That’s it really, as in the title. How much difference would a change of say, 25mcg in another brand make? Would a six week wait for testing be absolutely necessary? What about other activities, such as having a covid jab, an antibiotic? I’m aware of the biotin advice.
If vit D levels were ok, say 150, would magnesium be necessary? I have been taking mag glycinate and it keeps me awake, unlike reports to the contrary. Vit D3 and K2 spray alone took me up to 150.
Many thanks in advance.
For some patients brand matters a lot due to intolerance of some of the ingredients of the excipients in their tablets.
Some excipients that may cause problems are :
Acacia (I'm not sure if that is used in tablets issued in the UK, but it is in the US)
Lactose
Gluten (Not used in the UK, but I'm not sure about other countries)
Mannitol
The above list is not complete, there could well be other problematic ingredients.
I think it is uncommon to be intolerant of Levothyroxine itself, but some do better with thyroid hormones contained in the form found in NDT, rather than in the form used in Levo.
There are various medicines and supplements that can reduce absorption of thyroid hormones in tablet form e.g. iron, calcium, vitamin D, HRT, Magnesium, Proton Pump Inhibitors. I doubt this list is complete either. But all of them can be taken if there is at least a four hour gap between taking thyroid hormones and one or more of the above pills. For anything not mentioned the gap should be two hours.
Levothyroxine (aka T4) is not an active thyroid hormone. To become active it needs to be converted to T3. Through patient experience some patients have found that low nutrients can reduce conversion of T4 to T3. Being anaemic should be fixed, and improving/maintaining liver health is also essential for conversion. Gut health can affect conversion too, so many of us give up gluten and find out it helps, even if testing shows that they aren't suffering from Crohn's Disease or other gut problems.
For most of us how well we feel is determined by T3 level. Low levels indicate possible hypothyroidism, high levels would be found in hyperthyroidism.
If you are taking any supplements that keep you awake try taking them at a different time of day e.g. morning instead of late afternoon or evening.
If vit D levels were ok, say 150, would magnesium be necessary?
Magnesium and vitamin D have a relationship. Magnesium is required to convert Vitamin D to its active form in the body. (The active form of vitamin D is what you get from sunlight.)
There are various kinds of magnesium available, and perhaps you might do better with a different one.
naturalnews.com/046401_magn...
drjockers.com/best-magnesiu...
Personally, I take magnesium citrate, but I know there are many people who don't like it.
The 6 or 8 week wait for testing is definitely strongly recommended. When thyroid hormone dose is close to optimal then changes in brand or dose should be done extremely cautiously. I've found that my test results can change quite a lot up to three or four months after a small change. But 6 - 8 weeks is a good time to test when still quite far away from optimal.
I think I waffled too much in this post. Hopefully someone else will answer more to the point.
Thank you for that very comprehensive response. I still feel I am slowly feeling my way through all this and I’m not sure what’s what. If I felt ok, I wouldn’t still be looking for answers but I’m not sure I even remember what ok feels like! Thanks again.
Yes, it can make a huge difference - same dose one brand =feel fine, same dose another= don't. Not sure you can just take more of a brand that does not work for you in order to get the same effect as a "good" one, so dose equivalence difficult to comment on.
Excellent comprehensive answer from humanbean explains why it is not a simple take a bit more of the " bad" one.
Thank you Katie. I don’t think I asked about taking more of a bad one but it’s a useful comment nevertheless.
Yes, sorry, I was being overly simplistic, I just meant that it was not possible to say that an extra 25mcgs would compensate for effect of additives etc.
Can I just push a little further on one of the issues please? If my vit D level comes in at 150, just on taking vit D3K2 oral spray alone, why would one need to take magnesium to help it along when 150 is a good result? Sorry 🤷♂️
This paper (open access) might answer your question :
Title : Magnesium and Vitamin D Deficiency as a Potential Cause of Immune Dysfunction, Cytokine Storm and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in covid-19 patients
Link : pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...
Abstract
Magnesium and vitamin D each have the possibility of affecting the immune system and consequently the cytokine storm and coagulation cascade in COVID-19 infections. Vitamin D is important for reducing the risk of upper respiratory tract infections and plays a role in pulmonary epithelial health. While the importance of vitamin D for a healthy immune system has been known for decades, the benefits of magnesium has only recently been elucidated. Indeed, magnesium is important for activating vitamin D and has a protective role against oxidative stress. Magnesium deficiency increases endothelial cell susceptibility to oxidative stress, promotes endothelial dysfunction, reduces fibrinolysis and increases coagulation. Furthermore, magnesium deficient animals and humans have depressed immune responses, which, when supplemented with magnesium, a partial or near full reversal of the immunodeficiency occurs. Moreover, intracellular free magnesium levels in natural killer cells and CD8 killer T cells regulates their cytotoxicity. Considering that magnesium and vitamin D are important for immune function and cellular resilience, a deficiency in either may contribute to cytokine storm in the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection.
My emphasis in the above abstract.
Thank you for your patience and another comprehensive response.
Unsure what to do re test results 
How do my results look?
How frequently do you test... and what?
advice on test results and statins
