Elevated thyroid antibodies are indicative of Hashimotos and yes, TSH has reduced substantially on a 1/4 grain NDT. I commented on thyroid hormones in your other post.
The general protocol when introducing NDT with elevated antibodies is to raise quickly to lower TSH, so keeping thyroid activity to a minimum and discouraging further Hashi attacks.
Do you feel better or worse since starting Armour?
I feel better but sometimes have strong hypo symptoms. I wld say I have heart fluttering I hadn’t before. But that is occasional (maybe twice a week)
It was taking eltroxin for a couple of weeks which completely made me feel awful so anything would feel better than that!!
So from what u say u shd try to bring the TSH levels down as quickly as possible on NDT so that you don’t have more hashis attacks/damage thyroid? My dr asked me to double the dose- I thought this was a lot considering it had come down so much in 1/4
I have persistent low ferritin- in range but lo( it’s 22 - range is 13-150) .. I was anaemic but that has now resolved. Is it difficult for hashis to increase ferritin levels ?
Doubling the dose is not a lot because you are only medicating 1/4 grain.
1/2 grain is equivalent to 19mcg T4 + 4.5mcg T3, so still a very small amount of thyroid hormone replacement.
Your fluttering heart could be lack of thyroid hormone, intolerance of thyroid hormone replacement meds due to low ferritin levels, or the body’s immune system reving up after too much thyroid activity caused by elevated TSH.
Equally I am not suggesting to raise meds any quicker because introducing T3 too quickly when it hasn’t been previously medicated could result in the exact same heart flutters or a lot more.
I had months of acupuncture for an ongoing shoulder injury & noticed it calmed immune responses and helped healing. I wonder if anyone's actually managed to reduce thyroid antibody levels with acupuncture.
However, remember it's only a management strategy though, to help alleviate symptoms as can't actually replace thyroid hormone.
I used to have heart bangs & buzzing on Levothyroxine. The buzzing continued on T4 +T3, and then NDT, turning on and off during the night as if someone was flicking a switch inside me. Eventually it stopped. I'm convinced it's adrenal issues.
My acupuncturist is convinced we can improve my issues with acupuncture alone. She says if dr is in agreement they cld work together. My issue is I’m alrdy in medications and as I’m new to them and started them within weeks of each other I’m not rly sure what is working etc.
I had a chronic UTI problem years ago that I was going to be put in prophylactic antibiotics for and acupuncture sorted it- I do think it does work well.
The buzzing feeling I have is so strong at times- particularly at night. It’s been going on months now but was so strange at start.
I forget what it’s like to be symptomless half the time!
I wld love to have tried the acupuncture solo and seen if it sorted it out.
I guess it depends upon what other health conditions are going on and how compromised the immune system is. I too am sure acupuncture can encourage our immunity to balance and strengthen but as said above it can't replenish missing hormones out of thin air whether thyroid or adrenal.
However, because it appears you initially aren't going to require huge amounts of thyroid hormone replacement, I guess there is a chance of you regaining much by going gluten/dairy free. I have read about instances where a slightly damaged thyroid gland has repaired itself when the triggers are taken away. Have you read 'The Root Cause' by Izabella Wentz?
TG antibodies can be slightly raised with cancer, yes. But, yours are pretty high, and you have high TPOab, so it's pretty certain it's saying Hashi's, not cancer. So, no more freaking out.
You cannot predict what the TSH is going to do on what dose. Sometimes it comes down quickly, other times no. But, it probably comes down quicker when taking T3 than T4 only.
I believe there antbodies are relating to your having Hashimoto's Autoimmune Disease :
Your immune system has been triggered and has attacked your thyroid and these antibodies reflect the level of the attack as they sweep through after the attack to clean up your blood of any debris from the attack.
These antibodies should fall back down into range in due course but you may find your own thyroid hormone production erractic as your thyroid tries to recover and you may well find over time you will need to increase your thyroid hormone replacement as your own gland becomes further disabled and eventually non productive.
Many people refer to the research and work of Dr Izabella Wetnz as she has Hashimoto's. I understand it's important to heal and repair your gut and to look at foods with a view to cutting out anything that may trigger your immune system response, and read gluten, wheat and dairy, the first three suspects, along with processed foods.
