[Anonymous]

#1050504

I think I will have to side with your doctors and the pharmaceutical companies on this one. If you were to give synthroid to a person who has never taken synthroid before, it is true that the concentration in the blood may reach a peak at 2 1/2 hours. But you must realize that thyroid hormones exert their effect on the tissues (muscles, brain, etc.) which means that the tissues must take up the hormone and then react to it properly which I’m sure is different for each tissue and who knows how long that takes. And this is just for a person who never has ever been exposed to synthroid. In your case you take synthroid every day and it has a very long half life which means that it hangs around in your body for a while after you take it. Therefore, there is synthroid in your body that you took yesterday and the day before etc. By taking a constant dose each day a “steady state” of hormone is reached in the blood such that the amount that you take is equal to the amount that is getting cleared and therefore the blood level should stay constant and any one dose should not effect the blood level dramatically. I’m not trying to disregard the fact that you feel better after taking synthroid because I have never been on replacement therapy and don’t have any personal experience with this. What you may be feeling is a “placebo effect” of taking a medication. I think up to 33% of the efficacy of a drug can be attributed to a patient just thinking that they are receiving a medication that will help them even though there is no physiological basis for it. For example, if you gave someone who was feeling badly a sugar pill, they might feel better just because they think they are getting medication.
That’s just my two cents worth,
George.

[Anonymous]

#1149416

I can feel my thyroid medicine in an hour. I believe it has to do
with the rate of conversion of T4 to T3, because T3 is the active
form. I have a very fast rate of conversion. I know that some
hypothyroid people can’t feel an increase of medication for 4-6
weeks. Why can’t there be people at the other extreme? One thing
I have learned from Graves’Disease is to trust myself and believe
that what I feel in my body is real. Medical science is still
actually quite primitive in its knowledge and I think there should
be a little more open-mindedness on the part of its practitioners
to the reported effects of drugs by the patients. (george take note!
this could be an opportunity for you to learn what it’s like from
the patient’s side–an invaluable lesson for a doctor). As people
with Graves, we are already not normal, so why should all the
“normal” rules of thyroid metabolism apply to us? And as human
beings with Graves or without, there is a lot of natural variation
in metabolism. I for one would like to be believed about my
experiences in my body. I have no reason to make them up–I am
trying harder than anybody to be well. I am intelligent, rational
more than most people, well-educated, articulate, and very attuned
to my body feelings (I am a massage therapist). I am NOT having
just a placebo response.

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