I’m [edited by admin] in the U.S. and have had the universal experience at having my hypothyroid symptoms ignored and dismissed by doctors. I was on levothyroxine therapy to no good effect. I have a whole basketful of hypo symptoms that none of my doctors connected dots and said, “Oh, cellular hypothyroidism”
RockyPath send me DippyDame’s post and I’m wondering if I could get some ideas from the T3 gurus.
Currently I am taking 1 grain NP Thyroid, 12.5 mcg T3 in the morning, 12.5 mcg at noon and 12.5 mcg T3 at night. Every time a virus blows through the house, I’m sick. I get a febrile illness literally every other week. I have constant brain fog. I nearly died from a massive hospital-acquired infection last year. They kept me alive with T3 in intensive care for two weeks.
I haven’t the slightest idea how much they gave me. Clearly, I need more than I have been giving myself.
I am wondering about what I should do to improve my cellular function and immune response with T3. Should I dump the NP thyroid and see how much T3 I can tolerate? What would the T3 gurus among you recommend.
I know labs sometimes are not very informative. When I was nearly dead from an infection, my blood panel showed a slight rise in white blood cells. I’ve been too sick to go out for the vitamin labs and my last thyroid panel was giving a rough idea that I needed more hormone.
Many thanks
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I find t3 more effective taken in one go first thing in the morning. Have you read Dr Peatfields book? Sorry cant remember what it is called now. My immune system was very poor. I always caught everything my five grandchildren went down with. Last year in January I started the Zoe Personal Nutrition Program and it seems to have built up my immunity.
Can you tell us a bit please about what you have done on the PN programme. I can’t afford to go on it at this moment - or can’t prioritise it - but would love to know a) what kinds of things they test and b) what things you found worked for you as well as c) any hypo specific information / recommendations they gave you. If you wouldn’t mind sharing!
Look up the Zoe Food and Nutrition website, all their general work ( as distinct from the paid for personal report) can be found on many YouTube podcasts…a huge range , not just on their diet research, but also the top researchers on exercise, gut, heart, aging, female health, menopause, intermittent fasting etc etc. And some of the best health broadcasts you will find…most have a text version too ( which are not full of the ‘know what I mean’ etc unedited versions found on some links.) There are even some Top 10 type things to do to start you off eg foods to avoid ( easy egs being processed, low fat…) or introduce into your diet ( eg fermented foods, 30 different plants a week..does include herbs/ spices, tea/ coffee/ dark chocolate so easy). You can do changes slowly. Tim Spector’s books are good reads too and have details of avoiding things like much seafood due to mercury/ lice, and plants that are over sprayed with chemicals ( thus recommends organic oats for eg). Zoe doesn’t go extreme on anything and is realistic re costs and fact that it’s not only one person in the family that is eating! I joined Zoe some years ago when it was a one off subscription and not monthly ones too as now, and have numerous other health problems, but would recommend looking at their work.
hi. Sorry I cannot comment on t3 but others on this forum are far more knowledgeable on the subject . However, do you take any vitamins to support your immune system? I take vitamin D plus k2 and elderberry especially in the winter months. Vit D with K2 was recommended by my endocrinologist.
Should I dump the NP thyroid and see how much T3 I can tolerate?
It's not about how much T3 you can tolerate, it's about how little you need to make you well. And, for that reason, we have to increase very slowly. It's very easy to miss your sweet-spot.
And by slowly, I mean no more than 5 mcg at a time.
As you've been on NDT plus T3, and taking a total of about 47 mcg T3, a good starting place for T3 only would be 50 mcg T3. And staying on that for about six weeks before retesting and seeing how you feel.
Also, if you have some form of cellular resistance to thyroid hormone, it would probably be a good idea to take it all at once - not spread out through the day - to flood your receptors and force some hormone into them. And, I would advise waiting at least an hour before eating or drinking anything other than water, just like levo. People do say you can take it with food, but the numbers don't always back that up. And, at least 2 hours away from supplements - four hours for some of them.
T3 only is a last resort, but it sounds like you've reached that last resort. So, it's worth a try. That's my experience, anyway.
Thanks, that's helpful. I've heard different things about how to take T3--all at once or throughout the day, I will try switching to all at once and wait a while like you say, that makes sense. It is very difficult to know what's what with thyroid bc at least in the US most endocrinologists are not helpful. And most GPs only look at TSH and only prescribe levo. When I first became hypothyroid I was soooo clinically hypothyroid but my TSH was barely elevated from "normal" so I had to beg them to treat it at all.
I think it's a world-wide problem that doctors know practically nothing about thyroid and only look at the TSH and prescribe levo.
As to how to take T3, there is no one way. It depends on your needs - we're all different. For some people, taking it all in one go would be far to much, and would make them ill. Those are the people who get it into the cells easily. If you can't get it into the cells they you can take a hell of a lot and not even notice it because it's only active once it gets into the cells. In the blood it doesn't do anything. So, we have to experiments to find out how we need to take it as individuals: one a day? Twice? Three times? There is no protocol that suits everyone.
Hi BGWD welcome! I would recommend Paul Robinson's books on T3, I am currently trialling his T3 circadian method to improve resilience to stress - very important to ensure you have adrenals that can respond before you try but it's all detailed in the books ☺️
I read Paul Robinson's Circadian method book before gifting it to the halfway decent endocrinologist I saw five years ago. Robinson took his T3 beginning at 2 am. Presumably, this would be when Bilbo is sleeping at the foot of your bed and that may work well for you, because the whole load would have a chance to spread into your cells before you start your day.
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