Hi there.
I had my thyroid removed since 2018, has anyone taken the violet iodine brand (molecular iodine), or some other along with levothyroxine?
I have read that iodine helps in fibrocystic mastopathy, muscle aches, premenstrual syndrome, POS, etc.
Levothyroxine has not been enough for me and T3 gives me palpitations .
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Did you know that Levothyroxine and other forms of thyroid hormones such as T3 and NDT are partly made of iodine?
If your iodine levels have been tested with a reliable test and you know that you are deficient in iodine then taking supplements is probably worth doing.
But historically, iodine was used as a treatment for hyperthyroidism, not hypothyroidism, so taking iodine might actually make your hypothyroidism worse.
One common cause of palpitations in thyroid disease is low nutrient levels. The most important ones that get mentioned over and over again on this forum are vitamin D, vitamin B12, folate and ferritin (iron stores). Others that crop up frequently are selenium, zinc, magnesium.
It would be better to optimise the nutrient levels I've mentioned, rather than to take iodine, particularly if you don't know if you are deficient.
Some useful links on iodine testing :
blog.zrtlab.com/flaws-in-th...
townsendletter.com/Jan2013/...
The best test of iodine is the non-loading 24-hour urine test. Patch tests are useless, and loading tests give unreliable results.
If you have any recent test results for any nutrients and also for TSH, Free T4 and Free T3 we could interpret the results for you if you posted them with the reference ranges.
If you've had a thyroidectomy, you need less iodine, not more.
When you have a healthy thyroid, it takes up iodine from the blood, and uses it to make thyroid hormone. Without a thyroid, there will be more iodine available for other parts of the body.
If you're taking levo, you will be getting extra iodine anyway. 100 mcg levo (T4) contains approx 65 mcg iodine which is recycled in your body. Plus what you get from food. Highly unlikely you would need more than that.
How much levo are you taking? Do you know how well you convert? If you post your latest labs, including FT4 and FT3, with ranges, we'll be able to tell you how well you convert.
But, taking iodine is not going to increase your levels of thyroid hormone in any way, because you don't have a thyroid to make hormone. It would be like mixing up a cake batter when you don't have an oven to cook it in! 
Hello Greygoose, thank you very much for your reply, I am on 100 mcg of levothyroxine practically since my surgery (I gave up on specialists), you will find attached my recent lab results, I am definitely not a good converter, I just saw another endochronologist on November the 2nd just for curiosity and she reduced my dose to 75 mcg of levo and added 25 mcg of novotiral (it has a combination of 100 levo with 20 of T3), but immediately I started to feel palpitations.
I decided two days ago to reduce on my own levo to 88 mcg and add a quarter of a cynomel (T3 in my country) my goal is to keep reducing levo and increasing T3 since I do not convert, but I need a little guidance and I think this forum is the only place where I believe I'm going to get it, all thanks to your help and experience.
FT3 2.92 (2.08-4.3) 3.49%FT4 0.92 (0.89-1.75) 37.84%
Not quite sure what you mean by '25 mcg Novotiral' because one tablet contains 100 mcg T4 and 20 mcg T3, so where does 25 come in? Or, did you mean 1/4 tablet? That would be 5 mcg T3, which is a very small dose, so I doubt it was the T3 giving you palps - if it were, you would have got the same adding in 'a quarter of a cynomel' (6.25 mcg?), which is the same T3 as in Novotiral, only more.
Besides, palps can be a symptom of under-medication.
So, what, exactly were you taking to get the above results? Whatever it was, you were under-medicated. So, that was probably the cause of the palps.
So, your ultimate goal is to go onto T3 only? Just because you don't convert very well doesn't mean that you don't need T4. Some people need more than others, but most need some. If I were you, I would have stayed on Novotiral - but one whole tablet - i.e. 100 mcg T4 and 20 mcg T3 - for six weeks, then retested and seen how I felt, and gone from there. Too much messing around with doses is a very bad thing.
In any case, none of this has anything to do with iodine. So, I hope you've given up the idea of supplementing it, now.
hello again, in effect, I was referring to 1/4 of novotiral that contains 20 mcg of T3 in total, I know it sounds illogical but when I add it to euthyrox it causes me tachycardia, in fact in 2016 they replaced euthyrox with novotiral and it caused me thyrotoxicosis , which leads me to the conclusion that perhaps it is the brand that does not suit me.
What I was taking above that results just was 100 mcg of euthyrox (T4) for the last two years or more.
I did not know anything about Cynomel, who told me about it was an anti-aging medicine doctor who treats me for hormonal Issues ( high prolactin, etc., again, due to hypothyroidism).
I'll take your advice and add 1/4 of Cynomel to the 100 mcg of euthyrox instead of lowering it to 88 mcg.
By the way I told the endocrinologist about the vitamins and minerals that help the conversion of T4 to T3 and she told me that the conversion is done by the liver and kidneys without the need for supplements,
I am definitely sure that the doctors are becoming obsolete regarding thyroid diseases.
Finally, I have a question, do you know how many hours T3 lasts in our system? I have read that only 4 hours, am I okay?
it caused me thyrotoxicosis
What is your definition of 'thyrotoxicosis'? Because it means different things to different people, I've noticed.
