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I know we have had some discussion on this before but I can't remember what was said. Is that believed to be an AutoImmune disease?
If so, then I have re-proven the belief that get one.....likely to get more.
My blood tests indicate that I now have an underactive thyroid. According to the lab report (yes, I DID remember to ask for a copy )
TSH 9.65 should be 0.34 - 5.60
FREE T4 0.6 should be 0.6 - 1.6 (this is technically within normal limits but wonder if it being barely normal means anything).
Dr. gave me samples of Synthroid (levothyroxine sodium tablets, USP)
50 mcg (.05 mg) to last for 8 weeks. Will do another blood test at 7 weeks to see if adjustments in meds are needed.
Maybe that's why I've been so tired lately. I hope the pill really pumps me up - Maybe I can get something done then. LOL
Love, Shirley
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber"
-- Winston Churchill
Yes, the most common cause of thyroid gland failure is called autoimmune thyroiditis (also called Hashimoto's thyroiditis).
Symptoms of hypothyroidism can include fatigue, weakness, weight gain, or increased difficulty losiing weight, etc.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The thyroid can also be damaged by inflammation, or by medical treatments. If you want to read more about it:
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Thanks everyone. I'm going to read the sites soon as I finish here. Just got back from an orchestra performance by my grand-daughter's school orchestra. She plays the chello. It was quite good. I've bought tickets to take her to see the Treasure Coast Orchestra perform in late April. I've never heard them - I hope she is impressed.
Love, Shirley
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber"
-- Winston Churchill
Having Hypothyroidsm is not fun. There are lots of treatments (I have tried most of them). If you have to take meds and if you can find a Endo that will prescribe it......I would try Armour. Its a natural hormone and not synthetic. For some reason I didn't tolerate it very well. I am on a compound medication.
I wish I had read Mary Shomon's book before I had thyroid surgery. She also has a weekly email newsletter with great information. My doc tested me for Hashimoto's and said I don't have it. I asked him several times about it and I still am not certain what kind of test he did or how he can tell.
Hormones are complicated......the way our bodies work is amazing!
Good luck!
Hugs
Lori
"The manner of giving is worth more than the gift." ~ PIERRE CORNEILLE
You can't say for sure you don't have autoimmune thyroid disease just by the antibody tests, although, if they had happened to turn out positive, you could. These doggone things just seem to "fly under the radar" much of the time.
I'm glad that you had yourself tested while it's still possible to keep your gland. If you'll recall, I lost all of mine, back before I had a clue about the gluten, etc. It was dead as a doornail, and all the tests kept coming back with weird results (scans, two biospies, etc.), so out it went.
What I now know is that if I'd gone on a gluten free diet early enough, I'd have prevented one or more other autoimmune diseases as studies have proven. Not going to cry over spilt milk, however. Just glad it wasn't something more serious, like M.G., M.S., etc. It seems that the longer a person has had celiac symptoms, the more AI diseases they will tend to have.
There is a theory that says that people like us have difficulty converting T3 to T4, so what happens is that instead of just going by the TSH, docs who subscribe to this theory will titrate each of these with the appropriate amounts of T3 and T4, respectively, to keep these individual lab values optimum.
This is what my doc does, and I feel great with that part of me. I cannot say whether or not I would've done just as well on just the Synthroid as I've never been on just the one med. The latter would assume that my body was capable of converting the T3 to T4 without having to have a little extra T4 added to bring that lab value up to optimum.
My endo is an M.D. and also a Ph.D., and I believe that he was a co-researcher with Dr. Arem, M.D., who did the original research on this method of treatment. I am on Armour, but have to have a little extra Levoxyl to bring that lab value up a little. My endo says that most people feel best with a TSH around 1, but I think mine has been a fraction over 1 the last couple of times.
I suppose it could be different for each individual. I suppose that one wouldn't necessarily have to use the Armour, if it's not tolerated well, in order to treat the T3 and T4 individually, but lots of docs will blow this theory off (haven't we heard THIS before?)
Dr. Arem is a very good endo, and I know someone he diagnosed who no one else had been able to diagnose, including her celiac disease. Think it didn't take him long to recognize the signs and symptoms either.
His book is entitled, "The Thyroid Solution," if you are interested, and I used to see it on the shelf at whole foods, but you might be able to pick up a copy at your nearest library as it's been around a while. I've also seen it on some of the book selling sites on the www where you could probably get it much cheaper. I really need to get a copy to read myself, but since I'm fine with that now, and it's too late to save the ole thyroid, I'm not all that motivated at this point. Perhaps you could read it, and give us a book report when you are through! Haha!
Would you say that you have any feelings that might make you tend to think you were slightly depressed? I understand that this is quite common.
At any rate, I would consider my thyroid disease to be AI, not matter. It's got to be related, else why would so many people get all these things all at the same time?
Shirley, how long have you been having diarrhea and gut symptoms now?
My first cousin, btw, is on Synthroid, and seems to be feeling fine, so perhaps her converter is working fine. She's a ball of energy at around 70-71, so think it's sort of individual. Perhaps if it's caught early enough, the thyroid isn't so damaged, but the book should go into that, if you read it.
Hopefully, the thyroid disease will be suppressed with medication, and you'll just have to get it leveled off, and then follow it, maybe as little as every six months when it's ust right.
If, after you've had time to get to optimal dose, you still don't feel quite right, then you could ask your doc to try something different, and if he says he doesn't do it that way, then perhaps someone would recommend someone who would at least give it a try.
