Recovery from overmedication of Thyroid Hormone

routepitcher

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Hey guys,

I would appreciate some help crowd sourcing this issue I'm having. I have family history of thyroid issues and after reading Broda Barnes' book I was a full believer on what was ailing me. I took his dosing advice and tracked temp and pulse to figure out the dose. I started at 1/2 grain and felt great a couple of weeks in. Unfortunately with a busy work schedule and sleep cycles, my temperatures were all over the place and over the next couple of months I worked my way up to 2 grains. I then had a terrible fit of hyperthyroidism and quit cold turkey. From here I've been in poor health. I mainly have symptoms of hypothyroidism with hairloss, poor heat regulation, energy issues, just feeling "off". I had read that the gland returns to normal rather quickly and you just need to ride it out, but after 2-3 months nothing really improved. I then decided to go back to 1/2 a grain and just stay on that and I did improve a bit, but I'm not really 100% with the same symptoms as before but milder. I got blood work (after a month of 1/2 grain) and my levels were pretty decent: TSH - 1.27 -- Free t3 - 3.8 -- Free t4 - 1.3 -- Rt3 - 15 -- Antibioties - 1. Other blood work was done and everything else from B vitamins to Calcium, to Iron are all normal. Cortisol is a bit high, test is a bit low, but all within ranges. The only thing that was messed up was high LDL cholesterol (total over 200) and bilirubin.

With that I'm kind of at a loss on what could be going wrong. Thyroid levels appear normal but I still feel like I'm missing something. I have to think it is some sort of nutrient deficiency or vitamin which is acting as a rate limiting factor to achieve homeostasis with my body.

The only other thing I've done is supplement zinc/magnesium the past two weeks. I've been reading papers on what could be lacking from high stress states and found that zinc, magnesium, b-vitamins, etc all get used up rather quickly.

As for diet and lifestyle I follow the principles pretty well. I don't eat processed foods and drink a lot of milk and orange juice, liver/oysters weekly.

I'd greatly appreciate any anecdotes, quotes from Peat, or even theories on what could be going wrong.

Thanks
 
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Those thyroid labs are okayish, but at those levels I didn't feel my best either and went up in dose. I read a lot about it from restartmed.com and Westin has a chart somewhere that shows that your levels (fT3, fT4) could be higher for the best feels. sounds like you went up really really fast at first. I up my dose about every 2-3 months and only when I can tell that I am too sleepy to get through the day and I can feel the stress hormones trying to give me a second wind.
 
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routepitcher

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Thanks, I'll look into that. No thoughts on a supplement/nutrient missing? I think if thyroid is good enough I should feel okay and hairloss would stop?
 

sunny

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Too much vitamin A, liver, Zinc?

 

rr1

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I'd greatly appreciate any anecdotes, quotes from Peat, or even theories on what could be going wrong.
Peat says that the body's natural thyroid always goes back to normal after stopping thyroid medication, and that taking a supplement allows the thyroid to rest which benefits it.
 

NatachaRose

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Peat says that the body's natural thyroid always goes back to normal after stopping thyroid medication, and that taking a supplement allows the thyroid to rest which benefits it.
Is is true even after years on thyroid medication/supplement?
 
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Thanks, I'll look into that. No thoughts on a supplement/nutrient missing? I think if thyroid is good enough I should feel okay and hairloss would stop?
When and only when I finally got on a dose that was truly high enough did I notice that my hair is as thick as is was before my thyroid became ill (think I started becoming ill 7 years ago or so, only 3 years where I was frankly ill, the first four years I seemed fine but had noticed my hair was thinning). (wait, I did have thyroid problems after every time I had a baby, and now I blame it on the iodine they rub all over you for the epidural and cesareans, but I would eventually go back to normal) I have taken all manner of supplements for years and did not get as good of result for my hair until my thyroid medication was high enough and of course it takes months to show up in your hair noticeably. I have been on my highest and best dose for 2 months now and I am just noticing my hair is back to super crazy thick with little flyaway hairs, instead of flatter, sad looking hair with many flyaways that made me never want to pull my hair into a ponytail anymore. I thought I was just getting old...but no, it was the thyroid being low that caused my thinner and shorter baby hair situation. I feel like a new woman! I take a high dose of synthroid that is even higher than the suggestion for my height, age, and weight. The T4 meds seem to work okay for me as of now.

