I don't suggest Slimfast as it contains quite a bit of Iodine. For many of us with Graves' Disease, we need to avoid Iodine or we will get hypER from taking it.

Instead, I suggest you try to work with doses reductions of the ATD (antithyroid drug) as needed. It will help you get your Free Ts back up where it should be.

Informing your doctor of the plan would be a good idea.

{{{hugs}}}

Hi Brook,

Sorry your still not feeling right. I agree with Linda, this sounds very much like your thyroid levels are a bit too low for YOUR needs. When that is happening it slows down everything in your body, metabolism yes.. but also your digestion ( you can not properly make use of the nutrition you consume) so then like dominoes, everything else starts not running properly. This is what happened to me in the early years, and my downfall was slow and steady. I ended up so malnourished it was a struggle just getting through a day.

For me, I finally had to look seriously at my FT4 and be willing to adjust my dose downward, ever so carefully, and only after I fully understood exactly how my FT4 and ATD worked. Come to find out.. the small shifts I made resulted in my feeling like a whole new 'normal' person. Amazing how such small changes could make such a big change.

You have enough experience now, it really is okay to think of doing that. I would not advise a brand new patient the same way.

Let's look closer at your lab results . When you post your FT4 do it like this:

FT4 1.50 ( .78-1.78 )

Now as far as the slimfast... we used to have a Wall of Shame, where we listed the stupidest things our endos had said. LOL, and this slimfast instruction qualifies. Really, really stupid.

Slimfast not only has too much iodine for us, it is made with genetically modified soy ( Round Up Ready soy crops are needing extra sprays of the herbicide now, due to building up resistance..so the soy is soaked in Round up...95% of all the soy used in the USA is RR Ready soy now) , the main ingredient, with various artificial flavors ( potentially extra MSG) and lots of aspartame to sweeten the flavor. Its all lumped together and officially called "synthetic food ingredients ".

Most of us have discovered at least one of these ingredients does affect our thyroid levels and our need for larger dose of ATDs. Many also find one or more of these ingredients does affect our TED ( that's how I finally became a believer..my eyes don't lie to me)

Yes, many people can use this product, but those folks don't have Graves' antibodies.

I admit useing slimfast for a couple months before I was diagnosed. Not for weight loss, but because I just felt like taking time to cook and eat was less important than other things in my life. BIG mistake. It takes more than one cause for our Graves' to flare up, and I have always strongly believed my slimfast was part of my reason for finally being diagnosed.

How about jump starting your quest for better thyroid levels ? Nothing replaces that.

Yep.. Wall of Shame for this slimfast comment. :(

Hi Linda,

So I started out trying to look up the ingredients, but got sidetracked.

___ synthetic food ingredients ----

Apparently that IS what they call the stuff....look here where a slimfast rep tries to defend selling the stuff.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050305101003/http://www.slim-fast.com/atd/view_answer.asp?qid=34&cid=9&pn=0&rec=10

Yes.. they say it doesn't cause cancer.. but really..how does that equal healthy for you ? That seems to be the sales pitch and obviously customers are trusting enough to not even try to understand what was said there. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

The link goes to the wayback machine, so it takes a minute to load....just wait.

Never mind.. I can't get the link to post correct here. Just trust me. LOL

For the non-gardeners , here are the basics on Round-Up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_%28herbicide%29

I think you may find several interesting subjects there. Keep in mind, lots of soy was grown long before Round-Up, when the debate concerning it's use comes up. Yes, Round-up does increase yield. But to those that insist this is the way to feed the world...it's not the amount of food available, it's their governments control over the food in the starving countries. Increasing the yield is pointless for that problem. The increase in yield is really just about $$$. Certainly not about our health or the environment. Yes, this is off the topic, but there is plenty there that IS on topic. Take a peek.

wow thanks for every one's feedback. I thought it was nuts and did a little research. I've just gained so much weight and she upped my ATD causing me to gain more.
I've included my entire lab list to date showing the fluctuation and trying to find the right dosage. last 3 months she had me at 15 mg but I took 12.5 since I thought it was too high. She wants me to stay at 15 since my #s are off.
Any suggestion on dosage. I've tried to play with it but as you can see I was doing well at 10 ( but took myself down to 5 and it cause me to go hyper causing the dr to put me at the 15)...

I just want to have stable labs and get this weight off. I played soccer and ate next to nothing and that didn't work... Thankfully my TED is good these past couple of months,. I feel fine, but some days friends say I talk fast and am hyper.

dt drugs TSH 2.97 mid T4 Free 1.11 mid T3 Free 3.1 mid wt tsi

may be hard to follow but here it is copied from excel

drugs TSH 2.97 mid T4 Free 1.11 mid T3 Free 3.1 mid wt tsi less than125
0.34 - 5.60 (0.3 - 3.0 better rng) 0.58-1.64 2.3-3.9



5 mg methimazole, 10 mg propanelol 0.01 2.19
0.04 2.18 24.2
10 mg methimazole / 25 mg atenelol
20 mg methimazole (7/23 RAI uptake ) 0.01 1.37 119 241 H

30 mg methimazole 0.01 1.26 128
20 mg methimazole 13.8 0.6 2.1 132
20 mg methimazole 0.68 0.66 3.9 135
vit D2 1.25 mg (50000 units) wkly
15 mg methimazole 1.28 0.58 3.1 139
10 mg methimazole
10 mg methimazole 0.4 1.2 3.5 139
10 mg methimazole 0.09 1.96 6.8 144
10 mg methimazole 0.05 1.38 5.8
15 mg methimazole 0.02 1.5 4.1
15 mg methimazole 0.08 0.09 341 t3 not free (87-178) 145

Pam is very correct and that link is as well. I see it everyday. Roundup is used on the farm I work at. We plant the corn and when its about 6 inches high they spray roundup. The roundup kills the weeds but not the corn...crazy eh! I questioned it's use and it was not received well. Farmers are very defensive about it. My boss explained to me that it wasnt actually a herbicide...it was an artificial fertilizer that causes the weeds to grow so fast the self destruct...hmmm...I didnt buy it then and I still dont...but...I think they do. They go by what the sales man tells them. Aarrgg!

I thank Pam for stepping to list just how bad Slimfast and Roundup is as well as for dairy to input about the Roundup. Yes, I did know all about these things mentioned about these. This is why I only strive to eat organic non gmo foods now. My thyroid acts wonky with gmo foods.

As for brooksteen - the one reason why your doctor has upped the MMI (Methimazole) for you is to try to mistaken get the TSH to come up. Unfortunately the TSH is affected by thyroid antibodies.

It's the Free T3 and the Free T4 one must look at to dose any meds by,

My suggestion is to find another doctor who doesn't look at the TSH to get it to come up and looks at the Free Ts.

{{{hugs}}}