If you are staying faithful to your diet, then that part won't confuse the feelings, so that you'll know how it is that the adjusting Synthroids are making you feel during the adjustment period. My first year to have to be on them, I hadn't gotten on the diet, so since I ate the same all the time, I could still tell what the thyroid hormones were doing, so it was sort of the same thing. Getting off and on the diet would've really confused the assessment for me.
I was really amazed at how fast the wt came off the first time the dosage had to be raised for a few months, before it was lowered to something in between two high and two low for me.
The doc also found that I had a bad reflex in one ankle, which was probably related to low B-12 level (low SHOULD mean below 400, NOT below 200, btw, like the lab sheets will often state!). Due to the fact that this was all happening before my diagnosis of M.C. and a year before dietary treatment, I think that my clinical picture fooled him into thinking that I was still a little low thyroid before he got the results back at one time. His specialty is metabolic stuff, so guess I'm an interesting case of his right now. We have sit there and throw research study results back and forth half the time I'm there! Ha!
Wasn't going to be staying up late on here, but here i am doing it again! Sorry this was so long!
Shirley, I thought the Thyroid Solution book was excellent as well. My sister also found David Brownstein's book on thyroid problems really great and easy to read.
Bummer about the new diagnosis. You already have lots of great advice, so I'll be brief. Do you remember AnnE of the Island? She was one of our earlier website members and had already been diagnosed with hypothyroidism when she found out she had MC. She started the GF diet and found out after a while that she was able to decrease her thyroid medication.
I hope you start to feel better soon now that you are on medication.
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
Oh, WOW, thanks for all the info!! I think I'm going to save this thread in favorites so I can refer to it occasionally. I'm having trouble absorbing too much info at once these days. I suppose that could be part of all this stuff. I have to believe it's going to get better though. I know it will when I get myself and my diet straightened out.
Luce, My "big D" started in April of 2004. I had blood tests 2 years ago that said my thyroid was fine so it's happened since then. Diet....don't want to talk about that just yet.....soon though.
Luce, don't apologize for the length of your posts. Your posts are always informative.
Celia, I think I may order that book. Thanks.
Now, the doctor who gave me the Synthroid is my new GP (PCP..whatever you want to call them). What is the majority opinion about whether I need to consult a specialist? My leaning right now is to just see how this doc does (judge it by how I feel, etc.) before I go further.
I will look into the Armour and see how he feels about that. Would that normally be prescribed by a Naturopathic Physician?
I discovered there is a compouning pharmacy just down the road in case I ever need one.
Thanks Again,
Love, Shirley
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber"
-- Winston Churchill
Shirley,
I have hypothyroidism. Had it for 10 years. It's no big deal. I take a daily dose of Synthroid and I feel fine. I've had to up the dosage once or twice but I've been stable for a long time now. Fatigue, weight gain, "moon face", brittle hair, depression, where all my symptoms and they went away when I began treatment
m
You are fortunate in that you apparently have caught yours in time. Hopefully, you'll be able to suppress it with thyroid hormones.
If it hadn't been for an extended time of caregiving, I probably would've seen this endochrine guy much sooner, and been able to prevent "blowing" this gland if I'd been started on one or the other medication regimes earlier. However, I still have a few other glands left (not many though! Ha!) which I'm sure were getting pretty beat up by the immune system's response to eating all the things it was programmed by my genes to react to when triggered, like my liver, kidneys, nerves, etc., to name just a few.
Just something to consider. Goiters can arise and grow all the way under one's sternum in a very short time -- it's amazing, really. That's why they can sneak up on you between thyroid panel blood tests sometimes, even if they're not nearly as far apart as mine were.
Meantime, I wish you luck on optimizing your dose to the point that you feel just right.
I've heard that some people do well on synthetic thyroid hormone like Synthroid and Levothroid and some do better on Armour (from animals). There's no explanation for this aside from individual difference. I've also heard about an thryoid hormone from organically raised animals but I can't find the name at the moment. And like Luce said, there are some cutting edge doctors that give a combination of T4 and T3 depending upon what your lab results are.
Most conventional physician's prescribe synthetic thyroid hormone, but some will prescribe Armour. From what I understand from friends with underactive thryoid, the kye is finding the right dose for you. That can take a little time and trial and error. So you want to work with a dcotor who is going to see you and test you regularly at the beginning until you have established the right dose.
Like M says, for most people it is not a big deal. However, I think it's worthwhile to read some of the key books on the topic because there are some important things to know about what can increase/descrease your thryoid functions. For example, there are some foods that you should eat in moderation because they suppress thryoid function. And there are vitamins and supplements you can take that will support thryoid function. They don't replace taking the medication, but they can help lessen the amount that you take.
Also thyroid medication has side affects for some people (like D.), so it's helpful to know what those can be.
I think most GP's are fairly familiar with treating standard hypothyroidism these days. Your doc would have probably referred you to an endo if you labs indicated the possibility of a more serious thryoid disease. I myself would probably want to see an endo just to cover all the basis and have a relationship with one should other thryoid problems arise. I think this is the kind of questions that Mary Shomon covers in her book or on her website. There's a lot of free info on her website.
I know there's a lot to digest so taking it one step at a time can help. The great thing is you now know what is probably causing your fatigue, etc. and with treatment you will feel better! Yeah!
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