BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health tweaking

Hi Jim,
I was thinking about your post on tweaking. How do you know if you are getting to toxic, how far to go? I am trying that, but when I start to get even a hint of hyper, I get a little bit panicky.

I started out on 25 of synthroid, but I got the dr to raise it up to 37.5 after about 3 weeks.

Also, I posted a thank you on my tired of being tired for your response.

I thank you for being here....Peggy

Peggy,

That's a good question because some patients have a degree of hyper type adjustment symptoms but doesn't mean they are going toxic because they only last a week or two.
I would say, as a fellow-patient opinion that toxicity would be significant hyper type reactions that last more than a couple of weeks. For example, if heart rate reaches above 100 BPM and is sustained that high, that might be a sign that the dose is too high. This varies to however because some patients have a higher heart rate to begin with, so it might be better to say a sustained increase of about 15 to 20 BPM. Other patients can tell by their increased, sustained anxiety feelings.
When I was started on Synthroid (later switched to Armour), I had hyper reactions but was mainly due to being started on too a high a dose rather than a more gradual titration upward over time. My hear rate went from 80 to 120 BPM and the anxiety was severe, making me feel like climbing the walls. This went away after about a week and my blood labs showed I was not over-treated but actually needed a dose increase afterward.
Blood retests are the best indicator of over-treatment and if a doctor doesn't let more than a 6 or 8 week interval pass before retesting, there's not much danger of toxicity ocurring long enough to cause any real damage and can be settled down with a slight dose decrease.
Overtreatment over long periods, causes hypertension that can affect the body's organs if severe and goes on for long periods, plus can cause bone loss (osteoporosis).
Doctors do however need to also consider the adversness of undertreatment that can also affect the heart over time and reduce a patient's quality of life. Unfortunately getting patients at the best treatmwent level is not always easy for the patient or doctor and sometimes takes effort and time. This is why some doctors are reluctant to optimize patients and instead get their levels anywyhere within the normal ranges and call it good. Patients have to be proactive in insisting on reaching their set-point (best optimized level) but can sometimes be a struggle.
When you read the thyroid med manufacturer's and other medical source statements about getting on a dose to treat hypothyroidism, they make it sound so simply, such as "within 4 to 6 weeks, the patient's symptoms will resolve and they will return to normal" but it simply is not that easy in many cases.

4-6 weeks?
haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaa


I dare them to find someone that did.

Here's some quotes, I though might be interesting to post. Some are stated more realistically than others:

"Your symptoms may not go away immediately, but they should start to improve within several weeks of starting treatment." (Synthroid website)

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