2 grains (120mg) per day of desiccated thyroid is a lot. I believe that 2-3 grains was once considered the full replacement dose
That 2-3 grains as full replacement may be about right for me, at least once upon a time. 2 grain brought my TSH under 2. When I went to 3, TSH went to 0.
I did go from 1 to 2. 1 brought TSH down in the mid 2s, I think, so I took more, targeting < 2.
Thanks for the tip on dessicated thyroid having too much T3. I’ll look into it sometime.
Hi Dan, I’ve tried to join that group pseudonymously, don’t know if they’ll let me in but I’m reluctant to give them my real e-mail address. From their front page, they’re wrong about NDT. It doesn’t contain T2 or T1, which are deiodination products of T3 and T4. It does contain MIT/DIT, but they’re different things.
NDT contains T3/T4 in 4:1 or 5:1 ratio, and T3 is better absorbed through the gut, I believe. Human thyroid is believed to secrete T3/T4 in 10:1 or 15:1 ratio, so a priori NDT is just as bad an idea as T4 monotherapy. None of these numbers are solid, research on this has just not been done carefully.
On this, John Lowe and Kenneth Blanchard disagree. John Lowe loved NDT, Ken Blanchard thinks over-replacing T3 is just as bad as over-replacing T4.
There are interesting papers about rats by Escobar-Morreale et al.
My (excellent) GP thinks that around 2% of his patients are unhappy on T4 monotherapy. Obviously Blanchard, Lowe and others see the subset of patients for whom traditional T4 monotherapy doesn’t work and that will have skewed their judgement even if they’re inferring accurately.
I have read reports claiming a 16% single-nucleotide polymorphism in the deiodinating enzyme 2 gene that controls T4->T3 conversion in the brain.
I can square this with my GP’s estimate by assuming that he only gets major complaints from those with the homozygote version of the DIO2 allele, which will have a prevalence of 0.16^2=0.0256
Also, for the love of God read up on the symptoms of hyperthyroidism/hypermetabolism, and make sure you take notice if you get any. If you screw around with this system you can make yourself hyper and hypo at the same time.
I am so not a doctor. Do not believe a word I or anyone else says on this issue. We are all wrong. If it was easy, it would be properly understood.
I believe it was a Yahoo Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NaturalThyroidHormones/info
That 2-3 grains as full replacement may be about right for me, at least once upon a time. 2 grain brought my TSH under 2. When I went to 3, TSH went to 0.
I did go from 1 to 2. 1 brought TSH down in the mid 2s, I think, so I took more, targeting < 2.
Thanks for the tip on dessicated thyroid having too much T3. I’ll look into it sometime.
I appreciate the info, even if you’re not a MD.
Hi Dan, I’ve tried to join that group pseudonymously, don’t know if they’ll let me in but I’m reluctant to give them my real e-mail address. From their front page, they’re wrong about NDT. It doesn’t contain T2 or T1, which are deiodination products of T3 and T4. It does contain MIT/DIT, but they’re different things.
NDT contains T3/T4 in 4:1 or 5:1 ratio, and T3 is better absorbed through the gut, I believe. Human thyroid is believed to secrete T3/T4 in 10:1 or 15:1 ratio, so a priori NDT is just as bad an idea as T4 monotherapy. None of these numbers are solid, research on this has just not been done carefully.
On this, John Lowe and Kenneth Blanchard disagree. John Lowe loved NDT, Ken Blanchard thinks over-replacing T3 is just as bad as over-replacing T4.
There are interesting papers about rats by Escobar-Morreale et al.
My (excellent) GP thinks that around 2% of his patients are unhappy on T4 monotherapy. Obviously Blanchard, Lowe and others see the subset of patients for whom traditional T4 monotherapy doesn’t work and that will have skewed their judgement even if they’re inferring accurately.
I have read reports claiming a 16% single-nucleotide polymorphism in the deiodinating enzyme 2 gene that controls T4->T3 conversion in the brain.
I can square this with my GP’s estimate by assuming that he only gets major complaints from those with the homozygote version of the DIO2 allele, which will have a prevalence of 0.16^2=0.0256
Also, for the love of God read up on the symptoms of hyperthyroidism/hypermetabolism, and make sure you take notice if you get any. If you screw around with this system you can make yourself hyper and hypo at the same time.
I am so not a doctor. Do not believe a word I or anyone else says on this issue. We are all wrong. If it was easy, it would be properly understood.
Hope this helps!