symptoms after increasing armour..

[Beau55]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if anyone can help answer a few questions I have if possible please. I am in the process of getting my Armour dosage up and experiencing terrible symptoms each time. I was previously on 1.75 grains and finally had a patch of feeling a bit better. My Endo told me to increase to 2 grains and hold it there for testing next month.

It has been a rocky road getting on to armour so far but I have learnt a lot along the road. I have explored reasons for the intolerance symptoms and discovered my iron is on the low side (supplementing) and supplementing low folate with methyl folate. I have already addressed my cortisol levels with cortex. My vit D seems quite good and already on B12 injections.

My main question - will the symptoms settle back down after a couple of weeks even if my iron levels are low? Or will this continue until I’ve addressed it all? This prospect is making me panic as I feel so crap and hopeless that I won’t be able to get on to the NDT properly and iron is so slow to increase. If I know the symptoms will settle eventually I can probably grin and bear it.

My main symptoms seam to start around 5 days after increasing. I feel more hypo if anything but terrible anxiety and panic symptoms and very tearful. Is it possible for a dose increase to make you more hypo at first ?

Many thanks for all your help x

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

I think we are all individual so really most things are possible. When did you last have tests for vitamins? How much are you taking? Maybe you aren't taking enough of something to cover the hypo type symptoms? Folate is a big one for me and the last thing I needed to optimise.

Maybe focus on iron rich foods taking vit C at the same time?

[Beau55 in reply to Jaydee1507]

thanks Jaydee for your response,

Folate was last tested in July and ferritin etc last month so fairly recent. I wanted to give them all a decent chance to increase before retesting (mainly due to expense). I am currently on 400mg ferrous gluconate, 400mg methyl folate, and b12 injections. Just waiting for my b vitamin complex to arrive to give thst a go.

How long did it take you to optimise your nutrients? X

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to Beau55]

Looks like we're on a similar path with the folate. I had last test in September and will retest in about 3 weeks when I get thyroid function done too. Mine didn't move mutch on 400mcgs. I'm told it takes 3 months once on the right amount. Vit D was only a few months and ferritin I cheated a few years back and got an iron infusion. Long story, but I was very unwell at the time. Luckily that's lasting so far. Indeed it's all expensive but I'm sure in the end worth it for quality of life.

[SilverAvocado]

I can reassure you that symptoms when changing a dose can be a complete roller-coaster. For me, almost anything can happen.

I've had all kinds of symtoms when changing doses, often things I've never experienced before. Feeling more hypo is quite a common one for me.

I feel like week four on a new dose is the point when things are usually settling down. I've tended to stay steady on a dose for at least six weeks before having a blood test or starting to evaluate it, and by that point it has nearly always settled enough to make some judgement about whether I feel better. Sometimes it's still up and down so I've waited a few more weeks.

[Beau55 in reply to SilverAvocado]

Thanks SilverAvacado, this is a really helpful response for me right now! I can tolerate them if I know that they will eventually pass and I will feel well. It was slightly concerning me that I was finally starting to feel lighter only to increase I suddenly feel a lot more hypo again. Have you found that your symptoms improved over time? Also how long did you find until you finally began to feel a bit stable with the progress? I keep getting bummed that I’m not feeling how I thought I should but I know I need to be patient 😬 Thanks again! X

[SilverAvocado in reply to Beau55]

With thyroid, everything is slow, and everyone is different.

In general I would say it is always going to take a good few months to get real improvement. And if you have any complications at all it can take much longer, which includes even delayed appointments to adjust doses.

Armour is dessicated thyroid hormone, which is the treatment most people would choose to be on if they could, so in that sense you're in very good shape.

A big question is how much improvement you can expect to have, and whether most people get back to where they were before they had a thyroid condition. I suspect most people don't get back to 100% of what they had before. But lots of people will get back to maybe 80%, which does mean some adjustment to life, but being able to do most things. There is huge variation, and everyone is different.