Re: Hello. Here is my story so far

[Guest guest]

Sue,

I was fine on T4 for several years, then I lost almost 3 stones with slimming

World and a couple of years later I realised I was hypo again. I did find a

study recently, which confirmed my theory that losing weight can mess up the

conversion of T4 to t3..... I've had a look but can't find it now though.

I sorted it out by taking T3 in addition to T4.... when I found it helped, my

doctor then prescribed it.....

You could try t3 or Natural thyroid... (NT)... I'll have another look for the

article I saw...... There is a list of tried and trusted foreign pharmacies

in the files section.

>

> Hi All,

> I am a female who was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid by Dr Skinner a

few years ago. I had been ill for a long time and had numerous symptons, but GP

thought I was a 'stupid woman'!

> I have been taking Eltroxin since being diagnosed and have had some good

times, in fact, 2 years ago, I managed to lose 2 1/2 st on Slimming World and

felt ok.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of adding some armour to the mix, but was

unsure whether to just add a 1/4 grain twice a day, or drop 25mcg thyroxine and

then add it. Hope that makes sense. Is there any way I can stop my whole email

address showing on my posts please.

Regards

Sue

>

> I sorted it out by taking T3 in addition to T4.... when I found it helped,

my doctor then prescribed it.....

>

> You could try t3 or Natural thyroid... (NT)... I'll have another look for

the article I saw...... There is a list of tried and trusted foreign

pharmacies in the files section.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

No way you can stop your whole email address showing Sue. This

is the way this group is set up. However, you might be better getting a

new or Gmail account and have your username as something nobody can

recognise. And then resubscribing to the forum.

Go to thyroid treatment

unsubscribe by clicking 'Edit Membership' above the broad blue/green bar near

to the top of the page and on that page, click 'Leave this Group. Then go back

to the link and re-register. As you do so, create a username and password

to open a Account, and register using this new username as your default

email address.

Hope that helps.

As for your titrating problem, if this was me, I would stop the

levothyroxine altogether and just go with the natural thyroid extract.

I have found that for those who drop their T4 by 25mcgs and

increase their T3 or NDT, it can take an absolute age to wean off it altogether.

If you can't get on with T4 because it is not converting to the magic 3 for

whatever reason, there is absolutely no point in continuing to use it. If it

helps, I was on 125mcgs T4 only. When I started Armour, I stopped the T4 on one

day, and the next day started half a grain of Armour. I increased this by half

a grain every three weeks, and felt absolutely wonderful.

If you find that you do need a little extra T3 or a little extra

4, these can then be added in. I did find that for quite a while, I needed to

add 25mcgs T4, but now I am 100% natural thyroid extract and nothing else.

Luv - Sheila

Hi ,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of adding some armour to the mix, but was

unsure whether to just add a 1/4 grain twice a day, or drop 25mcg thyroxine and

then add it. Hope that makes sense. Is there any way I can stop my whole email

address showing on my posts please.

Regards

Sue

>

[Guest guest]

To be blunt Sue, I would go right ahead and try the natural. If

levothyroxine is not doing the job (and there are numerous reasons why it might

not be) you really have no option but to try alternatives. However, before you

even consider this, do check the following possibilities as to the reason why

your thyroid hormone might not be getting properly utilised at the cellular

level. You MUST find the cause, and any one of these could be the problem,

which, if found, needs to be treated.

Also, check out the information in our FILES SECTION thyroid treatment/files/

and on the page that opens, click on the FOLDER entitled 'All Natural Thyroid

Extract'. In the page that opens, check the document entitled 'How to Use Natural

Thyroid Extract' and follow that information.

There

are MANY reasons and many medical conditions associated with thyroid disease

that stop thyroid hormone from getting into the cells, where it does its work.

I mention these over and over and over again - ad nauseum - people must be

bored with the same old stuff, but as each new member joins us, they need to

know about these.

The

main condition responsible for stopping thyroid hormone from working is, quite

simply, a patient’s thyroid hormone dose is too low because the doctor or

consultant refuses to increase it, because the serum thyroid function test

results appear OK. Sometimes, the thyroxine dose is too high, yet patients

still don't feel well. They continue to suffer. Some reasons for this:

1.

