Its good stuff but nature thyroid is better. When supplementing these desiccated thyroid meds you want to take some T3 with it that is separate from the T3 in Nature Thyroid. Not sure why this seems to work really well but it does. Natural ratio is 80% T4 and 20 % T3 so start there and tweak until its right.
Your body doesn’t make a lot of T3, it converts it from T4.
I would consider breaking up the desiccated thyroid 2 times per day, or go with a compounding pharmacy and you can get slow release T4 and slow release T3 in the same capsule at the exact strength you need.
Thanks @increasemyt
Is the reason to split dose as obvious as for just a more steady release?
My pills are so tiny, and when I try to split, they crumble like arimidex.
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You can get a milligram scale on Amazon for 10 bucks. Makes splitting pills super easy and you know the exact dose you’re taking. I bought this one and it works great. I used it for arimidex to be able to take 1/10 of a pill. Super easy to do and super fast. Amazon basics has a cheaper one that is linked on the same page.
American Weigh GEMINI-20 ZXC, SDF Amazon.com
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Well then you wanna get the right size to dose twice per day, on the desiccated thyroid.
Or hit the easy button and get the slow release T4 and T3 in one capsule.
This works for most people. My mom however swears by the desiccated, but she takes it twice per day. Once in the morning, and then after lunch she takes T3 and the Nature Thyroid.
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You’re free T3 is below the upper 75% of the range. Most people feel a whole lot better when the free T3 is 75% of the range or higher. Also, your free T4 is fairly low as well. Most feel better with that in the upper part of the range as well. Your rT3 will tell more. Once the rT3 comes back and if it’s below 15 then I’d up my dose as I suggested earlier. Titrate up until you hit hyper symptoms and then back it off a bit. You should feel your best at that point. And your numbers may be high (not TSH, that will be even lower) and that’s OK. Sometimes people feel their best even when free T3 is over the top limit.
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So today on 30mg armour I feel a bit of anxiety and racing heart. Like 77beats/min.
It there a period of acclimation to armour somewhat like there is to trt?
@roscoe88
77 beats per minute isn’t high. Give it a little time.
Allow a few days to week for body to adjust. 77 beats isn’t high at all. If your heart stays above 100 then you can say high.
@bcostigan41
I agree with trifive, you want Free T3 higher than midrange.
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@systemlord @trifive
Final results are in. My RT3 is 15. Full results in image below. Do you think I need something different than armour? Or just titrate dose higher?
I’ve actually started taking .75 grains first thing in the AM and 1.5 grains later in the day. Can’t say I’m jittery yet, but maybe a tad more boost in energy/well being?
Thanks again for feedback!
I would bump your dose up a little bit.
From my research, looks like free T3 is the one to really pay attention to. And yours is still on the lower side.
Personally I would try a slightly higher dose and see how you feel.
On a side note, did you have any issues with rapid heart beat when you started? I was instructed to take my 30mg in 2 divided doses (15mg/15mg) per day. Well the pill was so small, so I just took all 30mg at once. A few hours later I would have rapid heartbeat. Really hoping I’m just acclimating to the medicine, as I’m certain I will need to adjust higher.
I am seemingly getting more energy as a result. Especially nighttime.
Stay with armour. Just titrate up like o said and then check bloods in 3 months.
Hi @roscoe88 - it’s been a bit since you started Armour Thyroid, how are things going?
Hey!
I’ve seen maybe a tiny bit more energy, but nothing to write home about.
I started July 30th on a small dose, and I’m assuming (after blood tests soon) i’ll need to adjust dose upwards.
I’m only on 15mg, twice a day, which is the recommended starting dose.
This.
I highly recommend the book as well to educate yourself on this subject. I just bought it off Amazon and read it cover to cover this weekend. It will be the best $20 you spend if you’re trying to figure this out and understand what’s happening.
I’ve been battling my docs for the last several years on this. Most docs chase the TSH number. I had to run my own labs to convince her to Rx me Nature-throid…and that was with a TSH of 7.65. I did my labs 6 weeks later, told her I felt 0% better. She said the labs say your TSH is 1.5 now, so your dose is good.
The problem with that mentality is, there is no look or understanding of the real numbers - or the cause and effect. Mt FT4 hardly moved and my FT3 hardly moved, which is why I still felt like shit.
So, major takeaways from STTM web and book:
Don’t chase TSH. TSH is a pituitary hormone and can never reveal whether all parts of your body are getting enough thyroid hormones. When you start your NDT (armour, nature, etc), if you’re not working to get optimal, your thyroid will boomerang on you. That’s what happened to me. I’ve been on my same (incorrect) dose of Nature for 4 months now and my TSH is back up and FT3 and FT4 are back where I started.
Being optimal is two things: first is how you feel and what we all really want. Second is your FT4 should be near mid range and your FT3 should be at the top of range. Optimal free T3/T4 is not uncommon to give TSH of 0.009 or 0.004. Your doc may freak out claiming risk to heart disease or osteo, but it’s just not the case due to how they perceive the numbers.
Lastly, remember this is part of a system. Depending how long you’ve been running a trashed thyroid, may have led to other parts of the system being affected too. Look at your iron and iron saturation, cortisol, and inflammation markers too. These can all drive up your RT3. Your Test and Free Test, DHEA, etc may be impacted too.
As far as timing of dosage goes, I keep mine on the nightstand and take as soon as my alarm goes off every morning. I then walk the dog to get my 30 min LISS in, then coffee, etc after. Not a big issue on that front. On blood draw days, I just don’t take my dosage prior to draw, then take immediately after…wait 30 min, etc.
My current experiences and two cents. Bottom line, STTM really helped me understand what to look for and has solid information to help me go to my new doc next week and get my dosage right, which will hopefully lead to the other areas (inflammation, iron saturation and binding, Test) all start to recover too.
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Stop the Thyroid Madness is probably the best thing out there. First comes to mind T4 prescriptions to patients that dont convert enough T4 to T3 / T4 monotherapy retardation.
Armor thyroid and other animal derived meds are to be dosed in 2-4+ doses per day because T3 has low half life. Just take care preferably to not take the drug with food because bioavailability will suffer OR take with food but with higher dosage.
High free T3 from blood is what you’ll observe in your lab tests with this drug, not T4 or TSH per se.
Back in the days it were these dessicated thyroid extracts that were solely used to treat hypothyroidism before T4 monoterapy became mainstream along with TSH test.
Better medication when dosed right than T4.
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@trifive - just went to the doctor today to request an increase in my armour thyroid dose. For history, I was taking 90mg (1.5 grains) once a day. Below are my labs from that amount:
I had some extra, so I increased to 135mg a day. 45mg (.75 grains) in the morning upon waking and 90mg (1.5 grains) around 2pm.
Long story short - doctor agreed to increase my dose to 1.5 grains in the morning and 1 grain in the afternoon. Some progress there… But in the process, he changed it to NP Thyroid from Armour Thyroid.
Will the change in the brand have much of an impact? I’m reading some not so good things about NP Thyroid. Does anyone here take NP Thyroid and what have experiences been like?
I have a bottle of Armour and it’s in mg, not grains.
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@hardartery - My old Armour bottle and new NP Thyroid say both actually. MG first and grains in parentheses. 90mg (1.5 grains).
The active thyroid ingredients in each are measured in mcg. 34mcg of T4, 9mcg of T3 in 1 grain, or 60mg.
Maybe the total weight of all active and inactive ingredients make up the MG number? Very confusing.
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