# NDT Armour Over Medicated Inquiry



## gabbod (Oct 1, 2015)

Hello - I was diagnosed with Hashi's in late April of this year. In May after running a battery of tests my doctor started me on Armour and following dosing protocol along with my levels particularly T3, T4m Ft3 and Ft4 I moved up to 120 mg which I split into 1 grain 2x per day. Everything went great for awhile - lost 10 lbs, the moon face, my energy soared, I wasn't anxious or slightly depressed, everything was fantastic. Then after the first follow up draw my doctor became concerned that I was teetering into hyper range my TSH had dropped from 5.12 to .01 and FT3 to 6.3 and she was concerned I would move hyper but she believes in treating symptoms first numbers second. My most recent draw my Ft3 had drooped to 4.5. Unfortunately what has transpired in the last month and really hit the fan in the past week is I went into hyper overmedicated land with all the fun that brings: Talking too fast/much, getting a bit obsessive over pointless things, bathroom stuff, not eating (yay three pounds down!?!?) and some of the worst anxiety I've had in a half decade. Like fight or flight panic - almost ask my husband for a divorce panic (I like my husband quite a bit thank you). So I called my doctor and she agreed and said drop to 105 mg or 1.75 grains per day, we may end up moving you to 90 and let's start you on a Beta blocker for a bit.

Here's where I'm looking for some feedback: I read that most people have to go through dosage adjustments, it's to be expected. However how long does this period to downgrade take - my doctor said I should start to feel better within a week, but other people of forums say "soon" and so I'd love to hear from someone who's had this same problem. These monkey heebie anxiety attacks are making life miserable and the Beta Blocker knocks me on my butt. If it helps I still have a functioning thyroid even if it's a wonky jerk.

Thanks so much.


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## Ihmsa40 (Jul 21, 2015)

I am sorry I can't help you with the armor....but just wanted to say that I love the "wonky jerk" comment...I also have a "wonky jerk thyroid"!


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Welcome to the Board.

T3 has a half-life of 72 hours so............................a week sounds about right for you to calm down.

What was your starting dose in May; do you recall?


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## gabbod (Oct 1, 2015)

Started at one 60 mg grain split 2/3 morning and 1/3 at night for two weeks then increased up to the two 60s. My doctor was very upfront saying that she thought I might be tricky to dose in her experience based off of size (I know there's disagreement on whether or not your weight changes your dosage needs), my thyroid still being functional and I wasn't so far down the path of Hashi's Heck.

Also I'm starting back on 400mg of selenium, B12, B6, D, a magnesium/zinc/combo and Omega 3 although I'd discontinued these until we were clear what was going on. I'm lucky with my doctor, I like her a lot as a human, her mother has Hashi's and she was infuriated by the way her mother was under treated so she took on learning about female endo stuff.

Thanks for your feedback.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

So you went from 60mg to 120mg in two weeks?


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## gabbod (Oct 1, 2015)

Correct. Probably in hindsight too fast of a jump, but it did the initial trick of bringing my antibodies way down, improved energy, lowered anxiety and so forth. However I now realize I should have seen the signs of hyper really kicking in three or four weeks ago when the anxiety and obsessive thinking really picked up. Hard to acknowledge that when you're going from someone who was pulling a George Costanza and sleeping under her desk at work to feeling like a pistol and dropping the unwanted weight.

So downgraded to 105mg and the Beta blocker. It's day six of the lowered dose I'm still revved up but I can now get a few hours of relief here and there and with the Beta blocker and 1.5 mg of Valium I'm sleeping A LOT which helps. We'll see if that's the magic number or next to 90mg. I need to lose the hyper symptoms without the Hashi's returning.


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## digifem (Sep 25, 2014)

This happened to me with a Synthroid/Cytomel combo. In hindsight, I could feel it coming on for a week or two before it got crazy. I was kind of nauseous, kind of shaky, losing weight, but I felt good for the first time in forever so I figured I was just adjusting. I went for an endo apt. and my TSH was 0.01 with high/normal ft3 and ft4. She wanted to decrease my Cytomel but I freaked out and begged her not to thinking I just needed to adjust (had a few bad experiences with doctors keeping me too low for waaay too long). 3 nights later I had all night insomnia and the following day it hit me HARD. I felt like my every muscle in my body was as tensed up as much as possible and the anxiety was like nothing I've ever experienced. My resting heart rate was 125-140. I tried to cut both doses in half for a few days but it wasn't relenting, then tried cutting cytomel and just taking synthroid, still hyper. I was then told to come off of everything for a week. By day 3 I was feeling pretty normal, by the end of the week I was very hypo. What a rollercoaster.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Actually, a person's activity level dictates the dosage needs. That is why titration can take up to a full year. As you feel better, you become more active. If you don't become more active, it becomes kind of a stalemate and that is not good.

However, weight is important and also the fact that no 2 people respond exactly alike.

Hope you feel better!


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