I take a good multivitamin (for me because I have problems with methylated vitamins, they make me nuts)

I still experiment with other supplements for other reasons, but this multi is good stable background for me.
Peat says that the body's natural thyroid always goes back to normal after stopping thyroid medication, and that taking a supplement allows the thyroid to rest which benefits it.
I wish I knew this before my total thyroidectomy. I had a huge nodule that kept growing and had major hypothyroid symptoms, but due to a TSH that remained around 0.8-1.5 my doc would never medicate me. I was miserable and desperate for a cure. I only learned about Peat this summer and only by random bingeing YouTube!
 
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Unfortunately with a busy work schedule and sleep cycles.....
One big thing I have been working on lately is getting sunlight during the day, and I switched out all of my lamp bulbs to dimmer amber bulbs. I always use the "night light" warm amber tones on all of my screens in the evening. To stay away from blue light in the evening helps to regulate your hormones and sleep better-- which helps everything. This is not to be understated.
 
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routepitcher

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Too much vitamin A, liver, Zinc?

I kept with 10mg of zinc and only supplemented for 2 weeks. I don't supplement vitamin A and usually have 6oz of liver a week. I have been inconsistent with eating liver though since I've been traveling for holidays so could be an issue.
 
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routepitcher

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Is is true even after years on thyroid medication/supplement?

"In 1951, Greer reported the pattern of recovery of thyroid function after stopping suppressive treatment with thyroid hormone in euthyroid [normal] subjects based on sequential measurements of their thyroidal uptake of radioiodine. He observed that after withdrawal of exogenous thyroid therapy, thyroid function, in terms of radioiodine uptake, returned to normal in most subjects within two weeks. He further observed that thyroid function returned as rapidly in those subjects whose glands had been depressed by several years of thyroid medication as it did in those whose gland had been depressed for only a few days" (8)


I found this quote somewhere. I believe it does go back to normal as it's good at self regulating. Even Broda Barnes who had thousands of patients noticed this as well.
 
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routepitcher

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A good post which I believe covers similar issues
 
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routepitcher

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Alright, well I think I figured out the issue. I started taking a B-vitamin complex and snapped back to normal health. Still giving it a couple more weeks, but seems to be a trend in the right direction. I'm going to guess speeding up metabolism too much caused b-vitamin deficiency. Hope this helps anyone else like this. Make sure you look up all of the "rate limiting" nutrients/vitamins with thyroid and supplement them if having problems with being off thyroid.
 

exile

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Thanks for the follow up. What did it feel like when you had a “terrible fit of hyperthyroidism”?
 

rr1

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Alright, well I think I figured out the issue. I started taking a B-vitamin complex and snapped back to normal health. Still giving it a couple more weeks, but seems to be a trend in the right direction. I'm going to guess speeding up metabolism too much caused b-vitamin deficiency. Hope this helps anyone else like this. Make sure you look up all of the "rate limiting" nutrients/vitamins with thyroid and supplement them if having problems with being off thyroid.
I'm glad you figured this out. Although its something you probably should have known before delving into thyroid supplementation. Broda Barnes and Peat have both written about this, and Danny Roddy also in his great article about thyroid supplementation.
 

KaiKamp

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It looks like you're on too little at 1/2 grain... TSH should be close to zero when on an optimal dose of NDT. You probably were right on target at 1.5 grains and then went hyper when you bumped it up to two. You did well slowly going up over a couple months... but adding in those B's will certainly help. Try to get your temps to normalize at 1 grain and see where you're at... Also, if you are taking it all at the same time, that can be the problem... most on here recommend "nibbles"...
 
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Ned Nederlander

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Is is true even after years on thyroid medication/supplement?

I don’t think so. Real world experience usually shows otherwise.

I think one of the most outrageous myths that circulates on this forum is you can supplement thyroid for a while, come off, and be back to pre-supplementation function in a matter of days.

I experimented with NDT for a month, then quit. I was hypo for a month after.
 
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I don’t think so. Real world experience usually shows otherwise.

I think one of the most outrageous myths that circulates on this forum is you can supplement thyroid for a while, come off, and be back to pre-supplementation function in a matter of days.

I experimented with NDT for a month, then quit. I was hypo for a month after.
It makes sense that it takes time, since ThyroidStimulatingHormone takes weeks to rise/fall.
 

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