# Armour and Cortef combo



## audrealjade (Mar 29, 2012)

Has anyone here successfully cleared their high reverse T3 with a combo of Armour and HC or Cortef? That is what I am on right now and I see my temps climbing up but I still feel exhausted. Only have been on the meds less than three weeks though. I'm at 1 1/2 grain of Armour and 20mg of Cortef. 
My reverse T3 ratio was 6.3.


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## bigfoot (May 13, 2011)

Mine is 6.6 -- my doc's office is proposing taking Naturethroid in addition to Levoxyl, as well as an adrenal support supplement in addition to an adrenal energy supplement. They said I am in "adrenal stress mode". I have about a million questions for them before starting down that path, and I'm not so sure that approach will work. Only starting checking into this stuff a few days ago.

I have read a handful of strategies for dealing with Reverse T3:

a) Optimize surrounding conditions (liver, adrenal, nutrition, etc.) to allow body to naturally clear rT3.
b) Take a compounded T4/T3 combo with the T3 being slow-release.
c) Taking a compounded T4/T3 combo with the T3 being normal (fast) release.
d) Taking T3 only in larger doses, clearing the rT3, then returning to a combo T4/T3 regimen.
e) Taking T3 only in larger doses, and continuing on with it.
f) Ignoring it altogether, as some docs think it's only a temporary problem.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions out there and ways to deal with it. Here's another website I found about it: http://thyroid-rt3.com/


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## audrealjade (Mar 29, 2012)

I am so sorry you are dealing with this but it is nice to be able to connect with someone in the same boat as me!

I tried T3 alone a few months ago without adrenal support and I felt like I was dying. It was awful. So then my doc put me on Cortef and Armour. So far I've noticed a few improvements in fatigue, chest tightness, air hunger and depression but I've still got a long way to go. The most debilitating to me is the brain fog and derealization (feeling like I'm in a dream). I cannot wait for the mental side to go away.

My doc feels like the RT3 is made because of the adrenal problems and by supplementing those in combo with the Armour it will clear the RT3. But I am in the RT3 yahoo group and Stop the Thyroid Madness group and both say the only way to clear is through large T3 doses. It is so confusing and all I want is to make sure I'm doing the right things but my temps are telling me I'm progressing! The past few days they have been 98.6! But I'm still exhausted!


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## audrealjade (Mar 29, 2012)

I wish there were more people coming back with their success stories about clearing reverse T3. I really want to make sure I am doing the right thing with this combo. It is so scary waiting and feeling so bad for so long. But my temps increasing has to be a good sign.


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## lizzm (May 21, 2012)

I was told that I had a very high Reverse T3 and I am on a compounded T3 medication only, I am 3 weeks into my treatment and I can feel a difference in my energy, mood ,etc..

Everybody's body are different the way they absorb and convert medications. The way the T4 only drug (Levoxyl, Synthroid, Levothyroxine) breaks down or expected to break down is your body is supposed to convert the T4 to the T3 that your body needs but not everyone does that. Your thyroid produces T4,T3, RT3, T2 & T1. The most active thyroid hormone is T3 that is the one that the cells uptake. So when the T4 converts you get T3 & RT3. The Reverse T3 looks identical to T3 and it makes its way to the cells and blocks the T3 from getting absorbed. The RT3 wrecks havoc on your system because you are not getting the T3 you need and the RT3 holds on to all the extra fat which makes it impossible to lose weight and it makes it harder for your body to properly convert T4 to T3.

My newest doctor educated me about all this and he said the more T4 I put in my body the more RT3 my body will make he said that it will take at least 2-3 months being on just T3 to clear my body of the RT3 and get back to normal. I go back at the end of August so I will see how much my levels RT3 number goes down. I wasn't put on an extremely high dose of T3 he did some math to comparing my T4 to start the T3 so the way it sounded is it is a similar dose to what I was on.

I hope you feel better soon


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

lizzm said:


> I was told that I had a very high Reverse T3 and I am on a compounded T3 medication only, I am 3 weeks into my treatment and I can feel a difference in my energy, mood ,etc..
> 
> Everybody's body are different the way they absorb and convert medications. The way the T4 only drug (Levoxyl, Synthroid, Levothyroxine) breaks down or expected to break down is your body is supposed to convert the T4 to the T3 that your body needs but not everyone does that. Your thyroid produces T4,T3, RT3, T2 & T1. The most active thyroid hormone is T3 that is the one that the cells uptake. So when the T4 converts you get T3 & RT3. The Reverse T3 looks identical to T3 and it makes its way to the cells and blocks the T3 from getting absorbed. The RT3 wrecks havoc on your system because you are not getting the T3 you need and the RT3 holds on to all the extra fat which makes it impossible to lose weight and it makes it harder for your body to properly convert T4 to T3.
> 
> ...


This is a great post; thank you!!


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