Keep taking your temp the whole time, not just after two weeks - also take your heart rate. While you do have a heart condition, it's important you understand that being hypo is just as dangerous as being hyper. So take it slow, but don't let yourself get stuck at hypo because of blood tests if you still don't feel good. Blood tests are a bad indicator of thyroid status, chances are if you still feel hypo, you are hypo.

You know, I'm not sure temperature is the end all test. I haven't seen mine go up at all and I'm taking 4g of Armour now. I feel pretty good at the moment, but my temps are pretty low still.

I would definitely track your heart rate though! Mine tends to go up if I get too much thyroid. I would get palpitations too, difficulty sleeping and other hyper symptoms.

Every time I increase, I seem to get little symptoms very briefly, then they go away.

Your plan seems fine to me, but you might see other hyper symptoms before anything changes on your thermometer.

How low are your carbs these days?

Nat you are right about the heart symptoms. I used to have to take heart medication for tachycardia and when I started on thyroid the tach disappeared. I also used to have lowblood pressure which came up on thyroid too. I will pay attention to both. My doctor encouraged me to increase he said if I do it slowly enough the hyper symptoms would only last a few weeks. I'm just paranoid as the heart symptoms have made my life a misery at times.

Nancy this was my first solid week back LC my carbs averaged to 48/day. I know thats not real low but after eating supersized meals everyday and an embaressing amount of chocolate for nearly 2 years I expected to at least lose a pound of water! I wonder how long it does take your temp to catch up. When I first started on thyroid it was about a year before my temp came up to 98.1- but I felt so good I rarely tested then.

I wouldn't go too low on the carbs, it can affect your thyroid usage. Although, if you can compensate for it by taking more thyroid meds, it might not be a problem.

Really, it took a year? Didn't know that. Well, guess I have something to look forward to many months down the road.

No offence, Nance, but Dr Peatfield and Dr Barnes do and I think they're pretty near god status when it comes to thyroid. I don't remember if you read The Great Thyroid Scandal but Dr P says it can take forever for your temp to come up, it's the LAST thing to change (even after you can lose weight again) and it usually never gets to 'normal' levels.

You don't just track the BBT to see if it gets up to normal, you track to see if it changes at all. Even going from 96.8 to 97.2 is a change worth noting. I read some stuff Lyle researched that every degree below 98.2 is a 7-10% drop in metabolic rate. So knowing your BBT can help you figure out your caloric need as well.

FWIW, it's taken me 10 months to get from a preovulatory bbt of 96.8 to 97.5 ish - edited to say, these are auxilliary temp (under arm). If you're doing oral temps you need to subtract .5F from your results to get to the right reference range of 97.8 - 98.2.

So do I have this right? Take temp daily and heartrate, take note of change as this would reflect changes in metabolism. But the real test is simply that you feel good again?

I know at first I felt such great vitality and the black moods were gone, I talked a lot more because my mind felt active, I walked faster because I didn't have to conserve my energy. I had no desire to take more thyroid because I didn't think it possible to feel better. Is that what I'm looking for?

Yes, ultimately it's how you feel that matters. If you haven't already, get a copy of The Great THyroid Scandal, by Dr Barry Durrant Peatfield.



You felt good then, likely you were good then. But things can happen that cause you to need more thyroid hormone. If you had a functioning thyroid it would compensate by making more T3 and T4 as needed, if you don't you need to make adjustments to your prescription. It's quite normal, btw, to feel great, then to slip back and need more until you get optimized. Keeping track of your BBT and HR can help you see if this is the case - my HR drops when I need more and my BBTS dip. Blood pressure is often an indicator as well.

If you take too much, your body will let you know in many, many ways. I've been hyper-thyroid, it can be unpleasant.