Natural remedies?

[WarwickPeak]

My wife has had a partial thyroidectomy and has tried all of the prescribed drugs.

Can anyone provide an information on natural alternatives?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

If you need thyroid hormone, you need thyroid hormone. Nothing else will replace it.

Many think that calling levothyroxine (T4) and liothyronine (T3) "drugs" is wrong. They are simply replacements of the substances we usually produce ourselves. The word "drugs" carries much baggage and seems to imply many things that are simply wrong.

Not having had a thyroidectomy, I have little understanding of what might help - other than appropriate thyroid hormones.

Very often the first thing for people to do is get hold of their blood test results so that they can see where they are.

In this case, the reason for the thyroidectomy (partial) is possibly the most important single factor.

[pennyannie]

Hello WarwickPeak and welcome to the forum :

There is nothing on your profile page so just to say there is a " more natural alternative " to T3 - Liothyronine and T4 - Levothyroxine if these are what you are currently taking and that is Natural Desiccated Thyroid which is pig thyroid dried and ground down into tablets referred to as grains.

NDT was successfully used to treat hypothyroidism for over 100 years prior to the introduction of the blood tests, ranges and guidelines that were introduced to used along side the newer thyroid hormone replacement - Levothyroxine that was being lunched by Big Pharma to supersede " the old fashioned " treatment.

NDT contains all the same known thyroid hormones that you own gland supported you with, namely, trace elements of T1, T2, and calcitonin plus a measured dose of T3 and T4 in each grain.

I read a fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you daily with approximately around 10 mcg x T3 plus 100 mcg x T4 :

T4 is a storage hormone and needs to be converted by your body into T3 which is the active hormone the body runs on.

T3 is said to be about 4 times more powerful than T4 with the average person using about 50 T3 daily just to function.

Your body needs to be able to convert any thyroid hormone replacement you may wish to try and it's necessary to also maintain your core strength vitamins and minerals especially ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D. at optimal levels within the NHS ranges.

It is meant to be available on the NHS by your doctor on a " named patient " only prescription but I struck out when I tried all the surgeries in my catchment area.

I also managed to get referred to an endocrinologist for a trial of T3 - - but was refused so I now self medicate with NDT and look after myself.

I do believe it's prescribed by some endocrinologists NHS and privately.

If you check out the Thyroid uk website who are the charity who support this amazing forum you will find that they hold a list of " friendly endos " so that might be of use to you, it might make sense to join and become a member and receive updates on all things thyroid.

Many of us on this forum, self source but currently supply is very difficult unless you buy from the USA and I think there are supply problems brewing there also.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

First step is to get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing done see EXACTLY what levels are

Which brands of levothyroxine has she tried

How much levothyroxine was she taking. It can take many months to slowly increase dose levothyroxine up and fine tune

Levothyroxine doesn’t top up failing thyroid, it replaces it, so it’s essential to be on high enough dose. Far too often patients are left inadequately treated

Essential to regularly retest vitamin levels too

What was cause of partial -thyroidectomy?

For full Thyroid evaluation she needs 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

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)

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Thriva Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins By DIY fingerpick test

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Thriva also offer just vitamin testing

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins by DIY fingerprick test

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off if go on thyroid uk for code

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

monitormyhealth.org.uk/thyr...