Considering Thyroid supplementation - what's your experience?
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I've been thinking about giving thyroid a try for a while now. I took my morning temps for a while and they never got over 36-36.4c, and my resting hr is around 50.
I do have some of the typical symptoms, especially weight gain. I gain weight on the slightest amount of food and have to starve myself into unconsciousness to loose a little.
Because going all after feel is a little vague for me, as a naive person when it comes to this, I took a blood test and my TSH was at 1.8 me fT3 at 3.73ng/L and my fT4 at 10.9. I took a TSH only a few weeks earlier after breakfast and it was at 1.5
Now, my lab says I'm all perfect. I know that other people consider TSH above 1.5 problematic. I covered the bases as good as I can, (lifestyle and diet).
I'm asking especially those who have used Thyroid in the past: do you think supplementing in such a "mild" case makes sense or makes things just unnecessarily complicated? I'm not so keen on figuring out T3 to T4 ratio and paying lab tests every month. I would like to use this more as an intervention, as I'm coming off of a long period of stress (like 5 years of work and sports, too much of both).
Concretely I was thinking about giving TyroMix a try, as it should be one of the more accessible products to me (in Germany) and appears to be fair quality.
Any thoughts or even just personal experiences will be much appreciated !
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I haven't experimented with thyroid supplementation. I think that the lower temperature and pulse, regardless of blood levels of hormones, could indicate that thyroid is not expressed in the tissues. You could maybe even try to experiment with the Achilles' Tendon Reflex Test, which Danny Roddy made a video about. https://x.com/dannyroddy/status/1803094971563520476
My personal opinion would be to try other things before thyroid. Such as increasing the simple carbohydrate intake (orange juice), beef liver weekly, supplement vitamin B1, restrict PUFA consumption (limit chicken/fish), etc.
How old are you? Story might be different if you're in your 40s, 50s, vs 20s.
All the best.
P.S. I took a look at your post history and found that you have some experience with autoimmune condition in the skin.
You may wish to do more research, but R.P. had written some stuff about Vitamin A as modulating the skin and the immune response. Beef Liver would be a very rich source of Vitamin A/retinol.
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@Rah1woot thanks for the feedback, also on the other thread. I'm not too eager to jump on the thyroid train either, but honestly have tried much less reasonable substances in the past and just would like to see the effect on my body.
I've been doing the basics that you mentioned for a while now. Since I'm getting better I just keep on gaining weight, some good 5kgs now. Btw I'm in my early 30s and have a physical job most of the time, too.
Only beef liver isn't available to me atm. I get B vitamins via supplements. Interestingly: when I took very high doses of B1 I felt like it gave me a headache, so I combined it with magnesium and more OJ and it got better. But I just stay away from the megadoses for now, as I couldn't see a major effect other than that. But I really have to read up on vit A I guess, the whole drama around it turned off initially..Actually it's my doctors treatment that encourages me to just try a little Thyroid. I'm thinking: if he's so relaxed about giving me cortisone, why should I try a little hormone treatment myself? But, I'm still respectful about the substance, and still haven't figured out where to source it here in Germany anyway.
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@Us3r Adding to the excellent guide by @Rah1woot
Don't rush. Learn about it as much as possible in advance. Start very small, be patient. Withdraw if you do not feel well...
Some key points to consider:
- learn about what supports absorption
- learn about what supports the conversion of T4 into T3
- learn about possible obstacles and variations
- Start with small doses like 12-15 mcg of T4 per day
- Don't take too much T3 at once; distribute it throughout the day
- Wait until doses accumulate, for example, 2 weeks for T4, before making any changes
- Remember that dosing thyroid may sometimes be like juggling and balancing on a balance beam at the same time
This is a good intro https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/6570/demystifying-thyroid-supplementation-by-danny-roddy?_=1749133640373
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@Us3r said in Considering Thyroid supplementation - what's your experience?:
my TSH was at 1.8 me fT3 at 3.73ng/L and my fT4 at 10.9.
It may not be enough; it would be better to also know at least your levels of reverse T3, morning and afternoon cortisol, cholesterol, and prolactin/estradiol, as well as your sugar HbA1c.
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@Kvirion thanks! I’ve read this and other resources multiple times by now. But the one thing they can’t tell me is how MY body is going to react to it. Guess there’s only one way to find out.
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@Kvirion yes id Love to get my prolactin especially, but all this testing isn’t available to me. Temperature and pulse was doable, and I also did the Achilles test that @Rah1woot mentioned, but the latter one was the hardest to evaluate: my ankle relaxation wasn’t really slow, but it wasn’t exactly a free fall either.
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@Us3r You should try thyroid, most ppl will benefit. I have always had 98.6F midday, but my morning temps were usually around 96.9-97.2. Since being on it for over a year my morning tempt is now 97.7+F. Make sure you test your cholesterol before hand, you dont want to take thyroid if your cholesterol is low, like 140mg/dL or 1.58mmol/L. Since thyroid converts cholesterol into hormones, if your cholesterol is low, you will lower it even more, which is not good. I'm lucky, in a way, bc my cholesterol is quite high, 310 TC, so I am safe to take thyroid. Read Broda Barne's Hypothyroidism the unsuspecting illness, it has some good info, you can find for free on internet archive I believe. Dont expect immediate results, take it low and slow, and he says it could take 2 months to find any improvement/change.
I personally take about, throughout the day in 4 doses of, 26mcg T3 & 56mcg T4
-make sure nutrition is good, magnesium, b vitamins, vitamin a, calcium, etc.
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@Us3r Yeah, I also use temperature and pulse as the key metrics.
It is also worth mentioning that, for example, Thyroid hormones work in a triad with testosterone/DHT and dopamine - they support each other. Moreover, liver health is very important for proper absorption, etc.
Therefore, it would be good to take things like those into account...BTW: you may be interested in threads like:
https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/1081/help-with-eu-sources?page=1
and
https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/656/bioenergetic-germany/109 -
@Kvirion thank you for recommendations, eu sources are particularly useful! Appreciate it
