Just diagnosed with overactive thyroid!

I am assuming you are on Carbimazole or PTU if you are in England or Methimazole in the States?  What I have found and others on Boards like this is that you have to become proactive in order to recover.  There are some practitioners who believe that Graves and other autoimmune diseases are caused by what is known as a leaky gut.  So diet and supplements are very important to recovery.  Some people are avoiding gluten and dairy as well as Aspartame.  Also, always get and keep paper copies of your lab test reports so you can see your progress.  What helped me was supplementing with Vitamin D and Acetyl-L-Carnitine along with a low dose of Methimazole.  It is believed that the carnitine gets the medicine into the nucleus of the cells.  Other patients on the Boards have taken supplements such as Bugleweed, Motherwort and Melissa.  Hope this helps.

Hi Shirley, What are your blood test numbers that make you say you have an overactive thyroid? Do you have any symptoms? What do your thyroid Drs tell you when you went to see them? It's possible that people get into "subclinical" hyperthyroidism condition showed from blood test result, but have not much of hard symptom. Maybe some of us can help if you provide more info?

Not sure what they will do tomorrow.  My diagnosis took about 2 months to complete and involved blood tests for TSH, Free T3 and Free T4 as well as for thyroid antibodies.  Then a radioactive uptake scan.  I was immediately put on the drug Propranolol the first time I saw the Endo to help with the heart racing until she could confirm my diagnosis of Graves Disease.  Once she did that, she started me on 10 mg of Methimazole (same as Carbimazole in the UK).  Once I was started on Methimazole, I did not require the Propranolol as my Free T3 and T4 were not extremely elevated.  I was on this dosage for 2 years and my TSH would not rise from less than 0.001 until I added Regular L-Carnitine, 3,000 mg and then later Acetyl-L-Carnitine 1,000 mg and dropped the Regular L-Carnitine down to 1,000.  I also took vitamin D 5,000 IU per day and Magnesium 200 mg. daily.  These supplements taken while I was on Methimazole were what helped to normalize my TSH and decrease my antibodies.  It was not the doc who gave them to me but I did let them know I was taking them based on research I had done.

Hi Linda,

It's interesting (and hopeful) to hear about decreasing antibodies by taking LC and/or ALC. Please share the related research you based on. Thanks

I cannot post links to this Board so I will send you the link by email.  I came across the research project article on the use of Regular L-Carnitine 3,000 to 4,000 mg per day.  Tried it and my TSH rose from less than 0.001 to 0.12 but stayed there.  There was no research on Acetyl, I just experimented with different forms of Carnitine and tried the Acetyl.  Then combined both Regular and Acetyl and finally at the end I was just taking the Acetyl because this seemed to be what was helping my TSH to rise.  Because there is no research on Acetyl, one has to be careful and monitor and adjust dosages frequently to keep your labs where you want them.  My Endo adjusted my meds dosage and I would adjust the supplement dosage.  When I stayed on a low dose of Methimazole and the supplements for a long time, my antibodies finally became undetectable and I have been off of carnitines and meds since April.  I still take 1,000 IU per day of vitamin D because I read it was very important for good thyroid function. It seems that Acetyl works best with Graves patients to raise their TSH but Regular L-Carnitine is especially helpful to Hashimoto patients to keep their labs stable.

Thanks, Linda.

Does this research show evidence and mechanism of LC's effectiveness in reducing GD antibodies? I hope it does.

From the instructions of LC products and some users' report, LC is not suitable for hypothyroidism patients because it has the effect to reduce thyroid hormone. Even some users in normal thyroid condition took LC to adversely develop hypo condition. Wonder how is LC especially helpful to Hashi patients?

I don't think it did specifically mention antibodies but it did show evidence that patients did better, that thyroid storms were not as difficult.  Lowered antibodies  was the result in my case but I did use Acetyl to get my TSH up and once I got it up, I kept it there for a long time before discontinuing meds.  There is no research that I know of on Acetyl and Graves but in myself and others on this Board, it did help to raise TSH when nothing else would because it crosses the blood-brain barrier.  So once my values normalized, I kept taking low dose meds and supplements for a long period of time and finally the antibodies did normalize.  LC is specifically helpful to Hashi patients because the prescribed meds are too strong and the Carnitine at the high dosage of 3,000 to 4,000 mg is a thyroid hormone blocker or regulator and they do better.  In Graves, the antibodies are attacking the TSH receptors in the pituitary gland and in Hashi's are attacking the thyroid gland itself.  High dose LC is not good for hypo but there is carnitine in meat so a low dose or regular intake should not be harmful I would think.

Ok, thanks. But I haven't received your email with the link.

Sorry, I ran into a problem at home copying the links.  I have sent it now.  Look for your email.