No Thyroids

Or a “No Thyroid” flare up!

What You Don't Realise When I'm at Home with a Thyroid Flare Up There are some things a lot of people don't realise about me taking days off for autoimmune thyroid disease.

This looks like a great opportunity to hear the latest and submit a question. I don’t know how many will be answered, but we have an opportunity here to be seen. Let’s take it!

ATA Virtual Patient Education Forum - 3/23 at 12 PM EDT / 9 AM PDT. Register for free today!

https://ow.ly/np8C50QL5ee

https://www.drchristianson.com/blog/dangers-of-too-much-vitamin-d-with-dr-deva-boone/

Podcast - Dangers of too much Vitamin D With Dr. Deva Boone Hormone replacement therapy has proven to be an effective and welcome relief from such symptoms, but is it safe? Does it cause breast cancer?

I'm chatting with another NoThyroid sister who is strugging with substandard medical care. They are willing to diagnose her with "Functional Neuorological Disorder" and "Parkinson's" and treat both of those conditions with medication. YET when she tells them all of her symptoms go away with a dose of 125 - 137mcg of T4 and 5mcg of Liothyronine, they won't give her that dose. She is heavier, and it is not outside of her weight based dose if she were on T4 only. And does not cause strong suppression of TSH. So what's happening here?

We have lost a gland, not our credibility nor the subjective experience of living in our own bodies. We need to be heard, and our care needs to include the newer understanding of thyroid hormone action in athyreotic patients.

https://www.drchristianson.com/blog/whats-the-deal-with-reverse-t3/?fbclid=IwAR0D0o6YEr_zLX-yRMpqg7uZ1BVMjUMKWo_dqQvxi063lXahXlBsc1tYsGo

Reverse T3: The Four Top Causes of High Reverse T3 A high reverse T3 may or may not need additional attention, depending on what your levels are. Find more insight as to how you can take control.

If 95% of the normal population falls within the normal range for TSH, then that means that 5% exist either over or under the normal range. Why does endocrinology expect 100% of the hypothyroid population to live in the 95%?

Percentages are interesting. When you break that down, that is 5 people out of every 100. That's a LOT of people!

An open letter to endocrinology:

Dear Dr. Bow Tie,

We’re smart women without thyroids and we have tried following the “rules” of combination thyroid therapy, but everyone seems to have a different “rule”. Who should we listen to? We’ve been to our doctors (several), we’ve read Pub Med research, spent thousands of collective dollars on books, spent hours we will never get back listening to podcasts, and cruising through the Wild West of Facebook groups in search of answers to our fundamental questions. Our takeaway is that nobody knows.

If you go to the mainstream publications, nobody talks about splitting doses or when to test TSH. Is it assumed that it’s tested 24 hours after the last dose of medication the way it’s done with T4 only – the standard of practice we’ve been following for decades? If you go all the way out to the fringes you’ll hear that TSH does not matter at all and that a minimum starting dose of T3 for combination therapy is 25mcg.

Should we take our doses several times a day? All at once? The monograph for Cytomel says to take it all once a day. It seems to be written for T3 only therapy – is it the same for us? Why would patients on T3 only therapy not split a dose but patients on combination therapy take two or three doses a day?

How do we find a combination dose? Is it weight based? Do we use 3x as the basis for the strength of T3 vs T4? What if we are already on combination therapy and trying to find a good dose? Do we use weight-based dosing for our starting point? If so, how much T4 and T3 would we use? When do we change the ratio, and why? Would our FT4 and FT3 numbers prompt a change if our symptoms were unresolved?

Where does our FT4 go when we take T3? T3 dosing lowers FT4. Where is it? Is it turning into converted hormone? Are we peeing it out? Where is it? Does FT4 and FT3 matter? Where should they sit in the range? If we take T3 and it lowers FT4 below mid-range, should we be taking more T4 to bring that up again?

If the T4 dose should be lowered to add T3, wouldn’t that be putting vulnerable tissues even more at risk? Some tissues prefer converted thyroid hormone. Wouldn’t lowering the dose just subject them to even further lower levels of free T3?

