Hi, I need help adjusting my schedule for calcium and cytomel. Can somebody help please?
I have to take calcium 3-4 times a day, and unfortunately also cytomel is spread out through the day.
Now the schedule looks like this
Cytomel at 7.00, 10:45, 14:00, 16.20
Calcium at 8:45, 12:00, 18:00
When I lost a function in my leg and all my body was constantly in spasms and tingling, after 1 year of suffering I decided to take some calcium supplements. I found out that if I take calcium carbonate with digestive enzymes my body improves and I can walk again but it works for 3-4 hours and then I need to repeat it again.
I switched now to calcium citrate because my kidneys were affected. I’m on citrate only a couple of days now still trying it out, but if I take my digestive enzymes separately or forget them , my thyroid starts to hurt.
I think maybe digestive enzymes speed up calcium uptake and it makes the interaction with thyroid hormone less?
please help me out to understand these 2 questions above
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Viv123
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When did you last have your calcium tested? Sounds like you're taking a lot of it and calcium supplements are very badly absorbed, and tend to build up in the arteries and soft tissues. It's usually recommended to take vit K2-MK7 to help it get into the bones and teeth.
How is your vit D? Taking vit D and magnesium will increase your absorption of calcium from food, which is much better absorbed.
It's difficult to say how much the calcium will affect the absorption of T3 because there hasn't been any research done on it to my knowledge. But with T4 we recommend a gap of four hours either side. You are taking your T3 and calcium very close together. How much T3 do you take? Do you really need to take it four times a day?
Thank you for your comment Grey Goose. Your input on this forum is greatly appreciated. Below is a bit of my history.
In 2019 one random endocrinologist checked my parathormon and it was higher than the normal range, my vitamin d 25-oh was low but not deficient low. My ionized calcium was on the lowest value of normal range. My total calcium was slightly lower than normal range, but corrected by albumin it looked normal.
Calcium ionized 1,10 nmol/l (1,10-1,35) !!
PTH 87,4 ng/ml (12-72) !!
Vit D 25-oh 73 nmol/l (75-250)
Calcium 2,12 (2,15-2,5)
Calcium corr 2,18
Albumin 37 (35-52)
Magnesium 0,7 (0,66-1,07)
He prescribed vitamin D3 to me. I took 2000 ui, but it still was not enough, t3 hormone and animal adrenal glandular helped me to stay more or less ok.
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Then in 2022 last year I got affected to a disabling state by ciprofloxacine antibiotic and at that time I was not taking adrenal support for a year anymore. Doctors still can’t find any problems in my tests - all was in range. For example test on 28.11.22 shows
PTH 6.1 pMol/l (1.6-6.9)
Hemoglobine. 8.8 mmol/l (7.5-10.0)
Natrium 140 mmol/l (135-145)
Glucose 5,3 mmol/l (4.0-7,8)
Kalium 4,2 mmol/l (3,5-5,0)
Calcium 2,31 mmol/l (2.10-2.55)
Fosfor 1,04 mmol/l (0,8-1.50)
Albumin 36 g/l (35-44)
Folate. >45 (ref >8)
B12 500(145-569) on no supplement
25-oh-vit D3 67 (r>50)
AntiTPO. 94 (>35)
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When I still was in a wheelchair in August I decided to try stopping vitamin d after all these years, and randomly tested Phosphorus. It was suddenly higher than the range.
14.08.2023
(not taking vit D for a week)
fosfaat - 2,38 mmol/l (0,81 - 1,45) !!
25-hydroxy-vitamine D - 99,8 nmol/l (25-250)
AUTOANTILICHAMEN tegen (P450c21 hydroxylase)* 7.31
al.-ratio negatief (norm < 10)
I have read then that calcium carbonate can help lower phosphate and started taking it and digestive enzymes. The best I felt when I took 2,5 g broken into 4 times a day.
Within 2 days I could walk and didn’t need a wheelchair anymore. It was amazing.
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My total calcium after the first 1,5 month of calcium showed that it’s just in range on the lower side as it was before, but at least I could walk. I still had lots of spasms, weak, limited in one word.
You can see that taking extra calcium leaves my total calcium same like a year before (2,31), even a bit lower probably bcs 1 month off d3. It also felt like I simply pee it out and then I need to take more to have it run in my system… I don’t know
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Well, my next step was to look into my D’s. When I supplemebted d3 2000 it felt like almost no effect - in blood would be no higher than 90 at all times. If I would try raising to 3000ui - severe chest pain. Exposure to sun sometimes also causes chest pain at me. I was glad I stopped d3 and k2. My test below shows that my active vitamin D is rather low. It might be a vitamin D resistance. Optimally it should be in the middle of the range at least. And optimal value for PTH lower third of the range. Mine was always at the top of the range.
