The treatment of hypothyroidism is a long drawn process which necessitates lifelong therapy subject to the elisions of certain conditions. Initially desiccated thyroid tablets were being used to treat the hypothyroidism.
The desiccated thyroid tablets were made up from the animal thyroid glands which was lacking in the consistency of potency ranging from batch to batch. With the latest discovery of Synthetic Levothyroxin mostly termed as T4, the use of desiccated thyroid tablets was being discarded. Since the pure, unadulterated synthetic T4 is readily available at all the places it is not required to make use of the desiccated thyroid extracts.
T3 is considered as the most active thyroid hormone but still the T4 hormone is being chosen to by the physicians to treat the patients. For most of the patients, T4 commonly known as levothyroxine sodium (levoxyl, synthroid) is the desired treatment as it is considered as the steadiest form of thyroid hormone with the dose of once daily. On the other hand the T3 thyroid hormone is less retentive and shorter acting which requires to be taken in multiple doses a day. Generally for majority of the patients, the synthetic T4 can be easily and effectively converted into T3 in the blood stream itself, wherein the tissues of the body regulates this conversion.
The important considerations at a glance:
•Approximately 1.6 micrograms per kilograms per day is the average dose of T4 replacements in adults. This further transforms into 100 to 150 micrograms per day.
•Children require larger doses of T4.
•The method of thyroid replacement may further intensify the inherent heart condition on about 20 of the cases of the patients suffering from preexisting heart diseases.
•If the patient is young and healthy the treatment can include full amount of T4 replacement hormone which can be introduced right from the beginning.
•In the older patients, in whom the heart disease is not known, starting the treatment with the full dose of thyroid replacement may have serious consequences resulting in chest pain, or cardiac arrest. Therefore the patients possessing the history of heart disease or those who are supposed to be at high risk are treated initially with 25 micrograms or relatively much lesser dose of T4 hormone and thereby increasing the dose gradually at the interval of 6 weeks.
•It is always ideal to take the T4 replacement hormone in the morning just half an hour before the breakfast and all the other medications consisting of antacids or iron should be stopped as they interpose the absorption process.
•The therapy to treat hypothyroidism continues for about six weeks intervals till it becomes stable. The treatment includes checking the blood samples for TSH in order to find the desired amount of thyroid replacement that has to be given. The main objective of the treatment is of maintaining the TSH range within the normal limits. Generally the TSH range varies from 0.5 to 5.0ulU/ml. Once it gets to normal the patient can get it checked on the yearly basis.
Hypothyroidism, if overtreated with high doses of thyroid medication can be fatal leading to problems like, palpitation, osteoporosis and hypertension. So it is always advisable to maintain the TSH level within the normal range.
Author Resource:
At http://hypothyroidismdiet.net/ you can learn more about hypothyroidism and its causes, cures, symptoms and what is the optimal hypothyroidism diet.
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