Thumbnail ridges: Bizarrely since being on levo I... - Thyroid UK

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Thumbnail ridges

Jodypody profile image
35 Replies

Bizarrely since being on levo I've developed a deep indentation on each thumbnail. Horizontal. What's that all about.........?

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Jodypody profile image
Jodypody
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35 Replies
Clutter profile image
Clutter

Jodypody, horizontal and vertical nail ridges are a fairly common hypothyroid symptom. They should improve when you are optimally medicated. There's no harm in filing them down until then.

Jodypody profile image
Jodypody in reply toClutter

They are too deep to do that. I'm not concerned about there appearance it's more the fact that they only appeared after I started on meds but then the illness presumably had reached its peak......who knows.?

Jacquid profile image
Jacquid in reply toJodypody

My initial attack of Graves caused a very big indentation (horizontal) on one of my thumbnails, weird.....I also lost a couple of toenails (never happened before) so nails in general must be affected by thyroid levels.

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs

Taking Levo (& boosting metabolism) can make extra demands on your body - check out your Iron & Zinc levels, whilst you're at it check ferritin, folate/B12 and Vitamin D too - we tend to be low in vitamins and minerals. J :D

(Horizontal Beau's lines - a sign of malnutrition)

Jodypody profile image
Jodypody in reply toSpareribs

I eat like a nutritionist I've had to learn how to control my weight so I'd struggle with the malnutrition thingy but yes I'd seen something about Beau which strangely us my daughters name. I'm learning all the time and find it so fascinating what can happen physically as well as physiologically

Marz profile image
Marz in reply toJodypody

...you may be eating well - but are you absorbing nutrients ?

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs in reply toMarz

exactly...

Jodypody profile image
Jodypody in reply toSpareribs

I was ok on vitamin d and iron on my results. I also take a multi vitamin and alternate with high strength b vits just to be safe. Eat red meat once or twice a week. Plenty of veg esp broccoli and 2 portions of fruit a day blah blah blah

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toJodypody

Be careful, broccoli is a powerful goitrogen. Could be making you bad. Try giving it up for a few weeks and see how you feel.

Also, are you getting enough fat? Because nutritionists - in my experience - often recommend cutting out fat. But that is bad, bad, bad!

MariLiz profile image
MariLiz in reply togreygoose

Hi Greygoose, I'm interested in your comment about broccoli. No one has ever suggested I alter what I've been eating. I usually have broccoli every week for three or four meals, as part of a mixed selection of steamed veg. This accompanies meat or quiche or a pie. Why is it so bad? What should I be eating instead? Help would be appreciated please? MariLiz

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toMariLiz

Broccoli is a one of a long list of goitrogens. Have a look here :

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Goitrogens impede the up-take of iodine by the thyroid gland, thus making it difficult for the gland to make hormone. And the more sluggish the gland, the more effect goitrogens have on it.

However, if you no-longer have a working gland, the only goitrogen that's going to affect you is soy. It's quite a complicated subject, so if you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask. And if you're wondering why your doctor or nutritionist hasn't told you this, it's because they just don't know!

Marz profile image
Marz in reply togreygoose

Thought it was OK when cooked - oh dear - isn't it ?? :-)

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toMarz

Marz, that dépends. Not all goitrogens affect all hypos. But if you're particularly sensitive to a particular goitrogen, cooking isn't going to help. Actually, very few hypos are affected by goitrogens but sometimes they are and don't realise what's causing it.

It's a myth to say that all hypos should avoid all goitrogens. The thing is to know if any of them affect you by doing an elimination diet. and if they do affect you, you'll know! See the link above.

Marz profile image
Marz in reply togreygoose

Don't seem to suffer when I eat a plateful of mashed cauliflower and broccoli - with sheeps yogurt and nutmeg ! Maybe I need to watch more carefully :-)

Thanks gg....

M x

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply toMarz

Yes, knowing youyr bopdy is the key to getting well. Watcbh carefully how it reacts to everything, and reject things it doesn't like, embrace things it does. Your body knows what it needs!

Marz profile image
Marz in reply togreygoose

:-)

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs in reply toMarz

and there's not enough goodness in stuff anymore either

dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

Marz profile image
Marz in reply toSpareribs

...food grown is only as good as the soil. Sadly that has been farmed to death and smothered in chemicals....

Jodypody profile image
Jodypody

Psychologically I meant. Doh! See it's got me

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs in reply toJodypody

It's got me too!

I thought vitamin supplements were just for health fanatics or the elderly.

I thought I was eating right, variety is the spice of life! nothing excluded... except tripe - yuk!

I thought I had plenty of sun, but I was still low Vit D (joint pain)

possibly low B12 (pins/needles) & low iron?? despite regularly eating meat, liver & pate.

I still have no sense of smell/taste - seafood/zinc??

Who knows?

Beau is a lovely name btw J :D

gabkad profile image
gabkad in reply toSpareribs

Exactly. And most of the multivitamins out there contain barely enough to keep a body at a level state. They are 'supplements' and not therapeutic. Why it is that low B12 level requires large doses of sublingual methylcobalamin. When people have deficiencies, they require therapeutic dosages. This is why I recommend Carlson Nutra Support Diabetes. It's got everything in it (except large dose of B12) and no iron. (I have no financial interest.)

Like you say, people 'think' the food is nutritious enough but they feel tired and dragged out. Then after they start taking a really good therapeutic multivit/mineral, they have energy. So clearly something is missing from the food.

Diabetics have poor digestion too. It's similar to hypothyroid in the problems with absorbing nutrients.

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs in reply togabkad

and coupled with the fact that 'ladies' can't be seen to eat at work = 'modern' malnutrition.

