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Hashimoto disaesa

Does anyone have Hashimotos' Disaese? I found out I have it and I am wondering how long does it take to feel better on the amour thryoid meds. I was diagnosed with this 2 weeks ago and started the Amour Thyroid meds, I was on the synthroid for 3 years
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Avatar universal
Armour is a combination drug. What that means is that it contains BOTH T4 and T3.

T3 has a short half life. Meaning that it is used up within HOURS.  I've read between 5 to 7 hours.

T4 is a "storage" hormone. It is built up and stored in the blood until your body needs thyroid. At which time the T4 is converted into T3.  As a result it takes about 6 WEEKS to stabilize in your blood.

The difference between total and "free" is that "free" measures only the hormone that does NOT become attached to a protein molecule.  Once the hormone become attached to a protein it becomes biologically inactive.(useless).  TOTAL measures both the "free" hormone as well as the hormone that is attached to a protein.  As you can see if you don't know how much of the total is actually able to be used by the body, then it doesn't tell you much.

Think about it this way.  Total measures how much fuel you have in your car's gas tank. But "free" measures how much fuel is getting to the engine to be available to be used.  As you well know you can have a full tank of gas but if the fuel line is clogged, your engine isn't going to run.  

Likewise if you are having a "total" test, you don't know how much fuel is getting to the engine.

For this reason the "total" test is deemed an outdated test of little value.

Since Armour has T3 which allows direct hormone to be used within hours, this explains why you are feeling better almost immediately after taking this new medication.  It will take the 6 weeks to really allow the Free T4 to stabilize.

Hashi's is a progressive disease.  It continues to degrade the output of your thyroid gland until at some point the thyroid gland produces nothing.  For some people this happens over a few months, for other people it takes years and years.  The trick is to test enough so that you can replace the loss of thyroid gland with increased dosages of medication.  And that is only AFTER you "catch up" and get yourself to an optimized dosage for you.

The way to do this is small dosage increases and testing every 4 to 6 weeks and SLOWLY work up.  When you achieve symptom relief you are optimized.  But keep in mind that symptoms often lag BEHIND blood levels by a few weeks. This is another reason to go slowly. And when you get closer to complete (or nearly so) symptom relief you may want to stay on that dosage for a length of time without adjustments until the symptoms catch back up to the blood labs.

The result of all of this is that this whole process if VERY individual. Some people can find their optimized dosage fairly quickly.  Other people have to chase all over and it literally takes years!

Hopefully that helped even thought it may not be exactly what you wanted to hear!
Helpful - 0
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
"After 1 year of the family Dr telling me that my tsh,t4 and t3 levels were fine"  Were those Free T3 and Free T4? or were they total T3 and total T4?  They aren't the same thing.  If the lab report doesn't specify "Free" in front of both T3 and T4, then they are total and your doctor is  not testing adequately.

Please post the exact numbers of the T3 and T4 tests and indicate if they were free or total...... Please include reference ranges, as those vary lab to lab and have to come from your own report.
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Avatar universal
Thank you, After 1 year of the family Dr telling me that my tsh,t4 and t3 levels were fine and that I needed to go to a nutritionist. I finally found an Endo that is listening to me. Have to go back to him in 2 months to check me. I am just still tired. I do feel much better though.
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Avatar universal
I have Hashimoto's and due to the fact that gimel talked about "Finding a good thyroid doctor" is what derailed me, It took me sometime to find one that did not just rely on TSH to diagnose and treat. In a two year period I went through three GP's and one Endocrinologist, before ending up with an Internal Medicine MD that was receptive enough to test for both Free T3, Free T4 and listening about how I felt, and the symptoms I had. My opinion is that finding the right MD is half the battle with thyroid disease. It seemed even just the mind set of having an MD that understood what I was going through, rather than ignoring symptoms, made a huge difference mentally and making the physical symptoms easier to cope with even before finding that "Optimal Level" of medication and dose. Best Wishes FTB4
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Avatar universal
I don't have th results when I was on the Synthroid,but I do with the last test from the Endo. I am just still tired. On;y been on the Amour for 2 weeks now. I was just wondering how long it takes to build up in your system. I do feel alot better being on this med as apposed to the Synthroid.. My bloating and the black circles are gone just tired still.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Feeling better depends on the starting level of your biologically active thyroid hormone levels, Free T3 and FreeT4, and how quickly you can increase your Armour Thyroid, without going too fast and having an adverse reaction.  Many members say that symptom relief required Free T3 to be in the upper third of its range and Free T4 around the middle of its range.  One additional factor is that symptom changes tend to lag somewhat behind changes in thyroid hormone levels, dependent on the severity of being hypo and the length of time you are hypo.

A good thyroid doctor will treat a hypo patient clinically by testing and adjusting Free T3 and Free T4 as necessary to relieve symptoms.  Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results, and especially not just TSH results.  

If you will post your thyroid test results and their reference ranges shown on the lab report, along with the daily dosage of your meds, both the Synthroid and the Armour, it may help us comment more specifically.
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