Restore Low T3 And Low T

[mad539]

Hello,

i'm fairly new here to the forum but the topics and health issues discussed here are very helpful. I hope someone can give me some help about my issues, as you seem very expercienced.

I'm male, 30 years old, 5'10 in height and 72 kgs in weight.

My main issues are derealization (having it a whole year now), memory issues (worse every month), mental fatigue (doing excercises is going well), low mood/depression, low mental energy, low libido and chronic constipation/slow motility. I'm also freezing very often, even when the temps are normal.
When standing up fast, i get dizzy and sometimes i'm near blacking out.

In my latest blood work, my TSH is normal with around 1.56 mIU/L, but my fT3 is very lowish with 3.6 pmol/L (range 3.1 - 6.8). See here:

It seems there is some conversion issues going on from T4 to T3. I can't get reverse-T3 from the lab, but i assume this will be high. My intake of vitamin C (1-3 gramms a day), selenium (4 eggs a day) and iodine (200 µg as tablet) should be adequate. I also take a b vitamin complex 2x a day (Thorne Basic B Vitamins).

This is my latest saliva cortisol profile from 6 month ago:

Adrenalin and noradrenaline in urine are low too:

My hormones are all over the place too:

My total testosterone seems fine with 5.21 ng/ml (range 1.75 - 7.81), but the free testosterone is very low with 243 pmol/l (180-972) as is DHEA-S with 1650 ng/ml (1200-5200). DHT is also very low with 400 ng/l (219 - 1140).

Here are more hormone values:

What wonders me is the high progesterone level?

My vitamin D level is high with around 76 ng/L, as i take around 10.000 - 20.000 IE / day:

I do have "chronic" lyme and because of the constipation and bloating, my caloric intake is lowish with around 2000-2500 kcal per day. My diet is mostly fat and protein, eating a lot of carbs makes me extremly sleepy (food coma).

My doctor is mainly concered with lyme, where he sees the main reason of my issues. But can lyme really be the sole cause? What else i can do? What do you guys think?

I'm appreciate any help here, thank you.

 

[shine]

You often see a high SHBG and lowish T/DHT in people who eat a keto diet or mostly fat and protein.
I'd try allithiamine from Ecological Formulas (can be bought via a shop from NL) and magnesium for a while and at the same time slowly introduce carbs.
Also Bifidyn for your gut issues, it is a bifidobacteria supplement that you can get on german amazon. After taking it I was able to tolerate every food again (had severe intolerance to most foods), my bloating stopped, constipation gone, relaxed feeling in the gut, better mood.
I would also take pregnenolone 20-50mg and DHEA 5mg for memory issues, low mood and mental fatigue.
You can also experiment with amino acids like phenylalanine and tyrosine to increase your low catecholamines, no wonder you are fatigued and dizzy.

May I ask who your doctor is?

 

[Hans]

You have to fix your gut issues, it's causing a lot of absorption of toxins in your gut and causing oxidative stress and inflammation.
Here's a thread about improving transit time.
If' you're eating low carb, then it makes sense that your fT3 is low. Upping carbs, mostly from fruit (to prevent insulin spikes and food coma), will increase your fT3 and increase body temp.
Taking aspirin and taurine with your carbs will help you to tolerate the carbs better.
Your active vitamin D is very high, which most likely indicates that your parathyroid hormone is very high or your calcium intake is very low.

 

[mad539]

You often see a high SHBG and lowish T/DHT in people who eat a keto diet or mostly fat and protein.
I'd try allithiamine from Ecological Formulas (can be bought via a shop from NL) and magnesium for a while and at the same time slowly introduce carbs.
Also Bifidyn for your gut issues, it is a bifidobacteria supplement that you can get on german amazon. After taking it I was able to tolerate every food again (had severe intolerance to most foods), my bloating stopped, constipation gone, relaxed feeling in the gut, better mood.
I would also take pregnenolone 20-50mg and DHEA 5mg for memory issues, low mood and mental fatigue.
You can also experiment with amino acids like phenylalanine and tyrosine to increase your low catecholamines, no wonder you are fatigued and dizzy.

May I ask who your doctor is?

I took VSL #3 for around a month, but havn't had any change in digestion yet. Maybe it does need more time. I was under heavy antibiotics for around a year (tinidazole, metronidazole, doxycycline, ...) against lyme in 2016. It helped, but i wouldn't wonder if my biome went haywire after that.

Does it make sense to take pregnenolone when progesterone is high? Looking at the steroid hormone diagramm, progesterone comes directly after pregnenolone. But i have no idea what high progesterone even means.

I have DHEA here, but i'm hesitant doing anything with hormones. I read the post from some guy here where took pregnenolone and was later in a very bad spot.

