Relating to other posts.

[jtidwell]

I saw a post on here in relation to a man called Paul telling his story about the Levothyroxine making him have stiffness and pain in his joints. He is only on a very low dose and a couple of people suggested he may need a higher dose. I am 55 years old and have been taking Levothyroxine for ten years fluctuating the dose. At present my GP has me on 200mg a day which I personally think is very high. The higher the dose the worse my stiffness in my knees and joints gets worse and more painful. Truthfully no disrespect to GP's but I really think they need educating much more about this condition considering a large proportion of the population suffer with it at some point in their lives. For many years I have had such a bad quality of life due to just accepting what the doctor tells me and plodding on with the problem. I have gone through a couple of times not taking the medication due to being ill or forgetting and my stiffness and pain goes away completely but after a couple of days or so I get this horrible feeling of tiredness to the extent I cannot do anything. SO! I go back on the thyroxine and yes I feel energetic again BUT! my joints stiffen up and I have aches and pains manipulating and limiting me to things I do. Normal everyday things like cleaning the house and walking the dogs.

Hope someone reads this and relates to what I am saying.

Jacqueline

[greygoose]

Well, you obviously need some form of thyroid hormone replacement. But, what you need more than anything else is decent labs. Your doctor is probably only looking at the TSH, but you need to see more than that to know exactly what is going on with you and why you need such a high dose. The tests you want are :

TSH

FT4

FT3

TPOab

TgAB

vit D

vit B12

folate

ferritin

If the TSH and/or the antibodies are too high, or if any of the others are too low, that will give you aches and pains, and nothing to do with the levo. So, your first stop should be to rule out all of that.

It could be the fillers in the levo tablets that don't agree with you. You could ask your doctor to prescribe a different bran. A lot of people are going to suggest that you source and self-treat with NDT, and that might be the answer. But NDT will not work for you, either if you have nutritional deficiencies. So, best to get all those tests done first, to make sure that all is optimal. Then you can decide your next step.

[Gb57]

I had stiffness and pain in my joints, it turned out I had b12 problems. Many people with thyroid problems end up with b12 defic. Get your doc to test you and very important ask for the reading. Hope you feel better soon

[MariLiz]

My pain and stiffness improved once I discovered my B12 and VitD were both low. Once they were treated things improved a great deal.