Newbie

[Julie3]

My first time so here goes!! I started on 25mg and was put up to 50mg of Levo. Yes I still feel tired!!!! I have made a couple of little changes which have helped, I take my meds as soon as I wake up and do not eat or drink for at least an hour as good and drink can effect your meds. I have gone gluten free on bread and pasta but on the odd occasion have normal bread and pasta. I have limited my favourite broccoli , cauliflower sprouts and cabbage, I also avoid peanuts. It has made a difference but you need to give it time. Hope this helps

[Hidden]

Hi Julie - glad you are feeling better. I am on the same journey, except on 25mg I not only felt worse, my TSH has risen and my T4 has fallen! I am also now on 50mg, and feeling worse than ever. But looking back through the threads, that is not unusual. I am glad it is not like that for you.

I would just say that you can't really go partially gluten free. (I've been g free for 10 years). And it would be wise to have a blood test for celiac (they are quite cheap on the internet) before you do go fully gluten free, if you choose that path.

Of those with Hashi's one in 20 are celiac, so it is worth excluding.

Then if you decide to try g free, you will have to exclude absolutely everything with wheat, barley and rye in it - including most cornflakes, soy sauce, most sausages, liquorice sweets - it's astonishing how much has gluten added. That's a big step, and you would need to do it for a while before you saw results, or before you went back on gluten to see if you had a reaction.

Do you have any gut symptoms which might suggest gluten problems, for example, pain or bloating after eating some foods?

[Julie3 in reply to Hidden]

Hi Aspmama

I have no stomach problems but do get a lot of giddy spells. I cut gluten out of bread as I cook from fresh on the odd accassion I don't so there's notice gluten in my diet. The gluten is it doesn't suit me but it slows down the thyroid as other foods in my first post. Forgot to say I use floride free toothpaste and try not to drink tap water as it contains floride. As this slows the thyroid down this is the reason for little tweaks in my diet. Hope this helps julie

[Hidden in reply to Julie3]

Yes - when I was pregnant I couldn't use fluoride containing toothpaste. Body just went "No." Nor would it let me drink tea or coffee or wine. I would order hopefully, take a sip of any of the above, and have to put it down and leave it. I suspect I had thyroid antibodies even then.

I don't get that reaction now, but I still prefer non fluorides.

Interesting that there is evidence that gluten slows the thyroid down. Could you give me the link to the research paper? I've never managed to find that. Thanks so much for posting.

[Julie3 in reply to Hidden]

Hi again

I also looked at best time to take meds and this is when I found out that it's best to wait 30 mins to eat but I wait an hour. I don't drink coffee and it said not to drink it up to 3 hours of taking your meds. Also otherefs can effect the Levo working properly.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Just PS on this, in case anyone searches fluoride in the future and wonders, this extreme reaction to it in pregnancy was probably because I was very low in iodine, I think. Fluoride seems to reduce iodine absorption or its use in the body- I'm not clear which of these yet - if you are low in iodine already.

And low iodine in pregnancy is associated just in a tiny number of studies with attention difficulties and maybe autism in the babe. Well, that would fit. If only we had time machines.

[Hidden]

PS. Not all tap water contains fluoride. It depends where you live.

[Julie3 in reply to Hidden]

Hi

Look for foods not to eat with under active thyroid lots of info. I'm 51 now and I think the menopause contributes towards thyroid problems with woman of my age group as I have a friend who was border line and now she has finished the menapause she back to normal. Don't think it happens to everyone.

[Hidden in reply to Julie3]

I deduce that you don't know of any research showing that gluten slows the thyroid down.

What is on general sites is often unreliable. What I can see so far on pubmed doesn't substantiate the idea that going off gluten helps with hypo, though it would increase the absorption of Levo if you were celiac, reducing the Levo dose needed, and so might potentially if you were gluten sensitive.

Obviously going completely off gluten would make you feel better eventually if you had either of those conditions.

There is anecdotal evidence apparently that it reduces antibodies in some people, but I can't find any research to back that. It might be out there - it takes a long time to find this stuff.