RE: for HOLLIS re: thyroid /OT

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-----Original Message-----From: VulvarDisorders [mailto:VulvarDisorders ] On Behalf Of Dusty Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2006 12:55 PMTo: VulvarDisorders Subject: RE: for Lily re: thyroid /OT

Interesting Hollis, I had low ferritin for over two years but endocrine guy didint' find it, gyn did. Is this common for thyroid patients - low ferritin? And why is it common? Bet that's why I've had such severe hair loss. I now try to take it, but it causes very loose bowels , so I take every other day - only 165 Slow Fe

Dusty

-----Original Message-----From: VulvarDisorders [mailto:VulvarDisorders ] On Behalf Of Zdamask@...Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 9:43 PMTo: VulvarDisorders Subject: for Lily re: thyroid /OT

When I got to about 2 grains- 2.5 grains of AT, I experienced quite a bit of irritability, nervousness and jittery feelings. But the doc said my T-hormones were still low. I was so irritable that it was affecting my mental health and social relationships. (Looking back, maybe my old doctor kept raising the dose because he didn't know I had Hashimoto's? A different doctor diagnosed it later with an antibody test.) Lily, The nervousness and irritability that you experienced when you reached 2 - 2.5 grains of Armour is actually quite common and can be greatly minimized or avoided with some knowledge and adjustments. As happened with you, often patients and, unfortunately, doctors say, "Oh, look, the Armour isn't working/ it's dangerous and switch back to synthetics. It sounds as if you had a doctor who was having you do nice and slow and steady raises, which is good (in general, most people start at 1/2 grain and go up by 1/4 to 1/2 grain every 10 to 14 days until they get to 3 grains -- at which point they retest levels and continue up, allowing 4-5 weeks between raises, until they're optimized). However, when people have weak adrenals and/or low ferritin (a sign of low iron storage levels, a precursor of anemia), getting the active T3 into the cells can be difficult. So the thyroid you're taking builds up in the blood stream and creates just the symptoms that you experienced. (It's common, on tests, to see the T4 going up somewhat but the T3 remaining low, due to conversion problems.) The answer is to check your ferritin levels and adrenal function. Also, sometimes it's simply a matter of spreading doses out throughout the day, so as to better mimic the body's natural release of thyroid hormone and avoid sudden "hits" of thyroid into the blood stream. Also, taking the thyroid sublingually can make for a smoother absorption rate. There's very good information on what you ran into and how to deal with it successfully on stopthethyroidmadness.com. Read the "How We Do It" section -- and everything else on the site, for that matter. I think it will address a lot of your questions/concerns about using natural thryoid versus synthetics. A few years ago, knowing that i had very high levels of antibodies, i worked with a doctor who put me on Cytomel, the synthetic bio-identical T3 medication. Unlike far too many doctors, he was aware of adrenal issues and knew that mine were a little weak, so he had me start out very low and raise slowly, saying that if i couldn't tolerate it, we'd have to stop and treat my adrenals. After only two raises -- and still at an itsy-bitsy amount (15 mcg., i think) -- i had heart pounding, extreme hyperness, and an elevated pulse rate. It was VERY unnerving and i stopped. Because of that experience, i have been very slow and careful with my porcine thyroid raises and so far (i'm only at 1 grain, about to raise to 1 1/4) have done just fine. But i DO have very low ferritin levels, which i'm taking iron for, so i know that i may possibly run into some problems as my dose goes up. Hopefully, my iron supplementation will be successful (i'll be retesting my levels soon) and i'll be fine. And if my slight adrenal weakness (based on 4x/day Diagnos-Techs labs saliva testing) starts causing problems, i'm prepared to add adreanal support. The rub is that low thyroid levels causes low adrenals -- and vice versa. It may sound daunting, but many people actually have little or no major problems raising. And the yahoo Natural Thyroid Hormone support group is so knowledgable and supportive that i feel very comfortable about what i'm doing. About your conjecture that the doctor kept raising your dose because he was unaware of your Hashi's at that point: Actually, if you have Hashi's (as i do), the idea is to raise thyroid levels until you are at full replacement (for most people, that's between 3-5 grains, but it can be higher and sometimes lower). The reasoning is that at full replacement the body stops producing the antibodies since, with the thyroid shut down, they have no hormones to attack. Hollis