Do you still have to take Bifidyn or did get better after a while and you could stop the supplement?

You have to fix your gut issues, it's causing a lot of absorption of toxins in your gut and causing oxidative stress and inflammation.
Here's a thread about improving transit time.
If' you're eating low carb, then it makes sense that your fT3 is low. Upping carbs, mostly from fruit (to prevent insulin spikes and food coma), will increase your fT3 and increase body temp.
Taking aspirin and taurine with your carbs will help you to tolerate the carbs better.
Your active vitamin D is very high, which most likely indicates that your parathyroid hormone is very high or your calcium intake is very low.

I have looked into my calcium intake and i don't eat much calcium rich foods. I also don't tolerate lactose, so no cheese, milk, and so on. I actually have the PTH value:

In a 24 hour urine analysis, calcium is very high:

I will try the suppelements out, thank you.

 

[IVILA]

I took VSL #3 for around a month, but havn't had any change in digestion yet. Maybe it does need more time. I was under heavy antibiotics for around a year (tinidazole, metronidazole, doxycycline, ...) against lyme in 2016. It helped, but i wouldn't wonder if my biome went haywire after that.

Does it make sense to take pregnenolone when progesterone is high? Looking at the steroid hormone diagramm, progesterone comes directly after pregnenolone. But i have no idea what high progesterone even means.

I have DHEA here, but i'm hesitant doing anything with hormones. I read the post from some guy here where took pregnenolone and was later in a very bad spot.

Do you still have to take Bifidyn or did get better after a while and you could stop the supplement?



I have looked into my calcium intake and i don't eat much calcium rich foods. I also don't tolerate lactose, so no cheese, milk, and so on. I actually have the PTH value:
View attachment 20560

In a 24 hour urine analysis, calcium is very high:
View attachment 20561

I will try the suppelements out, thank you.

yeah seems like your parathyroid hormone hasn't really been affected by calcium levels. I would suggest taking DHEA for sure, the DHEA levels won't be fixed by themselves unless you actually supplement with it

 

[mad539]

yeah seems like your parathyroid hormone hasn't really been affected by calcium levels. I would suggest taking DHEA for sure, the DHEA levels won't be fixed by themselves unless you actually supplement with it

I'm currently trying out low dose T3 (2x 12.5 µg) to see if i can improve my T3 level (and body temperature) and maybe the DHEA-S will improve too.

 

[IVILA]

I'm currently trying out low dose T3 (2x 12.5 µg) to see if i can improve my T3 level (and body temperature) and maybe the DHEA-S will improve too.

it might, but don't expect high levels. Doctors usually just prescribe DHEA if the levels are LOW and need to be replenished. A lot of people here just take it for fun which is weird and I don't reccomend it. Only if you have adrenal fatigue, suffering from depression and very low energy I would consider.

 

[mad539]

There is an interesting thread on t-nation about DHEA-S:

DHEA-S Serum as a Predictor for Adrenal Insufficiency

Ok there has been a lot of talk about supplementing DHEA when levels are low so I wanted to address this issue. So although DHEA-S is great predictor of deficient adrenal glands, supplementing DHEA will not fix the issue because there are many more hormones produced by the adrenals that will...

forums.t-nation.com

...
This is why adrenal insufficiency is not treated with DHEA. This is why HCG is so valuable, it stimulates the adrenal glands and makes them produce all of the core hormones.

 

[IVILA]

There is an interesting thread on t-nation about DHEA-S:

DHEA-S Serum as a Predictor for Adrenal Insufficiency

Ok there has been a lot of talk about supplementing DHEA when levels are low so I wanted to address this issue. So although DHEA-S is great predictor of deficient adrenal glands, supplementing DHEA will not fix the issue because there are many more hormones produced by the adrenals that will...

forums.t-nation.com

yeah that's for people who are already taking steroids like testosterone buddy. DHEA is a hormone itself, it has its own effects, you don't really need to care whether it converts to testosterone or not. It lowers stress and increases your wellbeing. Definitely, it can convert, but so be it.

 

[gaze]

any update? i think the high calcium with low PTH indicates a cortisol problem. cortisol could also explain the low tsh. hormonal balance is reliant on liver function, and both T3 and testosterone fall if the liver is impaired. constipation allows estrogen and endotoxins to impair liver function which creates a downward cycle of worse hormones, and then more constipation. did you ever end up trying to up calcium or magnesium intake, to lower blood calcium?

