Having been on T3 only for about 8 months, I have made some massive strides in terms of my general health. Most of the symptoms that had me at my absolute lowest ebb, have gone.
However, if one remains it is a general feeling of weakness. I used to weight lift 4 - 5 times a week before thyroid illness began, but attempting it now leaves me absolutely shattered for a day or so, and the energy to lift just seems missing.
Having done some further blood tests, it transpires that I am terribly anaemic / iron deficient (way, way below the “normal range”).
The obvious solution to that, in isolation, is to take iron supplements. However, I have educated myself enough to know that thyroid medication and iron supplements are not good bedfellows. Or at the very least, they cannot be taken within several hours of each other if you want the thyroid meds to have any effect whatsoever.
Trouble is, I take T3 Thybon Henning at 8am, 12pm, 4:30pm and 9pm. The only window that leaves is the middle of the night.
Is that my only option? Would it be safe and effective? And / or is there a better option?
Also, what are the best kind of iron supplements to take alongside thyroid treatment.
Thanks!
Written by
JonnyA
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Hi,I take T3 as well and it has helped me alot. I started on this 3 months ago in addition to levothyroxine. I am anemic too and was finding it difficult to add the iron tablets as I had to take t3 three times daily which had to be taken several hours away from any supplements. What I have done is to take my t3 twice daily instead which is first thing in the morning and before bed time. This has worked out alright for me., All the best
I am not sure about how things are going in your part of the world, but my gp gives me ferritin infusions for my anaemia as I havent responded well to any Iron supplementation over the years. Maybe this is a possible option to look into for you as well?
Once we’ve stabilised on our meds and seen symptom improvement, this often warrants us resilient enough to reduce multi dosing regimes.
Weak adrenals meant I was initially forced to dose T3 three times daily but able to reduce to a more manageable twice a day about six months later where I have stayed ever since. Dosing four times a day must be very prohibitive for you.
I know you suffered some quite severe mental health issues previously so to invite yourself some confidence and control why not try reducing to three doses daily for a week at a time, recording pulse & temps, prior to starting iron supps. Then if all goes well you can continue and bring your iron tablets in during the created gap.
The ironic thing is optimised iron will help your T3 meds work so much more effectively on a cellular level, so although enforces a multi dose reduction to fit it sensibly in, it might have invited this anyway and even a slight dose reduction tweak. Good luck.
Others will suggest which supplements as I don't supplement iron.
I take Iron supplements every other day and 4 hours from my thyroid meds and have not noticed anything different with my blood test or how I feel but everyone is different.
It would be helpful to know your iron-related results, to be sure we know what is going on. In an ideal world these would include :
Serum iron, TIBC (Total Iron Binding Capacity) or Transferrin, Transferrin Saturation, Ferritin and CRP (or CRP-hs).
A Full Blood Count might be helpful too.
Are you male or female? If female, are you pre- or post- menopausal?
If your results are way, way below range has your doctor referred you to anyone to find out why that is? For example, have you had a stool sample tested to see if you are losing blood in your poo? Have you been referred for an endoscopy and colonoscopy to look for bleeding ulcers, bleeding polyps, ulcerative colitis, coeliac disease, gastritis and probably lots of other things?
If you are female perhaps you are bleeding extremely heavily during periods and have fibroids that need to be removed.
If you do get a stool sample tested for blood please be aware that false positives and false negatives can occur. Stool sample testing may have moved on a bit since this thread was written, but it also might not have too!
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