Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate
  • Edward R. Arnold
    Edward R. Arnold

    When T3 Cures Back Pain

    Reviewed and edited by a celiac disease expert.

    Journal of Gluten Sensitivity Winter 2010 Issue. NOTE: This article is from a back issue of our popular subscription-only paper newsletter. Some content may be outdated.

    When T3 Cures Back Pain - Image: CC BY-SA 2.0--planetc1
    Caption: Image: CC BY-SA 2.0--planetc1

    Celiac.com 11/29/2019 - In previous issues of The Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, I told the story of how life-long celiac disease had caused me to experience a severe health-crisis rooted in hypothyroidism, and how hard I found it to get a correct diagnosis and treatment.  This piece picks up the story at its very end, where I found a serendipitous outcome as a result of doing my own research and taking charge of my own treatment.  

    In fall 2008, my single-minded concentration on my thyroid issues had to take a back seat to another problem I could no longer ignore.  Since 1984, I had been having problems with back pains that were sometimes nagging and sometimes intense.  The reason for this wasn’t clear; I had never had a severe auto accident or any fall more severe than falling off a bicycle.  I had managed to treat this problem with visits to a chiropractor.  After a severe pain attack in 2008, I finally decided it was time to thoroughly investigate what the problem was.  

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A12):
    X-rays from multiple angles, and an MRI, showed a pretty messy situation.  I had a herniation at L3-L4, and degeneration at L4-L5 and L5-S1.  A visit with an M.D. orthopedist specializing in spinal issues quickly made it obvious that conventional medicine didn’t have much to offer, and the probability of a successful outcome from expensive, life-disruptive surgery was low.  

    I finally elected to do spinal decompression therapy with a reputable chiropractor who has a long record of ethical treatment.  Three months of therapy were sufficient to produce improvement, but I still did not feel “cured”.  A fall or jolt could cause pain and instability to return.  

    As I lay on the decompression table thinking about what could have caused this problem, the truth was soon obvious.  I had already read that celiac patients often have problems related to bone and connective tissue degeneration.  It seems obvious now that hypometabolism due to thyroid failure stretching over more than 17 years, multiple endocrine deficiencies, and many years of severe nutritional deficiencies stemming from gluten enteropathy, are the culprits to blame for this problem.  Being under constant pressure, it is difficult for the body to repair the lower back; under the conditions caused by gluten poisoning, repair becomes impossible.  

    As 2008 was coming to an end, a net-friend casually asked me if I had considered Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome (or “Reverse T3 Dominance” as it is called outside the USA).  I visited the Wilson’s website, ordered the books, and studied the theory carefully.  I already knew I had hypometabolism because my body temperature tended to stay rather low, usually just over 97F, and sometimes even as low as 96.3F basal (upon awakening).  But, a generation of doctors who had learned to make fun of the late Broda Barnes M.D.  and his temperature theory, were in the habit of not noticing sub-normal temperature in their patients; or if they did, stating that it didn’t matter.  So, it seemed like the Wilson protocol, with low temperature a primary diagnostic prerequisite, might be worth a try.  After all, I had tried (what seems like) almost everything else.  

    In January 2009, I went off T4 completely and began taking a combination of immediate-release and sustained-release T3 (triiodothyronine), along with a daily B-12 lozenge to blunt the “rush” from immediate-release T3.  T3 is the thyroid hormone which the body actually requires.  The fact that T4 is used successfully with many hypothyroid patients means that they have sufficient quantities of ferritin, cortisol, the deiodinase thyroid conversion enzymes, etc.  Patients who don’t have the correct biochemistry, suffer because their bodies convert too much T4 into Reverse T3 in a mis-guided, maladaptive attempt to get rid of excess T4.  

    The result of T3-only therapy on brain function was astounding! Once I had been off T4 10 days, and on T3 doses of 20-25mcg per day for a week, the brain fog and motivation problems I had had for nearly 20 years, simply went away.  The conclusion was obvious: in addition to the glandular hypothyroidism I had acquired from the effects of gluten, I had “Reverse T3 Dominance”, a (usually) stress-caused disorder in which the body converts too much of its T4 to rT3.  rT3 is a compound which is the chemical mirror-image (reverse) of T3, but has no biological activity, other than to block thyroid receptors from receiving T3.  The protocol described by Wilson is difficult; I went though one cycle of loading the body with sustained-release T3 and found it eventually produced hyperthyroid symptoms.  It soon became obvious that, in addition to being difficult, there was much about the Wilson Protocol that was simply illogical.  

    Within a couple months after starting T3 therapy using the Wilson protocol, I learned it was possible to use only non-time-release T3 (Cytomel) with equally good results.  The leading proponent of this approach is John Lowe, D.C..  I worked my total Cytomel dose up as high as 190 micrograms/day while I was still in the process of clearing rT3.  Once rT3 was mostly cleared, I quickly went hyper and began dropping my dose, finally ending up at my current dose of 60 micrograms/day.  This dose produces the desired blood FT3 level of 5-8 picograms/ml.  On this program, I not only feel energetic during the day and sleep well at night, but my weight dropped to where it should be (165 lbs.).  

    As my treatment progressed during the year 2009, I would discover a totally serendipitous and welcome side-effect of T3 therapy.  By June 2009, I became conscious that my back no longer felt as painful and instable as it had.  This was proved in Sep 2009, when I was slammed to the ground in a freak mountain-biking accident.  My back did not go into spasm, and recovered fairly quickly.  By Nov.  2009, I was no longer having any back pain or instability.  

