I am going to give this concept a run and I was wondering if anyone else out there has tried it. Right now I am trying to get the drugs and dosages together to get started. I am reading in Aleck Hercbergs study that he started his patients on 40-50 mg of methemazole and 5 to 6 micrograms of T3. Dr hercbergs sent me an email saying that I could also use cytomel starting at 12 micrograms/day. Just curious to know what other people are doing.
Cytomel is a synthetic form of T3. I believe this is what they are using clinically even though it doesn't specify that in the study.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephen. Dr. Hercbergs wrote me and said the same thing. I am just easily confused. Now its a matter of getting drugs of a relevant dosage to get started.
ReplyDeleteI started calling around to try and find an endocrinologist on my own. I am surprised to find in two local endocrinologist centers, there is one endocrinologist who treats hard tumor cancer patients!! So I am going to go talk to them and see if they will or how they can support me.
Hi Stethman,
ReplyDeletemy wife is taking T3 Trijodthyronin 0,025 mg (one half morning, one half evening) since August 2015. She had a Hashimoto before and was on T4. She switched to T3 and had no problems with it so far.
Thanks Anjok. I've never heard of Hashimoto's disease. I'm glad to hear she is doing well
DeleteI just met with the physician that has prescribed all the off label drugs for my sons cocktail. He is willing to prescribe the meds for the T4 suppression approach. Any updates as to problems or successes with this approach?
ReplyDeleteHi Michael. No news really. I may be having some side effects - a little more awake at night. I reduced my T3 from 25mg/day (one pill) to 18mg/day which is 3/4 of a pill. I take it a quarter at a time 3 times a day. Its been 3 weeks now. I'll get my blood tested next week to see if I've affected my hormone levels. I'll check back in then.
ReplyDeleteI've been taking T3 and methemasole for 5 weeks now. The goal is to get 40% below baseline TSH and T4 levels. My TSH baseline is 1.38 and it is now 0.5!! That definitely achieves the goal. My T4 baseline is 1.1 and it is now 0.6. 40% is around 0.4, so I have a little ways to go here. Dr. Hercburgs is very happy with the progress. I might be experiencing some improvements. I've been having blurry vision problems and they are apparently disappearing. It could be due to this therapy or it could be due to the Optune or both? Who knows. It will be interesting to see what my MRI reveals next week.
ReplyDeleteThe trial in Israel for this therapy is now open.
ReplyDeletehttps://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02654041
Study of Induction of Hypothyroxinemia Adjunct to Conventional Therapies in GBM Patients
Unfortunately, I never made it to the MRI without some craziness. I had two grand mal seizures on the 12th. My blurry/milky vision is back along with some new unsteadiness. I started to go into a seizure yesterday but was able to abort it with some new drugs.
ReplyDeleteThey did do some MRI's which didn't reveal any tumor growth. So that is good news. I couldn't get the hospital to test my T4 levels. So, we will have to wait a couple more weeks for those results. I have upped my cytomel intake to 25micrograms a day just because I missed a day at the hospital and the side effects are not that bad.
My mom has hypothyroidism, she took 10 years hormone T4 25mcg/day. We went to her endocrinologist. She read studies about the suppression of T4 and recommended morning and evening 10mg methimazole and 25mcg Cytomel every morning before eating to quickly suppress T4.
ReplyDeleteWe do so for a week. While there weren't any unwanted effects.
Now I want to increase the dose of methimazole to 15mg twice a day.
If your mom already had pre-existing hypothyroidism, then the methimazole might not be necessary.
DeleteIn this study, simply replacing T4 with T3 (Cytomel) was sufficient in patients with pre-existing hypothyroidism.
"In patients with pre-existent primary hypothyroidism, T3 administration was substituted for T4 replacement" without methimazole. It would be best for you and your mom's doctor to consult with Aleck Hercbergs if pursing this therapy (his email is listed on this study title page).
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/20/1/72.long
By the way, I found a lot of articles with an interesting conclusion about Metformin and thyroid hormones!
ReplyDeleteLong-term use of metformin leads to a decrease in the level of hypophyseal TSH and the development of hypothyroidism.
Researchers analyzed 74,400 patients with diabetes who took metformin or sulfanylurea derivatives to monitor blood glucose. In 5,600 participants in the experiment, hypothyroidism was detected.
When analyzing the findings, the researchers found that patients who took metformin had a 55% higher risk of hypothyroidism.