Dosage before a blood test : Hi all I am on... - Thyroid UK

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Dosage before a blood test

Lindsayf profile image
13 Replies

Hi all

I am on 100mcg of T4 and 25mcg of T3. I take both upon waking. I’m having my blood drawn on Thursday morning about 8.30am.

I can’t find my old posts as I have asked this before but can you remind me the best way to take my T3. I think I take my T4 as normal and then split the T3 into 3 dosages.

Sorry to ask again.

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Lindsayf profile image
Lindsayf
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13 Replies
SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator

yes ….

tomorrow cut T3 into 3 doses - small half and two 1/4’s

Take half tablet waking and 1/4 tablet 3-4pm and last 1/4 tablet approx 8.30-10-30pm

Take levothyroxine approx 8.30am Wednesday morning

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking

Lindsayf profile image
Lindsayf in reply to SlowDragon

thank you so much. :) I stopped all my vitamins about 2 weeks ago as I’m having a few different blood tests on Thursday.

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

I take T3 alone and have followed a doctor/scientist/researcher/expert on thyroid hormones who was also an Adviser to Thyroiduk. I take one daily dose when I awake, with one glass of water. I don't eat until at least one hour has elapsed. This method allows me to have a normal life.

He took T3 himself, when he awakened during the night and that ensured that nothing interfered with T3's uptake.

If having a blood test for thyroid hormones, I always get the earliest possible blood draw and don't take my dose until afterwards. I've never yet had a query by a doctor except one who told me that T3 converted to T4 and I told him he was wrong.

Lindsayf profile image
Lindsayf in reply to shaws

yes that’s what I do. Upon waking I take my T4 and T3 and then wait an hour before drinking and eating. :) I find that so much easier than spacing throughout the day.

I’m doing the T3 split today as I have my bloods tomorrow. ;)

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Lindsayf

I've never split my dose of T3 as I take one daily a.m. dose but when having a blood test (early a.m.) I get blood drawn first then take T3 (with one glass of water) afterwards.

I've never had a query by GP.

I follow a doctor who was also an Adviser to TUK. He was also a scientist and expert in T3 and took it himself (in the middle of the night so that nothing interfered with its uptake). He would never prescribe Levo - only T3 or NDTs (natural dessicated thyroid hormones made from animals' thyroid glands).

tpauk.com/main/article/the-...

Lindsayf profile image
Lindsayf in reply to shaws

agh, so the day before your blood withdraw, you take your normal dose at the same time.

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Lindsayf

Yes.

LindaC profile image
LindaC in reply to shaws

Yes shaws, I recall you saying, to the effect, taking T3 in one go, as that expert did, to 'saturate the cells'; this has always appealed to me.

My query is: having been ludicrously UNDIAGNOSED in 2015, saying I'd likely never been hypothyroid, by the same Hospital* see below, [following NHS funded Armour use and increasingly more T3, strongly advised 'for life' by Dr P], I was sufficiently stupid to 'show willing' by slowly reducing T3 and eliminating Armour... I was so ill at the point ['freezing shins', punch-drunk, stumbling, lack of co-ordination, that I'd have tried anything... EVEN THEN I knew this was ridiculous! I'd been taking T3 @ 62.5 mg in summer and 75 mg in winter, but slowly dropped down to 37.5 mg and by winter I was so ill! Went back up but stayed at 50 mg due to severe palps/arrythmia.

This year - during heatwave - my temperature regularly dropped below 35 C and that same department won't now see me because: "She's been seen twice, then 2015 with 'low body temperature' so...". BUT it certainly wasn't only typical hypothyroid low temp... much more than that!? Seven years on from the last consult, this is ludicrous, crazy behaviour... nothing short of demented fish wife circulating gossip [no disrespect to any fish wife!], so I guess without any appropriate medical care, once more I'm having to deal with this myself. Since January 2015 home heating is at 26.9 C, pretty much all year round, so imagine what the 'current climate' is doing to our finances!? Since getting much colder again, this year my arrythmia's wild, so begun to increase T3, thinking it's likely due to not enough!? I'm on the verge of taking T3 all in one go and recall that you also had heart issues?

