Help? I need advice. T3 makes me ill but gives me my brain back.

[Sally56]

I take 100mgs Levo and 5mcgs of compounded slow release T3. Can anyone tell me why T3 makes me so ill. I have been battling this for ages now by taking it when I need my brain and then stopping to give my body a rest. I become weak, blurred vision, edgy, anxious, sweats, and I stop sleeping. I will get my thyroid results today, which I know show a TSH of 21, which is very high. This is the pattern. I have an adrenals Professor (Primary Aldosteronism hyperplasia and am on an Aldosterone blocker) and a thyroid professor (I had a TT in 2017) and never the twain shall meet. I show erratic cortisol levels (high and low) and they all think I'm a hypochondriac with an anxiety problem. I feel I can't go on like this. If I do any form of exercise (housework or going to the shops) makes it worse. Can anyone give me a link to anything about the mechanisms of exogenous T3 and the adrenal system? Or offer any thoughts on this. I know I'm a difficult case but I don't want to be written off as psychiatric when I know it's either cortisol or adrenaline which is causing this? Thanks in advance.

[Lalatoot]

Sorry but we cannot give a sound answer based on Tsh alone. If you are on levo and t3 you should be basing your medication doses on the results for Ft3 and ft4. Yes tsh is high but the other results would give the full picture. Ft3 is the important result.

[Sally56 in reply to Lalatoot]

Hi Lalatoot,

Thanks for replying.

My last FT3 was 4.9 (2.6-6.0)

FT4 was 13.3 (9.0-19.0)

But that was 10 weeks ago. I am having more tests tomorrow or the next day.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

When taking Levothyroxine it's essential to take constant unchanging dose

When taking T3 it's absolutely essential to take exactly same dose everyday

Chopping and changing dose will upset adrenals

You need FULL Thyroid and vitamin testing after 6-8 weeks on constant unchanging dose

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood 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, even if this means adjusting time or splitting of dose day before 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

Many people don't find slow release T3 works very well. 2 or 3 small doses of standard T3 per day may be better

[Sally56 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you SlowDragon for that advice.

I am having my thyroid tests done tomorrow. So I will take your advice. The forum has told me that before, and I always follow the advice I'm given here. I take my Levo and T3 about 5.30am about 2 hours before I get up. I'm afraid I have tried the normal T3 and I just couldn't get the dose up to therapeutic level and ended up with a TSH of 70 ish and hospitalised. Slow release has been the best for me but I can't take more than 5mcgs my adrenals go mental with adrenaline rushes (I think that's what they are). They are horrible.

I hate chopping and changing but my doctors don't help me and so I try different things. I have been on a lactose free Levo for 3 weeks now (hoping that the lactose was making me ill, but it wasn't.) and the slow release T3 for about 4 months. I was on NDT but the T3 was too strong again. I tried T3 only and that was awful.

I recently had a full vitamin and mineral profile done and I was high in B12 from over supplementing. Vit D was high but good. I also take zinc and selenium.