Mornings are hell!

[Koloris]

Hi everyone

I'm new here and wanted to say what a great site this is and also ask for some advice.

My symptoms were extreme tiredness, brain fog, weak leg muscles, so weak I could not walk up the stairs easily, always cold and I was steadily gaining weight. To cut a very long story short with my GP, I went to BUPA who found I had reactive hypoglycaemia and felt the reasons I was tired was due to my blood sugar constantly crashing after meals and that my liver was probably full of insulin.

 They put me on a detox diet for 2 weeks and then on a high fat, low carb diet for the rest of my life.  I did feel so much better for around 6 months and although I did not lose any weight, I had stopped gaining. 

But now the tiredness and muscle weakness has slowly started to return.  BUPA did test my thyroid and the levels were the lower end of normal so I went back to my GP who would not test my thyroid again and suggested I add in some more vegetables to my diet!

After much reading and researching, I believe it’s my thyroid which is causing the problem, so I decided to self-medicate and purchased some NDT and have been working my dosage up and am currently on three gains a day. I spread my dosage throughout the day, having one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one before bed. 

I am no longer quite so tired,  my temperatures are up and the weakness is better.  But I find when I wake up in the morning my hamstrings are really right and my leg muscles ache. It does not stop until the effects of the NDT start kicking in after around an hour or two.  In fact, most mornings I’m really tired until the NDT kicks in which is difficult when you’re trying to get ready for work.  I will keep slowly increasing my dose, but just wondered if anyone else has suffered this?  Sorry for such a long post and I’ve deleted lots loads to make it shorter!!

[Katzy]

Hello Koloris.  I am in the same boat as you are, as far as treating myself for hypothyroid symptoms.  I do have some muscle weakness, stiffness and pain.  My problem is mostly with my neck.  I'm hoping as time goes on, and being on NDT, that will help improve the muscle tightness and pain.  Have you read anything on magnesium?  It use to help loosen up my muscles and helped a lot with achiness, but it quit working for me as time has gone on.  I wonder if the hypothyroidism decreases the stomach acid and the body's ability to absorb nutrients.  You might try some magnesium glycinate (or there are many other kinds) at bedtime, it also can be relaxing), but I have read to not take it or some other minerals within 30 minutes of the NDT, to get maximum absorption of the NDT. Also, Epsom salts in a hot bath before bed might be helpful (again it has magnesium in it).

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of NDT are you taking?

I hope you get more responses because I am curious if my stiff painful neck is also caused by hypothyroidism.  I would love for that to clear up!

[Koloris in reply to Katzy]

I forgot to respond to your question in my reply below.  I am taking Thiroid from Thailand at the moment as it's fairly easy to buy and has good reviews. 

[hunny59]

Hi Koloris.  Welcome!  If you have the results of your thyroid blood tests, it would be helpful if you could post them, together with the ranges, as this will help the rest of the guys on the forum offer advice.

Vitamin/mineral deficiencies often go hand in hand with thyroid problems.  I found that I was low in B12 and Vitamin D as well as having thyroid antibodies.  Now that I've got my vitamin levels up (including taking magnesium) I've found that my morning aches have receded together with the chronic headaches that I used to suffer, usually first thing in the morning.  B12 finally got rid the hip bursitis that I'd been suffering with for nearly two years as well.  Marvellous stuff!

Magnesium shouldn't be taken within 4 hours of thyroid meds and any other vitamins should, ideally, be taken 2 hours away from them too so that they don't interfere with absorption. 

[Koloris]

Hi Katzy and Hunny59

Thanks for your responses and advice.  I have been taking magnesium for some time now as the high fat low carb diet causes constipation so this helps alleviate that problem. I have recently had some blood tests and my vitamin bs and d is fine - in fact, my vitamin d is too high according to the specialist, as well as my calcium and they are wondering if it's a genetic problem.  I'm just waiting on a bone scan to make sure the calcium isn't coming from there.

I don't have my thyroid results as at the time, I just took the Doctor's word for it.  I did read that low iron can cause a problem and I've had this before, so I've booked a full iron panel through medichecks to see if that's the problem.

I agree Hunny59, it does seem that some sort of deficiency is causing the problem, but unfortunately for Katzy and I, it seems we're all diffent and what is causing my aches and pains will be different to what is causing Katzy's! 

I'll let you know if I get to the bottom of mine.

Thanks again for your responses, and I hope you get to the bottom of your aches Katzy.

[Katzy]

Thank you Koloris, best of luck to you!

[fortunata]

Dont know if this will be any help but I suffered in just the same way. I hurt all over... Even the soles of my feet when I walked across the floor. 

I went from high doses of Levothyroxine (up to 200mcgs a day), which did nothing helpful for me, to three and a half grains of NDT a day, which helped a lot. But I only began to feel like the healthy person I had been once I began to take Liothyronine (T3) only. I've been on it for three years now (87mcgs a day)  and life has changed so much for the better. I no longer hurt and can walk about 25 miles a week with my husband and the dogs. I also take quite a few vitamins and minerals every day. 

My weight had gone up to eleven stone four at my worst, which is very heavy for me at 5' 6".  Over the years on T3 it has gradually (and I mean painfully slowly!) come down to ten stone five and has stuck there now for around a year. 

[Koloris in reply to fortunata]

Thank you for your really helpful reply. Funnily enough I weigh 11 stone 4 currently and I'm 5ft 6!!

I did wonder about the T3 by itself so have recently purchased some and am just waiting for it to arrive.

I'll wait for the results of my iron tests and then if things don't improve I'll try the T3.

Thanks again