Hi - I hope you can help me. I haven't posted here in a long time. I've been on T3 only for many years now after seeing Dr Peatfield quite a long time ago (he first put me on NDT but that didn't help). My previous Dr was happy for me to do this "unofficially", but there are now new doctors at our practice. I've just been found to have a variable and high heart rate (I'm 65 if that's important by the way). This has only just started. I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with doing the thyroid blood tests during the pandemic.
Anyway, I'm due back at the docs tomorrow. She did a blood test for something else but, unknown to me, included TSH - which has, of course, come out as negligible because I'm taking T3. I'm getting in a panic about what to say to her (which isn't helping my heart rate - lol!). So I thought I'd ask this here: Might it be that taking T3 only (75mcg - I know that's a high dose - I have been on higher and seemed fine) has caused this heart problem? I do fear she's going to say I'm hypERthyroid when my original problem, I believe, was that I was hypo as I have all the symptoms of hypo. Hope somebody can advise. I'm actually thinking should I stop my T3, but then I won't have any thyroid hormone at all will I?
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CarolineC57
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Don't take thyroid hormones a.m. if you are going to have blood drawn for a blood test. It should be the earliest blood draw (you can drink one glass of water) and wait an hour before you eat. Take thyroid hormones afterwards.
Hi Shaws - yes, I know that but I didn't know she was going to take my blood or test TSH that day, nor that there was a problem with my heart rate. That isn't really my problem at the moment. My problem is - could taking T3 have caused these heart palpitations, and what do I tell her tomorrow? I fear she's going to say my heart rate problem is because I'm hyper when I was (am?) actually hypo.
Yes, this is my problem - I haven't done blood tests during the pandemic (husband is CEV and I'm not sure about me) and now I'm wondering if 75mcg of T3 only for so long might have given me the palpitations. Are you saying it could have?
But then what if I cut down? Won't that cause me problems too having been on it for so long? Sorry, I'm probably not making my questions clear.
PS: I was never diagnosed by the NHS - they said my TSH was OK - that was why I went to Dr P.
Only if she's absorbing it. It's not right to directly quote fixed numbers like that really as so many of us don't seem to absorb even the T3 properly, especially if taking too much of it.
I experienced heart palpitations when I had extremely low cortisol - could this be involved?
CarolineC57 I developed heart palpitations from very low cortisol caused by a sustained ketogenic diet. Maybe you should test your adrenals? Assuming your t3 doesn’t come out as excessively high. Do you have other symptoms?
hey, yes adaptation can lead to palpitations in short term which is electrolyte imbalance. Long term it was an absolute disaster. I did it for my mental health, I didn’t know what I know now about thyroid & adrenals causing my severe depression & anxiety. Keto is very reliant on adrenals, you run on stress hormones because blood sugar is chronically low. But eventually the adrenals were unable to prop me up and my hypothyroidism exploded. It’s taken 2.5 years to get over it. My advice is that everyone is different but proceed with caution, deprivation isn’t always healthy.
Cortisol is best measured by 8 am blood draw and 4/6pt saliva.
Actually my problems always started at wk 4-6. Before that I feel great. But in other hand I was on mono t3 and might cause hyper but not sure. My rest heart rate increaces and then start palps to compensate. My gp said that keto resets cellural metabolism and I should decrease dosage. But it is horrible feeling and cutting of is a must immediately. I'm sorry to hear you felt so bad.
But yes, it is different if you are already on meds or not when you start.. Usually hypos adrenals are out of whack due to long term sickness without meds.
Oh yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about. The same happened to me. It’s common for thyroid medication requirement to drop on ketosis because metabolic rate drops, t3 often but not always in ketogenic euthyroid people is at the bottom or below range. High rt3 is created to prevent t3 being made because of the hypometabolic rate induced by ketosis (it is starvation mode after all) and if you’re taking direct t3 you will be circumventing your body’s natural capacity to create rt3. When this happened to me and before I suffered adrenal crash on keto, I just dropped my medication level and the palps went away. It is probably confusing too because on a “normal diet” we are encouraged to have a t3 high in range to feel well (at least by people who know what they’re talking about), but that is only in the context of a glucose-fuelled diet.
I was forced to start t4 last year when was lio shortage. I started to gain weight even I'm now on combination. Feel like a crap and wondering if could try keto now. T4 seems to prevent palps. Motivation 0 and tiredness😒
When first taking T4 (levothyroxine) I had awful palpitations, even the cardiologist couldn't figure out why and I had many overnight recordings as that's when palps where at their worst.
He was considering putting an implant in my heart 'to see what was going on'.
Just then T3 was added to T4, my palps immediately reduced and when I stopped T4 and took T3 alone, I had no more palpitations and I 've taken T3 only since then/
I can only add that a couple of months ago I felt a bit of a fast heartbeat now and again. As I am on T3 only I thought I would reduce my T3 for a while just to see if it changed anything.
I felt ok the palpitation stopped.
I though no more of it. About 4 weeks later I got on the scales and I had put on almost 1 stone and I smartly went back to my previous dose, with no problems at all.. I haven't lost the stone though!! LoL
Lio only is very demanding. Iron, vits, cortisol, hormones.. all needs to be well balanced and I wonder as a cronic aenemic on premenopausal stage I don't know if it wise for me anymore be on mono. Anyway I have not been well after adding t4. Annoying.
Yes I am on lots of supplements. I don't mind taking them at all because I actually have a life now, before I started my trial on T3, I really didn't have a life which was worth living. And I have felt that way since diaagnosis, I didn't feel well at all. Not at any point, I just got used to feeling ill, gaining weight, no sleep, very itchy ears which no GP could get rid of, they all seemed to be stumped about that. I used sudocrem for years, I had ear infections which made my neck swell and goodness knows what. I could hear the fluid at times in my ear. Oh it was awful in the extreme.
