My Hyperthyroid Update

Hormones
1

Hi,

Just want to give an update to everybody, maybe someone would find helpful for their case.

I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroid this past Dec.  My TSH level was undetectable.  T3 T4 was 5 times the upper range.  

I was put on Methimazole, but long story short, I was overdosing it.  I was taking 60-80mg a day.  I developed terrible hives, and my arm stopped moving.  I had to go to ER.  I stopped Methimazole, and went on 2 and half weeks of Oral Steroid.  

During this time, I started reading this forum, and started taking Acetyl Carnitine, and Co-Q10.  I also took the "thyroid calming" herbal that I bought from amazon. The herbal helped give me a little bit of calming effect.

Once my rash and muscle/joint pain almost stopped, I actually flew back to my home country to get a second opinion.  In my home country, they use Thiamazole (imported from Germany). The doctor over there told me give Thiamazole a try before try PTU.  

I googled and basically Thiamazole is exactly Methimazole.  anyways, I tried Thiamazole at 10 mg a day.  There was a slight rash and slight muscle pain the first couple days i took Thiamazole, but I googled, and found that some people would take benedryl alongside Methiamzole/Thiamazole to deal with the tiny rash problem.  So I took that approach and luckily, both the rash and muscle pain disappeared.  

I also had been taking Co-Q10 and Acetyle Carnitine throughout this process. Moreover, I stopped eating out, and started cooking for myself with a good mixture of vegetables and meat like pork and chicken (not a lot of beef just because i am not a big beef eater).  I also used salt without iodine when coooking, and stayed away from seafood.  Basically, trying to cut off iodine intake all together.  I also eat a lot of fruits.  

so after about 30 days of going back to Thimazole, and about 60 days of continuous intake of Acetyle Carnitine and CoQ10, all 3 of my thyroid hormones are now normal.  

TSH: 2.980 uIU/mL (0.450 - 4.500 uIU/mL)

FREE T3 2.1 pg/mL (2.0 - 4.4 pg/mL)

My T3, T4 are actually going a bit too low.  i am feeling normal as before.

I plan on stopping acetyle carnitine and start doing a low dosage of total carnitine. and cut down my Thiamazole to maybe 2.5mg? My T3 and T4 is on the threshold of low side, so i don't want to go hypo...

 

2

Hi Wendy.Thank you for taking time to post .It is always good to hear of other people's experiences, especially if they have found something which helps.Best Wishes for continuing improvements.

3

Hi Wendy, did your doctors ever find out what was causing your hyperthyroidism?

You are saying that you are trying to cut out Iodine completely. It is advisable to avoid too much of it. But an Iodine deficient nutrition will eventually cause your thyroid to become enlarged as it tries to capture more Iodine. Long term it is better to provide the daily requirement of 150 micrograms Iodine per day. This is even more important for pregnant women, as a lack of Iodine may cause brain damage in the baby.

4

It is not unusual for your Free T3 and T4 to go too low when you take Acetyl-L-Carnitine along with Methimazole or a similar drug.  The Acetyl was invaluable to me in order to get my TSH up but it is very sensitive and I had to watch my values carefully, get tested more often and make more adjustments to what I was taking.  For myself, I found that lowering Methimazole by 2.5 mg at a time when warranted worked better than lowering by higher amounts.  The first time, my Endo lowered my 10 mg dose in half to 5 mg when my TSH started to rise and I had a backlash of symptoms in 2 weeks.  My new Endo always lowered it by 2.5 mg at a time when he made adjustments to my dosage and when I was stable he then suggested I take 2.5 mg 3 times a week.  For myself, though it is still in the normal range, I do not like my TSH to go over 2.0 and prefer it to be around 1.0 to 1.5.  I think with stopping the Acetyl, you will see your TSH lower slightly and your Frees rise to at least mid range.  When I had a rash or hives, I swabbed it with a cotton pad soaked in Betamethasone scalp lotion and that would get rid of it.  You seem to have improved a lot with all you have done.  Congratulations.

5

Thanks.  I do intent on switching to iodized salt.  I have also started to take a multi vitamin per day, which also contains iodine.

6

thanks linda.  Your posts were the most helpful

7

Hello Wendy.  I was newly diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and searching the net for info on how to help my body heal naturally.  

How much acytel-L-Carnitine did you take daily?