Help with metavive dosing please

[Noelnoel]

I’ve been experimenting with the entire metavive range over a period of 2 or so so years and after a recent break from ALL supplements of around 12 weeks to try to establish a baseline, I have re-started metavive lV x 1 first thing in the morning

In the past, I’ve been all over the place with dose and type of metavive and also the times I take it. Previously, I worked my way up to am x 2 and pm x 2 and felt reasonable with that dosage but could never shift the weight

How should I go about it this time? Unfortunately I can’t speak to Dr P any more as he’s retired so I’m relying on you folks here who have helped me so well lately

I’m wondering should I work my way up to 2 or 3 in the morning and see how I fare or is it better to split the dose over am and pm and if so, should it be early pm to avoid it affecting sleep? I would hate to disturb my recently improved sleep pattern after over 20 years battling insomnia!

All views and suggestions welcome

[Anthea55]

I'm guessing that you are still using the 'old' formula of Metavive. Unfortunately within the last few months Metavive and Adrenavive have a new formula. They have added ribonucleotides. For some of us this makes no difference, but for others it makes quite a difference and the recommended thing is to start with a low dose and gradually work up. The 'new' Metavive IV is an 80mg capsule but has the same amount of bovine thyroid as before.

I fear this may make it difficult for you to compare with your previous experiment results.

There have been several posts recently about this change of ingredients.

[Noelnoel in reply to Anthea55]

Anthea55, thank you

My last tub was the new kind and that’s what I’m using now. During the period of using the new kind I began to sweat profusely but in fairness, that could just have been the excessively hot weather. Though coincidentally, since restarting it I’m sweating again but the weather has also got warmer so I’m not sure what’s going on. Let’s see if it settles once the weather cools. If it doesn’t, I can attribute the sweats to the new formula

When you say it has made a difference to some; in a good or bad way?

[Anthea55 in reply to Noelnoel]

I had flushing when I started using new Metavive and that coincided with the heatwave. I'm not entirely clear as to what's going on, but something to do with improving blocked pathways, so your old dose can push you into being overmedicated, as it's working better and faster.

The advice I've been given is to start low and work up to what your new levels are. I've been on about half my previous dose and will see if I can take a bit more.

As I understand it, if your thyroid is working normally (i.e people who don't have an underactive thyroid) it will adjust it's output to what the body needs , but for the many of us who need to take thyroid meds we may need to adjust our dose ourselves according to the weather and our activity. The example for this was that you need less if you are somewhere hot, putting your feet up on holiday, but you need more if the weather is cold and you are much more active. So when we get hot weather again I will cut back a bit on my dose.

I hope that makes sense!

By the way, I see that you've stopped all your supplements. Are you going to get these tested so that you know what you need now? They can make quite a difference to the way your body absorbs food and medication. Years ago a nutritional doctor told me that you need to get your nutrition as good as you can, then any underlying medical problem will present itself more clearly.

[Noelnoel in reply to Anthea55]

Thanks Anthea55, that makes sense

I'm slowly re-introducing my supplements one by one so that if there are any adverse symptoms I'll be able to more readily identify the offender. My nutrient levels were reasonable to good when I stopped so I'm not too worried about the dip in them as I'm sure they'll creep back up once I've been taking them all for a while on a regular basis but I'm interested to know whether to split the dose.

A few questions for you:

Do you split the dose

If so, how late do you take your pm dose

Have you tried porcine and bovine

If so, which worked best for you

Has your hot flushing subsided

Which nutritional doctor did you use (pm for this question)

I hope you don't mind the questions and please, I'm not expecting an immediate reply. Quite happy to wait till you have the time or inclination to answer

[Anthea55 in reply to Noelnoel]

I'll try to answer your queries.

Do you split the dose. If so, how late do you take your pm dose

Let me explain that I take the view that if I use the smallest size it makes it easier to adjust the dose, so I've used Met 1 all along, so half the size of your Met IV. Old style I took 3 with breakfast and 2 with lunch. New style it's 2 with breakfast and 1 with lunch. I take meds with food as recommended by Dr Peatfield, Dr Kenneth Blanchard and Dr Myhill.

Have you tried porcine and bovine, If so, which worked best for you

Only porcine - can't help there

Has your hot flushing subsided

Yes, but the heatwave is over.

Nutritional doctor - that was years ago when I was having a horrendous menopause and before I was diagnosed with thyroid problems. These days there are many more people with training in nutrition, see ' The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT)' at bant.org.uk. Good thing somebody is - most doctors have only had a day or two in their training and do not understand the importance of getting your nutrition as good as you can and wouldn't recognise a deficiency if they came across one.

Hope that helps. I guess that you've done much more experimenting than most of us.

[Anthea55 in reply to Noelnoel]

Further thoughts to the horrendous menopause and the nutritional doctor I mentioned. He probably saved my sanity / life or even commitment to a mental hospital as they used to do in the 'old' days. However I think I must have gone back to him when I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, but I remember that he stuck firmly to the opinion that Levo was sufficient and not T3, so I moved on as I was sure that I do not convert well. I don't entirely blame him as too many of the best thyroid doctors such as Dr P, Dr Skinner and Dr Myhill have been hauled before the GMC and threatened with being struck off.

Sometimes the world seems to be run by people who stick to the accepted view and are not prepared to be openminded. It has always been so - think Galileo who knew that the world went round the sun.

Off topic - never mind!

[Noelnoel in reply to Anthea55]

Anthea55, off-topic but nevertheless a good illustration

Have you ever consulted with Dr M or S? I saw Dr P and I felt I’d finally found someone who could help me. If it wasn’t for him and my own intuition, I honestly think I’d still be at a loss. Goodness only knows why my GP (since retired) didn’t consider I might have a thyroid problem

It’s frightening to know that we have to rely on them to diagnose and treat. Some of us are fortunate enough to have realised that some GPs aren’t as good as they think they are, the same applies to some endos. Some of us are also fortunate enough to have the resources to seek other opinions. Spare a thought for those who put their faith in the system and remain stuck in it, getting more and more sick. It’s truly frightening

And thank goodness for this amazing forum

[Anthea55 in reply to Noelnoel]

Dr Skinner died several years ago. A quick google brought up this from STTM stopthethyroidmadness.com/2...

When I last looked Dr Myhill wasn't taking new patients. Her website is a mine of information. drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page

[Noelnoel in reply to Anthea55]

Thank you