 

[mad539]

I've switched from April to August to full T3 replacement and the only improvements were that i stopped freezing over the day and my skin was less dryer. Constipation, brain fog, and all other issues stayed which somehow suprised me. I dediced to go onto a carnivore diet (only meat/fat and salt + 1000mg calcium with mineral water) to find out if it is food related. After around one week, my usual dose of T3 was making me overdosed. I titrated down, but even the smallest amount of T3 made my overdosed. I stopped the T3 cold turkey and was feeling better (some palpitations in the first week, but they went away), so the carnivore diet might have improved my T3 sensivity/reduced inflammation or something like that.

On carnivore my energy was "cleaner", my sleep was better and when i woke up, the energy was steady for the whole day instead of fluctuating. I had zero cravings for sugar or carbs and felt good. The diet was very satiating. But still, had issues with constipation and brain fog, until i introduced (only for 4-5 days) high dose thiamine. My constipation got better, my energy was extremly better and brain fog was less (for the first time, but still not good). I somehow managed to talk to myself that it must be related to the diet, not the thiamine, but after stopping the thiamine the issues came back.

After watching this video from elliot overton, i'm pretty sure it was related to thiamine:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGo-ZX5E-5M


I tried thiamine some months back, but never gave it enough time and might have used a too low dosage. Before using thiamine, i was extremly carbohydrate interolant for many many months, which was fixed with 200-600mg thiamine hcl per day. I also found out that i have very low stomach acid and had to use around 10-15 betaine HCL pills per meal (each 650mg). This seems related to thiamine too.

I'm awaiting the "Erythrocyte Transketolase" lab result, which seems a very good marker for functional B1 deficency.

Thiamine Deficiency Testing: Understanding the Labs - Hormones Matter

Understanding thiamine deficiency and the lab testing methods most appropriate for detecting abnormal thiamine chemistry.

www.hormonesmatter.com

For now, i'm staying on the diet and start supplementing thiamine (HCL + benfotiamine, later then TTFD). If i get the result, i will post it here.

 

[gaze]

I've switched from April to August to full T3 replacement and the only improvements were that i stopped freezing over the day and my skin was less dryer. Constipation, brain fog, and all other issues stayed which somehow suprised me. I dediced to go onto a carnivore diet (only meat/fat and salt + 1000mg calcium with mineral water) to find out if it is food related. After around one week, my usual dose of T3 was making me overdosed. I titrated down, but even the smallest amount of T3 made my overdosed. I stopped the T3 cold turkey and was feeling better (some palpitations in the first week, but they went away), so the carnivore diet might have improved my T3 sensivity/reduced inflammation or something like that.

On carnivore my energy was "cleaner", my sleep was better and when i woke up, the energy was steady for the whole day instead of fluctuating. I had zero cravings for sugar or carbs and felt good. The diet was very satiating. But still, had issues with constipation and brain fog, until i introduced (only for 4-5 days) high dose thiamine. My constipation got better, my energy was extremly better and brain fog was less (for the first time, but still not good). I somehow managed to talk to myself that it must be related to the diet, not the thiamine, but after stopping the thiamine the issues came back.

After watching this video from elliot overton, i'm pretty sure it was related to thiamine:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGo-ZX5E-5M


I tried thiamine some months back, but never gave it enough time and might have used a too low dosage. Before using thiamine, i was extremly carbohydrate interolant for many many months, which was fixed with 200-600mg thiamine hcl per day. I also found out that i have very low stomach acid and had to use around 10-15 betaine HCL pills per meal (each 650mg). This seems related to thiamine too.

I'm awaiting the "Erythrocyte Transketolase" lab result, which seems a very good marker for functional B1 deficency.

Thiamine Deficiency Testing: Understanding the Labs - Hormones Matter

Understanding thiamine deficiency and the lab testing methods most appropriate for detecting abnormal thiamine chemistry.

www.hormonesmatter.com

For now, i'm staying on the diet and start supplementing thiamine (HCL + benfotiamine, later then TTFD). If i get the result, i will post it here.

have you tried adding carbs back in after high dose thiamine?

 

[mad539]

have you tried adding carbs back in after high dose thiamine?

After first using thiamine, yes, the sleepiness and dizziness improved a lot when eating carbs. Before thiamine, i had to sleep after eating 70gr rice, now i tolerate it much better. But for now i'm staying on carnivore, but will introduce some low starch vegtables for variety and some fruit now and then.

 

[gaze]

After first using thiamine, yes, the sleepiness and dizziness improved a lot when eating carbs. Before thiamine, i had to sleep after eating 70gr rice, now i tolerate it much better. But for now i'm staying on carnivore, but will introduce some low starch vegtables for variety and some fruit now and then.

I see. BTW i just saw that your cortisol was normal in the original post, so my first comment doesn't apply. are you gonna recheck to see if your calciums back in a normal range?

 

[mad539]

The calcium was a urine calcium test, i don't think i repeat that and don't think it is a issue. Serum calcium was always normal.