Lowering Levothyroxine
Posted , 13 users are following.
Hello, I was hoping someone could elaborate on my levels. I just got my blood results back today and they are lowering me from .112mcg of levothyroxine to .100mcg. They told me my TSH level is .170 and my T4 level is 1.5, I have no idea what this means, but I do know I have been miserable. My resting bpm has been 140 and I have been feeling like I want to come out of my skin. Functioning from day to day has been difficult and I have also been having bad constipation. Thanks for reading.
3 likes, 62 replies
MtViewCatherine TheAnnamal
Posted
It may be that they're lowering your thyroid meds based on your TSH. That is innappropriate, as TSH only indicates what your brain is telling your thyroid, not what your thyroid's doing, and it doesn't tell you anything about anything else hoing on or even whether your body is using it. Once the signal is sent from the brain, many other things can happen.
A quick search for T4 ranges online shows your T4 is well within range. But check the units, just in case. Which would indicate your doctor is basing the dosing on the TSH.
Thyroid medication for some people will zero out the TSH, so low TSH is not a problem. Unfortunately a lot of doctors don't know this. But it depends on your condition. You didn't say what your T3 is. Was that tested? And was the T4, total T4 or free T4? Do you have a cyst, as seen with an u ltrasound, or that you can feel?
My guess is that if you are still having symptoms of low thyroid, sluggishness, constipation, etc, the levels are too low. If you are feeling excessively energetic, that can be high thyroid. But, frankly, increasing from 100 to 112 wouldn't cause you to go hyper thyroid enough to notice, so you're probably still low. If you're new to thyroid disease, you should know that doctors tend to underdose thyroid meds. I swear they act like you're asking for crack or something! Really all we want is to feel well.
Also, the levothyroxng is a T4 only med, so you need to look at your free T3 levels to see what's going on there. If you have stomache or intestinal problems, you probably have low production of T3 (T4 gets converted to T3 in cells, mostly in the gut, but to a lesser extent in other cells. My experience with the levo has been that when I got the T3 high enough to feel good, the T4 was over range. When I got the T4 in range, the T3 is way too low.
How do you know your T3? blood tests. Also, if you've had extreme stress, you could also have adrenal exhaustion (typcial with low thyroid), and the adrenal exhaustion can cause your T3 to be lower. So if you're taking the T4 only med, it won't work.
My point is, that unless you're extremely healthy, except for the low thyroid, you probably need to at least do some research on the T4/T3 medication. People with low thyroid also tend to have food sensitivities, so getting a medication without any additives is also important.
Now, a point about the meds... The naturals tend to work better than the synthetics (prescription levothyroxin is not natural). I am not a fan of levo because a look at any chatroom, and you can see that the natural (NDT, natural dessicated thyroid) works much better. The natural is generally made from procine thyroid, and has a much higher T3 to T4 than humans, so with this, you get the opposite as with the levo: the NDT has a higher than human level of T3, so the bloodwork results in T4 in the midrange with T3 high.
If your T3 is low, your energy will be low, if T4 is low, your brain won't work. So they need to both be in range. Thyroid patients usually find that their levels work best when they are midrange or higher. For this reason, it's better to be a lttle high than too low on either the T4 or T3.
The levo never worked for me at any dose, and the higher the dose with the levo, the worse the side effects. I've heard this from other people as well. The porcine NDT is much better as long as you don't need too high of a dose. If your dose is high on the NDT, you'll get the increases in T3, so it's hard to keep things in range. That said, it's always better to keep the dose a little high, rather than a little low. For example, for me on a high dose (nearly 200) of the NDT, my T4 was ow last week, so my brain wasn't working.That's really bad, of course. So I increase the dose, which results in high T3, which causes anxiety.
My point is that it's very difficult to regulate thyroid as the dose goes higher/ or as the condition worsens.
I'll be trying out a bovine natural in a few days because I can't deal with the high T3/low T4 issues I'm experiencing. I'll keep you posted here to let folks know how the bovine works.
Hope that helps!
Catherine
barbara98940 MtViewCatherine
Posted
There is concern that some thyroid supplements have iodine in. Iodine is like many things, essential to health but toxic in too high a dose. So I've looked up the symptoms of iodine toxicity and can report that I have not [yet?] developed any of the symptoms - which i would have thought I would have done by now. I have also dropped a note into my doctor asking if he is able to do a blood test to check my iodine level. I'm awaiting his reply. Good luck with your trial. I hope it works out as well for you as it is doing for me.
barbara98940
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TheAnnamal MtViewCatherine
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TheAnnamal barbara98940
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How long did it take for you to feel better on your new med? Which medicine are you on now?
