescribed beta blockers, now that you've been told what the actual problem was caused by. But I would recommend that you read up about beta blockers and their risks before asking for a prescription. You might decide that they aren't worth it. And anyway, improving your iron, taking magnesium, and improving your potassium levels might be all you need.

[jgelliss in reply to humanbean]

Great advice . In addition to your great advice mentioned I found that small dose of NDT for my T3 mix with my T4 helped calm my palpitations too . Fish oil and supporting adrenals with Vitamin "C" B-Complex, B-5 , B-12/folate , Vitamin "D"/K2 , Celtic Sea Salt for Adrenals/Electrolytes .

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Are you ONLY taking 5mcg of T3 ?

Or is this in addition to a regular dose of Levothyroxine (T4)

If you are only taking T3 and not even ensuring you take it everyday, this is likely causing HUGE problems

Almost any dose of T3 will significantly reduce your TSH. The TSH is the message from your pituitary gland to tell your own thyroid to work and make adequate thyroid hormones

So taking any dose of T3 is going to turn your own thyroid production off, or certainly right down, resulting in being EXTREMELY hypothyroid

Do you have blood test results and ranges from BEFORE starting on T3

You must get FULL blood tests done now

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also extremely important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if Thyroid antibodies are raised

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw). This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

If/when also on T3, make sure to take last dose 8-12 hours prior to test

Is this how you do your tests?

Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random

[SilverAvocado]

I would say, as others have, it's desperately important to take this medication every single day. A low dose like this is enough to disrupt your own body's hormone system, and it takes many weeks for your body to settle in and get comfortable on a given dose.

The kind of symptoms you describe can be undermedication or overmedication. Thyroid hormone is definitely needed by the heart, and by every organ in the body, and it can be a long road to get things sorted out. Your blood pressure will probably increase closer to the normal range as you get closer to optimally medicated, which will require your body and heart to get used to the new hormone coming in and start changing how they behave to use it properly.

I also used to have low blood pressure, and mine's increased to be 120/80 most of the time. I've also had a few flutters with racing heart at different times, but since having an increase its now months since that has happened, when at one point it was every few weeks. When my bp was low I also had a high pulse, and its slowly coming down, too.

I think there the first thing to try is to take your tablets every day, ideally at the same time. Personally I put mine out in a dish by my bed the night before, and take them immediately when I get up. That way I can always check later on if I've forgotten, because it's still in the dish. You might find a weekly dosette box more useful. If you don't do this you're doing your body more harm than good, and things probably won't improve.

You also should definitely look into the vitamins as other suggest. Being hypothyroid can trash our vitamin levels, and they are necessary to make good use of hormone.

After you've taken your tablets properly for a few weeks you'll be in a better position to know what's going on. If you continue to have terrible symptoms that are unbearable, then at that point its time to do something about it.

Its possible this is an adrenal problem. Its possible you don't need these tablets at all (if you've got copies of blood tests we can comment on whether it looks like you do need them).

My policy, if I get strange symptoms in the first few weeks of a new dose, is to always stick it out for 6 weeks, taking everything properly, if I possibly can. Very often things settle down, as the first 3 or 4 weeks the body is completely up and down and almost any symptom can happen. Sticking it out 6 weeks means a blood test can then be taken, which draws a line in the sand. The only exception to that is if it's so terrible that it isn't bearable at all, and then reluctantly you might need to stop.

The problem is, if you don't take things properly you don't get the information to move onto the next step. As there are a couple of other things to try if this doesn't work for you.

[elaine2447]

Sorry you are going through this. I am exactly the same started T3 6.25mcg (the tablets were 25mcg not the usual 20mcg) in the mornings felt a little odd to start with but persevered and after two weeks took the same dose at lunchtime. Didnt really make me feel great so went back to just the morning. Anyway, have felt so rough and anxious, heart racing, no sleep etc. that I have left it off now for 3 days and still feel awful and been reluctantly popping a few benzos as I felt so odd and ill. Think I am going to give the whole thing a miss and maybe try again in a couple of months or so. I went up to the surgery for my usual parathryoid blood tests, obviously didnt mention about self medicating with T3, she took my blood pressure which is usually quite low for my age, around 120/60 but on monday was 140/78 which she said was normal! I'm not on T4 and I have Hashimotos with the vengeance lol and so suffer terribly with anxiety now and I think the T3 was making me worse. But then I think even if it made me feel worse, could I be having withdrawal symptoms from it even if it didnt agree. Anyway, I hope you get yourself sorted and was sort of nice to hear someone in the same boat as usually everyone else things T3 is gold dust.