You may be suffering with low adrenal reserve. The production of T4, its

conversion to T3, and the receptor uptake requires a normal amount of adrenal

hormones, notably, of course, cortisone. (Excess cortisone can shut production

down, however.) This is what happens if the adrenals are not responding

properly, and provision of cortisone usually switches it on again. But

sometimes it doesn’t. If the illness has been going on for a long

time, the enzyme seems to fail. This conversion failure (inexplicably

denied by many endocrinologists) means the thyroxine builds up,

unconverted. So it doesn’t work, and T4 toxicosis results. This

makes the patient feel quite unwell, toxic, often with palpitations and chest

pain. If provision of adrenal support doesn’t remedy the situation, the

final solution is the use of the active thyroid hormone, already converted, T3

- either synthetic or natural. You can check for such a possibility by going to

the FILES SECTION of our forum http://health.grouops//thyroid treatment/files/

and scroll down to the folder entitled 'Medical Questionnaires' and complete

the Adrenal one. Let us know how you score. You can also get the 24 hour

salivary adrenal profile from Genova Diagnostics. See the File entitled

'Discounts on Tests and Supplements'. When ordering, write that Thyroid Patient

Advocacy is your medical practitioner. They will send out a kit to you and the

results will be sent direct to you. When you receive these, post the results on

the forum with the reference ranges and we will help with their interpretation.

2.

Then, we have systemic candidiasis. This is where candida albicans, yeast,

which causes skin infections almost anywhere in the body, invades the lining of

the lower part of the small intestine and the large intestine. Here, the

candida sets up residence in the warmth and the dark, and demands to be

fed. Loving sugars and starches, candida can make you suffer terrible

sweet cravings. Candida can produce toxins which can cause very many

symptoms of exhaustion, headache, general illness, and which interfere with the

uptake of thyroid and adrenal treatment. Sometimes the levels - which we

usually test for - can be very high, and make successful treatment difficult to

achieve until adequately treated. As above, do the 'Candida Questionnaire' and

let us know how you score, and again, you can be tested by Genova Diagnostics to

give you diagnosis.

3.

Then there is receptor resistance which could be a culprit. Being

hypothyroid for some considerable time may mean the biochemical mechanisms

which permit the binding of T3 to the receptors, is downgraded - so the T3

won’t go in. With slow build up of T3, with full adrenal support

and adequate vitamins and minerals, the receptors do come on line again.

But this can be quite a slow process, and care has to be taken to build the

dose up gradually.

4.

And then there are Food allergies. The most common food allergy is allergy to

gluten, the protein fraction of wheat. The antibody generated by the body, by a

process of molecular mimicry, cross reacts with the thyroperoxidase enzyme,

(which makes thyroxine) and shuts it down. So allergy to bread can make

you hypothyroid. There may be other food allergies with this kind of effect,

but information on these is scanty. Certainly allergic response to

certain foods can affect adrenal function and imperil thyroid production and

uptake.

5.

Then we have hormone imbalances. The whole of the endocrine system is linked;

each part of it needs the other parts to be operating normally to work

properly. An example of this we have seen already, with cortisone.

But another example is the operation of sex hormones. The imbalance that

occurs at the menopause with progesterone running down, and a relative

dominance of oestrogen is a further case in point – oestrogen dominance

downgrades production, transportation and uptake of thyroid hormones.

This is why hypothyroidism may first appear at the menopause; the symptoms

ascribed to this alone, which is then treated – often with extra

oestrogen, making the whole thing worse. Deficiency in progesterone most

especially needs to be dealt with, since it reverses oestrogen dominance,

improves many menopausal symptoms like sweats and mood swings, and reverses

osteoporosis. Happily natural progesterone cream is easily obtained: when

used it has the added benefit of helping to stabilise adrenal function.

6.

Then, there is the possibility of mercury poisoning, caused through amalgam

fillings - these might need to be removed but you need to seek a Dentist who

specialises in the removal of amalgam fillings.

7.

One of the main reasons why thyroid hormone is not being utilised at the

cellular level is because you might be suffering with low levels of iron,

transferring saturation%, ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate,

copper and zinc - these have to be tested for, and treated.

When you have been

quite unwell for a long time, all these problems have to be dealt with, and

since each may affect the other, it all has to be done very carefully.

Ask your doctor to

work with you to help you find the cause. The balancing of these variables is

as much up to you as to your doctor – which is why a check of morning,

day and evening temperatures and pulse rates, together with symptoms, good and

bad, can be so helpful. To this end, check out Dr Rind's Metabolic Metabolic

Temperature Graph http://www.drrind.com/therapies/metabolic-temperature-graph

If your doctor tries

to tell you that low levels of the above mentioned nutrients have nothing to do

with your low thyroid state, copy out the following of just a few references to

the research/studies that have been done to show that there is a very big

connection. Doctors are not taught about this at medical school, so we have to

help them where we can - so they, in turn, can help their other patients.

Low iron/ferritin:

Iron deficiency is shown to significantly reduce T4 to T3 conversion, increase

reverse T3 levels, and block the thermogenic (metabolism boosting) properties

of thyroid hormone (1-4). Thus, iron deficiency, as indicated by an iron

saturation below 25 or a ferritin below 70, will result in diminished

intracellular T3 levels. Additionally, T4 should not be considered adequate

thyroid replacement if iron deficiency is present (1-4)).

