Yesterday, winter officially arrived here in central Minnesota. I care not what the calendar says the season is, it is winter. My deck is covered in an icy mix. That is winter. My driveway is horrific. That is winter. It is bloody cold and windy. That is winter, so we might as well move from Halloween to Christmas as far as I am concerned and, in fact, I did yesterday.
Other than our premature introduction to Old Man Winter everything is pretty normal and chugging along. In the last few weeks I would not have been so bold as to report anything like “normal” but finally things seem a wee bit better and the short, cold days have a lot to do with the changes I experienced.
Old Man Winter and your thyroid
You see a couple of months ago my hands and feet started feeling cold again. My sleep was poor and I was feeling sluggish. After a night’s sleep I would get up and feel like a nap within an hour. One could put this all down to getting older but as you may know I don’t accept that excuse.
So I started taking my temperatures again and was horrified to see my daily high was under 98F degrees (one day it was 97.6) and my low or basal temperature was good if it hit 97F. What???? Needless to say, I increased my T3 by 6.25 mcg.
I stayed at that dose (56.25 mcg) for a week or more and kept checking my temperatures, erratically, but at least once a day. They were still really low, so after a number of weeks I increased again and was now taking 62.5 mcg of T3. I let that dose stabilize for a few weeks and then checked my temperatures again. Ridiculously low. Crikey!
At this point, I opened a new bottle of T3 thinking that perhaps my old bottle had sat unsupervised at customs too long and was rendered ineffective or less effective (probably neither were true). With the new bottle in hand I increased my dose by 6.25 mcg (6.25 mcg being 1/4 of a tablet). That was just a week ago and I recently checked my temperatures at 3:49 in the afternoon, it was 98.6 F. Yea! The next day I checked it in the morning and it was 98.4 F, double hooray. My current dose is 68.75 mcg per day and my temperature at 9:00 this morning was 98.
Why the need to increase thyroid meds and the big fluctuation? Most likely nothing to do with ineffective bottles of your meds nor anything else your mind can conjure up. It is primarily down to the shorter, colder days of autumn and winter. Perhaps because in order to stay warm your body is working harder and that increases the need for T3 or NDT.
Just remember, not only do you need to support your thyroid (meds, exercise, diet, sleep, etc.) through the dark days your adrenals need added support. One way to do this is to add the adrenal cocktail. After all if you increase thyroid meds you put a strain on the adrenals and they,too, will need extra support.
Krisinsight
So the other thing my mind conjured up as a culprit for my sudden need for more T3 is the iodine I started taking about a month ago. I started at a really low dose of 225 mcg which according to Iodine experts is way too low. I justify my low dose because I had a very real concern about taking Iodine after taking large doses several years ago and having my TSH rise to 13, something it has never done before or since.
Little by little I have increased my dose of potassium iodide and am now up to 1000 mcg or 1 mg of Iodine and other than the lowering of my temperatures there are no apparent side effects. It is possible that by detoxing bromide (something that Iodine does) I cleared the receptors in my thyroid and my thyroid suddenly could accept and needed more T3 to run my body efficiently.
This is all pure conjecture as I did not do an Iodine Loading test before I started the Iodine supplementation. If it weren’t for the acknowledged need to increase thyroid meds during autumn and winter and the fact that I started needing more T3 in September (the 17th to be exact and well before I started the Iodine) I might question Iodine’s role in my recent increased need for T3. What is more likely is that Iodine supplementation has contributed to my thyroid needing more T3 but is not the sole reason for my increased needs.
Before I go I must tell you that I have now been attuned to Reiki Master. “Master” to me means I can now teach others how to do Reiki on themselves, their loved ones or their beloved pets in addition to using Reiki’s healing energy when the need arises. I am most grateful to my Reiki Master, Donna Murray and our healing circle which includes Lynette VerBout, Jane Russo and myself. Namaste.
Stay warm and be sure to feed your body what it needs to get you through the dark days of the year.
Santé,
Kris
Kris InSight 