Hypothyroidism And Balance

[tex]

Hi All,

I posted in a response to another thread that a few months ago I doubled my thyroid dosage in order to see if it would help with a breathing issue (known as air hunger). I forgot to mention another benefit that I've also noticed since I made that change.

I've noticed that my balance is now back to normal. For at least the past 7 or 8 years, I always had to lean against a wall or a piece of furniture, in order to keep from losing my balance and falling whenever I stood on one foot while putting on my jeans. Now, I can stand on one foot anywhere, without any balance problems. I never realized how awesome that capability is, until I lost it and then regained it.

My balance has slowly improved over the past couple of years, which I attribute to taking a prescription vitamin mix known as Metanx, but my balance was still significantly short of normal before I upped my thyroid supplement dosage. I take the Metanx because I believe that at least part of my balance issues are due to neurological damage caused by long-term gluten sensitivity (because I also have peripheral neuropathy).

It never dawned on me before, though, that hypothyroidism could cause balance issues, but it turns out that I'm not the only one who has noticed the problem:

Musculoskeletal Symptoms

Musculoskeletal changes are common in hypothyroidism. A person with the disease may have muscles weakness, or aches, tenderness and stiffness in the muscles. Joint swelling may occur, along with stiffness, tenderness and aching in the joints. Loss of equilibrium, or sense of balance, may also affect people with hypothyroidism.

The red emphasis is mine, of course.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/80785 ... -symptoms/

Tex

P. S. I am definitely not recommending that anyone else try this, because playing with thyroid treatments can be dangerous, to say the least.

[Christine.]

Was there a survey about hypothyroidism? It seems many of us take medication for it.
Christine

[tex]

Yes, we're approximately 7 times as likely as someone in the general population to have thyroid problems. Here's the poll.

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7783

Tex

[Deb]

That's interesting, Tex. I started on NDT in June and am up to 3.25 grains. My vertigo is gone, the tingling in my hands is mostly gone and my tremor is much better. In addition, I think my blood pressure has improved though it's up a bit again right now....probably due to stress. In addition, I finally have some energy. It's been a long time for that. Also, I think my mood is more upbeat. I'm going to watch for the balance. YAYYYYY Thyroid! Deb

[tex]

Deb,

That's certainly good news. IMO, most doctors don't have anywhere near the knowledge about thyroid issues that they should have. They consider it to be a simple issue, so they never progress beyond learning how to regulate treatment based on the TSH test results. That elementary approach may work for a majority of cases, but far too many people fail to receive proper treatment because it simply doesn't work for them.

Their attitude is so convoluted that many doctors refuse to prescribe NDT for any patients over 65 years of age, the very people who need it the most. Medicare won't pay for it, either. They do this on the premise that in a few cases, NDT can hide a cardiovascular problem. I got news for them — undertreated hypothyroidism contributes to cardiovascular problems, and many other issues that can reduce life expectancy. And, as many of us have discovered, for some of us, NDT is the only way to resolve our symptoms — synthroid won't do the job.

Tex

[Deb]

NDT is the only way to resolve our symptoms — synthroid won't do the job.

The more I'm learning, the more I'm convinced of this. I didn't realize age factored into doctors' decisions not to prescribe NDT though I've heard the rumblings about the cardiovascular stuff. I thought they were against it pretty much across the board. I really believe the big push for Synthroid is because NDT can't provide the big earnings to Pharma and they've somehow managed to brainwash a large portion of our doctors. This was certainly disheartening. http://thyroid.about.com/od/gettestedan ... lished.htm

[tex]

IMO, that policy by the very so-called "experts" (who should know better), is the main problem, and it's exactly why I haven't bothered to see an endocrinologist, because both my TSH and my Free T4 are below range — definitely an unusual situation.

Yes, you're quite correct that big Pharma managed to brainwash all but a very small percentage of doctors with their aggressive (and typically slanted) "education" program. NDT was labeled as old fashioned, obsolete, and inconsistent, and doctors are easy marks for that approach. We all know that they should check the facts themselves, but for some reason or other, they continue to trust virtually anything that the pharmaceutical company reps tell them.

Early on, when synthroid was first introduced for sale, there was a lot of propaganda about the dosages of synthroid being so much more accurate and reliable than NDT. But if you look at what has actually happened, history doesn't concur with that claim. NDT actually has a very good reliability record, while there have been many, many recalls of sythroid over the years, because of out-of-spec dosages.

The sad part is that some of those lots were so far out of spec that they were quite dangerous. One of our members once received a refill of synthroid that turned out to be 10,000 times as strong as the label showed. That's not a misprint, it was actually 10,000 times the labeled dose. Of course, she and the others who used any of that lot had to go through several weeks of intensive treatment to minimize any life-threatening issues. She was lucky, and she apparently recovered without major damage to her vital organs, but some of the other patients who took some of those pills before the problem was discovered, ended up with serious issues and will probably need corrective therapy for the rest of their lives (which will almost surely be shortened by the damage done).

Tex

[Deb]

That's scary stuff, Tex. When I started researching this I wondered why, if we have something that has worked for 100 years, do we need to change it? I don't think we need to. My doctor, when I approached her about my possible thyroid issue, said the same thing...."the thyroid is really a simple thing". My ranges were within Mayo guidelines but outside many others. I agree with you. I think there's a lot to learn about it. All I know, my symptoms are getting better, my energy is SO much better and I KNOW I'm on the right track. It's sad we have to take on all of this ourselves but no one knows better how I'm feeling than I do. Deb

[tex]

but no one knows better how I'm feeling than I do.

Exactly! Before the advent of the TSH test, doctors treated patients by increasing the dosage until it resolved the clinical symptoms, and they monitored the patient's body temperature to make sure that the dose wasn't too high (too much thyroid supplement boosts metabolism too much and causes the patient's body temp to exceed 98.6 degrees). (I'm sure you knew that, but others reading this post may not be aware of how doctors previously regulated thyroid treatments.)

These days, they regulate the dosage by satisfying the laboratory test results, and most doctors seem to worship the TSH result, unfortunately. As long as the result of the TSH test is in the "Normal" range, they're happy campers. If the dosage doesn't happen to resolve the patient's symptoms, that's just too bad — they expect the patient to live with it, because at that point, they've reached the limit of their "expertise".

Tex