Journey to Hormonal Optimisation
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I'm a 37 year old man living in London, England. Convinced I have some thyroid issues with me ticking almost all of the symptom boxes including dry hair, hair loss, fatigue, chronic infection, cold hands and feet, low libido and appetite.
Today some Tiromel (T3) 25mcg tablets arrived, as well as Levotiron (T4) 100mcg pills. I cut up the Tiromel with scissors into roughly 8 pieces and took one small one, probably slightly less than 3mcg. This was after eating a lunch with lots of rice and eggs. Just made me feel drowsy like I could do with a really deep sleep. Anyone else had this from T3 meds? What does this mean?
I'll write more about the various things I do for my health later.
Thanks for reading
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@Alomongerpete said in Journey to Hormonal Optimisation:
I cut up the Tiromel with scissors into roughly 8 pieces and took one small one, probably slightly less than 3mcg. This was after eating a lunch with lots of rice and eggs. Just made me feel drowsy like I could do with a really deep sleep.
MarkHow did you do this precisely, what did you swallow it with?
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@ThinPicking It wasn't at all precise. Just did it with scissors. Swallowed it for water but have sipped OJ around the time of it too. How does one know when they've taken enough thyroid hormone?
As the day progressed and I took more small doses, I got some great dopamine highs. I started spontaneously smiling and laughing and music became more enjoyable. I haven't felt crazy productive energy like "wanting to clean the house", like Danny Roddy talks about but it's been very pleasant with no real adrenaline boosts.
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@Alomongerpete said in Journey to Hormonal Optimisation:
How does one know when they've taken enough thyroid hormone?
I don't know because I don't take it. But I imagine you'd only know what 'enough' felt like after you'd burned a few memories of having taken too much, which wouldn't be pleasant. Unless you're inclined to be conservative.
I do take pure caffeine and number of other supps, but only very occasionally now. And I'll never stop drinking coffee.
Swallowed it for water but have sipped OJ around the time of it too.
I was more interested in this because you said it made you sleepy after lunch. And somnolence should be circadian appropriate if all other aspects of behaviour are circadian appropriate. Senses like thirst and taste are highly malleable and can't really be relied on to stay in order in my opinion.
As the day progressed and I took more small doses, I got some great dopamine highs. I started spontaneously smiling and laughing and music became more enjoyable.
Did you urinate more than usual before during or after that by any chance?
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@ThinPicking I urinated less yesterday and was much less thirsty than usual.
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Daily waking temp today was 36.6 degrees C (right ear) and 36.4 (left ear). I use a Philips In Ear Thermometer as it's more convenient than some under arm analogue one.
Peak temperature yesterday was around 20:00 with 36.7 (right) and 36.5 (left). I woke up with an erection which has been quite rare in recent months. Appear to be less bloated in the stomach and noticeably lower retention of water in the face.
Upon waking I mix an electrolyte powder that also contains creatine and ribose with a prebiotic supp that contains pre-hydrolysed guar guam, with Quali-C and l-glutamine.
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@Alomongerpete said in Journey to Hormonal Optimisation:
Upon waking I mix an electrolyte powder that also contains creatine and ribose with a prebiotic supp that contains pre-hydrolysed guar guam, with Quali-C and l-glutamine.
much less thirsty than usual
As the day progressed and I took more small doses, I got some great dopamine highs. I started spontaneously smiling and laughing and music became more enjoyable. I haven't felt crazy productive energy like "wanting to clean the house", like Danny Roddy talks about but it's been very pleasant with no real adrenaline boosts.
There's a lot of variables here. It sounds like you got close to a state you were trying to reach a few times.
Unless someone else comments. Just keep experimenting with it I think. Knowing the effect of anything you take happens in the context of all other behaviour. Some constructive drug abuse is a pretty good way to know that. Humour/not humour.
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@Alomongerpete said in Journey to Hormonal Optimisation:
Today some Tiromel (T3) 25mcg tablets arrived, as well as Levotiron (T4) 100mcg pills. I cut up the Tiromel with scissors into roughly 8 pieces and took one small one, probably slightly less than 3mcg. This was after eating a lunch with lots of rice and eggs. Just made me feel drowsy like I could do with a really deep sleep. Anyone else had this from T3 meds? What does this mean?
