Can you have normal T4 and high T3?

dea4

It is possible, are you not on any T3 meds? If not there may be another cause, so I would post this question to MEEP.

Meep

Well, Generally speaking, it is more common to be hyper on T3 than T4. Usually, if your T3 is too high, your T4 production drops due to the hypothalamus and pituitary seeing too much thyroid hormone and lowering your TSH.

When this happens, you may have some hyper symptoms fomr the T3 being over the top, but still have hypo symptoms because T4 is too low and some symptoms simply cannot absorb T3.

If you are hyper due to Graves, the best bet is thyroid gland ablation or removal. OUCH.

If you are hyper because of Anti Thyroglobulin antibodies, this is usually transient and should eventually pass, but will likely come back in waves, too. In either case, anti-thyroid meds can be prescribed as a temporary measure--sometimes even permanently, though this is unusual, as far as I know.

Sometimes a block and replace methid is used where you take an antithyroid med to lower your thyroid gland's activity. What these meds do is reduce your T4 to T3 conversion, AND lower your T4 production. Then, to make up for any lack of thyroid hormone this might cause, you can take a thyroid medication to bring T3 and or T4 up to where they should be.

If you are hyper due to too much meds, reduce you rmeds and re-check in two weeks if you reduced a T3 med and 6 weeks if you lowered your T4.

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Danny

I am not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on TV...

miller01

I am hypo and taking .075 levoxyl. My T4 was within normal range (if there is such a thing) and my FT3 was at the higher end of normal. Could there be another problem somewhere within the hippo and pit axis?????? I do have alot of anxiety. Any tests that could help? I've been having problems with my hands going to sleep at night. That is also what happened to me when I switched to Armour one time. That tells me that something is going on with my T3......HELP here, please. Any ideas?

How can one be hypo yet have high T3....explain that one.

Anything I can take to reduce FT3?????? Just a thought...

abigchocoholic

My hands used to go to sleep when I slept-- every single night. For me, it means not enough thyroid. I now take armour which helped me tremendously over synthetic because it took away the brain fog. But even at 2 grains, my hands fell asleep at night. I built up my dose to 3 grains. I did it by taking some every couple hours in the morning. Now, I can even take 3 1/2 to 4 grains if I want. That's a boatload of thyroid, but hey, whatever, it works.

Having your hands go to sleep every night is not normal. It's not high thyroid because that increases the heart beat-- blood pumping. It's low thyroid because your heart isn't pumping enough to to the extremeties. Take armour and build up until you feel normal again.

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choc

miller01

Thanks for your replies!

One note, I do have hashi, TPO antibodies.

I took Armour before and after two weeks I couldn't stand the pain that i was having in my hands AND legs while sleeping. I would wake up with the worse arthritic feeling in both! Took myself off and went back on levoxyl, thinking it was the T3 causing it. Now, thinking back, maybe it was that I wasn't getting enough T4, since Armour contains less T4, and I was taking 30 grams...(I think) after coming off the .075 levoxyl.

What would happen if I took Armour and knowing that my t3 is high? ND said that taking cytomel or t3 would make me more anxious.

My labs are within range for TSH, FT4 and FT3. So why are my hands falling asleep ONLY at night???? Don't you think it would happen during the day too? It isn't.


I'm just falling apart!

abigchocoholic

I've been there. Similar thing. I had arthritic pain during the day but not at night. And I am just passing on my experience. My test results always came back with normal range. So what? I didn't feel any better. It wasn't until I found this board in the middle of one sleepless night that I got on the path to feeling better. First if was Armour. Why? Because people that were having my symptons said they felt better on Armour and I was desparate ready to try anything. So I went on Armour and it helped with the brain fog but I still had the joint pain. I thought I was taking too much so I backed off. Joint pain continued. I added a little. Joint pain continued. After a while I just got mad cause it's difficult living in pain all the time. I'm 40 and I felt like my body was 80. So I started taking more. And more. And more.

And I just feel better and better. I don't go get labs done anymore because I really don't care. I want to feel good not have labs n the normal range. I now take 3 grains of armour in the morning and 1/2 gram in the afternoon. I try to take as much as I can in the morning so it wears off by bedtime. I feel much better and I can stay up til midnight if I like. Before I was going to bed at 9 and sleeping 9 hours a night. Sometimes I feel a little jumpy but the trade off is well worth it.

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choc