Can too much T3 increase liver enzymes and catabolize proteins?

[CMPnutrition]

Hi all. Just got bloodwork back and this time I took a very small dose of T3 before going as my doc wanted to see what my peak was.
4 hours after taking 5mcg of t3 my levels are 5.5.
I also have super high ALT - 35.
Other notable markers...
Protein down from 6 to 5.8 - I have historically low protein numbers as i have always had bad digestion. However this past year of "Peating" been struggling BIG with muscle loss since having covid 18 months ago. I am 52 yr old woman, long time hypothyroid and after a year I am not apparently hyperthyoid and burning more muscle than ever before. I feel like I am wasting away before my very eyes.

I consume currently 1950 calories a day, 205G carbs, 65 G Fat and 135 g protein. I have been at 125 g protein for years and always have horrible serum protein numbers as well as super low creatinine numbers.

Just hoping this current dip could be due to pushing metabolic function too much? Can too much t3 be catabolic? Can it raise liver enzymes? My T4 looks normal for the first time in 18 months

Any advice is welcome. Also @haidut mentioned at some point he has docs on here that take new patients but when I called them they never returned calls, if anyone knows of a smart functional doc I would love that info as well.

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[mgrabs]

Hi all. Just got bloodwork back and this time I took a very small dose of T3 before going as my doc wanted to see what my peak was.
4 hours after taking 5mcg of t3 my levels are 5.5.
I also have super high ALT - 35.
Other notable markers...
Protein down from 6 to 5.8 - I have historically low protein numbers as i have always had bad digestion. However this past year of "Peating" been struggling BIG with muscle loss since having covid 18 months ago. I am 52 yr old woman, long time hypothyroid and after a year I am not apparently hyperthyoid and burning more muscle than ever before. I feel like I am wasting away before my very eyes.

I consume currently 1950 calories a day, 205G carbs, 65 G Fat and 135 g protein. I have been at 125 g protein for years and always have horrible serum protein numbers as well as super low creatinine numbers.

Just hoping this current dip could be due to pushing metabolic function too much? Can too much t3 be catabolic? Can it raise liver enzymes? My T4 looks normal for the first time in 18 months

Any advice is welcome. Also @haidut mentioned at some point he has docs on here that take new patients but when I called them they never returned calls, if anyone knows of a smart functional doc I would love that info as well.

Thanks so much in advance.

Would also like to know!

 

[rooz7939]

Anecdotally, I feel like this is the case - but I can't be a 100%. A few years ago I started taking T3 and it had great effects, but over time I also felt I was losing lean body mass rapidly and eventually stopped.

I feel like taking T3 can "artificially" increase metabolism when the body is short on resources and therefore will have to catabolize different tissue types for nutrients, like protein from muscles, and even probably calcium from bones, etc. Not sure specifically about the liver. Do you know if your enzymes were high before taking T3 as well, maybe test in a couple of months to see if they will go back down, sometimes it can be a transient effect.

I think lack of resources (calories and nutrients) is one reason the body lower metabolism and thyroid function is suppressed, PUFAs also have a role (I think high estrogen and/or low grade infections can also have the same effect on the liver, how's your ferritin levels, and other tests related to "iron" levels) but I don't think that's all there is to it. You could try increasing your intake of nutrients (by quite a bit) and see if anything changes, especially protein (maybe close to 200g even) and calcium, along with overall calorie intake.

 

[CMPnutrition]

Anecdotally, I feel like this is the case - but I can't be a 100%. A few years ago I started taking T3 and it had great effects, but over time I also felt I was losing lean body mass rapidly and eventually stopped.

I feel like taking T3 can "artificially" increase metabolism when the body is short on resources and therefore will have to catabolize different tissue types for nutrients, like protein from muscles, and even probably calcium from bones, etc. Not sure specifically about the liver. Do you know if your enzymes were high before taking T3 as well, maybe test in a couple of months to see if they will go back down, sometimes it can be a transient effect.

I think lack of resources (calories and nutrients) is one reason the body lower metabolism and thyroid function is suppressed, PUFAs also have a role (I think high estrogen and/or low grade infections can also have the same effect on the liver, how's your ferritin levels, and other tests related to "iron" levels) but I don't think that's all there is to it. You could try increasing your intake of nutrients (by quite a bit) and see if anything changes, especially protein (maybe close to 200g even) and calcium, along with overall calorie intake.

Thanks so much for your thoughts! I have been on T3 for a long time but this past year had to keep bumping it up as my levels just kept dropping, hair loss was my big issue that has not subsided so I do think I needed the extra T3 and to your point my nutrition resources were scarce until I found the world of bio energetics. So maybe my body just needed that as I increased my calories, etc. I do eat a lot for a 5'4" post menopausal woman I am at just about 2000 calories a day and I weigh less than 110 (I used to weight closer to 117 and sadly have lost some recently even with the bump in calories).

The liver enzymes who knows...right? I historically always struggled with liver function but my last test in January had perfect liver function numbers and I no longer have any digestive distress. I was thinking I wonder if because I am actually getting metabolic energy from foods now my liver just had too much to process with the extra T3. I will for sure test in a few weeks to check that out. the muscle loss has me really bummed out, I would rather be a little pudgy than have all this loose skin hanging around making me look older. Grass is always greener I know.

