Hello, I had this saliva cortisol test in July, not much has changed. I'm not having success with adding T3 to levo or even taking levo alone. Waking up early in the morning with pounding heart and extreme sugar cravings despite no appetite. When I drink coffee it makes me feel terrible. Tea is a little better. When I add T3 to my levo I feel increased anxiety and can't sleep. When I lower the Levo to add T3 I can't sleep and still have anxiety. Other than cutting out caffeine does anyone have any recommendations? I feel this is causing a problem with taking thyroid meds. I sifted through some other posts here about adrenals and there were some suggesting an adrenal cocktail. The only thing that seemed to help with all this was NDT but I'm leery it will disappear one day. Has anyone had success with resetting adrenals or correcting cortisol with T3 only or low Levo plus T3? Thank you for any help. I feel so extremely unwell.
cortisol- making thyroid treatment difficult? T... - Thyroid UK
cortisol- making thyroid treatment difficult? T3 only? NDT?
Thank you for the advice.
I'm really thinking of going back to NDT. I had such a problem with the ratios. 120mg too much and anything under too little but I could finally sleep and my mood and appetite improved as did my insulin resistance. It's like there's something in NDT that isn't present in synthetics that I need. On levo only I was extremely irritable and would get stressed and jumpy but it wasn't always like that. Perhaps if I lower cortisol it might help me better tolerate all this. Any tips to reducing cortisol? I have Solaray adrenal caps and ashgwanda but haven't used it. I'm also going to cut caffeine. Thanks again.
Yes I suspect Levo has put me in this position in the first place. Thanks again for the tips🙂
Does T3 stimulate the adrenals to produce Cortisol then the Cortisol drives the T3 into the cells ? Dealing with T3, Adrenals, Cortisol is confusing especially if brain fog is involved. Thanks.
Hi. I ended up with slightly high cortisol having had very low cortisol and felt terrible. I now take my T3 after 8am. This really helped along with a non processed food diet and I only drink white or green tea now. Hope you find what works for you soon.
No I didn’t. I reduced the amount of T3 from 40 to 30 mcg. I’ve since experimented with other doses but anything above 30 gives me high cortisol. I’ve done this over the last two years along with optimising vitd, ferritin, folate and b12. I’m almost there so I’ve started introducing T4. I’m on 12.5 mcg. It’s helping and so far (6 weeks in) no high cortisol - I take it at night.
It has helped me with sleep too. It’s such a balancing act. I’m currently trying to get my head around gluten and dairy free but one change is enough at a time. I’m getting bloods done soon. Please keep in touch - I’d be interested to know how you get on introducing T4.
Have you had a look at Paul Robinson’s books, there’s a lot there around fixing Cortisol issues and he also advocates T3 only treatment which may be worth considering.
Your morning Cortisol looks good but I wonder if you are doing something that pushes it higher in the eve. Do you stress more, or are taking exercise or eating caffeine/sugar that could potentially raise Cortisol excessively during the afternoon/eve?
I've read up on his protocol. T3 only will be my last option or an NDT/levo combo. I'm not sure if I would feel stable or strong on T3 only but I haven't tried it yet. The only stress I suffer if from under treatment and I'm sure the cortisol issue is from low T3 because it went away on NDT. As far as exercise goes it's light walking for now and even that is difficult to do. Yesterday, I cut out coffee and tea. When I was on NDT I could drink caffeine no problem.
Is there nothing in your life (work, exercise, etc) that causes the PM cortisol raise?
Not sure I’ve ever seen a protocol for taking the cortisol saliva test because there’s so many things that can skew the result throughout the day. Even the 9am cortisol that doctors seem to only care about is sensitive to what you are the night before, how well you slept and also what time you wake up. Your 9am cortisol test would be different if you work at 5am vs 8am but doctors don’t really talk about that either!
I'm on a work leave so no stress there. I don't have any children or family to stress me out. Overall I think being under medicated has put me in a cycle of low T3 which led to low nutrients and poor sleep and possible raised cortisol, although I don't know that saliva tests are very reliable. I had a serum cortisol test at 8am and it showed 1 point under the optimal range so it's not dire. Of course, you need good nutrients for thyroid function so it's all a revolving cycle, which won't be corrected unless I get adequate thyroid hormone. When I trialed NDT last year I still had Levo in my system so adding NDT onto that increased my T4 and T3 and the sleep problems disappeared. I know having adequate thyroid hormone will correct all my issues but it's a matter of finding the right balance. I've contemplated T3 only and I weigh 47kg so it's possible I may not need very much. I'm not sure what the amount is per KG. There's a certain stability I feel with T4 only and I'm nervous I won't get that with T3 only. I don't want to wake up in the morning feeling hypo.
I managed to reduce my cortisol by taking Holy Basil. It took me a long time though. This is the one I've been taking (and still take, but only at half the normal dose).
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I started on a very large dose to begin with because my cortisol was way over the range for samples 1, 3 and 4 in a saliva test and at 90% of the way through the range for sample 2.
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