You will feel better when your TSH comes down to under around 1 and this will happen as you increase your throid hormone replacement.
I have cut out gluten for about 6 weeks now. I’m not sure if I feel a difference as it coincided with medications. I didn’t feel I had gut problems before.
I have started acupuncture and dk feel in the days after treatment I feel my symptoms are well controlled. Anyone else try it?
Hi, I am in remission from Graves' Disease almost 4 years now and this forum was amazing support for me while going through this with a newborn son and wanting to breastfeed. I was doing a lot of research and noticed that a lot of autoimmune hyperthyroid patients seemed to go hypothyroid (Hashimoto's being the autoimmune hypothyroid condition) after anti thyroid drugs treatment. A strong indicator of going hypothyroid seemed to be high anti TPO antibodies - so I researched day and night and found early stage studies showing supplementation with Selenium seemed to bring down the number of antibodies, the Holy Grail being bringing them under 19.
So I did that plus went gluten free (which I still am) and also did 3 months dairy free. Plus continuous support with good quality Omega 3 (systemic anti inflammatory), vitamin D3, herbal teas, immune system response modulating tinctures of Ashwagandha and Rhodiola, meditation, eating mostly organic and getting rid of all toxic personal care and cleaning products.
For me reducing stress was extremely important so I worked on that with meditation, aromatherapy, joining a local emotionalsupport circle. I was able to avoid going hypothyroid.Dr Isabella Wentz specifically works with hypothyroid patients and has a eealth of information available.
I’m on my journey to lowering antibodies by going gluten free, taking selenium, zinc, vitamin D3 and I’d like to introduce omega 3 in supplement form. Do you have a suggestion for a good quality one? I haven’t given up dairy-I really don’t think I could! I eat mostly whole foods with the odd bad thing at the weekends. It’s hard to be so restrictive all the time!!
You are doing a lot already, well done! I used Eskimo Omega 3 liquid through the acute phase, and now I alternate with Nordic Oil as the taste of the Eskimo one can be a bit much sometimes. In the acute phase I slowly raised dosage to twice ad even 3 times the dose - but I did it slowly as a big dose would give you diarrhea 😬. Concerning dairy - I stopped it for 3 months completely then reintroduced it slowly and only organic.
Ok I’ll look into Eskimo, thank you! I read somewhere that hashi people shouldn’t take soyabean oil (sometimes found in omega supps). Is this correct? I bought some with soyabean oil in it and not sure if I should stop those...
I'm no doctor and I don't think there are any on here. You say you take armour but nothing else and then it seems you take other meds. We have to know everything of what you take to give the most accurate opinion. Usually if you're hypo 1/4 of armour is for starters, that's low and your TSH is still very high. You don't say since when you're hypo. You have to feel it by yourself when you have little symptoms on what dosage you're on. As time passes you'll probably have to increase your ndt as your antibodies will probably destroy your thyroid. Im personally optimized with armour at close to 0 TSH, not 1. Also you don't say if you take iodine. I hope not. Your illnesses, weight, height, in case you're overweight. If you exercise at all, etc. I think you have a few things to worry about, the TSH is an indicator but your personal symptoms will reveal more of what you need. Good luck
I don’t take anything other than armour- not sure where u are getting I take other meds from.
I am only properly diagnosed since March- they diagnosed last year but decided it may have been thyroiditis and took me off meds. Maybe he confusion is I tried eltroxin to which I cldnt tolerate, previously
Are your antibodies higher than they were prior to starting Armour? For some people with Hashi’s NDT can cause an increase in antibody levels. For me, I felt a strong uncomfortable sensation in my throat from day 1 on Armour and it would worsen and cause anxiety if I tried to increase to the equivalent of my prior synthetic t4/t3 doses. Tests 7 weeks later showed my TPO and TG auto antibodies had increased about 400%. Meanwhile of course others with Hashi’s do very well on NDT.
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High TPO antibodies.
TPO and TGAb antibodies levels?
Anti TPO
Confused
TPO antibodies
