# TSH 0.005 and I feel great!? (ArmourThyroid)



## Wenzel4g (Jun 6, 2016)

Just looking for some advice here. I have a medical degree background, just not in endocrinology.

41yof here. In 2005 I had my thyroid radiated due to Graves' disease that did not respond to medication. I was on Synthroid for 10 years, but always felt horrible. I finally decided to try Armour. My PCP had no idea what he was doing and started me at 30mg QD. After 3 months he increased me to 60mg. Three months later my TSH was literally 42uIL/mL and I felt terrible. Hair falling out in clumps gaining weight and sleeping all day. I switched doctors and she increased me to 120mg of Armour. 6 weeks later I was feeling somewhat better, but still generally crappy and tired all of the time. My repeat labs my TSH was still high at 6.42, and very low normals of fT3 at 2.7 and fT4 at 0.84! She decided to leave me at 120mg Armour (60mg BID). I increased myself to 180 and within a week I felt perfect. It has been three months and I feel better than I have since 2005! I have ZERO side effects of being hyper. I sleep well. My HR and BP are normal and I don't have hot flashes. My labs the other day my TSH was rock bottom at 0.005 uIL/mL, my fT3 was slightly elevated at 5.2 and my fT4 was normal at 1.54.

Is my TSH at 0.005 a problem in the presence of feeling great and normal fT4 and slightly elevated fT3 (which is a volatile component of natural thyroid preparations like Armour)?

I've studied this article from the Cleveland Clinic http://www.ccjm.org/view-pdf.html?file=uploads/media/media_503120d_803regarding differential diagnosis regarding low TSH and it appears that this may be a common result with the use of natural thyroid preparations.

Do I need to step back to 150mg Armour and see if I start to feel hypo symptoms again or is it ok to have a low TSH if I feel good and do not have symptoms of being hyper?

Any advice (other than see your doctor, that's scheduled for Friday) would be appreciated. 
Thank you so much!


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Low TSH on desiccated thyroid hormone is expected...and is more or less irrelevant.

What is relevant is your slightly elevated free t3. Ideally, your free t3 should be about 75% of the range.

Do you have any hyper symptoms? Could you post your labs with the reference ranges?


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## Wenzel4g (Jun 6, 2016)

Thank you for your reply! And my apologies, I tried to upload my lab values as an attachment that didn't go through. They are as follows:

3/1/2016 120mg Armour 
TSH 6.42 (0.45-4.500)
fT3 2.7 (2.0-4.4)
fT4 0.84 (0.82-1.77)

6/1/2016 180mg Armour
TSH 0.005 (0.45-4.500)
fT3 5.2 (2.0-4.4)
fT4 1.54 (0.82-1.77)

Dosing is twice a day with no meds the morning of bloodwork, which if taken skyrockets the fT3 due to its fast absorption and quick half-life.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

You are certainly over medicated. Did you have any dose increases between 120mgc and 180mg? If so, do you have any labs from then?


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## Wenzel4g (Jun 6, 2016)

If you read my entire original post I did not have any dosages between 120mg and 180mg. My doc wanted to leave me at 120 even though I felt like crap and my TSH was high and my fT3/4 were low. I self increased to 180mg.

I did have an issue with one set of lab tests where the fT3 was high and that was before I learned that the absorption and half-life of the T3 component in Armour is volatile, hence the twice a day dosing suggestion from the producers of Armour.

With my fT4 perfect, and my fT3 slightly high, im suspecting it's partially responsible from my evening dose. (I skip morning dose on labs day now) once I took my morning dose 2 hours befor bloodwork and my fT3 was 11.1!!! After learning that I was supposed to skip it until after bloodwork the repeat a week later was only 2.7 (on the same 120mg but only once a day at that time).

Again, I'm having ZERO hyper symptoms. Feel great. Don't need a pot of coffee to stay awake during the day at work. Don't need a nap when I get home from work. I have a decent appetite. I sleep well. I don't have hot flashes. My heart rate and blood pressure are normal.

I'm considering cutting back to 150 for a few weeks just to see if I still feel good and what my labs look like. I'm not overly concerned with the fT3 as I think that's from the evening dose. Next time I will also skip that one too before labs. I was just overly shocked by the TSH of 0.005.... But again, the paper referenced in the link above from the Cleveland Clinic says that may be normal from using natural desiccated porcine hormone.


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## WhatHappened (Nov 12, 2015)

I would wonder if you are/might soon be converting some extra FT3 to reverse t3 (T3)? Everyone is different, but if you can get the same result on a lower dose, why not? And remove the worry of going hyper while you are at it.


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

NDT will naturally lower the TSH, sometimes to crazy looking numbers (my last TSH was .006). You can pretty much ignore TSH once you go on NDT, but you do need to keep an eye on that FT3 number. That's a little too high, even if you did skip your evening dose. I've read online recently that doing labs about 12-15 hours after your last dose is best. What time do you take your evening dose and what time did you do labs?


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