1.

Dillman E, Gale C, Green W, et al. Hypothermia in iron deficiency due to

altered triiodithyroidine metabolism. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative

Physiology 1980;239(5):377-R381.

2.

SM, PE, Lukaski HC. In vitro hepatic thyroid hormone deiodination

in iron-deficient rats: effect of dietary fat. Life Sci 1993;53(8):603-9.

3.

Zimmermann MB, Köhrle J. The Impact of Iron and Selenium Deficiencies on Iodine

and Thyroid Metabolism: Biochemistry and Relevance to Public Health. Thyroid

2002;12(10): 867-78.

4.

Beard J, tobin B, Green W. Evidence for Thyroid Hormone Deficiency in

Iron-Deficient Anemic Rats. J. Nutr. 1989;119:772-778.

Low

vitamin B12: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18655403

Low

vitamin D3: http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/3/329

and http://www.goodhormonehealth.com/VitaminD.pdf

Low

magnesium: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292768/pdf/jcinvest00264-0105.pdf

Low

folate: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/9/1738

and http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.1999.9.1163

Low

copper http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm

http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.rjpbcs.com/pdf/2011_2(2)/68.pdf

http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/171/3/652.extract

Low

zinc:http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/ffdbiyo/current4/07%20Iham%20AM%C4%B0R.pdf

and http://articles.webraydian.com/article1648-Role_of_Zinc_and_Copper_in_Effective_Thyroid_Function.html

·

NOTE: When your blood tests come back, ask your doctor for a copy and

remember to always get the reference range and post them on the forum. This is

because doctors will often tell you that there is not a problem because blood

tests have come back within the reference range. You need to know where about

in the reference range they are. We will again, help with their interpretation.

·

Vitamin B12 levels for both men and women need to be at the top of the range in

a reference interval of around 175 -900.

·

Vitamin D3 levels need to be about 50.

·

Magnesium levels need to be at the top of the range

I am a female who was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid by Dr Skinner a few

years ago. I had been ill for a long time and had numerous symptons, but GP

thought I was a 'stupid woman'!

I have been taking Eltroxin since being diagnosed and have had some good times,

in fact, 2 years ago, I managed to lose 2 1/2 st on Slimming World and felt ok.

Lately however, I am having a return of symptoms ie memory problems(I try to

run a business, so not good), thinning hair again, average temp of 35.2c, very

dry skin and flaky nails and a certain amount of the horrid panic thing I get

when I know I am not well. I have also found it impossible to lose another

pound even while sticking religiously to the diet and exercising.

My Dr will only keep me within the NHS ranges and I know my TSH is below range

when taking 175mgs. If they would test my T£ though, they would see this at the

bottom of the range. I therefore stop my eltroxin for 2 days before my test so

that she won't reduce my dose further. I feel bad that I have to do this and

worse of all, do not know my true numbers.

I am thinking of trying a natural dessicated product, but don't know how to

change and I know I will have to order them from abroad.

I would be so grateful for any help anyone can offer me.

Thanks

Sue

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[Guest guest]

Thank you Sheila

I will resubscibe using one of my other accounts that isn't so obvious.

I have been a bit scared to stop T4 as, although they are not completely solving

the problem, when I have dropped them for 2 days for GP's blood test I can

barely function and certainly can't drive, which is essential for me.

I am having a private test done this week so will be able to post results and

get some feedback from everyone. Should I take all meds as normal before test or

is it best to drop them the day before the blood test?

Thanks Sue

>

> No way you can stop your whole email address showing Sue. This is the way

> this group is set up. However, you might be better getting a new

> or Gmail account and have your username as something nobody can recognise.

> And then resubscribing to the forum.

>

[Guest guest]

The only medicines you need to drop from taking on the day of

the blood draw are thyroid hormone replacements. All the others are OK.

Thyroxine has a long half life, of up to a week, it takes

approximately 6 weeks to get out of the body so you should have plenty to keep

you going for some time. Some people take ALL their thyroxine once a week would

you believe and they are fine though I wouldn't recommend this. Remember if you

are changing over to natural thyroid extract, you still have T4 in that, but it

is the ACTIVE T3 you need to make everything work.

Luv - Sheila

I will resubscibe using one of my other accounts that isn't so obvious.

I have been a bit scared to stop T4 as, although they are not completely

solving the problem, when I have dropped them for 2 days for GP's blood test I

can barely function and certainly can't drive, which is essential for me.

I am having a private test done this week so will be able to post results and

get some feedback from everyone. Should I take all meds as normal before test

or is it best to drop them the day before the blood test?