As you all know I am now after quite a few years of pushing due to bad conversion on T 3 along with my T4. The Endo prescribed 20 mg T3 along side my T4 of 125, of course I have not just added the T3 at this level straight away.
I started with 2.5 twice a day for a week with T4 at 125 everything fine
second week added another 2.5 , so morning 5 and evening 2.5 and dropped T4 Down by 12.5 per day. Have had a few breathing problems and anxiety that settled by the end of the week.
Tried adding another 2.5 in the evening but breathing got worse again, so am trying 8 morning and approx 2 in the evening and have dropped T4 now by 25 per day.
So in all on 10 T3 and 100 T4
Still not good and have now found my temperature is 35.6 first thing in morning and this evening 35.7 ? And have a headache, sleeping badly. (My temperature has always being higher)
Have been going to the gym 4 times a week but now stopped due to the worry of Coronavirus, going to try working out at home, breathing was getting worse with work outs
Does this mean either the T3 still needs to go up or is my T4 now too low ?
Supplements Vit D, Vit C , Zinc, B complexe
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Nellups
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There's a lot of small changes going on there all at once. The body likes things to be stable. Best to adjust either the levo or the lio but not both at the same time in my opinion. That way you will maybe get a better indication of what is happening.
What dose are you aiming for initially?
You need to be on a fixed dose for 8 weeks then do bloods. After that you will get an idea if you need more levo or more lio and adjust from there.
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)
Is this how you did this test?
Ft4 Probably too high
Vitamin D and folate definitely too low
Never got a reply to my question of what was your ferritin level
Low iron and ferritin often linked to breathlessness
Ideally you would get ALL FOUR VITAMINS OPTIMAL first before trying T3
What about thyroid antibodies?
Saw you had negative TPO antibodies...have you ever had TG antibodies tested?
You need to get full Thyroid antibodies testing privately as NHS refuses to test TG antibodies if TPO antibodies are negative
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)
Are you on strictly gluten free diet or tried it?
Suggest you stick on 5mcg in morning and 2.5mcg afternoon and wait 6 weeks and retest including vitamins
If/when also on T3, make sure to take last 1/2 or 1/3rd of daily dose 8-12 hours prior to test, even if this means adjusting time or splitting of dose day before test
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
If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3 £29 (via NHS private service )
I have not had a ferritin and iron done for approximately 2 years this was my results back then
Ferritin. 193 13.00-300.00 ug/l
Serum Iron. 10.6 10.00-30.00 umol/
Not being checked since?
TG antibodies tested? Not as far as I know
Always have blood tests done first thing in morning no tablets and no food and drink just as in France, which is what they tell you to do over there. But my last test was done at the Endos office in the afternoon had taken tablets in the morning and eaten, I said to the Endo that it should be first thing fasting but he answered it was fine makes no difference 🤦🏼♀️!
I’m not gluten free have done once made no difference
As for private tests can’t do as both companies don’t send the simple test kits to Northern Ireland, only for a blood draw and the two people they said it don’t now. So that’s out the window.
Isn’t it extraordinary...rest of world acknowledges the importance of timing of testing.......yet almost all UK medics refuse to acknowledge this at all ....in fact if you request early testing it’s usually denied and if you say you haven’t taken levothyroxine before test the have a fit!
Exactly I normally just go to have blood drawn in the open clinic it’s early morning so works out great. My Endo insists every time I go to do a blood draw, no matter how many times I say it’s useless waste of NHS time and money! So I tend to ignore his results
Remember to stop taking any supplements that contain biotin (eg vitamin B complex) a week before any blood tests as biotin can falsely affect test results
Just to add that a fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you on a daily basis with approximately 100 T4 Levothyroxine + 10 T3 Liothyronine.
I read that T3 is about 4 times more powerful then T4 so if without a thyroid and on monotherapy with T4 only medication you have automatically been ' down regulated ' by 20% of your overall wellbeing, and overtime, this is likely to compound your quality of life.
The thyroid is the driver, the conductor of your whole body synchronisation, your mental, physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual wellbeing, your inner central heating system and your metabolism.
Some people can get by on T4 alone : some people at some point in time simply stop converting the T4 into T3 and some people simply need both these vital hormones dosed and monitored independently to bring these essential thyroid hormones into balance and to a level of well being acceptable to the patient.
T4 is a prohormone and needs to be converted by your body into the active hormone T3.
No thyroid hormone supplements work effectively if your vitamins and minerals are not optimal in the ranges. Just being somewhere in the range, is not acceptable for our wellbeing, so would suggest you get current levels of ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D measured - I remember being very breathless and this was because of my low ferritin.
Most people tend to feel well when both T3 and T4 are in the upper quadrants of the ranges.
The TSH is a diagnostic tool and of little importance once on medication, and without a thyroid in situ, of no importance.
I think a blood test with the relevant vitamins and minerals would be sensible after about 6 weeks on this current dose - and post the results and the ranges back on here for considered opinion.
I'm with Graves Disease post RAI thyroid ablation in 2005 and became very unwell some 8 years later. Thanks, in the main part to this amazing website I'm now ' off the sofa ' and getting my life back - I'm self medicating as I was refused a trial of T3 on the NHS, and am much improved on Natural Desiccated Thyroid.
I read on here that some people take extra T3 when they plan ' busy ' days - exercise classes etc :
I'm not in that category, and in all honesty never ' saw ' the gym as somewhere I'd like to go : and I'm just pleased that I have my independence back.
I think until you find an optimal level of T3/T4 you should not overstretch yourself, and if weight is your focus you do need a healthy, balanced diet and read ' calorie counting ' isn't recommended for good thyroid functionality.
Don’t worry I have always eaten a healthy diet spent 28 years in France eating healthy never processed or ready made there, you wouldn’t want to with all their lovely fresh fruit and veg and meat and I don’t calorie count. It’s not just weight I go to gym for it’s also because I have problem knee only half a meniscus joint and was recommended by surgeon in France to go to gym for weights etc to build up my muscles to proche to the joint.
Yep, me too. When I started T3 trial it suppressed my TSH which reduced the last trickle of T4 my thyroid was producing so my T4 crashed with no change in my levo dose - I felt terrible. I got great advice on this site about going slow and steady and only changing one thing at a time.SeasideSusie, Slowdragon and Greygoose and others have posted some really helpful advice so might be worth searching earlier posts. There is actually very little clinical evidence on the right dose of T4 and T3 and most doctors will happily admit they don’t like prescribing t3 and don’t know much about dosing. People can take many months to find what suits them.
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