Yes! Being hypo, I was running on stress hormones to compensate for the lack of thyroid hormone so every time I increased my dose of NDT and effectively lowered adrenaline and cortisol I needed naps, and it took about two weeks for this sedating effect to subside. The rate of relaxation (think Achilles’ tendon reflex test as a diagnostic for hypothyroidism) and spontaneous joy are very good indicators of thyroid status, in my experience. Here are some of Ray’s quotes that I think support this:
In Ray’s June 1991 newsletter he wrote:
"While many people think of thyroid as a kind of stimulant, because it can cure the coma or lethargy of myxedema, this is a very misleading idea. In hypothyroidism, the brain exciting hormones adrenalin, estrogen, and cortisol are usually elevated, and the nerve-muscle relaxant magnesium is low. Normal, deep sleep is rare in a hypothyroid person. The correct dose of trilodothyronine (the active thyroid hormone) with magnesium is a reliable treatment for insomnia, cramps, and anxiety, whether these symptoms are caused by fatigue, or aging, or alcohol withdrawal.”
In Ray’s April 1994 newsletter he wrote:
"Although I tended to be hypermetabolic, and had been puzzled for years about the co-existence of signs of both hyper- and hypothyroidism, I finally tried taking thyroid. Immediately, I was able to sleep easily and deeply, and my need for food decreased. It was obvious that thyroid was having a quieting effect on my whole metabolism. I slept more efficiently, woke up refreshed, and had abundant energy during the daylight hours, and began looking for chores to do around the house, just for fun. Before taking thyroid, the first thing I did every morning was to drink two or three cups of coffee, but a few days after taking thyroid I noticed I didn’t think about coffee very often, and I drank about 90% less, without feeling any withdrawal symptoms."
And expanding on Ray’s need for food decreasing:
"In my teens and twenties, I needed about 8000 calories per day when I was physically active, about 4000 to 5000 when I was sedentary, but after I took thyroid, I needed only about half as many calories. Thyroid is the basic regulator of blood glucose, and it causes it to be fully oxidized for energy, so that it produces ATP efficiently, on relatively few calories. If blood glucose falls, because it's being used very quickly, the body responds with stress hormones, including glucagon, adrenalin, and cortisol."
In Ray’s March 2018 newsletter he wrote:
"Since thyroid hormone is needed for oxidative metabolism everywhere in the body, its deficiency makes brain cells slow to relax, delaying the onset of sleep, and can even prevent the deepest restorative sleep. Since all cells are regulated by excitatory and inhibitory processes, hypothyroidism can create a bias toward excitatory states, leading to abnormal secretion and proliferation, for example."
"hyroxin, T4, helps to reduce the nocturnal level of the proinflammatory thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, but 5 or 10 mcg of the immediately active T3 at bedtime will usually produce sleep within a few minutes."
In Ray’s January 2000 article he wrote:
"Since I had become a sound sleeper as soon as I began taking thyroid, and had seen that thyroid alone would cure most people’s insomnia (sometimes, as one doctor described his experience, better than morphine) I began to understand that the adrenalin which disturbed sleep was an indicator of defective energy production, and that the things which restored sleep—thyroid, salt, sugar, protein, and progesterone, for example—were acting directly on the cells’ energy production."
In Nutrition for Women Ray wrote:
"The first time I took enough desiccated thyroid to make my heart speed noticeably, there was a pleasure pushing up from my abdomen through my chest, making me want to smile and laugh. When I have watched suicidal women using thyroid or progesterone, there is a transformation (under an hour with progesterone, a few hours or longer with thyroid) from weeping to smiling and laughing; they speak of unbearable pain being replaced by pleasure."
There’s another quote where Ray talks about the need to nap after taking thyroid as an indicator of good thyroid status, but I lost all my Peaty notes so I have to track it down. When I find it, I’ll be sure to post it.
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Main issues for a while have been feeling ill on a regular basis. It seems to be lodged close to my tonsils and think it's leading to fatigue and low mood. In the UK it's not common for the NHS to swab your throat and test it, they just love to prescribe antibiotics based on symptoms or tell you to rest if you have a virus. It's quite frustrating. I know Ray was quite an advocate for antibiotic use but I think the potential downsides are significant and feel like my immunity went downhill last year when I did two courses of antibiotics, having never done any my whole adult life.
I did a blood test on Tuesday so should get results soon:
https://lolahealth.co/products/ultimate?variant=45501879713944I'll then be doing a consultation with a private doctor and want to discuss these issues as well as potentially having an intro to a TRT clinic.
I did a mycotoxin test last year which came up high in ochratoxin so I've been trying to detox that via home farinfrared sauna and activated charcoal plus bentonite clay.
