Aa
Well looking for some more inputs? No inprovements!
Well I've been on Armour Thyroid 1 grain split morning and early afternoon. Was on syntroid 125 mcg. My symptoms has seem to have gotten worse. Extreme nerve pain throughout my body with nerviness and shakes. Lack of appetite, bad headaches, tightness in the throat with a cough. This is the worst I've felt in along time and not sure what's causing the problem. Wasn't feeling good on the Synthroid either but these symptoms weren't as bad since I've switched to the Armour. Not sure if it's the medicine or if it's still the symptoms of Hashimotos and hypo. Due to get blood work done in about 2 weeks to see where things are but any feed back would be helpful.
At the time of those tests, your Free T4 was at about 45% of its range, which is slightly below the 50% recommended as minimum. Your Free T3 was only at 15 % of its range, which is way short of the recommended level of upper third of its range, or as needed to relieve symptoms. So the change to a desiccated med like Armour was directionally correct, but the new dosage was incorrect, since you still had symptoms even with the 125 mcg of T4 and the conversion to Armour was not done correctly. Note also that Vitamin D needs to be about 55-60 and B12 in the very upper end of its range. So you should continue to supplement as needed to optimize.
A good thyroid doctor will treat a hypo patient clinically by testing and adjusting Free T4 and Free T3 as needed to relieve symptoms, without being constrained by resultant TSH levels. Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results, and especially not TSH results when already taking thyroid med. You can get some good insight from this link written by a good thyroid doctor.
http://www.hormonerestoration.com/Thyroid.html
When you see your doctor next you need to get him to understand about the correct conversion of the T4 dose to Armour. You need to be on at least 2 grains of Armour, based on my calculations. Also, you need to find out if the doctor is going to be willing to treat clinically as described. If not, then you will need to find a good thyroid doctor that will do so.
A good thyroid doctor will treat a hypo patient clinically by testing and adjusting Free T4 and Free T3 as needed to relieve symptoms, without being constrained by resultant TSH levels. Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results, and especially not TSH results when already taking thyroid med. You can get some good insight from this link written by a good thyroid doctor.
http://www.hormonerestoration.com/Thyroid.html
When you see your doctor next you need to get him to understand about the correct conversion of the T4 dose to Armour. You need to be on at least 2 grains of Armour, based on my calculations. Also, you need to find out if the doctor is going to be willing to treat clinically as described. If not, then you will need to find a good thyroid doctor that will do so.
1 Comments
Yes, he is willing to treat clinically described. He put me on the Armour being I wasn't converting enough T4 to T3. So it sounds like he just needs to increase my dose of Armour. Will see how blood work looks in a couple of weeks and go from there. Thanks, Gimel
Sorry, I should have also asked when you made the switch to Armour.
2 Comments
About two days after I received my last blood work results.
Been on it for almost a month.
Last blood work as of 10/23/15 was:
TSH 6.880 High
FT4- 1.23 (Range- 0.80-1.73)
FT3- 2.4 (Range- 2.0-4.7)
Anti-TPO ab - 234 High
I'm also taking B12 and vitamin D supplements.
Ferrittin was 67 with range of 22-322
Vit. D was 26.5 Lo
B12 was 382 range 211-911 Lo
TSH 6.880 High
FT4- 1.23 (Range- 0.80-1.73)
FT3- 2.4 (Range- 2.0-4.7)
Anti-TPO ab - 234 High
I'm also taking B12 and vitamin D supplements.
Ferrittin was 67 with range of 22-322
Vit. D was 26.5 Lo
B12 was 382 range 211-911 Lo
Since you weren't feeling too good on 125 of Synthroid, I am not surprised that you feel worse on only one grain of Armour Thyroid. The Armour dose is a much lower equivalent dose than the Synthroid.
Conversion tables shows that 100 mcg of T4 = 60mg (one grain of Armour) = 25 mcg of T3, which is very confusing because that means that 25 mcg of T3 equals 100 mcg of T4, or a ratio of 4 to 1. If you then apply that ratio to the 60 mg of Armour, containing 39 mcg of T4 and 9 mcg of T3, you would get 39 + (9 times 4), which is only 75. That suggests that one grain of Armour is only equivalent to 75 mcg of T4, not 100.
So further muddle things, there is a scientific study that concluded that the ratio between T4 and T3 was only 3.3 to one, not 4 to 1. So that means that one grain of Armour is only equivalent to about 68 mcg of T4, and that your 125 dose, that wasn't adequate to relieve symptoms would be the equivalent of almost 2 grains of Armour.
If you will please post your last set of thyroid related test results and reference ranges shown on the lab report, we can help get you prepared for your next blood work, and a discussion with your doctor.
Conversion tables shows that 100 mcg of T4 = 60mg (one grain of Armour) = 25 mcg of T3, which is very confusing because that means that 25 mcg of T3 equals 100 mcg of T4, or a ratio of 4 to 1. If you then apply that ratio to the 60 mg of Armour, containing 39 mcg of T4 and 9 mcg of T3, you would get 39 + (9 times 4), which is only 75. That suggests that one grain of Armour is only equivalent to 75 mcg of T4, not 100.
So further muddle things, there is a scientific study that concluded that the ratio between T4 and T3 was only 3.3 to one, not 4 to 1. So that means that one grain of Armour is only equivalent to about 68 mcg of T4, and that your 125 dose, that wasn't adequate to relieve symptoms would be the equivalent of almost 2 grains of Armour.
If you will please post your last set of thyroid related test results and reference ranges shown on the lab report, we can help get you prepared for your next blood work, and a discussion with your doctor.
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