[SilverAvocado in reply to elaine2447]

Elaine2447, It's actually quite common to struggle to introduce T3, particularly if we're very sick at the time.

T3 is very quick acting in the body, and unlike with T4, your body doesn't have a mechanism to control the speed it starts working throughout your cells.

This means we really need to have a lot of other things working well when bringing in T3. This includes both optimal vitamins, and strong healthy adrenals. Struggling to take T3, and having an overmedicated, speeded up feeling even though blood tests show definite undermedication, is a good way to spot adrenal problems.

The initial solution is to both treat adrenal fatigue (and supplement vits if necessary), and at the same time introduce T3 super slow (or start on T4 if currently on no thyroid hormone). This means cutting or grinding tablets to allow a very tiny dose, to find one that can be initially tolerated, then increasing in tiny increments.

[elaine2447 in reply to SilverAvocado]

Thanks for your response. I am all over the place to be honest. I will post up my results from this week compared with nearly two years ago and barely any different on 1/4 T3 for four weeks apart from the antibodies being higher.

I did a recent saliva test yet again, about the same as before too. Have tried ashwagandah, holy basil, rhodiola drops, you name it, Ive tried it, others I cant even remember, most churn my stomach up. I also think I need to see a chiropractor despite my severe osteoporosis as I think my muscles are doing something to my diaphragm as I have this permanent "MS hug" type feeling and am constantly sort of half burping nearly all the time even when I drink water and I think the strangling feeling in my throat is tied up with the cricopharangeal muscles as the tighter my muscles in my back (from where I fractured T5) and around the front, the more I feel I am being strangled lol. I was imagining all sorts like throat cancer but none of it affects my swallowing, just seems on the outside and I am fed up with it, started around mid December.

Anyway, sorry I just realising I am ranting on someone elses post, so maybe I should post up my results etc. on a new post of my own and try and tag you. x

[SilverAvocado in reply to elaine2447]

You're welcome to tag me in your new post

[elaine2447 in reply to SilverAvocado]

Thanks

[elaine2447 in reply to SilverAvocado]

Have done so, but I think I should have entitled it differently, not thinking straight today (just for a change!!!)

[SilverAvocado in reply to elaine2447]

Hehe, I always over think what timw to put thing up and what to label them. Even tho you feel silly I think it does make a difference to the replies you get

[Hidden]

Your hypo, you got adrenaline and other hormones spluttering out to compensate the thyroid hormone deficiency. You think your hyper but it's the other hormones trying to keep you going. I speak from experience. I was taken off levothyroxine for two weeks years ago by a stupid endo to supposedly see if I really was hypo 😣 and by day ten my TSH was over 100 and I had nothing in me except adrenaline that was literally gushing out across my middle that felt like hot water and it kept jolting me to stay awake because I was going unconscious. I was burning up then going stone cold. I was rushed to hospital and at the time given T3 and various other drips. It was horrible and I would never stop or mess about with thyroid hormone ever in my life. I swelled up face and body like a balloon. So get back to your doctor and be consistent with your thyroid hormones. It's your health for life.

[LAHs in reply to Hidden]

Wow, Josie, that was a terribly irresponsible experiment by your stupid Endo (I have had a couple of those in the past). It is one thing to do that yourself (I did it once) because you are exquisitely tuned into your reactions to the reduced medication but for a doc to tell you to try it for two weeks then return to see the results shows a great lack of experience on his/her part.

Thank you for memorializing your experience however, not too many of us go to the brink like that and it is useful to know what to look out for and to know what is going on if we ever get those symptoms.

It is very scary if you are not too "biological", like me, to be presented with a complex personal biological problem and to not get any help from someone who has presumably spent a few years studying that problem. Thank goodness you landed with an ER person who had even heard of T3, that was at least a stroke of luck in your favor.

[Hidden in reply to LAHs]

That's what I got for trusting an endocrinologist. Never again