Allergic reaction to T3?

[AlisonG]

After taking a quarter of a 25mcg Cynomel tab in the morning and a second quarter in the afternoon, my daughter had a weird reaction: feeling faint, clammy, dissociated, feverish and a single allergic "hive" on the skin on top of her neck directly over the thyroid gland . From what I understand, Cynomel is bioidentical T3. Could she be allergic to T3 which her own body makes? Anyone had a reaction like this? Since she has been on 60 mg of NDT for months, which contains approximately 9 mcg of T3, I wouldn't have thought it an overly large dose.

 

[aniciete]

Probably malnourished. How old is your daughter?

 

[AlisonG]

Probably malnourished. How old is your daughter?

18. She does have appetite issues and regularly is nauseated. I've been working overtime pushing juice and milkshakes, really anything short of the PUFA-laden.

 

[aniciete]

18. She does have appetite issues and regularly is nauseated. I've been working overtime pushing juice and milkshakes, really anything short of the PUFA-laden.

Has she gotten a thyroid panel or are you giving her thyroid based off of her symptoms?

 

[AlisonG]

On a recent short lab...
TSH 0.073 0.450-4.500
Free T4 1.14 0.95-1.50
Free T3 3.3 2.3-5.0

and on an earlier more extensive lab the Reverse T3 was 20.2 (9.2-24.1)

 

[aniciete]

Looking at your other post talking about your daughters symptoms, I think her symptoms match up fairly well to low acetylcholine. Even more so seeing her reaction to cypro. In my opinion, you should be careful giving her thyroid. She’s just 18. She probably needs to eat a lot more than you think and that explains the negative reaction to T3. More liquids could potentially make things worse. She should eat more solid foods like eggs, red meats, potatoes, rice, etc. They are great carriers for salt and will be much easier to get more calories in. Here are a couple good posts explaining it.

Maybe his problem is that he needs more cholinergic activity not less (which cypro achieves). Acetylcholine helps calm down a hyperactive nervous system and is necessary for learning and concentration. Perhaps try giving him more foods higher in choline and richer in zinc like red meat and eggs (zinc is known to generally increase appetite and increases cholinergic activity). This is also related to appetite and anxiety, as uncontrolled sympathetic activity tends to increase anxiety and blunt the appetite by reducing blood flow away from digestive organs.

Low Ach can not only lead to ADHD symptoms, but it will also feel like your whole body is falling apart because Ach is needed for all parasympathetic and sympathetic processes. Digestion and stomach acid secretion is also dependent on Ach signalling. From what I understand in the other thread you do not eat meat or animal protein in general right? Also do you eat any eggs? Dairy has almost no choline. You should examine your choline intake in your diet. You likely are not even reaching close to the bare minimum needs for choline.

 

[AlisonG]

Looking at your other post talking about your daughters symptoms, I think her symptoms match up fairly well to low acetylcholine. Even more so seeing her reaction to cypro. In my opinion, you should be careful giving her thyroid. She’s just 18. She probably needs to eat a lot more than you think and that explains the negative reaction to T3. More liquids could potentially make things worse. She should eat more solid foods like eggs, red meats, potatoes, rice, etc. They are great carriers for salt and will be much easier to get more calories in. Here are a couple good posts explaining it.

Thanks so much for responding. I will look into acetylcholine! Coincidentally, my daughter at one point felt like she could be diagnosed with POTS. Dr. Diana Driscoll who has been a POTS patient and researcher developed a supplement called Parasym Plus which looks like it might be largely Alpha GPC. I had my daughter on it for a week or so last year, but she wasn't noticing anything different. Maybe I'll give it another try. Unfortunately, she has an aversion to eggs.

 

[redsun]

Thanks so much for responding. I will look into acetylcholine! Coincidentally, my daughter at one point felt like she could be diagnosed with POTS. Dr. Diana Driscoll who has been a POTS patient and researcher developed a supplement called Parasym Plus which looks like it might be largely Alpha GPC. I had my daughter on it for a week or so last year, but she wasn't noticing anything different. Maybe I'll give it another try. Unfortunately, she has an aversion to eggs.

She has an aversion but can she tolerate eggs? I would fine a way to get her to consume them. Try cooking different or adding other fats, or flavors or whatever she enjoys. It may take time to figure out what works. Parasym plus is basically thiamine and alpha GPC. This is not necessarily the worst combo and may have actually worked if the dose of alpha GPC was high enough.

One serving size has 740mg of a combination of 3 substances, one of which is alpha GPC. Thing is we don't really know how much alpha GPC is in there it could be very little. Its a bit strange why they didnt disclose exactly how much. Anyway I dont think supplementary choline is ideal for fixing health problems. It is more effective for nootropic purposes really especially alpha GPC.

Appetite problem usually can point to low zinc. It really is not useful and can be harmful to take T3 for anyone but especially in those without hearty appetites who are thus prone to suboptimal nutrient status. Usually women, because of naturally high estrogen, don't become choline deficient unless she is quite a rare case where she has many detrimental enzyme mutations in methylation and choline metabolism pathways. Otherwise like most pre-menopausal her PEMT enzyme which makes choline will make up for low choline intake.

More common though is mineral deficiencies in women especially iron, zinc. Has she ever taken just a simple women's multivitamin to see how she reacts? It may be so obvious, but it is the most simple and obvious solutions people often don't think to try. Often these things quickly improve appetite and autonomic function because it gives a large influx of all the vital vitamins and especially minerals women lack because of their less stable and fluctuating eating habits. A younger relative of mine made a quick turn around just by taking it.

If it helps her appetite and overall wellbeing, it will be a lot easier for her to eat more food. Whether she eats eggs or not is not as important as getting her to the point where her appetite is cooperative so she can start consuming a variety of foods. But I would not give her T3 again even after this, it is not useful and very few people truly need it. Most with apparent thyroid issues or other issues related to dysregulated nervous system or other issues are deficient in a few or many nutrients or just malnourished in general.