T3-monotherapy – Page 2 – Thyroid Patients Canada

How to calculate LT3 vs. LT4 substitution: History had it right

September 19th, 2019thyroidpatientsca11 Comments

During therapy for hypothyroidism, dose adjustments may include changing thyroid hormone pharmaceuticals or combining them in a certain ratio. To prevent overdose or underdose at the new total dosage, a physician will need to estimate the substitution, and later adjust the dose to the individual’s response. The initial calculation needs to be physiologically accurate. Is 100 mcg of levothyroxine roughly metabolically equivalent to 25 mcg liothyronine? or is the appropriate substitution closer to 100 mcg to 35 mcg lioithyronine? The three main thyroid hormone pharmaceuticals and their abbreviations are: What would motivate the integration of LT3 into therapy? For instance, …

2014 ATA Therapy guidelines: 4. Using Synthetic T3

May 14th, 2019thyroidpatientsca1 Comment

This post continues my paraphrase of Jonklaas et al’s 2014 “Guidelines for the Treatment of Hypothyroidism: Prepared by the American Thyroid Association Task Force on Thyroid Hormone Replacement.” Posts in this series: 2014 ATA Thyroid therapy guidelines: 1. Levothyroxine 2014 ATA Thyroid therapy guidelines: 2. Ethics 2014 ATA Therapy guidelines: 3. Desiccated thyroid 2014 ATA Therapy guidelines: 4. Using Synthetic T3 [this post] 2014 ATA therapy guidelines: 5. Research 6. [ not yet published; still in draft form] 7. [ not yet published; still in draft form] As I’ve explained in my previous post, I’ve decided not to let my …

Dirty Money “Drug Short” episode and thyroid T3 Liothyronine

February 12th, 2019thyroidpatientsca2 Comments

In the “Dirty Money” series on Netflix, the “Drug Short” episode (1) helped me understand some of the economic forces that may have influenced T3 / Liothyronine price hikes in the UK. It makes me concerned about the future of T3 pricing in Canada too. This episode focuses on Valeant, a Canadian pharmaceutical company that rose high in the stock market and then crashed. Valeant made their money by buying out other pharmaceutical companies, gutting their research and development arm, and increasing prices on drugs, especially those that had small market share. These “orphan” drugs become transformed into cash cows …

Study the patients who need T3 and are harmed by its withdrawal

January 24th, 2019thyroidpatientsca0 Comments

Clinical trials of T3 (Liothyronine) have been barking up the wrong tree. The limitations of their research designs are now actively harming patients who need T3 medication. Prices for T3 have been rising, medical prejudice against T3 is rising, worldwide T3 shortages are occurring, and patients who truly require T3 are being harmed by denying them access to T3. The worst of this crisis is happening right now in the UK, where the price for T3 is so high that cost is the primary reason for barring access to it. As Dr. Chatterjee says in a recent MedScape news article …

Trials of T3, desiccated thyroid and thyroxine in 1958

November 4th, 2018thyroidpatientsca1 Comment

Here’s my review of this treasure, an article about T3 therapy from the scientific literature in the 1950s… TITLE: “TRIIODOTHYRONINE—Clinical Effects in Patients with Suboptimal Response to Other Thyroid Preparations” — LINK: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1512399/ In this article, “Thirty patients with evidence of hypometabolism or a clinically related condition were given triiodothyronine after suboptimal response to thyroxin or desiccated thyroid.” In other words, these were patients who had low metabolism (heart rate, body temp) OR a clinically related condition such as a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. They didn’t respond well to T4 therapy (synthroid / levothyroxine) or to desiccated (NDT / DTE), so they …