When should we test TSH? If we’re taking combination therapy and splitting our doses, and testing TSH twelve hours after our last dose and it’s really low, yet we still have symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism – is the TSH right? Does it get the last say? Would it be different if we tested it 24 hours after our last T3 dose? And if so, which one is the accurate answer?

Who is finally going to define the parameters of combination therapy?

Dr. Alan Christianson
Dr. Westin Childs
Thyroid Pharmacist, Dr. Izabella Wentz
Bianco Lab
Dr. Rebecca Warren

An open letter to endocrinology: - nothyroids.com nothyroids.com If you go to the mainstream publications, nobody talks about splitting doses or when to test TSH. Is it assumed that it’s tested 24 hours after the last dose of medication the way it’s done with T4 only – the standard of practice we’ve been following for decades? If you go all the way out to...

There is an easier way to compare your lab values over time. Check out this post with an easy formula to simplify your thyroid bloodwork. Easy math, I promise 🤓

Percentage of Range - nothyroids.com When Darcey and I talk about thyroid hormone levels we usually refer to the percentile of the reference range. For example: I might say, my FT3 is 47% and my FT4 is at 30%. It's easier to compare and record on our spreadsheets when it is converted to percentage of range. It also keeps things simple....

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

NoThyroids.com

New blog post alert 🚨Do you have any tips to share?

A Few Tips ~ for life without a thyroid - nothyroids.com Darcey and I have been at this a long time. We are constantly learning and discovering new things that make our life a little bit easier. There are also some things we've just had to figure out for ourselves along the way. Continue reading to learn about a few things that we wish we would have known...

I came across this today. This is for all of us 💗

https://nothyroids.com/should-i-get-a-new-doctor/

Should I Get a New Doctor? - nothyroids.com Every day I see posts in Facebook groups from people who are seeking help with their thyroid medication dosing. Usually they have residual symptoms and don't believe their treatment to be adequate. Often they are told by another group member to get a new doctor. Is it even possible to get a new doct...

A primer for understanding thyroid hormones.

Thyroid Hormone ABC's - Let's Start at the Beginning - nothyroids.com A nice, normal, healthy thyroid gland has a big role to play in the body. This tiny gland located near your Adam's apple in your neck is a powerhouse that creates homeostasis through its release and conversion of thyroid hormones. In a complex interaction between the brain, the body, the thyroid gla...

Ever wondered how much of each hormone is in NDT doses 🤓

This so true.... 🤣🥲😏

Do you suffer from fatigue? It's Darcey's most troubling symptom. Read her thoughts about it on our website.

My Most Troubling Symptom - nothyroids.com Hands down without out a doubt, my biggest nemesis is fatigue. Fatigue has played larger and lesser roles in the course of this hypothyroidism experience but I can always feel its breath on the back of my neck. nothyroids.com My Most Troubling Symptom Symptoms

Did you know we have a set point? God, I wish I knew what my levels were before this disease set in. I've highlighted a research study on our blog about returning thyroid levels to our original set point. Interesting stuff!

We have a set point? - nothyroids.com Really, we do. This is new to me in the last 6 months and I feel like it is definitely something I (we) should have known about sooner. I am going to summarize a research study I found about our own unique HPT axis set point and how that set point can give us clues to our optimal thyroid levels. If....

Persistent Symptoms..... You can read about mine on the blog. What are yours? Tinnitus and anxiety are mine. Although, since I've lowered my doses, my anxiety has improved significantly. 😀

Persistent Symptoms - nothyroids.com Let's assume for this post, that a persistent symptom is one that never quite leaves us. As we all know, symptoms can sometimes be categorized by hormone. For example, a low/high T3 symptom or a low/high T4 symptom or maybe sometimes just a way too much or too little of both hormones symptom!

T4/T3 Combination Therapy Study on our website. I've even highlighted the important bits for you!

T4/T3 Combination Therapy Study - nothyroids.com % I know I know, research studies and articles are oftentimes difficult to wade through and understand the relevance to our no thyroid situation, especially if you have brain fog or the attention span of a fruit fly, like me lately. But, this is an important research article that breaks down what is k...