    I still had lingering effects from celiac-caused degeneration, which became obvious in Aug.  2009 when I had an osteoporosis evaluation requested by my regular doctor.  He had become suspicious about whether the back problems were related to osteoporosis.  The finding of bone density at 0.75 grams/square-centimeter in the neck of my right femur was clearly osteopenic and very close to osteoporosis.  This was not a surprising finding; I was expecting a problem.  A saliva test of adrenal function, also conducted in August, showed that my adrenals were still awakening in the middle of the night.  This is a common effect of previous long-term hypothyroidism, which can be expected to gradually get better, and it has: sleep quality was continuing to improve through the end of 2009.  

    In Nov. 2009, the chiropractor who had been administering my decompression treatments was amazed at my progress.  He had thought I was “fragile” when I started treatment with him in Oct 2008, but was now amazed at the increase in leg muscle strength when he tested me on his table.  He was definitely interested in what T3 had done to me ...  and probably a bit disappointed that I no longer need decompression treatments! 


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Guest Chris

    Posted

    I am currently in the same position as you. How did you find a Sustained Release T3 medication, that is Gluten Free, I have been told by the pharmacy that the compound they use to make medication Sustained Release contains gluten? Why did you need to dose the Cytomel so high, shouldn’t around 25mcg have been a replacement dose, suppressing your TSH and T4, flushing out the RT3?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Scott Adams

    The article is from a 2010 issue of our paper publication, so it's doubtful the author will respond.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites


    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Donate
  • About Me

    Edward R. Arnold

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):





    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):




  • Related Articles

    Jefferson Adams
    Celiac.com 06/08/2007 - In the first study, doctors Ibrahim S. Alghafeer, and Leonard H. Sigal conducted a routine gastroenterology follow-up of 200 adult celiac patients. Arthritis was present in 52 of 200 patients, or 26%. The arthritis was peripheral in 19 patients, Axial in 15 patients, and an overlap of the two in 18 patients. The doctors found that joint disease was much less common in those patients who were following a gluten-free diet (1).
    A related study by Usai, et al found that 63% of patients with celiac disease show axial joint inflammation (2).
    In that study, doctors conducted bone scintigraphy using 99m Tc methylene diphosphonate. 14 of these patients (65%) signs compatible with sacroiliitis. 11 of the 14 suffered from low back pain. In five of the 11 patients...


    Jefferson Adams
    Does Science Back Powerful Claims by Gluten-free Athletes?
    Celiac.com 11/25/2013 - More and more professional athletes are claiming to reap benefits from adopting a gluten-free diet. What’s the science behind these claims?
    Writing for the Washington Post, Anna Medaris Miller has a very solid article in which she investigates the science behind the claims by many professional athletes that they has reaped tremendous physical benefits by adopting a gluten-free diet.
    Miller cites the growing popularity of gluten-free foods in general, as well as the move away from carbs by many professional athletes. She notes that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, the Garmin cycling team and top tennis players Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic have all been vocal about the benefits of gluten-free diets.
    Still, a gluten-free diet won’t turn you int...


    Jefferson Adams
    Celiac.com 02/24/2016 - Rosacea is a common inflammatory skin condition that shares the same genetic risk location as autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and celiac disease.
    Researchers have noted a clustering of autoimmune diseases in patients with rosacea. In fact, a recent genomewide association study found 90 genetic areas associated with T1DM, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and/or rheumatoid arthritis, but did not address a possible association with rosacea.
    A team of researchers recently set out to assess any connections between rosacea and T1DM, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. The research team included Alexander Egeberg, MD, Peter Riis Hansen, MD, PhD, DMSci, Gunnar Hilmar Gislason, MD, PhD, Jacob Pontoppidan...


    Jefferson Adams
    Should HLA Come First in Celiac Disease Screening for Arthritis Patients?
    Celiac.com 03/16/2017 - When screening arthritis patients for celiac disease, should HLA be done before serology? During the past decades, an accumulating evidence shows a dramatic rise in the frequency of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and gastrointestinal conditions, such as celiac disease.
    HLA genes have been shown to be strongly associated with numerous autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and celiac disease. A team of researchers recently set out to assess the performance of celiac disease associated serology in face of a rheumatologic patient, when gluten enteropaty is suspected.
    The research team included Hakim Rahmoune, Nada Boutrid, Mounira Amrane, and Belkacem Bioud. They are variously affiliated...


  • Recent Activity

    1. - Scott Adams replied to PixieSticks's topic in Super Sensitive People
      1

      Working in a kitchen with gluten?

    2. - PixieSticks posted a topic in Super Sensitive People
      1

      Working in a kitchen with gluten?

    3. - Art Maltman replied to Art Maltman's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      5

      My 5 months of Struggle

    4. - Newhere19 replied to Newhere19's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      3

      New to all of this

    5. - jjiillee replied to jjiillee's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      13

      Daughter waiting for appointment


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      126,519
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Aunty KK
    Newest Member
    Aunty KK
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      120.9k
    • Total Posts
      69.5k

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Popular Now

    • Art Maltman
      5
    • JA917
      13
    • Dana Gilcrease
      5
    • marion wheaton
      6
    • Jula
  • Popular Articles

    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
  • Upcoming Events

×
×
  • Create New...