Is Free T4 important?

[HarryCat]

Theses are the inactive ingredients in the Mylan: butylated hydroxyanisole, colloidal silicon dioxide, crospovidone, magnesium stearate, mannitol, microcrystalline cellulose, povidone, sodium lauryl sulfate and sucrose.

According to my endo, many thyroid patients experience adverse effects from povidone, so if you don't feel any improvement on the Mylan you may want to consider switching to a brand without povidone.

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

thank you Harry this is really good info to have..there are alot of ingredients in that stuff.. I wonder if those may be causing some of the chest squeezing sensations? it didnt start right away though but about 5 days into the medication. i had also not "decreased" my T3 like i was supposed too, so maybe i had too much thyroid going on.. now i am down to where i am supposed to be with the T3. thanks!

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

still tracking temps, i messed up a couple days so trying to get the 5 day in a row thing going. I think i am going hypo again..just really reallly tired, feel like a wet burlap gag. with dropping the NDT by a grain and T3 by 5mcg, that is a 15mcg drop in T3.. while we added only 12mcg of T4 in the mix.. tempted to add 5mcg T3 back but wondering if it is better to wait to do this "experiment" if i do any exercise it is like the body doesn't want to move at all the rest of the day- not fun.

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

my temps are pretty stable i think.. i feel like crap though, only 11 more days before i do labs with the new protocol- tired of feeling like shit...my lungs have been dealing with what feels like a slight infection so exercise is on hold- and that makes me really grumpy! here are daily averages for the past 5 days taking 3x a day

99.0,

98.8

98.8

99.0

99.0

 

[Vettester Chris]

Agree that your temps are stable. Also agree with Harry on the Povidone subject. That's a polymer filler, and you also find corn starch in the Levothyroxine medication, along with cellulose as Harry mentioned. None of that is NATURAL, so looking into a different T4 truly might be the ticket (or part of it). I don't have any T4 only experience, just NDT and Cytomel. Harry will no doubt be beneficial with this process if you move forward on it..

 

[Vettester Chris]

BC, was looking back and didn't see any adrenal related labs (maybe I missed them). Have you had any recent cortisol & DHEA labs?

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

thanks VC - currently not going to go T4 only..no way that will work for me as originally i had low levels of FT3 and high RT3 that was quite a few years ago.. endo has just added T4 to try to get the FT4 up, since it wasn't going up on the NDT. i was/ am still on nature throid- maybe for some reason my body just couldn't process ti..as it seems after 2.5 years of increasing at 1/2 grain increments then getting up to 3.5 grains that i would have had a higher FT4 than .9 ?
at this point i feel like going back to the 3.5 grains of NDT and 10mcg of T3, of course that will still leave me with a low ft4. or maybe switch to NP or armour to see if i get better absorption, not sure but having gone backward with the T3 doesn't feel good.. my body doesn't' want to move- although 2 weeks ago i was doing alot, maybe i put myself into a "cfs" crash? according to endo it takes at least 4 weeks for the levo to get into my system..so i have 11 more days of feeling like crap. hiding in the cave, trying not to be depressed.. basically with the changes we made the amount of T3 i was taking got dropped by 36.5 mcg

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

am taking HC so from what i understand cortisol labs are not accurate? although late spring we did a 24hr cortisol urine and the Endo said it came back "high" that may mean i am taking too much HC. years ago before DHEA supplementation my DHEA levels and Preg were so low.. i have been supplementing ever since.
current DHEA level was at 155- thanks for checking!

 

[Vettester Chris]

BC, that's right, you had mentioned that you were on HC therapy. Yeah, unfortunately like anything, too much or getting cortisol too high for prolonged periods can lead to other issues like Cushing's. Kind of strange, there's another thread here that this just came up. Too much cortisol can also inhibit T4-T3 conversion. I know, it doesn't seem fair. Too much is no good, too little is no good!

