hashimoto's

[Hanife]

Hi,

I have been on 50 mg levothyroxin for the last two years. Latest TSH is 6.33 mu/L, T4 is 14.0 pmol/L and vitamine D 15. Dr first prescribed high dose vit D. After a month he gave me calcium/vit D supplement. I started feeling tired and bloated after I started it. I wonder if it might be the supplement. Thanks.

[gabkad]

Calcium can be constipating. It's also not terribly well absorbed in pill form. Taking it with 500 mg of vitamin C may help.

Were you okay when only on the vitamin D?

Calcium and magnesium should be taken together. There are chelated forms available which are highly absorbed. They are also more expensive but you get what you pay for.

If you want to keep taking the calcium you could try magnesium citrate. It's reasonably absorbed but enough of it stays in the intestine to create a bit of a laxative effect.

[Hanife in reply to gabkad]

Thanks Gabkad. Yes I was OK when I was only on vitamine D. My calcium level was OK. I did not understand why the dr gave vitamine D together with Calcium. So, I don't know if I want to keep taking calcium or not.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Hanife]

You are extremely underdosed as proven by your high TSH and your T4 low, although you haven't given the ranges.

50mcg is a starting dose usually, and should have been increased long before this. Make an appointment to have a new blood test for your thyroid hormones as early as possible as TSH is highest then.

Don't take levothyroxine before it, take it after. If you've eaten, leave 2 hours either side of taking levo as food can interfere with the uptake.

I assume your doctor is another who, when the TSH is in the 'normal' range. tells the patient she is 'normal' and is on enough hormones. He is very wrong.

You mustn't take calcium with levo. I always leave 4 hours between levo and supplements/medication just in case there's an interaction.

I believe the Calcium/Vit D you've been given is a mixture of Calcium/Vit D but believe the Vit D is very low in this product.

You have to get your Vit D higher and it's doctor's job to do so. By having too low a thyroid hormone dose you there are very serious consequences that can happen. Some doctors are ignorant of these, unfortunately. Vitamin B12, Vitamin D are hormones not vitamins, so a deficiency of both can have consequences.

We have to read and learn if we've to get better. When you get the results of your blood tests, always get a print-out with the ranges as it enables members to comment as labs differ.

[Hanife in reply to shaws]

Thanks a lot. Ranges are: TSH 0.35-4.94, T4 9-19. Mine is a long story. I went to an endocrinologist while I was abroad when my levothyroxin finished. She asked blood test for B12 and Vitamin D and other tests before she prescribed it. My GP had never asked that. When I came back, I went to my GP to inform him about my vit D deficiency. What he told me was funny. "We all short of vitamin D here in the UK, of course you have to take it." I had already started when I spoke to him. Started dose was 50000 ui once a week for 4 weeks. Then 400 every day. In this combined calcium/vit D medicine, vit D dose is 400 as you said.

The endocrinologist abroad asked ultrasound scan as well and I found out that I have multiple nodules, two of them are 1.5 cm in size. I was asked to have fine needle biopsy for one of them. I know these are very common but I still am worried. I was able to manage to see my GP in 3 weeks just to tell him what happened. He did not seem worried and he recently wrote a referral letter to the endocrinologist who I went to see 2 years ago. I am still waiting an appointment from the hospital.

Health systems are quite different in different countries. I trust in the system here more as doctors and hospitals are not commercially motivated but it works very very slow. (Hospital I went there was a University hospital and it was not commercially motivated either. But the whole medical culture is different) I am not sure which one is better.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Hanife]

You definitely need an increase in levo. I hope you get an appointment soon. If in the UK I thought you had to have a letter around 6 weeks giving you an appointment.

[Veggiequeen]

Calcium and vit d go together. One helps you absorb the other. Try Natures Own for food state vit d3 that your body can use. You would also seem to need an increase in your levo.

Carrots