I wanted to post that my father has high tpo antibodies- > than 1000. I'm trying to get him to get a bone scan as well to see if he has osteoporosis too. I wonder if this means he will need t3 as well as levythyroxine? 25mcg has gotten him to the lowest end on t4 free he told me, I don't have the exact numbers for that or tsh which is lower than 14 now, I will add them on later, and t3 free was 2.72(range 2-4.4) and he recently increased his dose to 50mcg so we will see how that goes.
I'm kind of wondering if I'm going to need it too, but my antibody levels are lower and he said that is relevant to your ability to convert t4 to t3- please correct me here if I'm confusing all of this because I still don't have all of it straight in my mind.
We also think my brother has H too maybe- he has metabolic syndrome and may be getting type 2 diabetes, he has weight gain, which my father and I don't, and he is hunched over too.
I have a lot of the same auto-immune things my father has, asthma, raynauds and now H. I guess these type of things are hereditary. It's odd that my grandfather had graves disease and we have H.
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Hashimotos is an autoimmune disease and doesn't necessarily mean that T3 medication is essential. You will not know whether your father can convert T4-T3 when his thyroid hormones become more stable and you can assess his T3 levels. Most members who medicate on Levothyroxine function better with a TSH of about 1.0 and T4 & T3 in the upper third of range so your father still has some way to go.
Is your father taking his pill on an empty stomach with a glass of water, 1 hour before food, 2 hours before supplements and 4 hours before calcium, iron or vit D supplements. Thyroid meds will work better with optimal iron and nutrients. Optimal thyroid hormones will help thyroid antibodies reduce and suppress further Hashi attacks.
To stop progression your brother needs to get sugar levels balanced. Healthy thyroid function depends on keeping blood sugars in a normal range, which in turn depends on healthy thyroid function.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and this information is not intended to be a substitute for medical guidance from your own doctor. Please check with your personal physician before applying any of these suggestions.
I'm aware it is an autoimmune disease since I have the antibodies for it as well as having type 1, asthma, raynaud's etc.
What I'm wondering is how do you know if you need t3 as well as t4? Is there a test for this or is it just by the relationship of the two levels and tsh level? I looked up what my father mentioned and I can't find anything yet about the levels of tpo antibodies being related to the ability to convert t4 to t3 but he seemed pretty sure about it. I will ask him where he read that.
I agree he has a long way to go having been severely hypo for many years most likely and completely untreated. I'm sure he has so many problems from this including maybe his afib although he did have other electrical issues going on with his heart too which were making him pass out. We were talking about this and I believe my first thyroid symptoms also started years ago with night sweats and insomnia/palpitations/anxiety.
I think he is taking the levy at night on an empty stomach with water- I told him the am is the best time from what I've read but he read that the evening is best so he won't listen to me. As far as I know he isn't taking any of those supplements- he gets his calcium from food and drinks milk. I've told him to get those vitamin levels tested but he hasn't asked his doc to do it yet. He had iron anemia two years ago due to the radiation treatment, high bp and being on warfarin as well as other factors and now maybe due to all of this as well and had iron infusions for 6 weeks at msk which worked wonderfully- he still eats a diet rich in iron now, but that seems to have solved that problem at least. I'm taking mine in the am when I wake up early from bg reasons and then go back to sleep so I don't eat for 3-4 hours after.
He went to his heart doc this week who told him he didn't have hashimotos after looking at the result! The gp said he did have it but never showed him the tpo result. The crazy thing is that if I hadn't had an argument with my endo and demanded to get tested for thyroid antibodies I wouldn't even know I had this and neither would he because he diagnosed himself from me telling him about it and I then insisted he get the antibody testing as well.
I'm not sure what is going on with my brother's bg I don't think he has done any testing since when I was first diagnosed and tested my father and brother but he may have had an a1c, I will ask him. He was eating a low carb diet for quite a while and has been exercising every day so that has helped but now he's gained more weight again. For me I believe the thyroid issues are affecting my bg control but type 1 is a different story because there are many different factors in bg management when you have no natural insulin production.
That is what I'm hoping we can do- to stop the attacks with better thyroid levels. For myself also to stop progression of O since I know I have that for sure now.
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