i hope you can help (even regards to brands to try).
I had stopped taking my levothyroxine 50mg by Mercury Pharma as I was was feeling so unwell with it. Anyway after a couple of months off the Levo and feeling fantastic, slowly I felt the hypo symptoms creep back in. I was prescribed 25mg to start again (also by Mercury Pharma) and within 48hrs had really bad dry scalp.
Has anyone experienced this with Mercury Pharma and if so do you have another brand recommendation?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Paul
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Pmcg123
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50mcg levothyroxine is only standard STARTING dose
So hardly surprising you felt rubbish left on such a small dose
Starting on only 25mcg frequently makes symptoms worse
Get blood test 6-8 weeks after being on 50mcg daily
ALWAYS test early morning, ideally before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
What were TSH, Ft4 and Ft3 BEFORE starting on Levo the first time
Also ESSENTIAL to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Have you had these tested
And thyroid antibodies
Guidelines of dose Levo by weight
approx how much do you weigh in kilo
Even if we frequently start on only 50mcg, most people need to increase levothyroxine dose slowly upwards in 25mcg steps (retesting 6-8 weeks after each increase) until eventually on, or near full replacement dose
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.
TSH should be under 2 as an absolute maximum when on levothyroxine
If symptoms of hypothyroidism persist despite normalisation of TSH, the dose of levothyroxine can be titrated further to place the TSH in the lower part of the reference range or even slightly below (i.e., TSH: 0.1–2.0 mU/L), but avoiding TSH < 0.1 mU/L. Use of alternate day dosing of different levothyroxine strengths may be needed to achieve this (e.g., 100 mcg for 4 days; 125 mcg for 3 days weekly).
Thanks you SlowDragon. I notice you put a lot of effort in to responding to people, and I am grateful for your response.
I will try and get my levels and post them but from memory my TSH was 4.1ish. I find my doctors quite unresponsive and if I could afford to get private tests I would.
Interesting, I likely don’t cope well with synthetics as I recall years ago having to stop taking cheap vitamins and now realise it was likely due to the fillers.
in uk it’s called NDT (for natural Dessicated thyroid). It’s pig thyroid gland ground up, the orig solution & one big pharma is desperate to have banned.
I react to dry cleaning chemicals 😵💫, in NZ I developed allergy to wool & think it is trace sheep-dip solution etc. I can’t have normal iron supplements as they are a toxin. Yet endos are constantly pushing me to Levo …
I suggest you try NDT. My hair stopped falling out in less than a week & now it seems my kidneys are detoxing after 18 months of T3.
Sorry, but you can't go down the NDT route if private blood tests are too much expense for you. They are cheap in comparison. NDT is very expensive here in the UK and only available on a private prescription which means you have to pay for a consultation with a private GP or endocrinologist first. Anyway, it's a last resort. You need to use Levo properly, at properly titrated doses, first. Millions do just fine on it. Different brands do suit some people more than others. So talk to your pharmacist first if you want to try other brands.
Maybe. At this point I assume everyone has tried everything. Getting those tests done within nhs is a miracle in itself. clincher is the conversion test panel. If you dont convert or don’t have a gland the approach is diff. Well, it should be diff but they still throw t4 at you 🤯. NDT sublingually saved me.
I have ideal body - super healthy. Fast twitch muscle, low, strong heart rate etc. tall, lean, high energy fast metabolism. Only in nhs would medics work so hard to kill that. My hashis is thanks to botched delivery that had babe/self without oxygen for 25min. we survived that, yet thyroid? How in 2024 can you come so close to dying from myxedema? Munich based daughter had T cancer age 20 - diff in her health/ care is profound.
Have phone appt via derriford late March. Let’s see.
I hope you don't mind me popping in here, but it's refreshing hearing your problems with synthetic thyroid medication to , I myself have been having server problems since being put on it after full thyroidectomy in 2019.
I also have problems with synthetic medications from aspirin, anti inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, anti thyroid medication and now T4, T3, I'm lactose intolorent and have colitis and when I take certain medications they effect, flare up my gastric issues.
I've been fighting this to long and saw a endocrinologist in Dec she took me off the T3 lactose free (teva) but instead of trying to find me a thyroid medication that won't upset my gastric issues she put me back on T4 (teva) knowing full well I'm intolorent to that also.
I asked for an alternative maby NDT she flatly refused, I asked her why, she told me there was not enough research into NDT and not enough proof it worked, I said hasn't NDT been around longer than synthetic T4, T3? I thought it was developed in the late 1800s (I could be wrong on that date) although I'm pretty sure it was developed before synthetic thyroid medication.
I've been without my thyroid medication now for 20 days and apart from feeling very tired, all my gastric symptoms have gone, as well as the awful morning headaches, the metalic taste in my mouth (worst in the morning🤮) the sicky feeling the fast heartbeat, the tremors, and the pain which I'm sure was my kidneys.. and I certainly was not over medicated.
My surgery don't care I'm not taking my thyroid medication even with no thyroid, I've just received an email saying the gp will contact me on March 4th to discuss this, wow thank you dr🙄.
And I totally agree with you on synthetic medication not being for everyone, but gps and endocrinologists just don't get it😡
youre where i was for 6 years. even metallic taste - ugh. right now my kidneys are painfully detoxing T3 and it all makes me sad - none of this was necessary. ive lived all over & british gps are reliably most arrogant, worst trained & lousiest listeners of the bunch. best experiences with medics from asia, india, middle east etc where ironically they still consider ndt a good option for non levo peeps.
record all conversations re. thyroid. inform your gp you are at risk of myxedema coma with its 60% mortality rate at 5 yrs. ask if they want to keep their family, house & job - i find that helps them focus rather quickly. yes, ndt was widely in use before big pharma jumped in late 70s.
Check out Paul Robinson's website, and FB page. He's authored multiple books based on the results of myriads of Thyroid patient's data, symptoms, etc. Best of luck to you. Armour, I believe was used to treat the Thyroid in the 1800's. At least hear in the USA.
Hi there as Slow Dragon and Jaydee have said, 50mcg is a starting dose. It’s not wise to start trying other things before you have given this a proper go.
You need to get your vitamin levels checked too. That could be really contributing to you feeling rubbish. Small tweaks adding in what you need can make a huge difference to how you’re feeling.
Going gluten free has made a lot of people with Hashimotos feel a lot better. If you can persuade your GP to test you for coeliac before you give up gluten that would be ideal.
Castor oil applied on scalp is often cited as a Natural remedy . It is advised to rinse hair in very warm water, towel dry and apply castor oil mix ( Cold pressed sesame oil 50% and Castor oil 50%). Leave overnight if possible and shampoo off. Hope this helps.
Can you ask your doctor to Rx you Synthroid instead because of this reaction?
What are you doing to relieve itch? My husband suffers from Excema and has had good results with Silver Gel by Silver Biotics (American Biotech Labs, USA--available on Amazon) as a topical. They also make a soap and our whole family has switched to using it. The soap can be used to wash your hair, but it makes my hair feel "coated" if you know what I mean.
Check out Paul Robinson's books, website, and FB page. He has collected Thyroid patient data for over 20 years and has seen and heard everything about this insidious disease and its afflictions. Best of luck to you.
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Levothyroxine sodium 50mg
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Flakey, itchy scalp with hypothyroidism. 