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

it sure gets complicated.. i dont seem to have a problem with converstion at this point- my problem was i couldn't get my FT4 levels up no matter how much NDt i was taking, i couldn't get it beyond .9 maybe i should have just increased the NDT again instead of switching to the levo.. i could still try it

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

here are new labs, the change was decreased 3.5 NDT and 10 T3 down to 2.5 NDT and 5 T3 + ADDED 50mcg Levo
FREE T3 3.2 ( 2.3- 4.2)
T4 FREE 1.0 ( .8-1.8)
I meant to check the total t4 but got T4 7.2 (4.5- 12.0)

here they are hand typed, not sure what happened to the image..thanks Chris!

 

[Vettester Chris]

BC, I don't see any labs? Maybe it's my browser, I'm using my tablet (?)

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

the Ft4 came up a very tiny bit..

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

here are new labs, the change was decreased 3.5 NDT and 10 T3 down to 2.5 NDT and 5 T3 + ADDED 50mcg Levo
FREE T3 3.2 ( 2.3- 4.2)
T4 FREE 1.0 ( .8-1.8)
I meant to check the total t4 but got T4 7.2 (4.5- 12.0)

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

here are new labs, the change was decreased 3.5 NDT and 10 T3 down to 2.5 NDT and 5 T3 + ADDED 50mcg Levo
FREE T3 3.2 ( 2.3- 4.2)
T4 FREE 1.0 ( .8-1.8)
I meant to check the total t4 but got T4 7.2 (4.5- 12.0)

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

i have been on the levo for about 6 weeks last week i started having really bad diarehha and it continues, i was also taking niacin, for about the same about of time..i am wondering if I may be having a reaction to the levo and would it have taken so long to show up? I stopped the niacin a couple of days ago but still have the runs.

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

i have been on the levo for about 6 weeks last week i started having really bad diarehha and it continues, i was also taking niacin, for about the same about of time..i am wondering if I may be having a reaction to the levo and would it have taken so long to show up? I stopped the niacin a couple of days ago but still have the runs.

could i be having a reaction to the fillers in the levo? and would it take 5 weeks to show? when i first switched to the levo i did have changes in bowls, everything was regualr before but right after switching it was constipation with lose stools, i thought just the med change, now my intestines are really aching..

also someone said it is normal to have such a low Ft4 when someone is on 25mcg of T3 or more.. is that possible?

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

current labs.. if you could please take a look that would be great.. this is on 2.5 grains of NP and about 8 hours after meds- any thoughts? i am thinking of adding some T34 but not sure how much?

v12.17.24 2.5 grains NP thyroid
Iron Bind.Cap.(TIBC) 363 ug/dL 250 - 450
UIBC 248 ug/dL 150 - 375 01
Iron, Serum 115 ug/dL 35 - 155 01
Iron Saturation 32 % 15 – 55
Ferritin, Serum 61 ng/mL 15 - 150 01
T4,Free(Direct) 0.81 Low ng/dL 0.82 - 1.77 01
TSH <0.006 Low uIU/mL 0.450 - 4.500 01
Reverse T3, Serum 11.3 ng/dL 9.2 - 24.1 03
Triiodothyronine,Free,Serum 3.5 pg/mL 2.0 - 4.4
T3 Total (Triiodothyroxine) 127
87 - 167 ng/dL

THYROID PEROXIDASE AB (TPO)
12 <35 IU/mL

Thyroglobulin Antibody <20
<20 IU/mL
Sodium, Serum 139 mmol/L 134 - 144 01
Potassium, Serum 4.6 mmol/L 3.5 - 5.2 01

 

[Vettester Chris]

Great ratio with your FT3 to Reverse T3 (31)!! You are at 62.5% on your Free T3 reference range, which is also very nice! The T4 (or lack thereof) thing is still an anomaly, but seeing that you're getting adequate levels of T3 into the cells of the body is good to see!!

Overall, how do you feel? Would be curious to see a cortisol and DHEA profile. I'd suspect it looks real good.

 

[Brooksy Chuck]

thanks Chris
last DHEA was 155 .. i take hydrocortisone so i can't do a cortisol profile that i know of. and actually i have been pretty tired and still feel kinda hypo- according to STTM i am "pooling" that is why my FT4 is so low. i am working to get down to a lower dose of sleep meds..but i also have had to supplement for energy with provigil -
bc