General Medicine

» mariammc - supplements

Hi Elaine,
Hope you are doing well. I found this company, CNCA, that claims to supply pure supplements, no lead, etc.
They have supplements for the immune system, but with graves' disease is it ok to take a supplement for the immune system? I'm a little confused on stimulation/suppression of the system.
Thanks! Maria

-- posted by mariammc

» mariammc - supplements

i just noticed that the formula contains iodine! oh well.

-- posted by mariammc

» aviano - Reverse T3 and other questions

In response to Reverse T3 and other questions posted by aviano:

bump

-- posted by aviano

» nurseheatherone - Internal Racing Feeling

In response to Internal Racing Feeling posted by daisyelaine:

That is good to here that you were able to get control of it, I am already seeing some difference with the manipulations, I have not thought about PT, but if I still have problems I suppose I could try that. I dont think that I am hypo but maybe this was caused by the medication induced hypothyroidism I was in, that is when my symptoms started. Thanks again!
Heather

-- posted by nurseheatherone

» kitykatt - New Labs

Elaine, Hi! I had my appt. with new endo this past Friday. I wanted so much to have a doc who believed in medicine. The fist thing she said to me was that she was friends with the other doc and why am I here to see her? I wanted to crawl in a hole. I was very nice and explained that I wanted another opinion concerning my medication. She then went on to question me as to why do I not want RAI ? ... I'm just a little confused but remaining strong, my focus is to be healthy and not cave. I have very strong reasons for not wanting RAI. I had not been given any info on the uptake scan and it was shortly after that I started to have swelling in one of my eyelids. It's very slight ,but it,s there. My mom was a woman of 400lbs. she died of cancer at 44. I suspect undiagnosed hypo. I don't recall her feasting on large amounts of food. It's for these reasons in particular that I believe I should not have RAI. I know I don't have to explain to you. Today I received my new labs. T4free-1.7 T3free-570 TSH-0.01 I'm confused because all tho I did not want to regulate my own meds. These labs are from taking 10mgs. of methimizole in the am. I stopped taking the meds and was off them for eight days prior to these labs. I had been feeling better, then started to feel not so good again so I started re-dosing at only 5mgs. until I heard from her. I'm sure you are very careful as to what you suggest to people, so I'm wondering if you could shed some light as to what may be going on in my body. The old labs were as follows T4free-1.8 T3free620 TSH0.01 I thought I had been going hypo, If you recall I gained 7 pounds in eight weeks. Was I just eating too much? The new doc said I needed to loose weight. I'm 44 5ft.2 150lbs. SHE was at least 60lbs. overweight. I was so upset I came home and shoveled the driveway.(Just a bit of irony) Anyway, Thank You so very much. Anything you can tell me would be helpful.

-- posted by kitykatt

» Elaine Moore - supplements

In response to supplements posted by mariammc:

Hi,
I'm not familiar with that site, but I'd look at ingredients and then check at vitaminshoppe.com, puritanspride.com, and lef.org and see who has the best price right now.
Immunomodulators are fine. They're plant sterols, sterolins, mushrooms, etc. that help strengthen, not stimulate, the immune system. They're great but waxy vegetables also have sterolins and you shouldn't get getting lead in supplements so I'd think they're all lead free. Best, Elaine

» Elaine Moore - supplements

In response to supplements posted by mariammc:

Hi,
Good you noticed. Skip anything with iodine and kelp since most Americans are getting nearly 10 times as much iodine as they need and this triggers autoimmune thyroid disorders. Best, Elaine

» Elaine Moore - Internal Racing Feeling

In response to Internal Racing Feeling posted by nurseheatherone:

Hi,
Medication (methimazole, carbimazole, PTU) can induce temporary hypothyroidism if the dose is to high. Symptoms of hypothyroidism can develop them. My osteopath and my physical therapist did almost the same manipulations so it's hard to tell if one or the other's worked better but it was the manipulations that did the most. best, Elaine

» Elaine Moore - New Labs

In response to New Labs posted by kitykatt:

Hi,
ATD doses are generally based on your FT4 level. With yours being normal, too high of an ATD dose (for you) will cause the FT4 to fall too quickly while FT3 takes it's time falling. A good approach is to use the lowest ATD dose needed to lower levels while making sure FT4 is at mid-range. With FT3 also being elevated, a beta blocker would help to bring FT3 down while sparing FT4.
Your 10 mg dose was likely too high and brought your FT4 down too low. As soon as your stopped meds FT4 start rising back to where it was. FT3 fell somewhat but as I said it takes longer for it to fall into the normal range.
You probably need no more than a 5 mg ATD dose to keep your FT4 at least at mid-range.
You might do better with a GP, Family Practice Doc, osteopath or naturopath than an endo.
There's no rush here. Your FT4 is within range, a low TSH helps keep your levels from rising, and FT3 is falling, which could be from the ATDs or your dietary and other changes. It would be nice if this doctor had given you beta blockers to reduce any cardiac symptoms. Best, Elaine

» Elaine Moore - Reverse T3 and other questions

In response to Reverse T3 and other questions posted by aviano:
Hi Avi,
I saw the bump but not the original post. Can you resend it? I'm sorry to be behind with posts. My book on low dose naltrexone is due tomorrow and I've been rushing to get it finished. I'll be back as usual (daily) starting this weekend. And I'll be posting several new articles next week.

Overall, reverse T3 isn't helpful for anything, although it was 20 years ago before we had tests for FT3. Several naturopaths tried resurrecting this test but there's no reason. T3 is converted to either active potent FT3 or inactive reverse T3. More reverse T3 is made in infants, during bedrest and hospitalization, etc. It doesn't matter how much reverse T3 you have, but it's very important to know your FT3 level. Best, Elaine