how long will this headaches last ??? been on hennings around 12 weeks now ,was feeling ok as i started on low dose , but after last

[christina]

blood test showed t4 8 and tsh 58 my dr told me in increase , but thats when my problems start, every time i have to increase i have really bad heads about a week after the increase , any ideas ?

[Artemiss]

I don't know what hennings is, I'm from U.S. I do know that when I try and increase the dessicated thyroid supplement I'm on ( Armour) I get terrible headaches. It's because I have Adrenal fatigue and low Iron. My Ferritin level is too low (44) needs to be over 80.

Having low Iron and Adrenal fatigue is common with hypothyroidism. It causes the thyroid hormone to not be able to get into your cells. The Adrenals and Thyroid communicate to each other. The Adrenals produce cortisol needed for the thyroid to work, also if the Adrenals are fatigued they down-regulate the thyroid to conserve things.

If you've been hypothyroid for awhile, the adrenals will make things like adrenline to try and make more energy and this can cause high pulse and high blood pressure ( which I have). This leads to the adrenals getting more and more fatigued.....the doctors don't understand this and want to throw Blood pressure meds at you.

Have your ferritin checked ( that's your iron stores), take iron supplements if needed. Back your dose down and increase with tiny doses very slowly. Some have to have more adrenal support and end up on Hydrocortisone, before they can increase their thyroid mes anymore.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Artemiss]

You can see information about all the standard thyroid hormone medicines available in the UK here:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

That page also includes information about several other products as well such as desiccated thyroid and non-UK levothyroxine - of which Henning is one make.

[Artemiss in reply to helvella]

thanks. I figured it was a desiccated thyroid.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Artemiss]

It isn't - it is levothyroxine.

[Artemiss in reply to helvella]

oooops just glanced at what you wrote earlier and saw the words desiccatd (was in a hurry), but no matter what, My previous post would stay the same.....about low iron and adrenal needing to be helped to tolerate a thyroid med.

[Caze]

I also suffered headaches on thyroxine and NDT. Stopped meds with T4 end of Sept. Trying T3 only. Far from perfect and early days but got rid of blinding headaches. My theory is I cd probably tolerate some T4 but not a full dose.

[christina]

HI,

thank you all for your replys , ive been on quite a thyroid journey over the last 3 years , been on t3 , t4 , ndt( nature throid) now on hennings , was doing ok , till time to increase , and bam migraines from hell , going up slowly ( the dr wanted me to go up from 50 to a 100 in 2 weeks ) as my ths was so high 58, so on 75 at the min , slowly does it

[Artemiss]

I've been on Armour, half grain....I've had same problem. Seems I can only tolerate this low dose. Every time I increase past a certain point I get terrible headaches. Doesn't matter if I try straight T3, desiccated, or synthetic T4.

recently tried adding 40mcg of synthroid ( synthetic t4 ) to see if I could tolerate that with this low dose of Armour....now today, terrible headache and I know it will last all day and probably tomorrow.

Do you check your blood pressure???? my headaches go right along with my blood pressure going up.

I know that when I increase with just the t4, takes about 3 days and then the headache hits me. The straight T3 causes a headache to hit much sooner, like I awake in middle of night with splitting headache if I had just increased during the day.

It's scary how this has to do with Blood pressure going up. I'm learning to not fool with increasing my thyroid supplements until I get my Iron up and adrenals better.