Mrs Helen

[Helenprice202]

Hi I have just joined I am wondering if anyone takes natural tyroid medication and how long it takes to work how are they feeling when they first start taking it I have been taking it for two weeks and I actually feel worse has it happened to anyone On here I would really appreciate your help and advice Helen

[jrbarnes]

I took NP Thyroid for seven months and usually felt the effects of the liothyronine within the hour. I have to assume you were on Levo previously to natural desiccated? Levo sticks around for a long time, which is why you want to start out on natural desiccated slowly and as the T4 levels go down then you will increase. I increased every two weeks until I got to 120mg. Long story short you feel bad because it's a drop in levothyroxine and not enough T3 to compensate so you need to keep increasing. Once you increase you might find you need to add some Levo or T3 to it. For example, 120mg was too much for me but I could have dropped back down to 105mg and added 12.5 mcg of Levo. I need high T4 levels. Originally I was on 88mcg of Levo.

[lisabax]

I felt awful for 6 weeks, then absolutely fine and haven’t looked back. During the 6 weeks, I had migraine like headaches. I don’t normally get them

[HashiFedUp]

Any change in dose or change in medication makes me feel like poo. So just plod on and its really just a trial and error process of finding the best combination. i am on levo and NDT so a mix works for me most of the time anyway! Don’t forget vitD regular checks esp now with covid. low vit D mimics hashimoto’s.

[RedApple Administrator]

Helenprice202, Welcome to the forum.What 'natural thyroid medication' are you actually taking and how much?

[Helenprice202 in reply to RedApple]

Erfa 30mg Along with levothyroxine 25 mg

[pennyannie]

Hello Helen and welcome to the forum :

I take Natural Desiccated Thyroid and am very happy with my experiment and coming up to 2 years on Thyroid S :

There are currently very few reliable brands available - can I ask what brand you have ?

[Helenprice202 in reply to pennyannie]

Hi Penny Thank you for responding I have just started on natural thyroid Erfa I have been on levothyroxine for 10 years past four years I have been very ill I have seen loads of consultants been diagnosed with all different problems such as fibromyalgia anxiety depression I have been treated for these conditions but the treatment just made me worse so I stopped So the So the last thing I thought to try was my thyroidFor a couple of years it has been going up and down a little bit altering my medication from 100 MG to 70 5MG levothyroxine two weeks ago I went to see a private consultant he told me he thinks I am not converting my tea tree to tree for he For a couple of years it has been going up and down a little bit altering my medication from 100 MG to 70 5MG levothyroxine two weeks ago I went to see a private consultant he told me he thinks I am not converting my tea tree to tree for he has put me on this new medication And I feel absolutely worse he put me on And I feel absolutely worse he put me on 30 MG Longside 20 5MG thyroxine

[pennyannie in reply to Helenprice202]

Hey there :

There's very little on your profile page and it's difficult to say anything constructive with no blood tests results or details of how you became hypothyroid, if you have an auto immune thyroid disease, and what other health issues you were, or still are, suffering with.

In order for any thyroid hormone to work well it is essential that your ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D are at optimal levels in the ranges, and they may well be in the NHS ranges but not high enough for thyroid hormone to work well, and you may have to supplement these yourself, so this maybe an area to look at.

We generally ask for results and ranges detailing a TSH, T3, T4 and antibodies blood test along with the vitamins and minerals as mentioned above.

If you can arrange this blood test and then post back on here the results and ranges people better able than me can talk you through what it all means.

You might like to look at the Thyroid uk website as there are details there of private companies who will undertake the blood test if you doctor declines to help you.

Thyroid uk is also the charity who support this forum and work tirelessly to improve thyroid treatment for everybody.

Are you in the UK ?

[kikiweight]

Hi. I’m on Armour thyroid and I started with 60. Now just up to 120. I felt better on it pretty quickly. In contrast, I was on just Levo at one point and I didn’t really feel better.

People say to stay on a dose for 6 to 8 weeks but I personally can’t do that if I feel that bad. At one point, I switched down my dosage a lot and felt horrible- migraines and in bed all day- so despite the general advice to stick it out, I stopped after one week.