New bloods on Armour + Levo - tweaking progress

Hi everyone,

I have lowered my Armour previously from 2.75 to 2.625 and been alternating 12.5 with 18.75 Levo every second day.

To my surprise, my ft3 has gone up even a little bit more, and ft4 is more less the same..here are the results:

Tsh less than 0.01 (as always)

Ft4 52% or 17.2 (12-22) /53% and 66% previously on slightly different doses/

Ft3 100% or 6.8 (3.1-6.8) /97% and 81% previously on slightly different doses/

Good things first: I don't feel stiff, my legs have lost a good bit of water, my energy levels are quite good, I'm stable with my mood, happy and creative a lot of the time, I have appetite and no bloating, I go to the toilet regularly (no constipation), my hair is not as brittle and dry, skin is clear, my focus is really good. No anxiety during the day.

Bad things next: I am too hot, my temps are between 36.9 and 37.4 (no hot flushes), I have issues falling asleep and sometimes I wake up too early completely rested, my hair and skin have gone very oily from dry, sometimes I feel unbelievably hungry and shake, and my joints are achy, sometimes palps at night and anxiety when trying to sleep.

I am fine tuning at the moment, which is very difficult as any change can shift my results drastically up or down. I am happy I am finally getting somewhere.

Any comments, advice - very welcome I am back to the drawing board, thinking of what I should do next!

Thank you for reading

[radd]

Sleepymouse,

I thought your FT3 too high in previous posts, especially as you left 24 hours between dose & blood draw, meaning FT3 was most likely even higher. You sounded over-medicated .

You previously mentioned hypoglycaemic episodes and now you have palps in the night and are waking unbelievably hungry, and shaky. You sound even more over-medicated.

Whether you are adding the Levo to higher FT4 levels or bring a better ratio of T4:T3, I think the amounts need readjustment. If this were me I would stop the Levo for the moment, & reduce NDT back to 2 grains to try and reduce that anxiety & heat in your body, & hold for six weeks before testing.

During this time be proactive by eating smaller meals each with protein to get blood glucose levels back under control. (On a basis level T3 needs balanced sugar levels to enter our cells). You said iron & nutrients are good but are they optimal? Thyroid meds hate low iron, T3 in particular and for some after a certain point it can be impossible to raise or utilise thyroid hormone further.

You also advised of raised thyroid antibodies. These can cause huge bodily inflammation resulting in those aches & pains, that then get blamed on insufficient thyroid meds but are in fact resulting from elevated antibodies negatively influencing the enzymes (deiodinases) that dictate how our meds are utilised.

Therefore, you may have unknowingly found your sweet spot but antibodies are prohibiting meds from working effectively, causing you to further titivate unnecessarily. That is why it’s important to keep working towards reducing them. Are you g/f. Are you supplementing selenium? Are zinc levels good? Are micronutrients good such as Vit A that improves cell sensitivity.

Because you have had high levels of T3, I would also supplement some liver clearance ( ie milk thistle, and/or berberine that would help with glucose control also) because your struggling body is having to work hard to utilise & excrete all that hormone.

Then test to see exactly where thyroid levels lie. For many including myself the ratio of Armour is too high in T3 and this will be when if a raise is required adding a little bit of Levo would be beneficial but it just depends where those FT3 levels are presenting.

You say you need T3:T4 balanced but you can’t keep adding Levo without taking more NDT away. And was that assumption made when perhaps iron wasn’t so good or antibodies were further elevated? Had you held a new dose for six weeks before making that assumption? Over/under symptoms are readily confused with the added complication that many symptoms will lag behind good biochemistry.

[Hidden in reply to radd]

Thanks radd! I agree my FT3 is too high and I feel overdosed.My iron and ferritin are optimal (iron always top range and ferritin middle of range), been supplementing for almost 10 years religiously.

My TPO antibodies further fell from over 1300 to 200, my TG antibodies have gone from high into range first time in years. I am doing well on this front.

I have been taking notes for several years, if I drop to 2 grains I will have ft3 ft4 under range with suppressed tsh, at that time I was admitted to the hospital this is how bad I felt.

I will continue to fine tune this dose, as you said, I need to lower the ft3 a bit, I also can't have ft4 too high , so I need to take little steps again to balance it out. I don't have anxiety, but I definitely feel too hot and have insomnia

Indefinitely feel the meds working, they are working just too well at the moment Thank you so much!

[radd in reply to Hidden]

Sleepymouse,

Great antibodies are reducing. Well done.

Re test results if your ‘frees’ are going from top/over range to under range on a dose reduction of 2.75 grains to 2 grains I would be questioning assay interference, because just three quarters of a grain should not be taking you from over to under range. Something else is wrong.

Many members have a suppressed TSH when medicating T3 or meds that contain T3. It's just the pituitarys sensitive behaviours.

Have you looked into cortisol levels yet?

[Hidden in reply to radd]

Thank you 3/4 of a grain is a lot for me, 30 mcg t4 and 7 mcg t3. This is why I only increase/decrease by a bit. Seen some similar stories on here by Slowdragon, Clarebear and other having the same issue. I think we are all different.Cortisol was green on all levels in saliva, I don't feel aby adrenaline rushes or lows either.

I am really doing so much better, need to fine tune this bit. It's frustrating, but I believe my levels have finally built up after few months, rather than dropping , so really chuffed with it now just a tad too high!

[radd in reply to Hidden]

Sleepymouse,

The effects of 3/4 of a grain can be huge. Hence we often need to titivate by tiny amounts.

I was referring to the 3/4 of a grain on an already substantial dose of 2 grains that took your ‘frees’ from over range to under. Do you not wonder where all those other 2 grains of hormone has gone?

Anyway, whatever the reasoning how do you plan to reduce your elevated FT3?

You are fortunate not to have adrenals issues 😊

[Hidden in reply to radd]

It is so unbelievable how small amounts can affect us, totally agree, sorry, must have misunderstood.I did wonder at the beginning, but then I stopped because it was driving me crazy lol 😄

I am not sure yet, I will take the weekend to look at notes closely and see. Need to be careful because as you said, any change can produce drastic differences.

Oh absolutely, I used to have adrenal issues in the past, when I was medicated incorrectly, it all fell into place after dose increases. But when hypo, I had lows, highs, all of it.