slow release t3

[jan jan]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and did not get better on thyroxine.My endocrinologist in 1998 agreed that I needed to take T3,due to non conversion of T4.He also agreed to me taking armour thyroid.He was VERY understanding and so is my GP. I have recently changed to ERFA which is better than the recent armour thyroid. This treatment is not giving me a totally normal life , due to highs and lows in my day and I wonder if slow release T3 is the answer. When will this be available in this country? Dr Toft in his book mentions this.

[Dr Petros Perros]

There are some products I believe that are available on the internet, which are marketed as slow T3. About 5 years ago I made contact with one of the pharmacies in Canada who made and sold such a product. I was deeply disappointed for two reasons. 1. It seemed that all they did was to mix T3 with methylcellulose, put it in a capsule and sell it at a phenomenal price, 2. they had absolutely no data to show that indeed this product was absorbed more slowly than plain T3.

A research team in one of the universities in the UK is working on this and are going about it in the right way, ie they are doing all the necessary studies to show that it is indeed absorbed slowly and it is yielding a profile in the blood which is mimicking the normal situation. Once this is achieved, the next step it to test it in hypothyroid patients and see if it truly offers an advantage over levothryoxine. I am sorry I am not certain what the timescales are.

P