By the way I told the endocrinologist about the vitamins and minerals that help the conversion of T4 to T3 and she told me that the conversion is done by the liver and kidneys without the need for supplements,
Oh lord! They are so ignorant! You've got to laugh! lol Some conversion is done in the liver, yes. It's also done in other parts of the body, including the thyroid itself, when you have one that works. But, how does she think the liver works? I wonder if she realises she has to put petrol in her car or it won't work! Well, the liver needs fuel, too. And its fuel is nutrients! She should really go back to med school and pay attention this time. Sigh.
I am definitely sure that the doctors are becoming obsolete regarding thyroid diseases.
I agree! I just wish they realised that.
Finally, I have a question, do you know how many hours T3 lasts in our system? I have read that only 4 hours, am I okay?
Lord knows who wrote that. T3 has a half-life of about 24 hours in the blood. That means that if you took 10 mcg this morning, you will have about 5 mcg same time tomorrow morning, minus what got into the cells.
What gets into the cells stays there for about three days. I think some doctor like to make out that T3 has such a short life to put people off taking it. Most of them lie through their teeth most of the time!
I totally agree.
The reason I came to the conclusion that I had thyrotoxicosis is because after I started taking the novotiral (November 2016), I practically felt like I was going crazy, had constant panic attacks, didn't sleep even though I was very sleepy. I watched my husband and daughters go to bed and was terrified thinking about the night to come.
Neurologist did an MRI and an EEG and he couldn't find the cause, until I changed laboratories and there the real result came out, my thyroid got intoxicated, at least this nightmare lasted a year, this and multiple nodules on my thyroid led to it finally being removed (had Hashimotos's since 2005). So far it has been a long and hard road.
I don't really think that's thyrotoxicosis. Thyrotoxicosis is having excess circulating thyroid hormone in the blood. It doesn't mean that your thyroid is intoxicated. Besides, taking exogenous thyroid hormone doesn't affect your thyroid in any way. It doesn't 'intoxicate' your thyroid. Do you really think you were over-medicated on such a small dose?
If you have Hashi's, it's more likely that you were having a Hashi's 'hyper' swing, where the immune system attacks the thyroid, and the dying cells dump their stock of hormone into the blood. This causes FT4/3 to rise sharply, and the TSH becomes suppressed. It has nothing to do with your levo or whatever.
**If you have Hashi's, it's more likely that you were having a Hashi's 'hyper' swing**
I never heard about it.
The endocrinologist at that time when she saw the results told me that it was an iatrogenic thyrotoxicosis and that probably some of my nodules were uncontrolled producing a lot of thyroid hormone.
Well, of course, that does happen, that nodules produce hormone independantly of the thyroid. But that would still have nothing to do with your dose of levo/Novotiral. Neither of them would - or could - cause nodules to start producing hormone.
And, she's not making a lot of sense, there. Either it is iatrogenic thyrotoxicosis - i.e. caused by your treatment - or it is the nodule producing excess hormone. Hardly likely to be both.
Doctors often don't know anything about Hashi's or how it works, so it doesn't surprise me that she didn't think about that. But, that's what it does. It causes you to swing between hypo and false-hyper, and back again.
I realized now that I never knew enough about Hashimotos's and I am really worried now for my daughter, she was diagnosed with Hashi's too a few years ago, now she is 22 years old, taking levo, in your experience what supplements do you recommend for her in order to protect her thyroid? Is it selenium? If so, what dose is right for her? She weights around 41 kg. (by the way can the swings due to Hashimotos's may be the cause of her losing weight?.
In addition, both she and my other daughter (19 years old), apparently both have congenital mild adrenal hyperplasia, we found out recently since the youngest has hirsutism. As expected, the endocrinologist prescribed spironolactone and contraceptive pills but we have not yet agreed to give her that treatment since the only symptom so far is excess of hair and my eldest daughter has not yet manifested other symptoms, unless we are overlooking it by focusing on the Hashimotos, in fact the ACTH test is still pending.
It is worth mentioning that both lead a normal life, the only thing that we also discovered in the youngest recently is cartilage wear on the knees, the endocrinologist mentioned that bone density should be monitored due to excess testosterone (that's why she prescribed contraceptive pills).
Sometimes I feel a mental cloud and no longer I know where to continue, since I do not know whether to trust the treatments recommended by specialists and that may cause her more harm than help.
we definitely "won the lottery"😬
in your experience what supplements do you recommend for her in order to protect her thyroid?
There's nothing she can take to protect her thyroid. That's not what supplements do. Selenium is essential for conversion but doesn't do anything for the thyroid itself, as far as I know.
The supplements she should be taking are the supplements she needs. Nothing will help anything if she doesn't need them. More is never better, and can be dangerous. So, she needs to get her vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested and supplement accordingly - people on here can help with that. Optimal nutrients are essential for the body to use thyroid hormones correctly/efficiently. But there's nothing that can do anything for the thyroid.
can the swings due to Hashimotos's may be the cause of her losing weight?
A 'hyper' swing can make people lose weight, yes. But, then again, weight-loss can be a hypo symptom. Not everybody puts on weight.
I'm afraid I don't know anything about adrenal hyperplasia, so cannot comment on the treatment. But, you could start another question asking if anyone else knows something. I think it would be surprising if no-one did.
Radioactive Iodine Treatment or Thyroidectomy? 
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