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Cytomel Treatment - how to take?
Hello,
I was on .50 of tirosint and i didnt seem to be doing very well. It seemed like it was too much " treble and not enough bass" is the best way to describe it.
I dropped it down to .25 tirosint and feel a little better. But after my last round of tests, my Dr. wants to try to add in a tiny hair of t3. She gave me 5mcg pills. From what i read on here, this stuff is very potent. I have been on a lower dose of t4 for 4 days now. I want to add in the t3. I gather i will only take 1/4 of the 5mcg pill to start.
My question is - do i just take it with the t4? do i wait a little bit? If it works, should i eventually bump it to 1/4 a pill twice a day?
Last time i tried this stuff was a year ago and i failed miserably. Took it one time and that was it. It was way too much for me. I want to try to do this right this time.
Thanks,
Bruce
I was on .50 of tirosint and i didnt seem to be doing very well. It seemed like it was too much " treble and not enough bass" is the best way to describe it.
I dropped it down to .25 tirosint and feel a little better. But after my last round of tests, my Dr. wants to try to add in a tiny hair of t3. She gave me 5mcg pills. From what i read on here, this stuff is very potent. I have been on a lower dose of t4 for 4 days now. I want to add in the t3. I gather i will only take 1/4 of the 5mcg pill to start.
My question is - do i just take it with the t4? do i wait a little bit? If it works, should i eventually bump it to 1/4 a pill twice a day?
Last time i tried this stuff was a year ago and i failed miserably. Took it one time and that was it. It was way too much for me. I want to try to do this right this time.
Thanks,
Bruce
i think you have to look at the whole picture , stop trying different things and get on a plan , just a thought, Kevin
Ladies (and kevin),
I stopped the t3 a couple days ago. That was way too much for me. Is it possible to have hashimotos with high tsh and only need a drop of t4? Like .13 or something? Is it possible to not need any at all? My biggest complaint off the t4 is obviously the exhaustion. The biggest compaints on the t4 is the ears ringing, the diahreah and the palps.
I cant really find middle ground. Its either too much, or too little. Nothing in the middle. I started the testosterone treatment today. It says to use 4 pumps on your chest or arms. I really wanted to start with 2 just to make sure i dont flip out on this stuff.
My selenium was very high. I dont recall the number because I didnt get that particular lab sent to me. Im probably going to have another panel done tomorrow, or maybe tues. I leave for disney world on weds for a week. God, please allow me to make it through next week. I promise to be nicer to my mother.
BRuce
I stopped the t3 a couple days ago. That was way too much for me. Is it possible to have hashimotos with high tsh and only need a drop of t4? Like .13 or something? Is it possible to not need any at all? My biggest complaint off the t4 is obviously the exhaustion. The biggest compaints on the t4 is the ears ringing, the diahreah and the palps.
I cant really find middle ground. Its either too much, or too little. Nothing in the middle. I started the testosterone treatment today. It says to use 4 pumps on your chest or arms. I really wanted to start with 2 just to make sure i dont flip out on this stuff.
My selenium was very high. I dont recall the number because I didnt get that particular lab sent to me. Im probably going to have another panel done tomorrow, or maybe tues. I leave for disney world on weds for a week. God, please allow me to make it through next week. I promise to be nicer to my mother.
BRuce
i'd maybe look at a different type doctor, like an osteopath or even some cardiologists, someone who will look at the whole picture. it seem alot of en-dos don't, they'll just give more or different type thyroid med and say All is ok. it's only lately they see how vitamin d deficiency is important and test for it, i heard of some doctors around here. one guy was a cardiologist who looks at everything from hormones, vitamins, minerals. to see what's going on. just a thought, it's supposedly very hard to get high levels of vitamins in our system, no matter how well you eat or how well you supplement, most you just urinate away ,don't build up in your system, and other like vitamin d are like the thyroid med, takes months to build up in your sytem there is no quick fix to it, But im not a doctor ! , so I'm NOT telling you to take vitamins ! , but maybe get a specific doctor that will test all that and see if your deficient in any area, alot of symtoms come from deficiency , especially in men low T can cause anxiety fatigue, muscle aches depression, clouded thinking , there finding the same with low vitamin D , along with hurting conversion of t4 to t3, sounds alot like thyroid symtoms, right, so it doesn't hurt to check things out, Kevin
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You said, previously, your selenium was "sky high" - where was it in the reference range? Selenium has been shown to aid in the conversion of T4 to T3. If your selenium is high, you most likely don't need the extra T3 med; would take you to hyper he!!........... Too high levels of vitamins/minerals can be just as bad as deficiency. While selenium is not a fat soluble mineral, high levels are toxic. Go back to your latest thyroid labs and repost them, along with your selenium levels - make sure you include reference ranges...
