finding one's setpoint/proper dosing - Question and Answer Forum - Elaine Moore Graves' Disease and Autoimmune Disease Education

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Tuesday, February 07, 2012

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Welcome to The Q&A with Elaine Moore. Registered members are invited to ask any question of Elaine Moore on autoimmune diseases, Graves' disease, other thyroid diseases and subconditions, laboratory work, traditional and complementary medicine, triggers and environmental influences, thyroid and immune disorders in pets and animals, and other relevant areas of inquiry.

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Questions are answered solely by Elaine Moore, a medical writer and clinical laboratory scientist, MT, CLS, with more than 30 years of experience in immunology. Moore has also authored and edited over a dozen books in the area of health sciences and is an editor for McFarland Publisher's Health Topics Series.

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finding one's setpoint/proper dosing

4/21/2009 8:55 AM

Carol

Joined: 1/28/2009

Posts: 79

finding one's setpoint/proper dosing

Hello again Elaine

How much of a "range" would you say there is in one's setpoint? I've been on a bit of a roller coaster ride throughout my almost-2-yr. Graves' journey as a dose reduction would first bring upon relief and then ultimately, I'd feel hyPO and need another dose reduction.

Based upon my experiences, I thought my setpoint was somewhere between FT4 .95-1.15 - especially since a FT4 1.22 in early January had me experiencing hyper symptoms. My MMI dose was increased from 5mg daily (divided into two doses) up to 6.25 mg daily (again in two doses)....last month, my FT4 was 1.04 and I was feeling great.....I am now once again experiencing hypo symptoms, and await the results of my labs done yesterday.

Do you think I "jumped the gun" when I increased my dose when having hyper symptoms? Do levels reconcile themselves? Would you say there is a range in someone's setpoint or does the FT4 value stay pretty much the same once we find our setpoint?

Since I expect my FT4 to show a drop from 1.04, I expect to need a dose adjustment - based upon the information I provided, what would you suggest?

Thanks for all your help!

Carol

4/21/2009 10:26 PM

Elaine

Joined: 8/1/2008

Posts: 3166

Re: finding one's setpoint/proper dosing

Hi Carol,

Our optimal range for thyroid hormone is pretty narrow, ranging only within around 0.3 for FT4 and 0.5 for FT3 (which is measured in much smaller units). But this varies with individuals. It's important not to rush in raising the ATD dose especially if you notice hyper symptoms related to your menstrual period. Similarly if you notice symptoms after eating garlic or seafood or foods you're allergic to you'd want to hold off. You also have to consider that a slight rise in FT3 might be causing symptoms, and in this case increasing your ATD dose could cause FT4 to fall too low.

Symptoms are very important and often offer good information for monitoring the ATD dose but it's also common for people to think of any new symptoms as thyroid-related. They may be, but often it's transient. Normally, we make different amounts of thyroid hormone every day depending on diet, exercise, stress, general health, temperature, other hormones, and all sorts of things. When we're on ATDs or replacmement hormone, our systems don't respond to these changes like they would normally. So we might notice transient changes.

A good idea is to see if symptoms persist for longer than a week and then have labs before changing the ATD or replacement hormone dose. Best, Elaine

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finding one's setpoint/proper dosing

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