Today Is A Good Day

[connyankee]

Finally, today, I convinced my GP (I'm in the USA) to titrate me up to 90 mgs of Armour after starting on 120, then (here is where Endocrinologist #7 comes in) down to90 (where I felt great), then down to 75 where I'm sleeping 12 hours and not feeling rested. I have aches and pains. I have to recover for 2 days after 2-3 hours of physical work. No more Endocrinologist #7! I'm back to my GP. Here are my latest labs.

This is on 90 mgs of Armour:

TSH: .114 (.450-4.500 u/u/ml)

T3: 2.1 (2.0-4.4 pg/ml)

T4: .89 (.82-1.77 ng/dl)

This is on 75 mgs of Armour

TSH: 0.090 (.350-3.6 mcunit/ml)

T3: 2.5 (2.5-4.3 pg/ml)

T4: .73 (.70-1.37 ng/dl)

Antibodies: 86.6 (0.0-9.0 iu/ml)

Total Cholesterol: 326 (0-199 mg/dl)

Triglycerides: 224 (<= 149 mg/dl)

HDL: 81 (>= 50 mg/dl) LDL: 200 (1-129 mg/dl)

Reverse T3: 11.7 (9.0-27.0 ng/dl)

As you can see, my T3 is low on the scale at both 90 and 75 mgs of Armour. My GP says that my TSH is "supressed and I'm Hyper". I just want energy. I'm 66 and I'm wasting my life lying in bed! So I'll begin the 90's when I pick up my Rx. Thank you for this forum. Thank you for listening.

---Connecticut Yankee (now living in southern Tennessee by way of California.)

[FallingInReverse]

Hello fellow American!

Success is finding a way to lead our doctors around to where we need to be, so well done on your base hit!

Although are the results swapped…. Presumably on 90 your free ts would be higher than 75?

My GP says that my TSH is "supressed and I'm Hyper"

TSH suppressed, but who cares! And certainly not hyper my goodness! Woefully low ft3… do you really feel ok at that level?

[connyankee in reply to FallingInReverse]

No. I feel horrible. No energy. Sleeping my life away. Aches and pains. Need 2 days to recover from physical work like painting my house. Projects never get finished. The house never gets cleaned. I have to wait to be energized in order to get stuff done.

[FallingInReverse in reply to connyankee]

Don’t lose hope. GG gave great advice.

Don’t let your doctors lack of understanding of how to effectively treat our condition make you think there’s no treatment that will work.

So yes you need to increase your t3, you can’t rush it and it does take longer than we want, but hang in there!

[connyankee in reply to FallingInReverse]

I have been hanging in there since I was diagnosed. It's all I can do. Where are you located in the USA? Are you seeing a good doctor? Thanks F.I.R.!

[greygoose]

A suppressed TSH does not automatically make you hyper! When will they understand that? It has to be looked at in conjunction with the other results and your Frees are low - which is why your cholesterol is high. If you were 'hyper' your Frees would be way above the top of the range. They aren't. Your TSH is low because of the T3 in the NDT, because that's what it does: it suppresses the TSH.

Really no point in testing rT3. It's an expensive test and it doesn't give you any information that you can't get from the other tests. rT3, in an of itself, is not a problem, anyway - any more than cholesterol is.

[connyankee in reply to greygoose]

I had him test RT3 just to make sure that my T3 wasn't hanging around in my blood stream and not getting to the cells. I can't understand why my FT3 is not budging from the bottom of the range. I was on an ice cream bender all summer (my weakness). I have given it up as I have never seen my lipid numbers this high. My ancestors have had strokes and heart attacks. My father died from a brain aneurysm. I've been put on a steroid based cholesterol (injectable) med (Repatha.) How do I get my FT3 to rise? It was there once (50% of the range) while on Synthroid and Liothyronine a few years ago. Should I go back to synthetics? Thank you for the opportunity to look at my post.

[greygoose in reply to connyankee]

Testing rT3 won't tell you if your T3 is 'hanging around in your blood'. There's no connection. Testing your FT3 tells you how much T3 you have in the blood. But there's no way to tell how much is getting into the cells, only the way you feel.

90 mg Armour is only 1.5 grains, which is quite a small dose, and only contains about 13.5 mcg T3. You might get more T3 from conversion of T4 but how much depends on how well you convert. Probably not a lot. The T4/T3 ratio in Armour could be wrong for you, and you maybe need more T3 and less T4. Synthetics are more easily adjusted but it depends how well your body likes synthetics.

Very much doubt the ice-cream bender had anything to do with anything - except perhaps your sugar levels. I don't know about where you are, but where I am ice cream does not contain much in the way of fat - certainly not any cream.

You could try adding some synthetic T3 to your Armour dose. A lot of people do that when the ratio is wrong for them.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Taking NDT or T3 will always lower TSH significantly, often becomes suppressed

Antibodies: 86.6 (0.0-9.0 iu/ml)

High antibodies confirms autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto’s

Most important results are Ft3 and Ft4 plus good vitamin levels

Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test

This gives highest TSH most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

NDT or T3 ….day before test split T3 as 2 or 3 smaller doses spread through the day, with last dose approximately 8-12 hours before test

Essential to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Lower vitamin levels more common as we get older

For good conversion of Ft4 (levothyroxine) to Ft3 (active hormone) we must maintain GOOD vitamin levels

High cholesterol is linked to being on too low a dose of replacement thyroid hormones

As you have Hashimoto’s

Are you on gluten free or dairy free diet?

[connyankee in reply to SlowDragon]

Not gluten free. I'm aware of leaky gut syndrome, but I question this as our ancestors ate gluten since they began planting wheat crops. Dairy free except for cheeses. (Is there a high incidence of Autoimmune disease in France since they are big cheese consumers?) Had not heard about the incremental dosing of NDT before the lab test day. I will follow that from now on. I will check for my vitamin levels on my "patient portal", but they are not a routine test for me and I've seen seven Endocrinologists since 2013.

I take Selenium, D3, B12, Cod Liver Oil, Probiotics, digestive enzymes religiously. Iron was a problem for me as a child , but that has resolved itself as I became a meat eater. Many thanks for your input.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to connyankee]

but I question this as our ancestors ate gluten since they began planting wheat crops.

Modern wheat is vastly different from ancient grains

whitneyerd.com/2015/04/anci...

Modern grains sprayed with glyphosate shortly before harvest

ahdb.org.uk/pre-harvest-gly...

journals.lww.com/nrronline/....

Indirectly, glyphosate could affect gut microbiota, and if dysbiosis results in endotoxemia (leaky gut), infiltrated bacterial by-products such as lipopolysaccharides could activate pro-inflammatory cascades. Glyphosate can also directly trigger pro-inflammatory cascades.

[connyankee in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes, modern food is the problem for many. I could not reproduce the delicious taste of my Grandmother's home made chicken soup for the life of me. It will be very difficult to go Gluten free in my house full of Gluten addicts. I do experiment often by eating gluten free oatmeal and then switching to regular oatmeal. I don't keep a food journal, but maybe I'll begin doing so. Thanks for the links! God bless!