please anyone who has experience with a thyroid issue.
I have been on armour at 2 grains. my t4 and t3 came back borderline low. (one point under the lowest lab value)
my tsh isnt that bad.. .5
my doctor suggested adding in a bit of t4 which makes me feel horrible. when i add in the t4 i cant think straight, im disoriented , extremely tired and have pressure in my head.
i have tried over the weekend, just increasing the armour and virutally the same symtpoms. i end up taking clay or charcoal just to bind it up. i need an answer on why this happens. my doctor said it could take 7-10 days too start normalizing but something isnt feeling right.
thanks.
Posted by whitmore (Member # 28721) on :
If your TSH is 5, then that is indeed bad. I believe latest guidelines are for hypothyroid to be defined as a TSH of 3 and above. But I'm not sure if you're saying it's 0.5? Is this when you are on the Amour? If so, then I think it indicates nothing. If your T3 and T4 are borderline low on the Armour(and I can't tell from your post), then why not just add more Armour? Or you may be converting the T4 to reverse T3 instead of T3 which will make the situation worse. The solution for that would be to add some T3(Cytomel)to the Armour, not more T4. Suggest you look at the Stop the Thyroid Madness website. Sue
Posted by runner21 (Member # 1974) on :
hi sue. my tsh is 0.5 with armour thyroid. and yes, the t3 and t4 are borderline low after being on armour for 7 weeks.
thanks.
Posted by faithful777 (Member # 22872) on :
I felt a little racey adding T3 but I didn't feel ill like you. Have you considered changing to a different thyroid medication? I felt lousy on Armour but am doing better on Nature Throid. Still my T3/T4 are too low, but Lyme is an issue so I am not sure I can get my thyroid fixed until some of the other issues are addressed.
I do know that some people do better on synthetic thyroid drugs. I fell better when my tsh is low like yours.
Posted by dmc (Member # 5102) on :
I just switched from Amour Thyroid to MNatureThyroid.
According to my hormone MD Amour formula changed and many of her patients having problems...(my hair started falling out & swelling again)
Two weeks on Nature Thyroid & hair not falling out. It was so bad I had to clean shower after I had one & vaccumm bathroom after I dried my hair.
Posted by WhitneyS (Member # 25666) on :
two things- you should have your reverse T3 checked out, also borderline low T3 for me would not be good, so it is significant.
#2 if you have any adrenal fatigue there is often a rebound effect once thryoid meds are added. Increasing the thryoid in someone who have adrenal fatigue will further tire adrenals, so check that out too.
If thats not an issue I'd add more armour or add cytomel to the mix.
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
what do you mean by a rebound effect.....how does this manifest itself?
Posted by WhitneyS (Member # 25666) on :
Youll start to feel a little better then get worse
Posted by Lymeorsomething (Member # 16359) on :
Sometimes you get transient sides when increasing the meds. They may go away as your body adjusts to the new levels. For instance, people will often lose hair when starting thyroid meds but that usually subsides as the body adjusts...
So you may want to give the new dose a little more time and see if things settle down...
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Well, my thyroid dose was recently increased and hair started falling out, like it did some years back before I got onto thyroid meds. I assumed this meant the dose was too high, although it gave me a better energy level. So, maybe going back to my previous dose was a mistake? Doc didn't know about this transient side effect, if it was transient. On the lower dose, the hair loss stopped again.
Now I don't know what I should have done.
Posted by runner21 (Member # 1974) on :
thank you very much.
my md says its hard to know with reverse t3. that actually there is reverse t3 in armour thyroid. and also the lab ranges change each time its measured. mine is in the middle but i have definately thought about htis.
thank you.
Posted by GiGi (Member # 259) on :
Runner, have you taken this up with Dr. A.D.? Dr.K. talked about the subject on several occasions earlier in the year. But I am not able to repeat it here. All this info is shared in the "DK group" - so AD may be able to help.
Take care.
Posted by lymenotlite (Member # 33166) on :
I was taking dessicated thyroid and I think it was Armour. It made me feel crazy at a quarter tablet. Later I told the LLMD I wouldn't take it so he put me on T3. I had to determine my T3 dose and started at 7.5mg, building up. My next dose level was 15mg and once again I started to feel crazy. After more tweaking, I determined my optimal dose was 10mg, a very low dose.