When my daughter was preggers 10+ years ago I bought her 'pregaday' - I got myself some too (when you're on your own you can't be bothered to cook). Blimey - I was out clubbing! :D

gabkad profile image
gabkad in reply toSpareribs

Once the kids left home, I thought, ME? get empty nest syndrome? Never. But yeah, it happened. It was very difficult to adapt to cooking for one as opposed to cooking for 5. It slowly reduced one person at a time...... I've adapted. When I cook large batches, I freeze in serving sizes. Not everything is amenable to freezing, of course. I even freeze rice. Then getting worse with the hypo made life so exhausting, I just did not have the energy to cook...so everything went downhill.

Now for the past 2 years I've been as self disciplined about meal preparation as if I were in the military. Which, fortunately, has resulted in good levels of iron, B12, vitamin A etc. So when the thyroid tests were coming in as poor conversion, at least there were no spanners in the works as regards inadequate nutrition. No other complications like blood sugar issues.

Next time I get blood sucked out, I'm going to have the cortisol checked because I'm certain the level has improved.

Spareribs profile image
Spareribs in reply togabkad

Yeah - the diabetes stuff, always much more important (£££££££ points) than Thyroid (£1 funding point)... yet we know it's so similar & also controlled by the 'great pea' pituitary.

Adrenalin/Cortisol & insulin = a big connection.

There's no Thyroid probs reported 'in my family' only diabetes (and acromegaly)- only what was known then - yet I can relate from reading old diaries and family pics of fat necks, 'lazy' & 'dropsy' - years on and nothing's changed much.... but hopefully it will! J x

Jodypody profile image
Jodypody

I am a self confessed health fanatic. I've had to be to cope with undiagnosed hypo for so many years. Taught me how to take very good care of myself. After all no one else is going to are they? That's how I had to be my own personal trainer/nutritionist etc trying to find out why I had to fight weight gain all my life. Could be worse though eh

I have had ridges on my nails for about 6 years. Nurse practitioner told me they're normal.

Helenabc profile image
Helenabc

My approach to eating brassicas (broccoli, cauli, cabbage, kale, sweed, Brussels sprouts, kohl rabbi etc), has simply been to limit it a bit. I try not to have more than one kind per week. This family of vegetables make up much of the fresh veg available in winter in the UK, and I feel that if you cut them out, you will lose out. They tend to be UK-grown and are often local - depending on where you shop. And I understand that broccoli provides some rare nutrients - and it is lovely.

I have grown a lot of my own food this year, after applying lots of well-rotten horse manure to my beds! I also get organic foods from Abel & Cole. So, there you go!

BeansMummy profile image
BeansMummy

I have the horizontal Beau lines on both thumbnails, the GP said not to worry about them unless I got more. Well, a few weeks on ... the original set are growing out, but I have another one nearer each nail bed now, and have one across two fingernails as well. My thumbnails look like that road sign for a hump-backed bridge. I haven't been back to the GP about them as yet (I expect to be fobbed off).

I eat pretty well, so that no-one can blame my diet, but I do seem to have a big problem with absorbing all the nutrients I need. This is something one of my many "ologists" need to take note of, and I will be banging on about it at all my next appointments.

johnnyxs profile image
johnnyxs

yes I too have had this too . I also developed white spots and patches on my nails .

Horizontal ridges in the nails as apposed to vertical are a very good indicator of significant changes in our health at various times.

Depending on how far up the nail the ridge is from the cuticle,( where the nail is formed) ,is a very good indicator of exactly when the episode happened. Human finger nails grow at roughly 3mm a month or a complete new nail every 3-6 months so you should be able to tie it up with some poor health event recently.

With me it was my Liver . When I finally got around to going to my Doctor I was quite yellow and jaundiced he said 'hasn't anyone commented on how ill you look '? to which I replied no? but thats the problem with living and working alone all the time.

He arranged for an ultrascan which showed I had a lot of fat around my liver but it was my bloods that showed I had a liver problem.

He thought I must be a very heavy drinker and advised me to reduce my alchohol intake .

He was gobsmacked when I told him I had been Tee total for 50+ years .

Never did get an answer to what was wrong with my Liver but I suspect it was damaged in the past due to food poisoning from ingesting poison or toxin fror a Chinese takeaway .

Your problem could have been a mineral deficiency like Zinc for example or a serious illness at the time ?

Or due to a Liver problem like me.

It would pay you to consult a Dr and get some bloods done

Polaris profile image
Polaris

I've now developed just one deeply ridged nail but have been on Levo for years now. As a matter of interest though, the moons on my nails are growing back after supplementing with a B12 spray for just a few months - realised I must be deficient after years of taking various medications for stomach problems.

Polaris profile image
Polaris

I've now developed just one deeply ridged nail but have been on Levo for years now. As a matter of interest though, the moons on my nails are growing back after supplementing with a B12 spray for just a few months - realised I must be deficient after years of taking various medications for stomach problems.

Polaris profile image
Polaris

I've now developed just one deeply ridged nail but have been on Levo for years now. As a matter of interest though, the moons on my nails are growing back after supplementing with a B12 spray for just a few months - realised I must be deficient after years of taking various medications for stomach problems.

Polaris profile image
Polaris

I've now developed just one deeply ridged nail but have been on Levo for years now. As a matter of interest though, the moons on my nails are growing back after supplementing with a B12 spray for just a few months - realised I must be deficient after years of taking various medications for stomach problems.

Maggiemay12 profile image
Maggiemay12

I was told this was because I was low on zinc so just started on 30mg .

Maggiemay12 profile image
Maggiemay12

I was told this was because I was low on zinc so just started on 30mg .

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