Too many patients, as documented in an on-line study of 12,000 individuals conducted by the American Thyroid Association published in June 2018, (https://doi.org/10.1089/thy.2017.0681) , complain of persistent symptoms of hypothyroidism despite what their doctors believe is successful treatment with levothyroxine (brands include Synthroid, Unithroid, Tirosent, Levoxl). We believe something needs to be done to resolve this conflict between patients and their doctors.
Zach’s Treatment Success with Cytomel
Zach points out that most of the posts about thyroid treatment issues at metabolism.com are from women. That makes sense because autoimmune thyroid disease is approximately 10 times more common in women than men. But man or woman, thyroid hormone treatment is still the same and his success with Cytomel is something worth noting.
Zach writes:
Hi everyone. From what I can gather, most posters here are women, well I’m a guy with similar problems. I thought my story might be useful so that men don’t think it’s a women only problem. I gained a hypothyroid diagnosis at the age of 25 due to Hashimodo’s. There was no direct cause, it runs heavily in my family. For a year, or two, maybe even three (it’s hard to tell due to widespread symptoms), I was feeling nervous, bad memory, attention problems, sleep problems, low appetite, and easily fatigued from a normal 8 hour work day. I assumed my lifestyle choices were causing these symptoms so didn’t go to the doctor for years.
Finally when I was diagnosed I was put on levothyroxine. The very first day I took it I felt IMMENSLY better. However, months down the road the symptoms gradually built up again. Every time my dose was raised, I would feel better for about 2 days, but the symptoms would gradually return. My endo decided to drop my T4 dosage and put me on a combo T4/T3 (T4 was dropped by 50 mcg and one quarter of the drop was added in as T3, so 12.5 mcg of T3). This is the first day I’ve tried it, and instantly the morning of starting on T4/T3 my body aches have almost disappeared and I am feeling much less sleepy at my desk during work.