I would never want to go back to those days.
I did have about a month on my reduced T3, which I forgot to say, not only gave me a weight gain of a stone, but my itchy ears came back!!
But I actually got my GP here to prescribe me an ear spray, which has meant that I won't get the swollen neck and an ear infection. He gave me Otomize spray, which I could use 3 times a day and it is more or less gone now, I am using it once a day now, I think I can safely leave it off in the next few days.
I certainly don't think I will be able to reduce my T3, the month on the lower dose has made me very much aware of that. I do have sneaky thoughts of trying NDT one of these days though. I might be asking about what is available readily online and the cost too of course. I have always thought it makes sense to use the natural thing.
Seems you have to check your iron and saliva test cortisol. Do not reduce of course t3 bc you need it. But palps always tell of something is wrong and your body will not tolerare it. Check ferritin levels, it might be the culprit. I have chronic itchy ears, not infected though but..
Thanks, SD. Yes, I know I need to get everything tested again, but I was more concerned about the immediate problem with my GP last night. Anyway, I feel I can probably deal with that now when I see her this afternoon.
I'm also getting my covid booster tomorrow, so then I can do things I need to do - eg. some urgent dental treatment I had to postpone due to them lifting masking requirements, and also getting some private tests done. I've always used Blue Horizons in the past at a local Spire Hospital, but I'll have to see what the situation is now. I understand from looking around the forum that Dr P is now retired so there's no-one else I can see really, which is worrying. Anyway, thanks again.
When you are on these high doses it's a good idea to try reducing by 5 mcg every month or two. Sometimes your dose requirement reduces. The palpitations could well be due to too much hormone, the only way to find out is to drop you T3 by a fair amount and see if they stop. If so you will have to find a compromise between having a safety margin for your heart and being able to function reasonably well.
Just to clarify as I didn't make it very clear. I would try reducing by a decent amount now (down to 50 mcg?) to see if the palpitations reduce. A sizeable reduction is needed to confirm whether or not it is hormone related.
In general when we are on high doses of thyroid hormone I think it is a good idea to try a small reduction every couple of months just to make sure we are on the lowest effective dose.
Quite a few of us need high doses of hormone that no doubt carry risks, without these doses we cannot function and may be at greater risk. This is why I put so much effort into trying to find the underlying causes of the need for supraphysiological hormone doses. It's also why I'm so fed up with endocrinologists who don't even acknowledge the situation let alone research it.
Thanks, Jim. Yes I've reduced a little now, since this heart scare. To be honest, I'm not sure if the T3 was helping me much anyway. Some issues resolved over the years, but others simply got worse. I'm now being checked for an entirely separate problem, which is what my health issues might have been all along (Sjogren's syndrome - family history of it, but my rheumatoid factor and other indicators keep coming out negative). Thanks again.
yes indeed, I whole heartedly agree with you there.
I hear of people on T3 taking much smaller doses than I take and I often wonder, am I taking too much? My recent experience of a reduced dose for around a month has taught me that I seem to need the amount of T3 that I take. So I am not worrying about it at all unless something changes of course.
I developed palpitations, chest pain, and tachycardia (heart rate of 100+) when my iron was below range, my ferritin (iron stores) was extremely low in range, and my red blood cell count was bottom of range.
I got rid of all these problems when I finally took control of my own iron and ferritin testing and treatment. In the UK prescription-strength iron tablets can be bought without prescription in pharmacies with the pharmacist's approval. I use the Medichecks iron blood test to measure my iron-related levels.
Note that on the day of writing this reply there is 20% off the normal price of the test with a discount code of Healthcheck20 until midnight.
I have found that doctors will only treat low iron and ferritin for the minimum possible time, leaving both ferritin and iron low in range. But I only feel well when my ferritin is mid-range or a little bit higher.
I also have issues with high cortisol and I'm sure this contributes to my heart misbehaving with arrhythmia. Low cortisol and high cortisol have some symptoms in common and the only way to determine if you have either of these is by doing a saliva cortisol test. You can't just guess. You can find symptom lists on this link :
Thanks! I'll take a look at that. I've been taking iron (bought myself) for a while now as my blood tests always come out as "mildly anaemic" but the NHS docs won't do anything about it. It actually came out as not too bad with this blood test the GP has now done, so I'm not sure if I might be on too many rather than too little. Hmm. Anyway, thanks.
It isn't just T3 that can be the cause of an irregular heartbeat - low iron - low Folate - Low B12 can also be involved. Do you know your levels ? Do you supplement ? I recently had BP issues and have reduced my T3 considerably which has resolved things ! On reflection my dramatically altered lifestyle over the last 3 years requires less energy - so realised the possibilty of requiring less T3. Nothing scientific - just my experience 🌻
Hi Marz - I haven't got time to check the exact figures at the mo as I'm due at the docs soon, but, to my surprise, both B12 and folate came out as too high with the test the GP did the other day. They've always been low in the past and I've been supplementing them so maybe I've overdone it? I just don't know really. I have reduced my T3 too since this heart scare. Will have to see how it goes.
You cannot overdose on B12 - it is water soluble so will be excreted ! Testing whilst supplementing will always produce skewed results. The NHS test reveals what is in your blood and NOT what is in your cells where it is needed. How did things go with the Doc ?
Things didn't go well with the doc. She wants me to come off the T3 completely! I don't know what will happen to my body if I do that, so I'm just going to ask another question here now so it doesn't get missed. I'd be very grateful if you could look out for it shortly and comment on there if you know about T3 only therapy. Thanks!
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