levothyroxin

[ocre]

I was diagnosed with an under active thyroid 6 months ago and it is about that time that my RLS started to become intense. Does anyone know if this drug might make RLS worse. The tablet is called levothyroxin

Thanks

[Graham3196]

have a look at this

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Graham

[Hidden]

Hi ocre, I found this link

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Unfortunately, to even the educated, this is somewhat indigestible.

It appears to be saying there is a link between thyroid levels and dopaminergic levels, a balance. On this see saw, simply put, if thyroid goes up, dopamine goes down.

Hence high thyroid levels can cause RLS.

Additionally, the connection between the two seems to be Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, TSH produced in the pituitary gland.

You may have noted that when you were diagnosed with hypothyroidism, that your blood tests shows "T4" was low and TSH was high. If your thyroid isn't producing enough T4, your pituitary gland tried to give it a kick by producing more TSH.

When you started on Levothyroxine, it should bring your T4 up and your TSH down. It might take a while to get the dose right so you may have 3 monthly blood tests for at least the first year. The aim is to get the T4 AND TSH in their normal range. This may mean for a while that T4 is high before TSH comes down.

The other thing is, that for a while, your body has been used to low thyroxine and now has to get used to it being higher.

I am guessing that it is possible then that when the Levothyroxine dose is right and T4 and TSH are stabilised, that the RLS may settle. I hope so. Even so, it could be some time yet.

In the meantime, it might be best to explore the non-pharmaceutical remedies for relieving RLS that you will read about on here. You should avoid the standard medications for now as they can create their own problems.

[ocre in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your advice. I is very much appreciated.

Regard Ocre

[Hidden]

I take this as well and do fine.