I've been taking between 5 and 10mcg of cytomel for at least one year, originally to augment the effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers, which I no longer take.
Question is, waking pulse is usually between 40 and 50, sometimes as low as 39. I'm 31, in relatively good health, and not overweight, but I have many of the other symptoms of low thyroid, such as:
brain fog
poor energy& sleep
dry skin and hair, itchiness
brittle nails
mood problems
occasional palpitations
problems with sense of smell, vision, and hearing
hypoglycemia and sugar intolerance
varying other symptoms
Though I tended to be very overweight as a young person, my problem as an adult (even before the cytomel) is low body weight. Can one be hypo and still be normal or underweight?
Low pulse can be indicative of hypo. You really need to get your TSH, free T4 & free T3 tested to see what is going on.
Cytomel is pure T3. I was once on cytomel, also to help with depression. It ended up having the effect of driving down my T4 levels and making me feel worse.
You should really see someone knowledgeable about thyroid and have all this checked out.
BTW, I am hypo, and while not underweight, I am a normal body weight. Not all hypo's are overweight.
I agree, get your levels checked, you have amny symptoms.
Weight issues does not happen to everyone, I am hypo and underweight.
Get the levels tested that were mentioned above, the free levels should be in the upper 1/3 of the labs range, if not, there is a problem. You may also want to have antibody testing done, TPO, Tg and TSI
Cytomel is pure T3. I was once on cytomel, also to help with depression. It ended up having the effect of driving down my T4 levels and making me feel worse.
Does driving down T4 make one feel worse as a result of total thyroid activity being lower, or because T4 has activity independent of its conversion to T3? I could never quite understand that.
Also, one other question. If someone is hypo and takes a smaller than therapeutic dosage for a prolonged period, does supression of endogenous thyroid through feedback inhibition end lead to lower total levels of T3 and/or T4 than would occur without treatment at all? That is, does thyroid always suppress and replace, or sometimes just supplement, the body's own thyroid production?
I'll get my levels checked in any case. Thanks for the prompt replies.
