Is Your Thyroid KILLING You? Heart Disease

[shaws]

This is an article I read today and there are a couple of comments on the forum re 'heart' this morning.

It is informative - it's a pity most of the medical profession appear unaware.

hypothyroidmom.com/is-your-...

[Marz]

....read this only yesterday when I was looking for some information for someone with heart problems. It is very good shaws and thank you for posting it.....you are right why are docs so unaware. Someone once told me they do test for thyroid if you have a heart attack ! Just a bit late - but then if they just do the TSH they won't be that well informed will they ?

[Cinnamon]

For most of my life I had low blood pressure. Then, in my mid-30s my BP started to rise. GPs over the years kept telling me I needed antihypertensives. When I agreed to go on them (my GP tried two different ones) nothing happened except that I felt bad. Finally, I was diagnosed as hypothyroid (family history ... la la la) and then deficient in B12. My GP put me on a tiddling dose of levo and was 'happy' my TSH dropped to within range. After a year I asked for the levo to be raised because 1) I still didn't feel great and 2) I was convinced that if I was on a higher dose my BP would fall into line. So, she agreed to the raised dose. Result after three months: my BP is down within the normal range. Yes, there is material out there about the relationship between heart problems and thyroid dysfunction. Most doctors don't seem to want to hear it.

[Vivante in reply to Cinnamon]

You are right , most doctors don't want to know about the link between the heart and thyroid conditions. With hypothyroid, it is bradycardia and with hyperthyroid it is tachycardia. I have bradycardia and take digoxin for that.

Ever since I found this site, I have been stunned by what I have read.

Why has it been allowed to continue for so long. Doesn't the doctors even care?

I can understand how busy they are and I daresay they are also overwhelmed, I still feel more notice should be taken. Perhaps it is them at the top?

[Cinnamon in reply to Vivante]

Thyroid issues just aren't taken seriously and I don't understand why. It was more expensive to prescribe antihypertensives than levo, but my GP was happy to experiment on me with the former. I'm of the belief that if I'd been given levo ten years ago (my TSH was hovering at the top of the 'normal' range for years -- with a family history you'd think they'd have looked more closely at it) my heart issues would have been long dealt with.

What also annoys me is NHS employees (at least some of them) seem extraordinarily cynical about sites like this one. I wouldn't be where I am now without this site.

[Vivante in reply to Cinnamon]

I agree with every word. I firmly believe I had a thyroid condition years before I was diagnosed. I cannot remember when I felt really well and alive. I felt that I was becoming a nuisance every time I visited the surgery. I now have more confidence and have downloaded as much info as possible, I make sure I have more than one article and from experts in their field, I then pass the info on to a GP. I have decided to be more assertive regarding my health conditions.

There are still days when I feel it is not worth the fight. But if we don't continue and speak out, more and more people are going to be ignored.

This site has provided me with a 'voice'

Thank you for your reply.

[Cinnamon in reply to Vivante]

I've been giving my GP thyroid articles since I finally got a diagnosis. I think she puts them in her desk drawer and never looks at them. I kept asking for different blood tests (vit D, vit B12, etc) all of which I finally got when I saw the endo. I believe she finally may have looked at the stuff I'd provided, albeit briefly, after the endo concurred on all the tests (and on my TSH being fine at below 1).

[Hidden]

My Mother is the only person in her side of the family with heart failure (many years). She was clearly undiagnosed hypo for years (I was only a kid back then and didn't know what I know now), and has always been kept pretty borderline hypo since, leading to yo-yoing weight issues and plenty of symptoms - compared to her Mother, (they even looked like sisters!) who was treated very well (mainly before TSH was used of course) who had even higher risk factors (diabetes) yet didn't have heart issues, and was always the more stable thinner of the two of them!

I am convinced I know why!

[Vivante]

I have downloaded the info. I now pass on some info for you. Are you at risk of osteoporosis?

Look on Irish osteoporosis website re-risk factors. It mentions hyperthyroid and hypothyroid. Look on osteoporosis Canada, National osteoporosis foundation. They provide so much information. Look for warfarin and osteoporosis,look for osteopenia.

They provide information for safe movements, particularly Canada and America.

Thank you for the most valuable information.

[Whitenightingale]

In 2009 when mmy medication was reduced when a doctor looked at my results after 10 wks I became really ill. I knew why everything was going wrong in my body, but because the doctors read their results they belive they have to stick to it to the detrement of the patient. My blood pressure shot up, my chloresterol went up among other things. All my doctor could say when I went to see him was, OH YOUR DEPRESSED. No! Dr. N...M I AM ILL THROUGH LACK OF THYROXINE. His reply oh I would not have reduced your level if I saw the results. I am afraid they do not understand enough on this subject and they should be retrained as many people will go downhill and have a heart attack and die, all because they wanted to keep you within their range on the blood tests. The levels are too low for me and I think a lot of other people are saying exactly the same thing. They still are not functioning properly on the given dose.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Whitenightingale]

What are your exact blood tests results. If you get a copy of your most recent ones, post on another question for comments.

You may still be undermedicated.

[cloud1]

Just say,thats what i've read in dr Ridha Arem 'the thyroid solution' book;that hypothyroid can give u heart disease.i have had untreated hypo Hashimotos for years and when my health is at its lowest i get heart symptoms;i just know that its a 'ticking time bomb';that i may develop fatal heart problems;and its just so unbelievable that it could be prevented if they had treated me years ago...and still,they want to see me at deaths door before they will realise how ill i am with thyroid/heart problems.i use to get wound up about the doctors negligence and ignorance of my condition but gradually have become a bit more complacent which is surely not a good thing;but when u keep getting knocked back by so called 'professionals' so many times...