Sleep disturbances

[pseudoecho]

Well, I lowered my dose of Levoxyl to 37.5 mcg and I am taking it with food. I still have loose stools even with the food. And also, I wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep and toss and turn for the rest of the night. Should I take an even lower dose? What is the minimum levoxyl comes in?

These are my lab results:

TSH- 5.86
Free T4-1.1
Thyroglobulin AB-38.1
THyroid Peroxidase AB-169

[Red Maple]

I had a similar problem to yours for several years before I connected it to my thyroid dosage. I was taking synthroid at 112 mcg (a T4 medication similar to levoxyl). Even if I took a lower dosage of synthroid, I would still wake up at about 2 AM and toss and turn the rest of the night; and the next day feel awful because of hypo symtoms from a lower dose of synthroid, and not getting a good night's rest. I started seeing a new endo and he did a full panel of endocrinology blood tests. To make a long story short, my FT3 was very low (below range). He started me on a small dose of cytomel along with the synthroid. After just a few days on the cytomel I started to sleep the whole night through in a deep and restful sleep. That was last November and since then I have settled in to a dosage of 100 mcg of synthroid and 7.5 mcg of cytomel. (the cytomel comes in 5 mcg pills, and I cut one in half for the other 2.5). At that dosage most of the hypo symptoms have been relieved, including lack of energy, and have slept very naturally ever since then. The relief of the sleeplessness has been a great benefit to adding T3 for me.

[pseudoecho]

Would armour have a similar effect since it is t3 and t4 or does the synthroid/cytomel combination work in another way? Thank you.

[GCC]

Yes, Armour should help.

When you take Cytomel or Armour the adrenal insufficiency will likely show itself more than on T4 only meds like Synthroid.

The adrenal hormones are needed for the body to use the thyroid hormones properly. They are also needed to do lots of other things that cause symptoms even when you are only on Synthroid.

Examples of these are...
temperarure regulation (if you have a worse time adjusting to hot or cold),
blood pressure regulation- if your blood pressure drops to much when you stand (because normally adrenal hormones help this),
get upset & emotional easily- adrenals help with this,
sudden loud noises are worse- another stress that adrenals help with...


Get the picture, adrenal glands are the fight or flight glands.

They help with any stressful situation...including hypothyroidism. They work hard to help the hypothyroid body, or the low T3 body. And then they get pooped (insufficient).

Do a internet search and read about this. This is important. I don't think Synthroid (without any T3) is enough to keep anyone from stressing their adrenals. It is just a matter or time.

[ErinBeth]

Originally Posted by pseudoecho

Would armour have a similar effect since it is t3 and t4 or does the synthroid/cytomel combination work in another way? Thank you.

Armour does seem to work for many whose bodies don't seem to convert enough T3 from T4 supplied. Some who try it find the T3 to T4 ratio is too high for them and adjust that one of two ways:

1. Reduce the Armour and add some synthetic T4
2. Switch to synthetic T4 (Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, Unithroid, etc.) and synthetic T3 (Cytomel) as Red Maple did. If you look at her post history, you'll see she did try Armour and had trouble with it.