T3 would be impossible because it will be too big to be transported across the skin no matter what transdermal formula you use...[/QUOTE said:
I'm not quite understanding what your saying here. Could you please explain why it is impossible to use T3 transdermally?
I think that it would work..
Clinical Phase of Study Complete
An Israeli team of doctors has written a paper which indicates that there may
be a blood test for fibromyalgia (Yaron, I., D. Buskila, I Shirazi, I. Neumann,
O. Elkayam, D. Parran and M. Yaron. 1997. Elevated levels of hyaluronic acid
in the sera of women with fibromyalgia. J Rheumatol).
The women have too much hyaluronic acid in their serum. Patients with both
fibromyalgia and myofascial pain seem to have more pain than the sum of the
two. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a component of the “ground substance”, which
may be causing changes in some of us that lead to the presence of geloid masses
in the areas of resistant trigger points.
There is a biochemical in the body called hyaluronidase (H-ase), which breaks
down hyaluronic acid. The production of hyaluronidase can be triggered by the
use of T3 (triiodothyronine), a normally occurring thyroid hormone.
The clinical phase of our double blind T3 study has been completed. There will
be a medical journal article resulting from this study, but it will take some
time to get all the data correlated and write the article, and even longer to
get it published. It is not unusual for several years to pass from submission
to a publisher until the publishing, as clinical studies are peer reviewed.
From a rough preliminary overview, it appears that at least a subset of
patients in the study responded positively to T3 therapy and wish to continue
on it.
It is important to remember that all patients in the study were carefully
screened to have fibromyalgia, chronic myofascial pain and geloid masses. An
initial paper on the presence of geloid masses in a patient with FMS and CMP
was submitted for publication 5/23/00. When it is approved, we will ask for
permission to post the abstract on the website. The geloid masses are, we
believe, a previously undocumented phenomenon which can add considerably to the
pain level, as well as contribute to the resistance to standard therapies.
The use of transdermal T3 is experimental, and must be done under careful
medical supervision. The participants were given written instructions as to
how to use the gel in the throat area, and how to watch for symptoms of
overdose. Studies concerning the use of oral thyroid supplementation have been
done (Lowe, JC. 2000. The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia. McDowell Press:
Boulder CO). There is a paper which describes the use of T3 for fibromyalgia
patients with “normal” thyroid values, and why the standard tests may not
be sufficient (Lowe JC, Cullum ME, Graf LH Jr, Yellin J. 1997. Mutations in the
c-erbA beta 1 gene: do they underlie euthyroid fibromyalgia? Med Hypotheses
48(2):125-35). You can get a copy of this abstract on PubMed. Dr. Lowe has
done extensive work on fibromyalgia patients with normal thyroid values
(euthyroid patients), and he often uses Armour Thyroid or Cytomel, depending on
the patient. It is vital that the doctors involved understand the reasoning
behind this therapy.
The complete details of the T3 formulation have been sent to the Professional
Compounding Centers of America (Houston Texas), at 800-331-2498,
http://www.compounders.com . The contact person is Jim Paoletti. It is T3 in
a gel base. To save on cost, it can be made up as T3 in a 15 micrograms in
0.1 cc formulation, which is the dosage we used in the study. Participants
used 15 micrograms a day. Remember that this is an experimental usage, for
patients with all three conditions–FMS, CMP and geloid masses. We do not
know what the effects of long-term transdermal T3 are. There is some early
indication that we have to be careful where the gel is placed, as hyaluronic
acid does many things in the body. To find the closest compounding pharmacist
near you, contact the Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (Houston also), at
800-927-4227. Compounding pharmacy is a lot like trigger point myotherapy.
There a lot of people who say that they do myotherapy, but the results are not
the same as going to a graduate of the Myofascial Trigger Point Academy. If
your insurance will not cover the transdermal form, there is an oral form of
T3, Cytomel, but you may require a higher dose, as it could be much less
effective. Oral medications must go through the liver, which breaks them down.
Dosage titration would require careful attention by your doctor.
We want to thank all of those who send contributions to make this study
possible. We are all volunteers, and it was a blessing to have the costs of
the T3 and placebo covered. Thank your for your support in this study.
We’ll keep you posted as the study paper progress.
Devin Starlanyl