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Showing posts from January, 2020

Finding the Right NDT Dose

Saturday, I quit taking NDT (natural desiccated thyroid) for a while, figuring my problems (pounding heart, feeling hot, lack of energy) were from taking too much. The problems went away, so I was right. Yesterday, I felt great: normal heartbeat, energetic, cheerful...then I went outside after work and felt too cold. My heart started pounding again. I woke up later that night and felt puffiness behind my eyes. This morning I was up a pound and my face was so puffy it looked like Elvis circa 1976. My stomach was rumbling after lunch and sending acid the wrong way. Not wanting to repeat the misery I went through from taking too much NDT, I waited until this afternoon, thought about making absolutely sure my iron and adrenals were straightened out this time, and finally said, screw it, if I don't like taking NDT, I'll stop. So I took 150 mg--and felt better.  My face doesn't look like I need to lay off the peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches. What I'm doing now

Some Good News: Troubleshooting and Mega Potassium Source

Figuring out my endo problems has been hard. Palpitations can be caused by too much or too little potassium, magnesium, iron, adrenaline and T3 (thyroid hormone). Having experimented with the first three, I think I still have too much T3 in my system. That, and I felt a lot better a week ago after taking a break from taking it, then cutting my dose in half. Back when my adrenals were low, eating more carbohydrate made me feel better. It doesn't now. Another sign that the problem is too much T3. Lab tests last week showed almost everything was normal: iron, magnesium, potassium, hemoglobin, and various kidney functions. My fasting glucose was high, though (106); I'm hoping it's because I was in some distress. I'm also hoping that getting my iron straightened out will help downstream functions of adrenals and thyroid. I went about things backwards: first (says Nora Gedgaudas), it's iron, which affects adrenals, which affects thyroid. There's more to it than

Still Figuring out my Endo Problems

Reducing my NDT was a success: the aches and pains are gone and I can sleep at night again. However, my heart started pounding after meals, then between meals, and then I had to lie down after meals or any exertion like bringing a basket of laundry upstairs from the dryer. Google is a lot less helpful than it used to be for finding answers. No matter how I phrase search terms, I get answers involving high cortisol, which I don't have. And the top answers are from corporate pill pushers and official sounding agencies that are adrenal fatigue deniers. I finally found some answers from Nora Gedgaudas's book Rethinking Fatigue , which I heard about over at Jimmy Moore . The second suggestion in the chapter about low cortisol is to check your iron. It's a big deal in adrenal fatigue and thyroid problems. She also says that doing keto is going to be really hard with low cortisol (but to try anyway) and to dig deeper for the source of your adrenal problems. I respect what

Too Much NDT!

Even with lab tests, it's hard to tell if you're dosing yourself right on NDT (natural desiccated thyroid) and adrenals cortex. Palpitations, being hot or cold, aches and pains, fatigue and nervousness are symptoms of high and low levels of both. They can be symptoms of other things, too. Changing only one variable at a time helps; so does changing doses a little at a time. Turns out I've been taking too much NDT and got symptoms of headache, rapid heartbeat, insomnia, and a bit of diarrhea. I wasn't hot, but didn't get cold even when going out in 44 degree weather with no coat. I've stopped taking it for the time being and will start again at a lower dose. 

Intermittent Fasting FAIL? You're Not Alone!

Several years ago, I tried intermittent fasting when it first became all the rage. Result? I was hungry all day and ended up binge eating that night. I'd been on a low-carb diet for quite a while. I now know that the problem was likely low cortisol. I've had symptoms of low cortisol all my life: allergies, wonky blood sugar, sinus infections, and recently, my three-month bout with bronchitis--in the summer. And I'm hypothyroid, a condition that tends to go hand-in-hand with low cortisol. Cortisol helps regulate blood sugar. Without enough cortisol you can get hypoglycemia; your liver won't make enough blood sugar. In other words, I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I had a more stressful job, I also needed some snacks in between. Since about half of people with thyroid problems also have adrenal problems(1), and Syncrap (levothyroxine, a thyroid medication) is the second-most prescribed medication in the US(2), low cortisol must be a pretty common con