Skipper asked:
>As far as needing T4, does anyone?  Is there a purpose except to turn into
>T3?  I'm on T3 only and I feel as well as I did on Armour.  (If someone
knows
>of a specific use for T4, other than turn into T3 this would be a good time
>to comment.)

I don't know the real answer to this.  I think if you can't convert it into
T3 then it is pretty useless.  On the About.com board, there are several
people who insist that T3 in the blood does not readily cross the blood
brain barrier and that most of the brain T3 comes from T4 converted to T3 on
the spot- in the brain.  I can never figure out why, if this is true, that
the small study published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, found
 that
people who added T3 to their T4 drugs had improvement in sense of well being
and other brain function type issues.

On the other hand, if you do convert T4 to T3, then a combo may be better
because we are not meant to have the same T3 level constantly anymore than
we are meant to have the same heart rate or blood sugar constantly
regardless of our circumstances.  T4 allows for constantly changing T3
levels according to the body's need IF CONVERSION IS NORMAL.  Reverse T3
(RT3) is there normally to prevent us from becoming hyper when the body's
need changes.  If we already have plenty of T3 and then our need decreases,
some of our T4 will be converted to RT3 to keep us in balance.

When I was on slow release T3 only, I sometimes didn't feel quite right-
hard to specifically put it into words.  Taking a little T4 seemed to help.
With T3 only, even if you keep your level steady, there will be times
when
that level is either too much or too little for your body's changing
requirement minute to minute.

I did two cycles of the Wilson's protocol over a period of about 6 months.
I decided after the last cycle that I would try to slowly wean off the T3
and see if I continued to maintain my temperature.  I did for a few weeks
and then it started to drop again.  I got repeat labs after about 8 weeks
and found that my RT3 was higher than ever before- not sure how to interpret
that.  Other labs were pretty much back at baseline for me (low normal TSH
free T3 and free T4).  I decided to try Armour again and started at 1 gr
once per day.  After 1 week, I felt pretty good and noticed that the pain
and stiffness I have had in my big toe joint for over a year, was gone.  It
had not been phased by the slow release T3 even at doses above 100 mcg
twice/day.  This is just a quirky observation and something I didn't expect




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