General questions about starting NDT

[Overlooked]

Hello lovely people, I'm back again with more questions...

Just waiting on my NDT prescription to be filled by the pharmacy. It will be CAPSULES with powder inside (not tablets).

It's 50mg, once a day. I've never had any thyroid treatment previously, so this is my first time trying any thyroid hormones.

I was planning to open the capsule and measure out 25mg (ordered a scale for milligrams to do this), so I can start at 25mg instead of the full 50mg, just to ease into it a bit.

Question: Is it ok to put the 25mg NDT powder into a glass of water and drink it?

Another question: Should I take the NDT at a different time of day to any supplements (D3, K2, magnesium), or does the timing not matter?

Final question: Would there be any value in trying to split the NDT dose into AM and PM - so take 12.5mg in the morning, and the other 12.5mg in the afternoon/evening? I read somewhere that people sometimes split their NDT into two doses initially, just to give T3 twice over the course of the day, rather than all in the morning. Is this useful? Or overkill?

If anyone has any tips or tricks for a newbie starting NDT, I'd be happy for you to share 🙂.

Thank you all for your help!

[pennyannie]

Hello Overlooked - but not on this forum :

I self medicate NDT but have tablets which makes going low and slow and taking 1/4 grain/tablet increments weekly a very simple way to start.

Most tablets/grains contain 9 mcg T3 + 38 mcg T4 -

Do you know the content of this 50 mg compound with regard to the amount of T3/T4 ?

I would think it best to take on an empty stomach - like any other thyroid hormone replacement - and wait at least around an hour before eating or drinking anything.

If you plan splitting the dose - take it down with a glass of water so you don't gag :

You don't need to split your dose - it's a personal thing and somewhat easier doing it just once if you need to fit in other supplements throughout the day.

Take any other supplements well away from the capsule and D3 / K2 after the main protein meal and if taking any iron - this needs to be 4 hours away from any other supplements - and probably need to also take some vitamin C with the iron to aid absorption.

Might be a good day to track yourself on a few physical symptoms -

I tracked myself on blood pressure, pulse and body temperature twice daily - and whilst the first 2 remained constant I saw my temperature slowly rise from 35.4 to 36.6 so had a bit of encouragement that I was going in the right direction.

You dose NDT to the relief of symptoms - there is no specific blood test - your TSH will likely drop lower with your T3 improve and your T4 possibly lower to bench mark readings prior to starting this experiment.

[Overlooked in reply to pennyannie]

Thanks, pennyannie. I'm not sure how much T4/T3 in the NDT I'm getting, but I can ask the pharmacist when I pick it up.

Yes, I did want to track symptoms, because I'm sure it'll be useful to be able to look back and see any changes.

Thanks for responding and sharing your advice. Much appreciated by this newbie here.

[pennyannie in reply to Overlooked]

Ok - so as I detailed I started off with 1/4 grain so that would have been around a quarter of 9 mcg T3 and a quarter of 38 mcg T4 : and increased weekly by further 1/4 s and tracked on blood pressure, pulse and body temperature.

You should start to se some relief of symptoms and there comes a week where you feel not as good as the week before - maybe a little edgey, nervous and or just not right and a bit uncomfortable in your skin - so drop back down to the previous weeks dose and stay there for 6-8 weeks allowing the NDT to bed in to your body and that is our best dose of NDT,

If you then compare your T3 and T4 blood tests to bench mark readings you should see an improved T3 and a T4 likely around midway through the range and a low suppressed TSH reading - but that does not matter.

I found I continued to improve over the following year and last but not least I dropped a couple of dress sizes.

I am with Graves Disease but post RAI thyroid ablation 2005 so presume I'm now without any thyroid function.

With NDT you treat to relieve symptoms not a blood test - most people end up at around 2/3 - I'm just on 1 + 1/2 - we are all different -

If you get to 2 grains - run a blood test to see if your T3 has improved from the bench mark readings - if nothing is happening - and you feel no improvements in symptoms maybe NDT is not the best treatment option for you.

If things are improved - but you are not quite there yet - just continue to slowly build up your dose following the suggestions above.

[Overlooked in reply to pennyannie]

Thank you so much, this is really helpful! Really appreciate you taking the time to give me this information - thanks!