to stop meds?? - Question and Answer Forum - Elaine Moore Graves' Disease and Autoimmune Disease Education

Web Site Search

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

..:: Q & A ::..

THE Q & A

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.

Each thread represents one question with one answer and will only appear at the time it is answered. Once answered, further replies cannot be made to the same thread since each thread represents only one question. A new thread will need to be started for additional questions.

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.

Copying of any posts is prohibited without permissions.

The Q & A with Elaine Moore

Notice: No notices today.

7/21/2010 3:57 PM

Stargazing02

Joined: 2/26/2010

Posts: 29

to stop meds??

Hi Elaine,

I hope you are enjoying your summer! A very quick recap of my Grave's journey:

Diagnosed with Grave's end of January 2010; saw naturopath and started gluten and diary free diet along with many supplements beginning in February 2010. Started on 15 mg MMI for 2 weeks and every 2-3 weeks continued to decrease dose until now. I have been on 1.25 mg MMI every 3rd day for the past 3 weeks with newest results as follows:

TSH: .015 (up from last month .012 when on 1.25 daily); FT4 .9 (up from .8); FT3 2.9 (down from 3.0)

With such minor changes and things being on the low end of normal, plus the addition of symptoms of some minor hair loss, cold feet, and some fatigue, my MD has suggested I stop meds. I know you have said in the past that remission is not achieved unless TSH is normal on a low dose of ATD. I did see the recent Q&A when the man was asking about his wife with the low TSH and normal/low T4/T3. You mentioned subclinical Grave's. Could this be what I have had all along? Would this be noticable in tests I have had done in the past or are there other tests I should have run now? Do you recommend getting off my meds since TSH is not in the normal range?? The last thing I want it to go hyper again as we have now started to also try to get pregnant and I wouldn't want anything to mess with that at this point. What are your recommendations?!

Thank you soooo much for your guidance and support through my journey. I have been successful because of your advice from your website and Q&A. I hope you know how many people you have helped! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

7/21/2010 10:24 PM

Elaine

Joined: 8/1/2008

Posts: 3174

Re: to stop meds??

Hi Star,

Why don't you ask your doctor about Block and Replace? Your labs are similar to Monica's and I just suggested this to her. This would allow you to stay on a low dose of ATDs to help your immune system heal and the thyroid replacement hormone would prevent your becoming hypothyroid. This works well for people who are on the verge of moving into hypothyroidism.

If you had subclinical GD at the onset, you would have had a low TSH with normal thyroid hormone levels at the time of your diagnosis. Best, Elaine

Page 1 of 1

TO USERS: Q&A posts are visible to all readers. Users can delete their own threads at any time. Users must provide information which is true and correct to the best of their knowledge as well as provide sources or references to any health / medical information if not taken from personal experience. All users including the moderator must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Advertising and self-promotion is not allowed. The moderator or site administrator has the right to ban users with or without warning for not following the basic rules of this site. All posts by default are not to be considered that of medical professionals unless otherwise indicated. As sole moderator, Moore has no conflicts of interest in the sponsorship of this forum.

HOME | ARTICLES | BOOKS | BLOG | Q&A | RESOURCES | ABOUT | CONTACT | SUPPORT

ELAINE-MOORE.COM
Elaine Moore Graves’ Disease and Autoimmune Disease Education
Copyright © 2008-2011 by Elaine Moore. All Rights Reserved.
These pages and their content, including all articles and images are not to be copied, reproduced or printed without written permission. All articles are copyrighted. All images are copyrighted or licensed to use.

SITE LAST UPDATED 23 JAN 2011

ABOUT THIS SITE
This site is self-funded exclusively by Elaine Moore. Moore has no other external sources of funds and receives no monies from government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, Amazon, or other commercial entities to operate this site. There are no conflicts of interest in the operation of this site.
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

DISCLAIMER
The information at this site is true and correct to the extent that all information contained herein about the benefits or performance of any diagnostic or treatment are backed up with scientific evidence such as medical journals, reports, articles, and other relevant materials.The educational information provided within is designed to help users better understand the nature of disease and the solutions available. Nothing contained on this website should be construed as or is intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment. Under no circumstances is a particular treatment recommended and in all cases it is recommended that a physician be consulted for any treatments. Reference to any specific commercial or noncommercial products, services, processes, companies or trademarks does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Elaine Moore does not host any form of commercial advertisement, does not sponsor or endorse any products or services that may have been mentioned at the site. This excludes mention of her own copyrighted materials, articles, and books. The opinions, views and recommendations of individual registered members of this website, specifically as it pertains to personal inquiries at the Q&A forum or comments made to blogs, are their own and do not necessarily represent those of Elaine Moore.