Swollen legs

[LouiseMcD]

Does anyone else suffer with painful swollen legs and is it related to weight gain due to Hashimotos or just general sluggishness because of weight gain. My legs have become very swollen and uncomfortable recently. Thanks.

[ollymummy]

I suffered hideously with my legs swelling and aching and itching with tight skin its lessened now (not gone - still can't zip up my boots!!) but it's much much better since becoming more adequately medicated and I can survive a night shift without having restless legs and to keep raising them above my heart - not a good look!!!

[Hidden]

hi there i suffer with swollen legs but mine is do to Diabetes, osteoarthritis, plus if you are just over weight it won't help, but there could be many reasons why so please see your doctor to see if he can find out for sure whats causing yours hope this help take care kind regards bigalan

[LouiseMcD in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for this. I do think it's due to being overweight and I'm struggling to lose weight so that's not helping. I was diagnosed with Hashimotos 7 months ago and my weight has steadily been increasing over the last couple of years do I need to try and figure out how to successfully lose some.

[Chrystalheart in reply to LouiseMcD]

I have had the same weight issues. Intractable obesity. Constantly inches up. I can only lose if I reduce my calories to 800-1000 or so. I read a genetic study that demonstrated a gene variation can cause this. My endo put me on a low carb, low fat, high protein diet. I eat every 2 hours now, small amounts. If you are vegan, then adequate protein pushes you to beans and other legumes and soy..tofu etc. There are also soy based protein powders. I also have swelling over most of my body. It started in my hands n elbows last January and spread. I've just started noticing that in between my hand bones I'm getting lumps.

[Chrystalheart in reply to Chrystalheart]

So keep an eye out. Use a tape measure or take photos side by side so you can compare. That might help you figure it out. Is it too much salt, water retention, or fat or Mucin. They point to different processes.

[Hidden in reply to LouiseMcD]

well i'm on slim-fast diet could you see if this helps you and if you look on there website there's many things that can help take care please keep in touch kind regards bigalan.

[Dafraro]

I was diagnosed with Hashi in March. Went on the Mirena coil to ease the periods as I was getting them back to back. Now 5 months on I have one swollen leg and my thyroid test is out of synch again. Think the Mirena is messing with my hashi. I do believe the Mirena is not localised hormone and does affect all hormone production/function. Having it removed

[LouiseMcD in reply to Dafraro]

Crikey. I was diagnosed with Hashimotos in Jan this year and also offered the more a coil due to heavy periods. I've thought about it but decided against it.

[Dafraro in reply to LouiseMcD]

Let the hashimotos stabilise first. That should sort out the heavy period.

[Tigreg]

My ankles recently swelled up dramatically after being taken off diuretic. Called doctor who told me to go back on diuretic. Problem solved! Swollen legs and ankles are usually due to water retention. Maybe you should be taking a diuretic?

[Parbrook in reply to Tigreg]

Presumably, your doc tested your kidney function?

[LouiseMcD in reply to Parbrook]

Yes they did and everything was well within range apart from my albumin which was on the low side. I'm not sure how to get it up though.

[Tigreg in reply to Parbrook]

Yes indeed. No problem there at all!

[LouiseMcD in reply to Tigreg]

I'd have to go back to the GP and have a discussion with them as this has only happened recently. I've been sleeping with my feet raised and wake up in a morning with normal u swollen legs.

[1133]

Yuck, I know just how uncomfortable that is! Have your protein levels checked - especially albumin. Low albumin is a big cause of edema, and also tied to hypothyroidism, as albumin transports thyroid hormone (as well as many nutrients) into your cells. If your protein is low, you're going to want to focus on bringing it back up, typically by consuming lots of bone broths (not that MSG laden crap you get at stores - home made kind, preferably with organic and pastured bones), gelatine (just add it to smoothies, milk, etc.), organ meats (like organic, grass-fed liver, small portions, just once a week or so), and undenatured whey protein powder (from grass fed, organic cows), in milk is another way to bring up the protein levels. Another thing that may help is this supplement: life-enthusiast.com/platinu... - it's an amino acid blend specifically formulated to correct protein deficiency.

Another thing to look into is your progesterone levels in relation to estrogen. If you have very low progesterone, compared to normal or high (or even low) estrogen, it's a state called estrogen dominance (or progesterone deficiency) - you may benefit a lot from progesterone supplementation. This helps the swelling go down for me. Not entirely, but at least substantially. If you do decide to supplement with progesterone, make sure it is BIOIDENTICAL progesterone USP (not a synthetic progestin, as this will only make matters worse). It has to be the same exact molecular structure as our own body's progesterone, not a "similar" molecule.

As far as thyroid goes, aside from possible protein deficiency, have your antibodies tested (there are 2 tests for Hashis - TPO ab and the other, I don't recall at the moment, someone else on the forum will recall this), and also check out your free T3, reverse T3 and the ratio between the two of them. It's possible you may not be converting T4 to T3 and may need T3 only supplementation for a time, or at the very least, higher doses of NDT.

[LouiseMcD in reply to 1133]

Hi, my albumin was on the lower end of normal when it was checked. I don't eat animal products though do I'm not sure how to get it up. Any advice? The progesterone and estrogen I wasn't even aware of but that's great advice thanks.

[1133 in reply to LouiseMcD]

You're welcome. As far as getting the protein levels up on a vegan diet... the only suggestion I can really make on this is to look into the Platinum Plus supplements I linked to in my post above - life-enthusiast.com/platinu..., as this is an amino acid blend specially formulated for correcting protein deficiency.

[Chrystalheart in reply to 1133]

Hashis Can also be diagnosed by ultrasound (inflammation of thyroid)

[sue_b]

Hi

I have had a swollen left ankle since a bad sprain about 20 years ago and the only time it has gone skinny is when I detox; no wheat, dairy, alcohol, meat. I have also found that chinese meals, processed meats, especially packaged ham make the swelling much worse. Maybe dietary measures might help you?

I also get restless legs More recently both ankles are swelling and I think that is due to my adrenal/thyroid issues, hypo-tension, slow pulse and low body temp but haven't come to any conclusions yet. Do you have these signs too? My calves got particularly painful when varicose veins were breaking their way out ( that's what it felt like!) to the surface of my skin; could that be happening to you?

Hope some of this is helpful

[LouiseMcD in reply to sue_b]

Thanks for the advice. I think the dietary things sounds very sensible and I've recently adopted a gluten free diet and trying to cut out processed foods too.

[Chrystalheart]

My endo offered 3 possibilities.. water retention, fat tissue swelling and mixing build up.

[Parbrook in reply to Chrystalheart]

Has your kidney function been checked?

Low kidney function is associated with water retention, usually starting with the ankles, then legs.

You could try reducing your fluid intake to about 1.5 litres a day to see if this helps.

[Chrystalheart in reply to Chrystalheart]

Mucin. Not mixing. Auto correct slays me.

[sue_b in reply to Chrystalheart]

Hi Crystalheart

Hope you don;t mind, I was wondering what your endo said about Mucin; is that the stuff that builds up, specific to hypothyroid, that they used to use as an indicator for Myxodema donkeys years ago?

Sue

[Chrystalheart in reply to sue_b]

Yes. But she hasn't addressed it yet. She is changing one thing at a time and giving the one thing time to change my status then the next thing. Synthroid change first then vit d megadoses . Just had a thyroid biopsy. The worst of the swelling went away. Not sure if it is coincidental or related. My condition ebbs and flows. I'm looking at methylation pathways as a contributing factor.