How is your night vision?

[Heloise]

Classic symptom of Vitamin A deficiency and low thyroid. Dr. Clark explains in this 5-min. video that people with low iron and liver problems may also have this deficiency.

youtube.com/watch?v=jR7ZJK1...(Not working as expected?)

[helvella Administrator]

When it comes to vitamin A, we should be careful to distinguish between substances like beta-carotene (which can be split by an enzyme into "active" vitamin A), and "real" vitamin A.

Hypothyroid people can have reduced capacity to convert beta-carotene so the vitamin tablets that contain it, and the carrots we eat, might not help much. At the same time "pre-formed" vitamin A is a difficult substance which we have to be very careful when it comes to dosing. Excess vitamin A is a bad thing.

[Heloise in reply to helvella]

Yes, he does point that out at the end of the video. In fact he rarely suggests supplementing anything since low thyroid function is partly at fault. Low acid is usually the culprit and I think zinc is needed. Adequate thyroid treatment is the very least one should do but there is so much more that is necessary.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to helvella]

It is indeed Rod, inexperienced mother that I was I dyed my first born yellow when he was about nine months old. The health visitor came in and said he was fine 'apart from the jaundice' I pointed out that he wasn't jaundiced - he just had a nice tan. Anyway it turned out that it was the vast quantities of puréed carrot that he was having that was the problem. So yes, you've got to be careful with Vit A and with carrots too.

[Hidden]

My night vision is terrible, so bad now I've stopped driving at night. I take all the right supplements, eat a good healthy diet, take shed loads of T3, inject B12 and still it persists. I'm not convinced much thyroid hormone is getting to where it should be. I'm taking HC now too, but still had a temperature of 35deg on Saturday! Last week in the dark I walked into an open door from my bedroom into the bathroom, and got a lovely bruise to show for it. I did use a plug in night light but I moved it upstairs to my grandchildren's room. I'm going to have to get another one. I'm up and down a lot in the night with my bladder and it's really unpleasant trying to feel my way around walls in the dark. I do eat carrots most days, but I know we have a problem with absorption of vit A from them.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

I know you have been struggling for a long time, Helcaster, I hope the cortisol will help. And of course the other reason is IRON. That's why I posted this video because he points out that people with low iron may also have low vitamin A. Shaws recommends Betaine to add acid when you have a meal. Why don't you try that? Even supplementing may not help, so you may not even need to take vitamin A.

If it is iron, you know how difficult that is to absorb. My mother-in-law had to have18 injections in her backside when she was in her 70's and her thyroid was quite healthy. I would try to find a way. Don't give up, your body is trying to heal.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Hi Heloise, thank you, it's nearly 4 years now since I started thyroid meds.

I've been taking prescribed iron, ferrous fumerate 2 x210mg a day for about 8 months, because my iron has persistently been at the bottom of the range. The problem I have is 12 years of cimetidine which lowers stomach acid, but is beneficial for interstitial cystitis, and because I have this bladder disease I'm losing blood from my bladder all of the time. It's always at +3 when I dipstick my urine. About 6 weeks ago I took the decision to stop cimetidine, it was a huge risk for me as I didn't want to have severe bladder pain in my life again. On the other hand I knew this drug was robbing me of vital nutrients and through the alteration of liver enzymes it causes, I wasn't using my thyroid meds as I should. I had a pharmacist tell me this. So what I have done is treble the dose of my other bladder drug hydroxyzine. So far apart from days of niggles that feel like heavy period cramps it's been better than I thought it would be. Because of weaning off cimetidine I'm having to be even more prudent in cutting out acidic foods and drink. With interstitial cystitis eating an acidic food, say like tomatoes is like putting vinegar on a mouth ulcer. I can't take betaine, I'm hoping my stomach acid will increase in time. It's a long shot, but now I've run out of ideas to try. My bladder is extremely sensitive, I've had the disease 14 years now, and there's a lot of damage to the lining of my bladder. It gets very thick and scarred, from all the cracking and bleeding. I know it's hard to understand if you don't have it, just how much the tiniest thing can cause extreme pain.

I'm so pleased those iron injections have helped your mother in law

Thanks for replying!

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

I see how complicated this has become and it is a shame about the cimetidine. I have a friend who has been on previcid for years and years and now we believe it was low stomach acid causing the gerd or reflux.

Scar tissue is very hard to reverse, isn't it? There are a couple of supplements that are derived from the silk worm that break down this fibrous tissue supposedly. It takes so long to test these things out and know if they will work or not.

The doctor's BB I followed for years had a woman with your problem. Oh my, what she went through and tried everything. She finally saw a doctor in California and did resort to taking Lyrica but I think it is still related to adrenal/thyroid because it is all part of the nervous system. Sometimes a chiropractor can help because the nerves of the spine can affect many organs if they are pinched.

I'm impressed with the Bergman videos. he even mentions Dr. Peat as a leading authority on thyroid. He does have this video about the bladder. I haven't watched it myself but if you want to check it out, he does bring out very valid points in his videos.

youtube.com/watch?v=PUO8UOd...(Not working as expected?)

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

It's a complicated disease Heloise. When I was first diagnosed I was told it's an incurable inflammatory disease of the bladder. Now some urologists think there is a bacterial cause and these bacteria are hidden from conventional testing. Some people have had some success from having a urine broth culture done, and if any bacteria grow you can go onto the appropriate antibiotic, but it may take a year or more of taking it. Plus you can't introduce other bacteria like from having sex during this time. My own urologist who is involved in research believes it to be an autoimmune response, where did we hear that before?

