T3 Pooling - is that because I didn't need it

[M33R4]

Happened to months ago when I was only taking T3 as levothyroxine was making me sick. Did my T3 pool because I didnt need it?

[greygoose]

What do you mean by 'pooling'? What, exactly happened two months ago?

The half-life of T3 is 24 hours. It doesn't have time to pool. What isn't taken up by the cells is disposed of in various ways so that 24 hours after taking it, you only have half of it left. Within another 24 hours, a quarter, etc. etc. etc. It doesn't have time to 'pool'. So, whatever happened, there must be another name for it, and another explanation.

[M33R4 in reply to greygoose]

Bloods showed T3 too high and my gp said I was pooling T3

[greygoose in reply to M33R4]

They your GP doesn't know much about thyroid, does he. Because there's not such thing as 'pooling'.

If your FT3 was too high - and that's only your GP's opinion, because you haven't given us any numbers - it would be for one of two reasons:

a) you're over-medicated

b) you've had a Hashi's 'hyper' swing

But, we don't have enough information to know which one it was. But, whatever caused it, I doubt it meant you didn't need T3.

[diogenes Remembering]

No such thing as pooling. If your body gets too much T3 then the liver converts it to T3-sulphate and T3-glucuronide and they are excreted rapidly in the urine. Also of course some of the T3 is broken down to T2 and beyond and this is also excreted. largely as iodide. Same for T4, except that this gets converted to reverse T3 and got rid of that way.

[DippyDame in reply to diogenes]

diogenes thank you for this. May I ask...

when a supraphysiological dose of T3 is taken (162.5mcg) do the subsequent excretions in the urine alter the appearance of the urine to (perhaps) cloudy/murky? Maybe a silly question but I cannot find an answer. No evidence of leucocytes.

Thank you

DD

[diogenes Remembering in reply to DippyDame]

Of themselves no, but of course too much thyroid hormone stimulates general metabolic effects and tissue turnover that coloured dubstances in urine may well show up.

[DippyDame in reply to diogenes]

Thank you. I'm having a problem fine tuning the correct dose of T3....trial and error rules!

Your reply to the OP above set me thinking

I did wonder if colour variation might indicate excess hormone and therefore time to try decreasing the dose....or, does remaining lack of energy suggest an increase. Phew!

Low energy/stamina is still affecting my quality of life.

Basically the head says "go" but the body shouts,"no"!

RTH didn't come to light ( huge thanks to TUK) until I had reached 72 and was barely able to function, attempting research was my only remaining option, so I'm guessing it had a lot of time to cause the many symptoms I experienced (many now alleviated)

I started T3-only 18 months ago as a last resort

Perhaps I have to accept, reluctantly, that time does take its toll...but not yet!

Again,huge thanks for all you do for us

Best...

DD

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to DippyDame]

Do remember quite how small a quantity even 162.5 micrograms really is!

Take an ordinary sugar cube - it might weigh 3 grams.

Draw nine evenly spaced lines on each face of the sugar cube - both vertically and horizontally. (That makes ten by ten squares. 100 squares per face. 1,000 cubes in the entire cube.)

Each of those small cubes weighs 3 milligrams.

On each face of that small cube, draw three evenly spaced lines - both vertically and horizontally. That divides the small cubes into 64 tiny cubes.

Each of those tiny cubes weighs about 46 micrograms. So 162.5 micrograms is only a bit over three of those tiny cubes. And even then, I think we can assume that at least some of the T3 will have been "used up". I do not know about the solubility of T3-sulphate - tried to look it up but couldn't find any reliable information. So the visible impact, I suggest, would be tiny even in a "worst case" estimate.

[DippyDame in reply to helvella]

Tiny amounts..... I wondered what the "knock on"/ chemical effect of these few micrograms might be.

Thank you helvella ....the sugar cubes are reassuring.

Best...

DD

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to DippyDame]

The chemical/biochemical impacts of even tiny amounts of some substances can be dramatic. Botox has to be a classic - an incredibly potent poison. But substances which really are supposed to be there tend not to be so dramatically nasty.