Aa
Trying T3 .
This are my labs . TSH at 0.08 mcUl/ml , with the reference range .35 - 5 , FT3 at 3.18 pg/ml with 1.8 - 4.6 , and FT4 at 1.67 ng/dl , with .72 - 1.7 . This is on 162 levo , and I am always tired ¿ Do you think taking T3 will help ?
Dr's only know what they are taught in med school. And the med schools don't teach the right stuff and modern research. Instead they seem to teach what all the big pharmacudical company's want since they send so much money to the med schoold etc.
Think about it. The big pharmacudical company's can make a TON more money selling 6 different drugs to cover 6 different symptoms than one inexpensive drug that can cure all 6 symptoms.
Classic example. Low thyroid can and does often cause High cholesterol levels. But low and behold the #1 money maker for many of the big Pharmicudical company's are statin drugs to lower cholesterol. Oh and low thyroid can cause depression so low and behold the huge profit maker for the drug companies is also anti-depressants. how wonderful....FOR THEM!
Who funds and does most medical research? Low and behold it is the phramicudical companies. So why would they want to re-establish correct reference ranges for Thyroid (and God only know what other illnesses and diseases)? When the whacked out ranges cause a lot of people to fall within the "normal range" and thus the Dr's must search for an additional medication to treat the remaining symptoms. Whereas if the ranges were fixed, a lot more people could be treated with simple generic and cheap thyroid and all their symptoms would go away. And so would the profits for the big drug companies. So do you think that might explain why the referenc ranges don't get changed? Or that the big drug companies want to keep training Dr's to use ONLY TSH which is a poor and unreliable test?
These are just MY OPINION's. But it is not uncommon that the solutions to many questions can potentially be answered by; "following the money".
Think about it. The big pharmacudical company's can make a TON more money selling 6 different drugs to cover 6 different symptoms than one inexpensive drug that can cure all 6 symptoms.
Classic example. Low thyroid can and does often cause High cholesterol levels. But low and behold the #1 money maker for many of the big Pharmicudical company's are statin drugs to lower cholesterol. Oh and low thyroid can cause depression so low and behold the huge profit maker for the drug companies is also anti-depressants. how wonderful....FOR THEM!
Who funds and does most medical research? Low and behold it is the phramicudical companies. So why would they want to re-establish correct reference ranges for Thyroid (and God only know what other illnesses and diseases)? When the whacked out ranges cause a lot of people to fall within the "normal range" and thus the Dr's must search for an additional medication to treat the remaining symptoms. Whereas if the ranges were fixed, a lot more people could be treated with simple generic and cheap thyroid and all their symptoms would go away. And so would the profits for the big drug companies. So do you think that might explain why the referenc ranges don't get changed? Or that the big drug companies want to keep training Dr's to use ONLY TSH which is a poor and unreliable test?
These are just MY OPINION's. But it is not uncommon that the solutions to many questions can potentially be answered by; "following the money".
Why don't drs know all of this???? At my low end levels I have all the hypo symptoms I first went to the dr for. I told him if this is where he was going to keep me, I may as well not take any meds! I have just started to split my dose of cytomel...half in the am and the other around 2 or 3pm. Only 2 days doing this so I will see....
COMMUNITY LEADER
Too many doctors think that low TSH is synonymous with hyperthyroidism, so they think if you have low TSH, you're hyper, even if symptoms and FT levels indicate otherwise. I have the same trouble with my doctors, because my TSH lives in the basement, at < 0.01.
It's not the low TSH that causes difficulty with the bones; it's having too high levels of FT3, such as would be the case if one were truly hyper.
It's not unusual to have suppressed TSH when taking a thyroid hormone, particularly, one containing T3.
It's not the low TSH that causes difficulty with the bones; it's having too high levels of FT3, such as would be the case if one were truly hyper.
It's not unusual to have suppressed TSH when taking a thyroid hormone, particularly, one containing T3.
TSH is a horrible test I wish they would eliminate from ever doing. It has caused more trouble and pain and misdiagnosed people who remain sick because of TSH.
Any person who is taking Thyroid hormone supplments can supress their TSH. This is almost universally true when a person is taking T3 medication either synthetic or natrual dessicated thryoid such as Armour which has a significant amount of T3 in it.
Basically, when taking at T3 medication. A person may as well not waste the money to even test for TSH in my opinion.
