outdamnspot
Senior Member
- Messages
- 924
I've been battling some really nightmarish symptoms for the past year now: severe fatigue, reactive hypoglycemia, 'crashing' with most stimulants/basic supplements/physical activity, low temps., weight gain, temperature intolerance, severe anxiety/nervousness etc.
I saw a bunch of specialists and doctors to very little avail, but finally found an integrative GP who thought it was worth trying to treat my thyroid and testosterone levels with NDT and gel respectively; he's also prescribed me DHEA for symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, and to help tolerate the NDT.
These were my thyroid results:
TSH: 3.31 (0.0-5.0)
FT3: 5.5 (3.3-6.4)
FT4: 17.9 (11.0-22.0)
RT3: 434 (140-540)
I don't have the results on me, but I know Vit D and B12 were low (towards the bottom of the range).
The FT3 and FT4 look okay, which I thought might not suggest a conversion issue. However, the RT3 worried me a little -- I brought it up with him and can't remember what he said exactly .. something about T3 being a possibility, but not the best firstline option I think.
He wants to start me on 1/4 grain of NDT and move up each week until I hit about 1 grain, then retest all my levels.
I've read a lot of conflicting information on RT3 etc., i.e. whether it can actually contribute to symptoms, and also the best way to clear it; some sites suggest low doses of NDT alone may suffice, but I've also read that low doses can keep you more hypo via the feedback loop.
Anyway, I have a history of pretty bad depression/anxiety (mostly treatment-resistant). All these symptoms started hitting about a year ago after a period of very significant stress, so I've been having a lot of doubts about what the best path is to take -- i.e. anti-depressants, or fix thyroid etc. My hope was that fixing the thyroid/blood sugar issues might allow me to tolerate some of the supplements I'm deficient in (such as B12, Vit D, Zinc), which were otherwise causing problems, usually a worsening of hunger/hypoglycemia.
I saw a bunch of specialists and doctors to very little avail, but finally found an integrative GP who thought it was worth trying to treat my thyroid and testosterone levels with NDT and gel respectively; he's also prescribed me DHEA for symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, and to help tolerate the NDT.
These were my thyroid results:
TSH: 3.31 (0.0-5.0)
FT3: 5.5 (3.3-6.4)
FT4: 17.9 (11.0-22.0)
RT3: 434 (140-540)
I don't have the results on me, but I know Vit D and B12 were low (towards the bottom of the range).
The FT3 and FT4 look okay, which I thought might not suggest a conversion issue. However, the RT3 worried me a little -- I brought it up with him and can't remember what he said exactly .. something about T3 being a possibility, but not the best firstline option I think.
He wants to start me on 1/4 grain of NDT and move up each week until I hit about 1 grain, then retest all my levels.
I've read a lot of conflicting information on RT3 etc., i.e. whether it can actually contribute to symptoms, and also the best way to clear it; some sites suggest low doses of NDT alone may suffice, but I've also read that low doses can keep you more hypo via the feedback loop.
Anyway, I have a history of pretty bad depression/anxiety (mostly treatment-resistant). All these symptoms started hitting about a year ago after a period of very significant stress, so I've been having a lot of doubts about what the best path is to take -- i.e. anti-depressants, or fix thyroid etc. My hope was that fixing the thyroid/blood sugar issues might allow me to tolerate some of the supplements I'm deficient in (such as B12, Vit D, Zinc), which were otherwise causing problems, usually a worsening of hunger/hypoglycemia.