Thanks again for your input! I really appreciate it.

 

[mgrabs]

Thanks so much for your thoughts! I have been on T3 for a long time but this past year had to keep bumping it up as my levels just kept dropping, hair loss was my big issue that has not subsided so I do think I needed the extra T3 and to your point my nutrition resources were scarce until I found the world of bio energetics. So maybe my body just needed that as I increased my calories, etc. I do eat a lot for a 5'4" post menopausal woman I am at just about 2000 calories a day and I weigh less than 110 (I used to weight closer to 117 and sadly have lost some recently even with the bump in calories).

The liver enzymes who knows...right? I historically always struggled with liver function but my last test in January had perfect liver function numbers and I no longer have any digestive distress. I was thinking I wonder if because I am actually getting metabolic energy from foods now my liver just had too much to process with the extra T3. I will for sure test in a few weeks to check that out. the muscle loss has me really bummed out, I would rather be a little pudgy than have all this loose skin hanging around making me look older. Grass is always greener I know.

Thanks again for your input! I really appreciate it.

Hey why not take t4 with it? Like armour or ndts or even synthetic t4:t3

 

[CMPnutrition]

Hey why not take t4 with it? Like armour or ndts or even synthetic t4:t3

Hi there. I should have mentioned I do. I have been on thyroid since I was 25 and am now 52, for most of those years it was plain ol levothyroxine. but I did do armour for a while and NP thyroid and now I take Cynoplus and extra T3 which I know now for the last couple of months could have been too much. In january my bloods revealed a big dip in thyroid (likely due to stress I was under from a parasite infection). Anyway to that end, it is strange that my muscle wasting has been going on ever since I got Covid 18 months ago, I have been on T4/T3 before that and during and after just not enough and now I feel my muscle has wasted more as I have lost 5 lbs in the last month (not wanting to lose weight) with my reverse diet. I realize it is complicated lol isn't everything? I appreciate the thought though.

 

[mgrabs]

Hi there. I should have mentioned I do. I have been on thyroid since I was 25 and am now 52, for most of those years it was plain ol levothyroxine. but I did do armour for a while and NP thyroid and now I take Cynoplus and extra T3 which I know now for the last couple of months could have been too much. In january my bloods revealed a big dip in thyroid (likely due to stress I was under from a parasite infection). Anyway to that end, it is strange that my muscle wasting has been going on ever since I got Covid 18 months ago, I have been on T4/T3 before that and during and after just not enough and now I feel my muscle has wasted more as I have lost 5 lbs in the last month (not wanting to lose weight) with my reverse diet. I realize it is complicated lol isn't everything? I appreciate the thought though.

I feel your frustration since im sure it worked great at some point. Do you take thyroid just to boost your thyroid? Or is it totally shut down & have hashimotos or graves? What dose armour were you on

 

[CMPnutrition]

I feel your frustration since im sure it worked great at some point. Do you take thyroid just to boost your thyroid? Or is it totally shut down & have hashimotos or graves? What dose armour were you on

Hi! I take thyroid to boost thyroid and liver conversion of T3. I have had chronic parasitic infections for years mostly we think surrounding the liver (flukes, etc) and just low liver function. I do EVERYTHING to support my liver and have for over 3 years I feel it is in a better place but yet my enzymes have spiked pretty high (at least for me considering all I do - coffee enemas, castor oil packs every single night, B vitamins, PC, Magnesium (copious amounts of it too), red light, stress reduction (morning sun, daily walks) I am super physically active rarely sit for very long at all. Anyway all this to say I used to have Hashi's but put that into remission years and years ago no antibodies in over 8 years time. I have not been on armour or NP for years as it really stopped working well for me this was back when all the dessicated versions were under fire for having incorrect dosing and it really affected me from that point I went to synthetics (T4 + T3 separately). just recently I was on 1 cynoplus a day (split into 2 doses) - 120mcg T4/30mcg T3. When my jan labs came back low I added 15 more mcg of t3 (slowly over time). In the last 6 weeks I have been working with a pro metabolic physique coach on getting my macros right for muscle gain (which post menopausal is already a super hard task). I lost gobs of muscle either after covid hit me OR when I started to incorporate progesterone into my life (wondering if this could affect that too as I read a lot about estrogen being more anabolic (though I am not sure I buy that) and progesterone can be catabolic. It was about 3 months into consistent progest E use that I really notices the sagging skin in my arms until that point I had extremely muscular looking arms - I have never built much if any muscle in my legs I try SUPER hard to do so).

So since T3 has gotten a bit high for my system that could be contributing now but wondering what brought it on. yes I am 52 but most 52 year olds do not have sagging skin yet I should not get that for another 10 years. I am doing all I can to reverse that but would love to know if possibly stopping progesterone and really lowering T3 supplementation would help me or hurt my efforts. I don't have the time (age-wise ) to "test" things out so just wanted to know if anyone else has ideas on this.

Thanks so much again for you response.