Armour and cytomel

[dessie111]

HI Dr. Lupo

My thyroid burnt out about 2 years ago, since then I have tried on a number of times to exercise, but my body gets exhausted--I am currently on Armour thyroid, and my doc told me that actually if you over exercise you actually make the inhibit the thyroid, so he tested my FT3 again and even on 120mcg my FT3 was only 255---but my TSH is very low of course--so he wants me to try doing the armour in the morning and adding 5mcg of cytomel in the afternoon, since that is when I feel I am crashing---

Now if I do not exercise--I just feel kinda weak tired, but when I exercise I feel great in the am and then crash in the afternoons???  And I start to gain weight when I exercise--Doc says that is the stress on my body and the reaction is to inhibit the thyroid and increase cortisol---

What are your thoughts??  Help--a little confused of how to decide what to do??

thanks Dessie

[dessie111]

Thanks so much for your responses, I am excited that my doc is treating the t3 vs tsh, cause I still have alot of hypo symptoms, but just not really understanding the whole idea of adding cytomel vs upping my armour, I think he said it was because my FT4 was at a good level and just needing to fine tune my ft3??  yeah you are right the ft3 is on the very low end--As far as my cortisol, yeah they probably needed to be fixed two years ago, and I was started on adrenal pills-natural, not cortisol or anything--but now I was also started on syn at the same time because my fatigue and hypo symptoms were so bad--and it is my understanding that now i have been treated for a couple of years for hypo so my thyroid is now spoiled to meds??  My adrenals are ok, until I exercise--I get fatigued really easy--and it drives me crazy--because i love to exercise, I was a runner because I crashed and burned and now can not seem to get out of the funk!!

dessie

[stella5349]

If your doctor is leaning on cortisol issues then you may be treating with Armour for thyroid and it will fail you

The adrenals as a rule - should be corrected first - prior to thyroid.

[gimel]

Sorry, but this is the thyroid patients' Forum.  You can only get your question to Dr. Lupo on this site.

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Thyroid-Cancer--Nodules--Hyperthyroidism/show/120

The problem with that site is that you can have great difficulty getting your questions submitted, due to limitations on number of questions taken daily.  Also, Dr. Lupo has pretty much stopped taking questions on hypothyroidism.  

If you are interested, my thoughts on your questions would be as follows.  Its good that your doctor is testing FT3.  Not many do it routinely and some even refuse to check.  FT3 is the most important thyroid hormone.  It is four times as biologically active as FT4 and FT3 correlates best with hypo symptoms such as those you mentioned.  If the reference range for the FT3 result you gave is anywhere near the range I am used to, then your FT3 of 255 is in the low end of the range.  Along with symptoms, that FT3 level would be a good indication of being hypo. We hear from many members that they needed to adjust their FT3 into the upper part of the range in order to alleviate symptoms.

It is quite common to have a low TSH when you are taking substantial dose of Armour thyroid.  That does not mean that you are hyper.  Only hyper symptoms would classify you as hyper.  I'm also favorably impressed that your doctor didn't jump to the conclusion that you were hyper because of your TSH level.  In fact, he seems to be  doing the right thing, which is to adjust your FT3 level as required to alleviate symptoms.  Many patients on the Forum are always looking for such a thyroid doctor.