Re: Re: thyroid med keeping me wide awake

[Guest guest]

Thanks, , Yeah, I had that thought too last time around and tried going straight T4 and that doesn't work either. I can never get stabilized on the synthetics, for whatever reason. I do think, though that perhaps I need some kind of combo as Armour is 20% T3, (because that's how the pig's thyroid works), whereas humans only produce 10% T3. So it could be that the ratio is messing me up. I just couldn't take the med yesterday, and sure enough slept fine last night (but of course it was skipping doses that got me where I am today with a TSH of 150+. I'm going to wait until I go to bed tonight to take my next dose. A lot of people report that they can sleep better if they take their med at night. Seems strange to me, and I've always been afraid to try it, but gotta do something. It does have a little logic behind it, since our thyroids pump out a bunch of hormone in the

early hours of the morning, and that is when I wake up. Why it would help to take the hormone at night, though, is a bit of a mystery. Maybe it takes the body a while to metabolize the supplemented thyroid? I really don't know, but I hope this helps. It's weird, isn't it, how too much thyroid can make you angry? Some people really rage when they're hyper. Get very emotional, hysterical, etc. On the flip side, too little and you become very depressed. I'm really glad you were able to get yourself balanced out. Thanks again for the ideas. penny kgg12003 <kgenest@...> wrote: Hi, Penny~I know you asked about sleep but I thought I would give you my experience FWIW. I too, need the thyroid supplementation but get anxious/angry and have palpitations if I take too much. Synthroid does nothing for me. So when starting back on it, I started with a compounded T4 of 12 mcg. and 3.5 mcg. of T3. These are baby doses. We started out very low with the idea of being able to increase it. I took this dosing for a month daily. During the end of the month I had two raging episodes and was woken one morning with a pounding pulse over a 100. I stopped the thyroid for a week then tried pulsing it every other day. Still had the pounding pulse. Dropped the T3. Pounding pulse resolved.I am still at this

point pulsing only the T4 three times a week. For a week I tried every other day but found my mood resentful all week. To be angry the whole week was not pleasant. At this point I take it M-W-F. And I am doing OK with that. No increase in pulse. Sleep is OK. Mood is anger/resentfulness free.My point in all of this is Armour has the T3 in it. You may not need the T3 as I did not. It was the cause of my most unpleasant symptoms.Just a thought FWIW.Best,

[Guest guest]

Right again! My adrenals were in the upside down phase when I had them tested. Pumping it out at night when they're supposed to rest, not giving me any during the day when I need it. This could definitely explain part of the sleeplessness. My doc gave me adrenal meds but again, I felt worse. More wired at night. They also gave me acne and didn't seem to change anything else. But you've done your homework very thoroughly, that's for sure. And I should probably have them checked again. Last time I dealt with this it took me 3 years to finally get the right meds. Armour was the answer. Now apparently I'm back to square one. Looks like I may be looking for yet another specialist. This is kind of interesting. After I started Benicar, I didn't need as many thyroid meds, at least that's how my body felt with the hyper type symptoms beginning to manifest. As a matter of fact I had a thyroid

storm when I was doing the Benicar with Minocycline (Minocycline can mess with some people's thyroids big time among other things, like intercranial pressure. That's why I stopped it). But I continued the Benicar and so did some hyper type sensations so that's why I started slacking off on my thyroid meds to begin with. As a result my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone for those who don't know) was high (7-14ish) while on Benicar but nothing like it is now and yet I still felt okay. Now I'm wondering if it wasn't the Benicar that was seemingly reducing my perceived need for hormone as much as my hormones getting whacky on me in general. I mean I thought I felt okay last week and it turns out I have a TSH of 150! But if Benicar does impact the D hormones as much as Marshall claims, and since that would affect the other hormones including thyroid, I

wonder if it could have played a role in my thryoid function somehow? Or was it just a hormonal change that just happened to coincide with my taking Benicar? Probably too complicated for me to figure out unless I did another Benicar trial. I sometimes think about doing that. It would probably help the migraines, etc. But it scares me to think about how my legs were feeling. My right quad still feels slightly weak (they had gotten really bad), and my (slimmer) gut tells me I don't want to do that again. Naturally I forgot to take the meds before bed last night. :-( But at least I slept well again. :-) penny kgg12003 <kgenest@...> wrote: Hi, Penny~The other thing that came to mind is your adrenals. When I was having difficulty tolerating such a low dose of thyroid, I started searching. Someone brought this article to my attention: http://featherstone.bravehost.com/thyroid/peatfieldadrenal.html. Not sure I agree with everything, but I thought he did a good job of explaining why addressing the adrenals is needed first some times.Good luck,