Like your friend I've been to hell and back with the pain. I went undiagnosed for a 5 year period when I got suicidal, the pain can be relentless. Then of course you're peeing every 10 minutes day and night. A lot of urologists do the cystoscopy then don't know what to do with the findings as they don't know about IC, this happened to me! I went through the procedure under anaesthetic, he saw inflammation on my bladder and an increase in mast cells from the biopsies, and offered to shut my ovaries down! Stupid man, of course I refused. So I went through this again and with the knowledge I now have I know the results of the original cystoscopy were the clincher for diagnosing IC, so I suffered needlessly for 5 years.

In 2006 I had my bladder stretched with 2 litres of water under anaesthetic. It's called a hydrodistention, my bladder badly cracked as obviously this procedure opens them up, then they bleed. I was in considerable pain and passing a lot of clots for 3 weeks, but eventually it really did help. Before I was virtually housebound, it also lessened my bladder flares. Before the stretch one week out of four would be spent in agony as bad as childbirth. It's very depressing to live with this level of pain. Even morphine doesn't shift it. Now I can go months without any major flare, but it still has it's moments! B12 was a bad one, the injections that contain acetic acid kicked off bladder pain and spasms for a week and a half. At least methylcoballamin is fine!

It's also annoying not go be able to eat and drink what I want, but you do get used to it!

When I had my stretch the hospital was trailing gabapentin for IC patients. It does help nerve pain, but I can wait for many hours for it to kick in. I usually have to take 900mg at a time to get any relief, and it does zonk you out, but that can be a blessing

In the US the drug of choice seems to be Elmiron. You can get it in the UK supposedly on a named patient basis, but as it's expensive, you can forget it. It can take many months to work though to repair the gag layer, and some people have reported distressing side effects like hair loss.

I'll have a look at the video, thanks for putting it up.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Yes, this all sounds so familiar and so distressing. I had terrible nerve pain every night on my upper thighs....burning pain along with restless leg. I was under medicated on thyroid. Like you, if I had lemonade or wine, it was so much worse. I think it stopped when my nerves went dead or something. Now, my legs are weak. That was ten years ago and last year I started with neuropathy on my toes and my teeth so I was prescribed gabapentin as well. I didn't want to stay on that forever so I bought Gaba, the amino acid and find I only need to take it for a few days at a time. I wonder how you would do on that.

After listening to Bergman I really think we should stay far away from prescriptions except for our hormone....at least for now because he feels hypothyroidism can be cured. I think you would have to be very committed though.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Nerve pain is terrible, I have the same problems as you. My legs have been ridiculously painful since 2005. My calf muscles can be rock hard and walking up any incline is so painful. Yes too with restless legs, always a lot worse at night. I do take gabapentin as it's impossible to sleep. Plus swollen feet and pain in them. I've had splints made at an orthopaedic hospital, and special insoles and nothing has worked. I can't even wear normal shoes. The leg weakness too is very marked.

We've had to move house so I have a downstairs bedroom. Even lifting my legs high enough to get over the sill of a car can be difficult. No amount of B12 or thyroid meds has made any difference. I can take 125 mcg of T3 and it makes not a jot of difference. I just took my temperature because I was shivering and it's 35.4 deg, yet I've had 25mcg of Hc and 100mcg of T3 so far today. I just can't get stable with anything

I hate taking prescription drugs but sadly I have no choice with my bladder. I can understand why 12% of people kill themselves with IC.

Thanks for the chat Heloise I just hope you can find improvement. You are so knowledgeable and proactive!

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Wow, Helcaster, I just wonder if this wasn't preventable if you had had decent treatment from the start. This is devastating. There is something terribly wrong when you need such high doses. I guess I'd be a little leary of dropping all my meds. I wonder if the T3 is just pooling in your blood with no where to go.

I watched the video and he brought up some very interesting points.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Hi Heloise, when I was first examined by Dr Skinner he said I'd been hypo for at least 20 years, possibly right back to the birth of my first child. My GP's have missed many opportunities to diagnose me, choosing to send me for 100's of hospital appointments with many different consultants instead.

I'm thinking my body just doesn't know what to do with the thyroid meds everything has been shut down for so long. I did have a test which showed pooling, I was hoping the HC to help my really low cortisol would help to open up the receptors. I have really high inflammation in my blood too, so I know that doesn't help.

With IC you often get people suffer from IBS, fibromyalgia, migraine etc too. My chronic diarrhoea started the exact time my bladder symptoms started, the same with fibro.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Goodness gracious, Helcastor, I fear you are going to have nothing but trouble on the track you are on. I wish I knew what to tell you. But I do believe that those drugs you take have a downside

If you get a scratch or bump, you still heal, right? It seems the same with your bladder if it has the right conditions it should heal.

I'm afraid that the medical system isn't in to healing, just treating and charging. I have been a skeptic for a long time and now I'm very cynical. I would look elsewhere rather then the allopathic system we have for almost anything.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Hi Heloise, I'm starting to question whether I will ever get well, right now an improvement would be good!

In the early days of Ic I used to go to a self help group, but it just got too depressing. A lot of the sufferers had had their bladders removed and wore a bag strapped to their thigh. The thought of this was just terrible. I have followed the Ic diet, it's not worth taking chances, I drank nothing but still mineral water for 10 years. Still 99% of the time I drink this water, I filter all my cooking water too.

Along the way I've discovered I can drink a mug of red bush tea a day, this naturally has no acid or caffeine. I can also get away with eating a red apple from time to time. Still can't touch citrus or berries. I gave in and ate a strawberry a few years back and had 5 days of terrible bladder pain. Ic is a degenerative disease, but I must have done some good with my management! Could I not take drugs for it? Absolutely not, I never want to go back and suffer every day like I did.

Some people I know who have had their bladders removed still have pain, there's a lot of thought that this is a systemic disease. Despite a lot of research there still aren't definitive answers.

My urologist told me once I have some control, never tinker and I've found out the hard way he's absolutely right!