Acclimation to Thyroid Supplementation

[Fortunate]

I am in a gray area with borderline labs that functional medicine doctors would say may benefit from thyroid meds. I have started and stopped T3 a few times, primarily due to side effects. My biggest concern is I have noticed a low grade headache. Either my body does not want or need extra T3, or I just need a little more time to acclimate.

For anyone who has been on T3, or any thyroid meds for that matter, have you found that you eventually acclimate to it? My hope is that if I was more consistent and stuck with it for more than a few days or so, I would notice the benefits and the unpleasant side effects would diminish (primarily headache).

Can anyone speak to this?

 

[Vtail]

I've been on T3 for a couple of years and never had any noticeable side effects. I started as low as 10 mcg and as high as 50 mcg (adjusting along the way based on labs).

 

[Fortunate]

Do you mind sharing your initial labs? Have you found T3 beneficial to your needs?

 

[Vtail]

My before and after labs are here:

HCG and/or Pregnenolone Effect on Cholesterol

First time post! Thanks for the great forum. I've learned a ton. Along with my own TRT journey and analysis of my own families health concerns I began to speculate that the reason my father's (and mine) cholesterol is "genetically" high is because his hormone levels are low. I then ran...

www.excelmale.com

Before T3 I had pretty significant brain fog and I would get very tired in the afternoons. Those issues resolved after a few days on T3. I recall mentioning in another post that if I started T3 before TRT, I'm not sure I ever would have considered TRT.

 

[Fortunate]

My before and after labs are here:

HCG and/or Pregnenolone Effect on Cholesterol

First time post! Thanks for the great forum. I've learned a ton. Along with my own TRT journey and analysis of my own families health concerns I began to speculate that the reason my father's (and mine) cholesterol is "genetically" high is because his hormone levels are low. I then ran...

www.excelmale.com

Before T3 I had pretty significant brain fog and I would get very tired in the afternoons. Those issues resolved after a few days on T3. I recall mentioning in another post that if I started T3 before TRT, I'm not sure I ever would have considered TRT.

Thanks for sharing. Looks like your lipids initially looked better, but then bounced back to pre-T3 territory. Are they still good?

 

[Vtail]

My lipid profile is similar now to what it was pre-T3, but I no longer take Lipitor. So I feel pretty good about where things stand. Over the last year my LDL runs high and has been averaging 140 [60-99]. And my HDL runs low at about 55 [40-125]. But I'd rather live with those numbers and not take Lipitor.

 

[Fortunate]

My lipid profile is similar now to what it was pre-T3, but I no longer take Lipitor. So I feel pretty good about where things stand. Over the last year my LDL runs high and has been averaging 140 [60-99]. And my HDL runs low at about 55 [40-125]. But I'd rather live with those numbers and not take Lipitor.

I think that’s good logic. I consider your situation a victory, particularly in light of the fact that the T3 has addressed your lipids as well as other symptoms.

I am curious what your primary care physician thinks? I assume he/she prescribed Lipitor and someone else the T3? If so, you may be an example for your doctor as to why dogmatic thinking is not always the right answer for every patient.

 

[Vtail]

To make a long story not so long . . . My primary care physician for over 30 years (until about 2 years ago when I FIRED her) would review my annual blood test results, and year after year told me everything was perfect because all values were 'within range'. And I didn't know any better at the time so I didn't question anything. As the years went by my lipids started to go "out of range" so I was prescribed lipitor. Looking back at some old lab results that I saved, my TSH started creeping up in 2016 to as high as 4.35 [2 - 4.4], but was still "within range" so my doc never said anything. About 3 years ago at about 54 yrs old, I started to feel like I was losing my edge (brain fog, tired, sensitivity to cold, difficulty controlling my weight). My oldest son suggested I start TRT, and that was when I began educating myself. I found Excelmale.com and hooked up with Defy who identified my thyroid issue. I now think I was hypothyroid for many years and could have greatly benefited from supplementation since about 2014. My current PCP now manages my thyroid meds and a urologist is managing TRT. This forum has been a huge source of knowledge for me and I no longer blindly follow what the doc's say. Our medical system does a great job at keeping people alive if you get sick, but doesn't really seem to care about keeping healthy people healthy (or optimized), so you really do need to be your own doctor to a certain extent.

 

[Jason Sypolt]

Are you using pharmaceutical or the liquid stuff? Highly recommend NOT using liquid if that is the case because it is impossible to dose accurately which is essential for thyroid medications.

for T3, starting low at 5mcg every am is an easy way to start and then titrate up 5mcg every 10-14 days until symptoms appear. Low and slow.

 

[Fortunate]

I was using pharmaceutical T3 at 5mcg