12.10.2023
Vit D 25 OH - 84.0 nmol /ml (25-250)
Vitamin D 1,25 - 62,7 pmol /ml (51,7 -206,2)
At this point I knew it’s rather safe to start calcifediol (active vitamin D).
I take it now 1 week, but going to change dosage and take every day for more smooth transition.
After 2 weeks I started calcifediol, I felt slightly better and my D3 improved, my PTH went into optimal, and my calcium is optimal imo. I have much less spasms and tingling. Still have it though.
8.11.2023
PTH 23,5 ng/L (14,9-56,9)
Vitamin D 26-OH - 56 ng/ml (=140 nmol/ml)
Calcium 2,47 nmol/l (2,15-2,50)
Phosphorus 1,06 nmol/l (0,81-1,45)
But thyroid … afraid to test … I know that lately it was not ideal at all.
As for now I am switching to calcium citrate which feels good, I’m taking a bit of magnesium before bed
But before calcium supplements I couldn’t tolerate any magnesium at all.
As for t3, it was very hard for me to raise dosages from the very beginning 5 years ago, after years I got to 30 mcg per day divided to 7,5 mcg 4 times a day.
I tried taking it only 3 times a day and tried less, but it was all not good. I feel something is wrong with adrenals but can’t get a good doctor , waiting lists also make it hard. So my only option is to leave cytomel like it is for now…
But how to be with calcium? If I missed one digestive enzyme my thyroid goes off. Probably because calcium is still being digested …
And when I try to be more active physically or if it’s cold I think calcium is being absorbed or converted less…
Can it be that calcium is used up by my adrenals too much?
I plan to stabilize on calcium citrate, test blood, then add k2 again but this time with my active D, then test again. And when this done I will start testing thyroid again …
Then in 2022 last year I got affected to a disabling state by ciprofloxacine antibiotic
Some of your symptoms may have been caused by the ciprofloxacin. It's referred to as being "floxxed" by sufferers, and I've read that it can destroy people's lives.
I know that one thing that helps some people is high dose thiamine (also called vitamin B1). It's water soluble as far as I know and excess is excreted by the kidneys. People take very large doses of it. I'm no expert on this so don't take what I say as gospel truth, and please do your own research. The Hormones Matter website has made a speciality of discussing thiamine and floxxing. It would be well worth investigating. There is much more to the website than just discussion of thiamine though.
I don't know who the woman is who appears in so many of the pictures attached to the articles but I suspect she is probably someone who has been floxxed and has written many of the articles about floxxing and thiamine.
thank you, I have tried b1 I could not tolerate it at that time. Cipro indeed ruins lives. I also have many doctors who suspect I have MCAS. And leading cipro doctors see me as not a usual cipro-patient…
I suspect adrenals are abnormal and therefore I have multiple sensitivities to medications supplements and food. I also alregic to water specifically to fluoride in it. Cipro is also based on fluoride, pesticides also contain it. And when I was researching animal poisoning by fluoride - they treat them by calcium carbonate IVs…
I suspect calcium helps my body to loose it … but calcium really can do a lot…
Maybe when I’m more stable on it and my thyroid is a bit better than I will try b1 again if it will be needed.
Well! You've done very well to sort yourself out so far, so I'm sure your future plan is a good one. But, all this is a bit above my head.
As for your timetable for taking supplements and hormones, it doesn't sound ideal by ordinary standards, but yours is not an ordinary case. And, it does seem to be working. In which case, why change anything. As I said, I don't think anyone knows enough about the effect of nutrients on T3 absorption. What's more, it probably differs from person to person. You have people on here who take it with food and seem to absorb it perfectly. And others that take it with food and don't see to absorb much at all. Does it depend on the food? Who knows? There's a lot more research needed on that subject. But for the moment, we're groping in the dark. But I say, it it's not broke, don't fix it! Carry on as you are, and if your FT3 is too low when you finally test, increase the dose to compensate. That's probably not very helpful, but that's the way I see it.
Indeed it’s very different per person. I absorbed t3 pretty good with food. But my food was lactose free and gluten free. Who knows maybe calcium from food would make it somewhat more difficult to absorb.
As for fixing, I’m not sure it’s fixed… now that I am absorbing calcium better, I lack absorption of cytomel.. it seems… I am thankful for this talk anyway. Best wishes for holidays
I don't think lactose and/or gluten has any effect on absorption of exogenous T3. I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem to me it would do.
I didn't say you'd 'fixed' it. That's just an expression meaning it doesn't seem like you should change anything - certainly not just on the off-chance. Keep doing what you're doing and take it to the next step of optimising your FT3.
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