when to take levo

[Guest guest]

Hi

I used to be on levothyroxine then went onto Armour then off meds altogether for

5 weeks and now need to restart on Levo. please will someone remind me the best

time to take these.

I am under the care of Dr S.

Thanks

Shell

[Guest guest]

Shell, why do you need to restart on levothyroxine please if you

went on to Armour. What happened on Armour? If that was not working for you,

you can bet your bottom dollar that was because you are likely suffering one of

the following associated conditions that stop thyroid hormone from working. If

you were, and whatever it was has not yet been recognised and therefore

treated, when you start levothyroxine again, the same thing will happen and no

amount of thyroid hormone, whether it's synthetic or natural can be fully

utilised at the cellular level.

Thyroxine is a mainly inactive thyroid hormone. It has to

convert to the active thyroid hormone T3. It is T3 that every cell in your body

and brain need to make them function. Many people are unable to convert T3 to

T4, or they do, but the T3 is stopped from getting into the cells. Check out

the following conditions and go through each one of them by way of a process of

elimination.

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.extractLow

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

I used to be on levothyroxine then went onto Armour then off meds altogether

for 5 weeks and now need to restart on Levo. please will someone remind me the

best time to take these.

I am under the care of Dr S.

Thanks

Shell

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