[Some old trotted out background, I'm sooo sick of it!! 😅😪

I began 2003 with dreadful palpitations, was then dx'd in 2007 [privately! :-( due to my being ignored and with inter-generational heart problems + over 4 yrs I was worsening] with arrhythmia + other issues [dropped P-wave, Sinus Node Disease. Again 2007, it was suggested, I'd likely need a pacemaker at some point + leaking values, as could be found randomly in the population]. So, I have several heart issues.

Dr S + Dr P in 2010, shocked [by this time I was a 'hypothyroid creature from the deep' = unrecognizable] that I had not been dx'd. 2007 Cardiologist's first Q was my thyroid status - he'd not been told, neither me - that 2003 + 2007 I was nigh on, even with their silly ranges, being hypothyroid 0.14 and 0.11 respectively just within range over a 4 year period, with heart issues PLUS a list of accumulating illnesses. *Local Teaching Hospital: my following TV Dr Chris 'dx'ing from afar' with his broadcasted list of signs/symptoms, in 2008 + 2009 [TV Dr said to persist] yet endos saying, 'Not hypothyroid'. No Issue for Drs S & P yet 7 years of a struggling-thyroid-hormone-deprived-heart, before even starting standard T4 (Dr S's obvious starting point!) Levo tipped me over within weeks to hyper, hence tried Armour and then via Dr P T3. Armour helped somewhat but T3 was what I needed. As with many, long-term neglect is culpable, then they go after you all the more for daring to Q them.]

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to LindaC

I love T3 and it loves me as it has halted all of the palpitations and unpleasant symptoms I had with levothyroxine, sometimes pulse near 150 per minute with levo, especially during the night when it awakened me. At least the Cardiologist who did overnight recordings was contemplating putting an implant in my heart 'to see what was going on' but did not need to do so as my heart was now calm and I felt well.

I have followed Dr John Lowe's advice (RIP) and he is a big loss to those who have to cope with a dysfunctional thyroid gland and some 'experts' seem not to be 'experts' at all.

google.com/search?client=fi...

LindaC profile image
LindaC in reply to shaws

Thank you shaws, I also loved the work of Dr Lowe [not as long as you 💚❤️💛] but I managed to get much of his work copied - a marvelous man - so glad to hear your experience again. Guess nothing to be done via endos here!? Best wishes to you! 🎶👍🍀

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to LindaC

Thank you and I don't understand why doctors seem to have no knowledge and seem not to be trained considering that the GP when my TSH was 100 phoned me to tell me that my blood test was fine and I had no problems. I cried as, like many of us, had never heard or knew anyone who had hypothyrodism but felt awful.

Some months ago a GP phoned to tell me that my TSH was too low, T3 too high and T4 too low. I stated the TSH is low because I take T3 alone, T4 is low because I take none. GP "but T3 converts to T4". "No doctor that's incorrect T4 should convert to T3!

I was fortunate to have requested a blood test form a few weeks beforehand as suggested by a friend and went straight to the hospital for another blood test for thyroid hormones. Like the majority on this forum, few of us knew anything about a dysfunctional thyroid gland but would have expected a GP to have an idea - at the very least.

Fortunately the hospital had phoned the surgery to ask why I was having another test when the previous TSH was 100.

Lindsayf profile image
Lindsayf

I used to do that years ago and was advised that splitting the T3, the day before, gave a more accurate blood reading. Is it better to do the split when taking T4 and T3

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Lindsayf

I have never had any query due to my blood results on T3 only.

Dr Lowe stated that one daily dose of T3 saturated all of the T3 receptor cells and it, in turn, sent out 'waves' throughout the 24 hours and its effect could last up to three days.

I did this trial myself i.e. took one dose of T3 early a.m. on first day, took none on day two and none on day three and was fine.

google.com/search?client=fi...,

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