YOur levels for BOTH Free T4 and Free T3 are rock bottom!
What specifically are you taking in terms of dosage and how are you taking them? How do you feel?
If you have not read t his here before. Many people find they they do not feel well until they have BOTH of the following.
1) Free T4 to be in the MIDDLE of the range (50%) or slightly higher
AND-that means in addition to
2) Free T3 to be in the UPPER 1/3 of the range (66.7%)
This is a rule of thumb and every person feels well at different levels. But due to errors in establishing the reference ranges you need to be at or a fair amount ABOVE the mid-point of the range.
For comparison to show how far off your lab values are:
Your Ft4 is only at 2.6% of the range. Yes two point six, And as stated above this should be closer to 50%. So you are significantly low!
Your FT3 is is only 3.6% and it should be closer to 67%. Again significantly low.
I would suspect you feel terrible. And you need increase in medication.
You may be a good canidate for natural dessicated.
If you don't know already. T4 is NOT used directly. It is a "storage" hormone that remains in your blood. T4 must be converted into T3 to ultimately be used by your cells in your body. The conversion primarily takes place in the liver.
Your body ONLY uses Free T3 hormone. And your body ONLY converts Free T4 into T3. this is why it is so critically important to test for the Free T4 and Free T3 levels. As those are the ONLY two hormones that are usefull.
TSH is a screening tool at best. And as stated above. anyone taking a T3 medication is almost assured of supressing TSH rendering the TSH test worthless.
Any person who is taking Thyroid hormone supplments can supress their TSH. This is almost universally true when a person is taking T3 medication either synthetic or natrual dessicated thryoid such as Armour which has a significant amount of T3 in it.
Basically, when taking at T3 medication. A person may as well not waste the money to even test for TSH in my opinion.
YOur levels for BOTH Free T4 and Free T3 are rock bottom!
What specifically are you taking in terms of dosage and how are you taking them? How do you feel?
If you have not read t his here before. Many people find they they do not feel well until they have BOTH of the following.
1) Free T4 to be in the MIDDLE of the range (50%) or slightly higher
AND-that means in addition to
2) Free T3 to be in the UPPER 1/3 of the range (66.7%)
This is a rule of thumb and every person feels well at different levels. But due to errors in establishing the reference ranges you need to be at or a fair amount ABOVE the mid-point of the range.
For comparison to show how far off your lab values are:
Your Ft4 is only at 2.6% of the range. Yes two point six, And as stated above this should be closer to 50%. So you are significantly low!
Your FT3 is is only 3.6% and it should be closer to 67%. Again significantly low.
I would suspect you feel terrible. And you need increase in medication.
You may be a good canidate for natural dessicated.
If you don't know already. T4 is NOT used directly. It is a "storage" hormone that remains in your blood. T4 must be converted into T3 to ultimately be used by your cells in your body. The conversion primarily takes place in the liver.
Your body ONLY uses Free T3 hormone. And your body ONLY converts Free T4 into T3. this is why it is so critically important to test for the Free T4 and Free T3 levels. As those are the ONLY two hormones that are usefull.
TSH is a screening tool at best. And as stated above. anyone taking a T3 medication is almost assured of supressing TSH rendering the TSH test worthless.
I never knew that about the percent values of the free t3 and 4. Too much math for me! I have a pituitary adenoma and take dostinex. It affects my thyroid so I take t4 and t 3. my values are tsh-.006 (.270-4.20) Free t4- .95 (.93-1.70) and free t3 1.9 (1.8-4.6). If you don't mind me asking, what do you think as my dr. is always worried about my suppressed tsh. He is an internist. I've talked to him about all I read about tsh being disregarded when treating central hypo, but he is worried about my bones. I tell him if I still have symptoms at this level, then why take meds....I felt so much better in the higher part of the range but he reduced my meds.
Does that mean that the doctors just don't recommend T3 med or that they absolutely would not give you a prescription for a T3 med, even if you aggressively pushed them to do so? Believe me, I'd be pushing hard for it.
I don't understand. You asked if taking T3 would help. We agreed that it would and I gave you a potential source for obtaining the T3, when you said you could not get T3 in Spain. So why is that not an option for you?
The vitamin levels are great , a few labs were done to confirm . I take right now a lower dose , which is the only option I got .
