Hi, I'm going to start with the side effect part of my question- then share some other details to see if anyone has comments too: I'm on Armour and have been experiencing dizziness, nausea, periods of heavy sweats--yet I'm only on 30 mg and I don't feel like typical hyper experiences I have had. Has anyone gone through this? My endo believes I may be reacting to the contents of Armour, she's more a synthetics fan and is asking if I want to switch back to Levo. I wanted to switch to Armour to get t3 as well, and to avoid other additives of the synthetics. For anyone who has had these symptoms, how long did they last? They do seem indicative of possible risk. I did get myself tested for allergies to pork and am going to check with the allergist to see if the test was relevant to the dessicated pork product used in Armour.
I'm not keen on going back to synthetics and am also now eying Naturethroid. For anyone's further comment:
Prior to this immediate experience of symptoms/side effects, which has only lasted a couple of days, I have been on Armour at lower and higher doses without these specific symptoms, so this is baffling.
Originally I asked endo to switch from levo to Armour starting the beginning of July. She recommended going from the levo one day to Armour the next with dosing at an equivalent level without any adjustment for the greater bioavailability of Armour-which I have since learned about--and not taking into account overlapping the continuing half life of the Levo. So starting at 60 mg made me very hyper- although I tested "normal." @ TSH 0.62 and Free T4 1.1--no T3 tested. To endo's credit she recommended cutting the dose to 30 for two weeks then go back up to 60 mg. This did not work either- I became very hyper again immediately and was very concerned about jumping back up to 60 again too.
Given two events, the fact that I then had several half lives still running in my system (levo, 60 mg Armour, and 30 mg Armour), and receipt of info about genetic testing results that show I am more chemically sensitive than others, I decided to attempt my own dosing start at 15 mg until all half lives ran out. I charted my weight daily and recorded my symptoms--I really was not noticeably hypo based on that. Unfortunately I tested very hypo.
I messaged the endo to explain and immediately started back on the 30.
The endo is convinced 30 is a very low dose and that I shouldn't have had any hyper symptoms at that dose in the first round. I still believe it was likely due to not taking into account the overlapping half lives. She is also convinced that the hyper symptoms are much more likely due to my reaction to something in the Armour.
I'm not sure about this now....I was taking it before and the hyper symptoms were not at all the same as what I just started experiencing two days ago with the nausea and dizziness, especially all day today. Otherwise, it was fine the first two days back on the 30, and I didn't have the nausea, dizziness, at any point before. I did have heavy sweating, as I also have now. If this hadn't come up, I wanted to give the Armour a trial for at least a week. I will be trying to contact my primary to discuss also. I have an appointment a week from tomorrow, but now I'm in this quandary about taking the Armour for another week. Also, concerned about returning to synthetics and a revisitation of the dosing issues with the endo. So hoping my primary can take this over.
Comments on any of this welcome. Also, re experience with Naturethroid vs Armour. I appreciate..