[Guest guest]

thanks, . Apparently I slept through a neighbor's house fire last night just a couple of houses away. Fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, everything. The house is a total loss. My whole family was out on the street and I was snoozing right through the whole thing. But at 3:30 a.m., I woke right up. Has to be that hormone surge that's doing it if the firetrucks didn't. I knew I felt like I got some deep sleep this a.m, but how weird that I slept right through all that racket? Everyone says I'm such a light sleeper, so what's with the coma? :-) penny <usenethod@...> wrote: > So anybody got any good suggestions on how to get to sleep withoutside effects? Melatonin didn't work, unfortunately, and I really don'twant to take anything too intense or will stress my liver or becomeaddictive, etc.Only diphenhydramine worked for me in my days of horror-levelinsomnia. Ambien actually made me wake up every 20 minutes instead ofevery 40. I don't use much diphen anymore, as I am too sleepy thesedays rather than insomniac. I don't really know whether it can causeaddiction/tolerance/rebound. I don't notice any personally. I still use melatonin many nights, since it doesn't seem to aggravatethe hypersomnia, and helps me keep from sleeping in later and laterand going to bed later and later. (A problem

as I have the typical CFShit-by-truck syndrome for 20 minutes after waking up, which makes itextremely tempting to go back to sleep.)You might also try GABA, which may cause depression over time in somepeople.

[Guest guest]

Tony, the difference between you and someone with cfs is that "extreme effort" will put you to bed for a couple of months, not a few hours. Many pw/cfs are exercise intolerant. It doesn't make us tired, it makes us sick. We just can't push like you can. I was amazed that could run at all, but that was after he had gotten somewhat better. I went through up and down cycles like that for years before eventually I couldn't force my body to even get out of bed. penny dumbaussie2000 <dumbaussie2000@...> wrote: , EXTEME ANYTHING- I found 12 hours of concreting yesterday put me to bed. You basically need to push hard- in your case maybe putting alot of sprinting in instaed of your usual jogging.. >> > > So anybody got any good suggestions on how to get to sleep without> side effects? Melatonin didn't work, unfortunately, and I really don't> want to take anything too intense or will stress my liver or become> addictive, etc.> > > Only diphenhydramine worked for me in my days of horror-level> insomnia. Ambien actually made me wake up every 20 minutes instead of> every 40. I don't use much diphen anymore, as I am too sleepy

these> days rather than insomniac. I don't really know whether it can cause> addiction/tolerance/rebound. I don't notice any personally. > > I still use melatonin many nights, since it doesn't seem to aggravate> the hypersomnia, and helps me keep from sleeping in later and later> and going to bed later and later. (A problem as I have the typical CFS> hit-by-truck syndrome for 20 minutes after waking up, which makes it> extremely tempting to go back to sleep.)> > You might also try GABA, which may cause depression over time in some> people.>

[Guest guest]

I bet you're right about the cold dips. Not sure I can get the courage, but a cold bath with magnesium and sea salt might work as well? The reason I think you're right is because the ice bag is my new best friend. I've been putting it on my head at the slightest sign of headache. It seems to help a lot. I've also been using inhaled decongestants and they also seem to help, although there's a rebound effect of nasal swelling. Re-enter handy ice bag. :-) Also, I bought those gel pack ice caps. Great in principal and ease of use. Only thing they don't tell you is they stay cold for about 1/2 an hour, which doesn't cut it at all, except as a stop gap measure. So I bought a couple of the old fashioned ice bags with the screw on lids. Not only are they the perfect temperature just as they are, they stay cold for hours and don't leak. So low tech is better than high tech in this case, and SO much better

than plastic bags or frozen peas. :-) I can sleep with these things on my head with no worries whatsoever. AND they were cheap on Amazon! penny dumbaussie2000 <dumbaussie2000@...> wrote: PennyI knew from previous postings was a runner- I also sort of know that if you push hard you tend to get rid of some stagnation, and interestingly it was pointed out to me that extreme hard pushing, not the long slow stuff, can put people with

parkinsons into remission for a couple of months.I tend to think though that you have to have all your other stuff in order before embarking ' on this'..I see it sort of as a way to push your blood through all the chanels that enable it to work better..You've got to push it thru the inflammation sites is another way of looking at it I suppose.Penny I also wouldn't recommend this for you..The way I read things, I would advise cold dips in the ocean to hopefully clamp some inflammation in your case.. Eventually you may work your way up to getting rid of the stagnation which I would think comes from long term inflammed sites..Actually now that we are on the subject it's not much different to rich's methylation block idea's..tony> >> > > > > So anybody got any good suggestions on how to get to sleep > without> > side effects? Melatonin didn't work, unfortunately, and I really > don't> > want to take anything too intense or will stress my liver or become> > addictive, etc.> > > > > > Only diphenhydramine worked for me in my days of horror-level> > insomnia. Ambien actually made me wake up every 20 minutes instead > of> > every 40. I don't use much diphen anymore, as I am too sleepy these> > days rather than insomniac. I don't really know whether it can cause> > addiction/tolerance/rebound. I don't notice any personally. > > > > I still use melatonin many nights, since it doesn't seem to > aggravate> > the hypersomnia, and helps me keep from sleeping in later and

later> > and going to bed later and later. (A problem as I have the typical > CFS> > hit-by-truck syndrome for 20 minutes after waking up, which makes it> > extremely tempting to go back to sleep.)> > > > You might also try GABA, which may cause depression over time in > some> > people.> >>