I thought the same thing. T4 too high, T3 are low. So you definately have a conversion issue.
So in that regard yes adding T3 should help. But Gimel makes a good point that you really need and want to rule out other causes as well.
Also Selenium aids in the conversion process. So you may want those levels checked and possibly add a supplement of Selenium. Don't expect miracles, but it can help.
Have you ever had your revers T3 checked? All that T4 has to go someplace. It has to convert to Free T3 or Reverse T3 or just remain in your blood. Clearly it is not converting into Free T3 at a high rate. So that leaves that it is either not converting at all, or is being converted into Reverse T3.
Stress either physically, or emotionally can cause the RT3 levels to be high. So trying to relieve the source of stress can also help in the proper conversion.
Covnerting to RT3 is also a natural body response when the body senses too much T4 in the blood. So again it would seem to make sense to reduce the dosage of T4.
The thoughts around here are that the FT4 should be about 50% to maybe 60% of the range AND at the same time the FT3 levels should be about 67% of the range.
Your values are that the FT4 is at 97% (instead of about 50%) and your FT3 is at 49% (instead or about 76%).
It is possible that your body senses the dramatically high FT4 level, and thus tell the body to get rid of that excess T4 by converting it to useless reverse T3. Which starves your cells for the needed Free T3 hormone as it is converting most of it to RT3 instead of the needed Free T3.
So personally, I think both lowering the T4 and adding in some T3 could work well. But definately I'd lower the T4 med. I think that could be making things worse.
Again please get your Vitamin B-12, Iron, Vit D3 and Ferritin levels checked.
So in that regard yes adding T3 should help. But Gimel makes a good point that you really need and want to rule out other causes as well.
Also Selenium aids in the conversion process. So you may want those levels checked and possibly add a supplement of Selenium. Don't expect miracles, but it can help.
Have you ever had your revers T3 checked? All that T4 has to go someplace. It has to convert to Free T3 or Reverse T3 or just remain in your blood. Clearly it is not converting into Free T3 at a high rate. So that leaves that it is either not converting at all, or is being converted into Reverse T3.
Stress either physically, or emotionally can cause the RT3 levels to be high. So trying to relieve the source of stress can also help in the proper conversion.
Covnerting to RT3 is also a natural body response when the body senses too much T4 in the blood. So again it would seem to make sense to reduce the dosage of T4.
The thoughts around here are that the FT4 should be about 50% to maybe 60% of the range AND at the same time the FT3 levels should be about 67% of the range.
Your values are that the FT4 is at 97% (instead of about 50%) and your FT3 is at 49% (instead or about 76%).
It is possible that your body senses the dramatically high FT4 level, and thus tell the body to get rid of that excess T4 by converting it to useless reverse T3. Which starves your cells for the needed Free T3 hormone as it is converting most of it to RT3 instead of the needed Free T3.
So personally, I think both lowering the T4 and adding in some T3 could work well. But definately I'd lower the T4 med. I think that could be making things worse.
Again please get your Vitamin B-12, Iron, Vit D3 and Ferritin levels checked.
Seems to me that we are again discussing the same things with you. In your prior posts as I remember you had not been tested for Vitamin D, B12 and ferritin. Tired people are frequently too low in the ranges for those. So you need to have those tested and supplemented as necessary.
Also, your Free T4 is higher than needed, and it still is not driving conversion of enough T4 to T3. So, your Free T3 is too low in the range. Previously it was suggested that you reduce your T4 med and find a source for some T3 med and start taking a small dose of T3, and increase as necessary.
I also sent a PM with info on a reputable source, from which you can purchase some T3 med. Did you see that PM? If not, just click on your name and that takes you to your home page. Then click on messages.
Also, your Free T4 is higher than needed, and it still is not driving conversion of enough T4 to T3. So, your Free T3 is too low in the range. Previously it was suggested that you reduce your T4 med and find a source for some T3 med and start taking a small dose of T3, and increase as necessary.
I also sent a PM with info on a reputable source, from which you can purchase some T3 med. Did you see that PM? If not, just click on your name and that takes you to your home page. Then click on messages.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Thyroid Disorders Community
We tapped the CDC for information on what you need to know about radiation exposure
Endocrinologist Mark Lupo, MD, answers 10 questions about thyroid disorders and how to treat them
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