Wow Kevin, I didn't know other levels had such an impact on your thyroid. My vitamin D was only 11! If I take it, my heart races uncontrollably, but I have been getting it naturally from the sun. I have begged my docs to test my hormones and other vitamin levels, but in 10 months, they will not. I am having an issue with food as I cannot even eat gluten, so it's very possible I am lacking in a LOT of vitamins. Now I can't even eat because of my mouth AND I hate meat and was a vegetarian for a long, long time. I eat it now for health reasons, but I eat it sparingly. It really sounds as if I need to just buy the testing myself and see what is going on.
when i was at my worse i had good tsh numbers , a good amount of thyroid med in me . much more than i have now. but low frees t3 t4 . and i had low testosterone, low vitamin d, others, i realize now it's all as far as i can see it's all interrelated. my vitamin d is up now testosterone back to normal, my free t3 t4 are over the top scale had to reduce the thyroid amount . I'm on less now than a year ago with much better numbers. most of my symtoms have left, feel almost 100 percent normal. back to work, i must be converting much better, i had all your symtoms. but why wasn't i converting well? was it because of low d, testosterone or others?. or was because of low t3? what causes what ?.what pulls what down, it's a vicious circle, i don't know.? my point is i'd look at everything try and get all things in right levesl and i bet you'll feel much better as things . all things! fall into place not only the thyroid levels. can't hurt also alot of it is easy fixes with supplementation. it's hard to find a doctor that looks at the whole picture , some osteopaths do this, might be worth looking into it, Kevin
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I suggest you do the work and read De. Arem's book and see what YOU think about his practice. I live in Santa Monica CA, so I haven't been to the clinic, but because my sister lives in Houston, I'm considering it if I don't get better results with my labs next time.
I can tell you that my sister in Houston has Hashimoto's and thinks she does well on Synthroid alone, although she has a hard time keeping her weight down. But it took several years before she was properly diagnosed, and she had some nearly psychotic psychological episodes before she found a good doctor that she trusts. Thyroid hormones have a very profound effect on your brain and your emotions. At first they thought she had rheumatoid arthritis and then lupus before Hashi's was correctly diagnosed. Even then, she had to go on a wheat-free gluten-free diet for a year before her medication worked properly, a food allergy that is not uncommon in hypothyroidism. She did all her own baking and cooking for an entire year while taking care of 4 children with a husband who had to travel a lot for work, and sometimes her body and joints hurt so badly that she had a hard time forcing herself out of bed. But she did it, and reintroduced wheat back into her diet.......Although she has a few bad days occasionally, mostly she's well. Her thyroid doesn't function at all any more. She loves her doctor.
On the other hand, she has a friend in Houston with hypothyroidism...not Hashi's....who went to various doctors and felt terrible all the time on T4 with many symptoms but a "normal" TSH. She found out about Dr. Arem's clinic, and told my sister about the book to recommend to me. The friend went to Dr. Arem and got better and is thriving on T4 /T3 therapy. However, she says, and I have heard from others, that Dr. Arem's "bedside manner" is not the warmest and he doesn't suffer patients who don't do as they are told. He is also a cllinical teaching professor at Baylor. So I wouldn't go there unless you are prepared to do exactly what they recommend for as long as it takes. So far, it doesn't seem you've been willing to give protocols a proper chance to work.
I urge you again to read the book and to at least explore that website I gave you . While that and other websites such as http:www.thyroid-rt3.com and http://www.altsupportthyroid.org sometimes advocate dessicated thyroid, which didn't work for me, the information contained therein is applicable to whatever form of replacement you choose. You have to DO THE WORK and study the disease, you can't just expect people on this forum to give you all the information you need to have an informed discussion with your doctor. We are here to support you emotionally and give you what benefit of our own predicaments that we can. I think I've been reading your posts for nearly a year and haven't seen much change in them.You get yourself very worked up. And don't get me wrong......as someone who is extremely drug sensitive and has sometimes been known to have paradoxical response to drugs (they work the opposite) I am very sympathetic to your plight, otherwise I wouldn't take all this time to respond .
Barb is right about self-medication and your seeming impatience and others have told you the same. You should listen to her. Everyone wants to help you, but it gets hard when you don't seem to listen or take advantage of medical information that is made available to you. We're all pretty much going through the wringer with this disease, otherwise we'd have better things to do than hang around on this forum.
Be gentle with yourself, Bruce, T3 is 4X stronger than T4, so just taking yourself off it suddenly is a HUGE shock to your system. Yes, your body is taking you on a wild ride, so being as calm as you can possibly manage to be is of great benefit to you. Stress is not your friend and will tweek your levels. If you decide to take a small dose....like .25....of Xanax or Valium....I suggest taking it every day for a while, perhaps at bedtime and always at the SAME time. Use it to get your body out of an over-reactive neural loop. Routine IS your friend. Kudos on the exercise regime. Kudos on finding work you like to do at home......you have a lot going for you and you have the loving support of your family.
If, after reading Dr. Arem's book you decide to try the clinic, I'll be really interested in what you think. I wish you all the best.