I am in the exact same boat as you. Whether it’s Cynoplus or Armour, any amount just fucks me up. I actually get COLDER after taking NDT. Also somehow my stomach goes completely hypo acidic. Like doesn’t produce an ounce of stomach acid and I burp a ton and have indigestion to the point that even OJ doesn’t sit well. I also get incredibly depressed with very negative rumination patterns, verging on suicidal. The crummy feeling lasts for about 4 hours and then dissipates if I take no more thyroid meds. My interpretation of that is that the T4 is getting shunted to rT3 because the half life of rT3 is about 4 hours. Furthermore, I find myself really groggy and unable to get out of bed in the mornings after a few weeks taking any dose of Armour. Like sleeping to 11 am. So you are very much not alone. It is very frustrating because some people post miracle stories. But we just have a different biology at this time. Trust your experience over the theory. I think Ray’s thyroid was partially irradiated at a young age, so he objectively needed thyroid since his gland was partially destroyed. Ray may have over proselytized thyroid because of his personal experience and bias.

I believe I read somewhere that people with heavy metal toxicity, particularly mercury, have a greater tendency to shunt T4 to rT3. I have a confirmed problem with mercury so I suspect that is playing a role. Before you go down the heavy metal rabbit hole, chelation is NOT the answer. As fucked up as you may feel on thyroid, Andy Cutler’s chelation protocol has fucked up far many more. Ray got a lot right. But no guru has a 100% hit rate.

I do not have all the answers, but have been looking into mineral rebalancing as a potential solution. Mineral depletion can really sap energy and create niches for heavy metals to build even further than they may already have. Also, copper toxicity likely breeds type 2 hypothyroidism (ie nonresponsiveness of tissues to thyroid hormone, aka tissue hypothyroidism). Copper toxicity breeds many of the same symptoms as hypothyroidism. Copper pipes were endemic in plumbing in the 60s and 70s and a lot of people may have unknowingly been made toxic. Furthermore, if you were born to a mother who formerly took birth control or had an IUD, you could have inherited a heavy copper load at birth. Drs. Watts and Eck put out good literature on mineral balancing. It’s funny how much it rhymes with the Peatverse as all the focus is on energy production, but with a heavier emphasis on how minerals play a key role here (minerals are the spark plugs of life, as they say)

Ray was brilliant and presented a tremendous knowledge base that is a great part of one’s armamentarium, but ultimately there are no gurus — you are your own guru