Muscle aches & pains..eugh!

[VictorB]

Hey! I've always had muscle aches for around a week after increasing thryoxine. After going from 100mg to 125mg had horrible heart palps so after three weeks on dose a locum gp suggested 100mg and every third day 125mg. After experiencing muscle aches for 4 weeks my gp suggested 100mc one day...125mg the next and after 4 weeks muscle aches have got worse & now also getting occasional stabbing pains in legs. My Doc says bear with it until next bloods in 2 months. My gut is telling me to go back to 100mc as had none of this at that level (tsh was 4 on this dose..but was having soya milk with morning coffee which I understand affects absorbton?). My question is could the keep changing dose be main reason for these pains which are affecting my sleep? Or am I just overmedicated? Last tsh was 0.3. Really don't know what to do...any advice would be really appreciated xx

[shaws Administrator]

If you didn't have these pains on your original dose, I would go back to this but if you didn't feel at an optimum (normal health) ask your GP to prescribe 20mcg of T3 and drop levo by 50mcg, i.e. 50mcg of levo plus 20mg of T3 would give you the equivalent of 130mcg levo. T3 is the active and is absorbed within about 3 hours but the 'effect of this' lasts between 1 and 3 days as it goes directly into your receptor cells. If GP is a bit reluctant ask for 10mcg T3 and reduce levo by 25mcg so 75mcg T3 plus 10mcg T3. Ask for a trial for about 4 months.

When we take thyroid medication, we should not eat for around an hour as food interferes with the uptake, as does coffee. I do like coffee but have it in the afternoon but I am on T3 only so it doesn't affect me.

Thyroid meds should be taken first thing with 1 glass of water. Some prefer bedtime dose, in that case you should have last eaten 4 hours before.

Medication/other supplements should be taken 4 hours apart for thyroid meds.

If GP hasn't test B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate as we are usually deficient.

[Clutter]

Victor, go back to 100mcg and see whether muscle aches and stabbing pains improve. It will take 7/10 days for the higher dose to wash out before you can expect improvement. If it works, increase Levothyroxine much more gradually ie 6 days x 100mcg and 1 day x 112.5mcg (you can buy a pillcutter from your pharmacy for £2.99). If you are ok with this then go to 5 days x 100mcg and 2 days x 112.5mcg and so on until you can tolerate 112.5mcg daily and then increase to 125mcg x 1 day and so on. Stop increasing at any time you notice muscle aches worsening.

Ask your GP to test ferritin, vitamin D, B12 and folate which are often low/deficient in hypothyroid patients and can cause musculoskeletal pain,fatigue and low mood very similar to hypothyroid symptoms.