I recently reduced my levothyroxine from 75mg to 50 mg to see if it would help my palpitations.
I’ve put on a huge amount of weight recently which could be partly caused by reducing my meds. I also have chronic Lyme, coinfections and mold toxicity which all mess with hormones.
I’m having a full thyroid panel done on Monday and was wandering what the optimal levels were?
The Nhs are quite vague with their normal range and I want to get my levels right and get back to my normal weight.
Many thanks
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Sonicfairydust
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Welcome to the group. If you could complete your profile it helps members understand your thyroid journey. Click on your image icon to start.
We use a digital calculator here to check blood result percentages. FT4 should be towards the upper part of the range. FT3 over 50%. Do post your results when you have them for members to make suggestions.
When hypo we get low stomach acid which means we cannot absorb vitamins well from our food, regardless of a great diet. For thyroid hormone to work well we need OPTIMAL levels of vitamins. Have you recently or could you ask your GP to test levels of ferritin, folate, B12 & D3? Private tests are available, see link for companies offering private blood tests & discount codes, some offer a blood draw service at an extra cost. thyroiduk.org/help-and-supp...
There is also a new company offering walk in & mail order blood tests in Crawley, Hove and Reigate areas. Check to see if there are blood test companies local to you. onedaytests.com/products/ul...
Recommeded blood testing protocol: Test at 9am, fasting, last levo dose 24hrs before the blood draw (if you’re taking Levo), last T3 dose 8-12 hours before blood draw & no biotin containing supplements for 3-7 days (Biotin can interfere with thyroid blood results as it is used in the testing process)?
ok thanks, have tested for everything you mentioned already will wait for my results next week, also having vit D checked on Monday. I only take vit d3 and hcl at the moment
I reduced on March 11th and the levothyroxine brand is accord. Have had lots of blood tests recently and am having my vit d levels tested as well as a full thyroid panel on Monday. Stopped most supplements as starting herbal and homeopathic protocol to treat Lyme etc…
Hi Sonicfairydust: Would you be kind enough to pm with some info on your herbal & homeopathic Lyme treatment. I live in Canada and is having a difficult time getting treatment for my chronic Lyme. I get frequent flare ups and I think it’s affecting the effectiveness of my thyroid hormones. I would really appreciate any info you can provide. Thanks!
Are you arrange your own private test or is Doctor doing a complete thyroid test.
Your doctor may only go by TSH but to gain a complete picture many arrange a full test including FT4, FT3, TPO & TG antibodies, folate,ferritin, B12 & vitamin D.
There isn’t a single standard range, ranges vary between labs.
Most people feel best when TSH is in lower part of range eg 1 and FT4 in top 3rd. FT3 at least half way.
As we’re all individual some are better with lower levels. Thyroid hormones are introduced slowly & gradually increased to prevent sudden symptoms and to find where you feel well. 50mcg is a standard starter dose most find they require more.
A-F recommendations for blood testing.
A - Always check what’s being tested & collect test results with reference range.
B - Biotin - cease 3 days before draw to avoid possible test interference
C - Consistent unchanged dose - minimum 6 weeks previously.
D - Delay replacement dose on day of test (until after blood draw)
E - Early morning appointment. (Book as close to 09.00 as possible)
F - Fast overnight. This can have a slight impact. Drink lots of water.
Palpitations are often a hypo symptom, as is weight-gain and difficulty losing it. 75 mcg is only a very low dose, most hypos need more than that. So, it's possible that your palps are due to under-medication, and reducing your dose would just make that worse.
Optimal levels vary from person to person, because we're all different. Therefore how you feel is far more important than blood test results. Unfortunately, doctors don't understand that.
In the majority of patients 50-100 μg thyroxine can be used as the starting dose. Alterations in dose are achieved by using 25-50 μg increments and adequacy of the new dose can be confirmed by repeat measurement of TSH after 2-3 months.
The majority of patients will be clinically euthyroid with a ‘normal’ TSH and having thyroxine replacement in the range 75-150 μg/day (1.6ug/Kg on average).
The recommended approach is to titrate thyroxine therapy against the TSH concentration whilst assessing clinical well-being. The target is a serum TSH within the reference range.
……The primary target of thyroxine replacement therapy is to make the patient feel well and to achieve a serum TSH that is within the reference range. The corresponding FT4 will be within or slightly above its reference range.
The minimum period to achieve stable concentrations after a change in dose of thyroxine is two months and thyroid function tests should not normally be requested before this period has elapsed.
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