Saxenda and Hypothyroid

[Pumpkin81]

Hi

Does anyone know If using saxenda is ok if you have Hashimoto’s. I am taking T3 40 mcg and Levo 50mcg.

Thanks

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Looks like Saxenda is for weightloss

Says on it's paperwork here ......not recommended to use with any other prescription medication and may cause Thyroid cancer too!

saxenda.com/about-saxenda/h...

If your thyroid is correctly treated you should loose weight anyway

What are your most recent blood test results

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 you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

Ask GP to test vitamin levels if not been done recently

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?

What vitamin supplements do you currently take

As you have Hashimoto's, Are you on strictly gluten free diet?

How do you normally take your T3?

As single dose or 2 or 3 smaller split doses?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

25 days ago you were only taking 20mcg T3

Increasing T3 too much or too quickly can have very negative results including weight gain

Advice on here is to only increase by 5mcg and retest after 6-8 weeks

[Pumpkin81 in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi

Thanks for you reply.

My NHS consultant increased my T3 dose when I saw her and decreased my levo.

I’ve been feeling good on it. Much more energy and clearer head but find it absolutely impossible to loose weight though and I’m just looking for a quick fix I guess!

All my levels are looking ok, I am having a sanacthen test next week though as she suspects Addison’s disease due to very low cortisol levels, my understanding of that though is that you lose weight as one of the symptoms!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Pumpkin81]

Thyroid should be tested 6-8 weeks after each dose increase

How much was Levothyroxine reduced?

Low FT4 can cause symptoms to return for some, others seem fine with low FT4

Do you split your T3 dose?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Pumpkin81]

Many people see improvements in cortisol once on stable dose of T3.

This post from yesterday discussing how Levothyroxine can be reduced too much

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[Wired123 in reply to SlowDragon]

Interesting point on Cortisol. Do you find higher morning cortisol on a better dose of T3/T4. My morning cortisol has historically been low but improved when added T3 but has fallen back now. So endo has increased T3 so let’s see where it is next time I test.

[Wired123 in reply to SlowDragon]

I was actually asking you a question SlowDragon but just realised a forgot to add a question mark so you may have missed it!

Question was:

Do you find higher morning cortisol on a better dose of T3/T4?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Wired123]

I don’t know….long time (over 20 years) since I did saliva cortisol test

Going gluten free definitely helped, anxiety just dropped away

and adding T3 year later allowed physical activity to increase significantly and dramatically improved my sleeping to

[Wired123 in reply to SlowDragon]

Interesting, I’m slowly reducing gluten from diet and aim to go gluten free for a few months and see if that solves my issues.

[clairelouise42]

Hi I’m wondering that too, I have underactive thyroid and I’m on thyroxine 125mcg daily x