~Anna~
MtViewCatherine TheAnnamal
Posted
1) Every six weeks is too fast to lower the dose. It takes three months to level out. But it sounds like you should be increasing rather than lowering, by your symptoms.
2) Yes. Absolutely see a specialist. You may need to "shop" doctors until you find not that will work with you. A health professional recommended this to me and it was very good advice!
3) From my own experience, I can tell you that the TSH doesn't always do what they think it does. Especially if you have a growth/cyst or goiter. Abnormal thyroid cells often have greater numbers of insulin receptors and can actually be triggered and controlled by insulin in the body. This totally interrupts the feedback loop, that TSH is used as an indicator for, rendering the TSH measurement useless for dosing our purposes for some people.
4) It's extremely important to find a doctor who considers your physical symptoms as an indicator for the dose!!! The way you feel can be valuable information towards helping you get the right dose! Using blood work only can be really horrible!
5) Get yourself to a really good acupuncturist, trained in the Orient. Go weekly while until you're able to get the meds right. This will help get your cycle back on track and keep the body in better condition while you're getting the meds right.if you cannot afford one, most acupuncture schools offer a low cost clinic. This is super important, as without the acupuncture, it will take months or years to get your cycle and hormones back on track.
6) sounds like you're also having adrenal exhaustion. There are herbs that can help to treat this. I found bladderwrack and vitex to be helpful.
7) The last two items, (5,6) although you're overwhelmed, are extremely important, as when your thyroid is down, all the other hormones in your body also go down, causing pretty much all out system failure. There are books available on how to use herbs to help get most things back on track.
8) Be patient with yourself. It's likely brain fog has taken over making it difficult or you to think and find solutions for yourself. This us one reason this site is so valuable. If you're in trouble, you can always pm me, or someone else for help.
9) I have also switched to an OTC. I immediately felt better, and feel like I've been detoxing this toxic levo out of my system! Take your power back and find a solution to help you get well again!
C-
barbara98940 MtViewCatherine
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barbara98940 TheAnnamal
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MtViewCatherine barbara98940
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And yes, OTC- over the counter. Meaning you don't need a prescription. In this case, I am using a bovine glandular. I abs ilutely love it!
Lastly, I am absolutely convinced that the prescription NDT I was taking contained synthetic thyroxin in part. I've taken the NDT in the past and did not have a bad reaction to it. However, when I went back to the NDT after a year on the levo, I was still having the massive water retention and weight gain, but to a lesser extent. Since I was a stable size 4 prior to all this and ballooned to a size 12 with the levo, I have to attribute this to the levo. If there wasn't levo in the NDT, I'd have lost some of that weight after a year on the NDT.
Im doing much better in the OTC,
MtViewCatherine barbara98940
Posted
It it is known that all tumor cells gave more insulin receptors than other cells.
Im just saying, this s a very simple test that could be implemented across many diagnostics, that isn't because there isn't a patent in it. How messed up is that?
barbara98940 MtViewCatherine
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barbara98940 MtViewCatherine
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MtViewCatherine barbara98940
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Waterbegone1 MtViewCatherine
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were you on t3 cytomel as well?
MtViewCatherine Waterbegone1
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I was was not on cytomel.
barbara98940 Waterbegone1
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sania01971 MtViewCatherine
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Hello
I want your help plz
I am over medicated with the synthyroid and my current tsh is 0.03
And doc reduced my dose from 112 to 88
All the other symptoms are getting better like dizziness , living in fog , panic attacks, and little bit off balance , and insomnia
But I am not feeling my self. Like no energy at all
I don't know the difference between sleeping , don't know that I m hungry or not , and anxious all time
Is these things are normal with dose adjustment ?
Plzzzx tell me
Today is my 5 th week of day 1
. I want to b my self again
Every body said u are just making up things and get up to do all the house work .
No one listing to me they laugh on me when I told them symptoms
What should I do
And doc did not give me any anxiety med with that he said anxiety is its symptoms so it went with that .
Plzzzzzzzzzzz help me
MtViewCatherine sania01971
Posted
You aren’t lowering it much so you should have a huge reaction. However, the way you describe how you feel makes it sound like you’re really spacey. It could be that you’re experiencing temporary low thyroid as your body adjusts. It’s posdible you’re experiencing side effects from the medication, as you adjust it, you may be more or less aware of long term and short term side effects.
Can you look at the insert that comes with your medication to see how much of the stated side effects you’re experiencing?
sania01971 MtViewCatherine
Posted
I think most of the symptoms .is it possible to do blood test like I am in 2nd day of 5 th week .
Or should I have to wait for 6 weeks?
Can u plz explain me how tsh works ?
Is it going worse then gradually getting better?
sania01971
Posted
?
Is it normal in this situation?