Posted by BarbaraCat on April 12, 2002, at 13:10:24
In reply to Re: Lithium and thyroid disorders » BarbaraCat, posted by HMK on April 12, 2002, at 8:05:11
A TSH of 3.98 is CRIMINAL. There are plenty of M.D.s, unfortunately, who will let many patients get by with that range saying that it's 'borderline'. This is pure crap, especially when that patient has a history of a mood disorder. Optimal TSH values should be right around 1.0, NOT 2.0. In-between 1 and 2 is OK, but some say that .9 is even better. You should be taking some T3 along with T4. This could be in either the synthetic form (levoxyl=T4, Cytomel=T3) or a natural form (Armour thyroid or some other animal thyroid product). Whichever form you take, the T3 dose should be split into a twice a day dosing because T3 enters the bloodstream rapidly, causes a spike and can cause some hyper feelings if not spread out.
If you have not gone to the http://thyroid.about.com website, by all means do so. Be prepared for a fight about the T3 (you'll get a patronizing little smile and a lecture about how T4 converts to T3 anyhow, silly). If your doctor is letting you out the door with that TSH level I doubt very much he's read any of the newer research or would be willing to consider T3 augmentation. Grrrrrrrr - makes me so pissed off. You may need to print out some articles which is why the thyroid web site is so valuable. Better yet, consider seeing a good naturopathic doctor. They are far superior at this kind of thing than most MDs (especially endo's - believe me on this one!).
- BarbaraThanks to everyone for their informative posts! I had no idea that I was being so poorly treated by my family doctor. Just want to double check with all of you what I should request from my family doctor since I can't get into an endocrinologist until the end of June. Right now I only take Levoxyl and have TSH of 3.98. I should add active T3 and aim for a TSH of under 2? Why didn't my doctor know this??
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> The worst part of dealing with mental illness and disorders as complex as hypothyroidism is having to be your own doctor and finding your own information. Don't we pay THEM to do this work for us??
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> Sorry to vent- just a little frustrated.
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> Best wishes,
> Heather
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:102374
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/102879.html