I have been told that the diminishing hair underarms and especially eyebrows is due to a lessening estrogen...a natural phenomena. However, recently I realized that I no longer had hair on my legs. I have hot sweats...dripping sometimes. I take levothryroxine and my labs are always right in the middle of the range. I do have hypoglycemia and a strong diabetes maternal history. I am 72. My lipids are very good with treatment. I also have a daytime sleep issue...idiopathic hypersomnia which no one knows much about. It could be related to brain chemical malfunction as I also have clinical depression. Is this all.,,.my diet, low exercising, Diet
Coke, aging, or what?? I hope someone can lend a hand here. Thankis
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I'm growing less hair as I get older. Leg hair is patchy, hair down there is almost gone, and eyebrows are thinner. Armpits don't seem to have changed. I think it's due to changing hormones and age.
I am diabetic, and find I will hot flash alot if I've been eating too many carbs. When I am hot flashing, my glucose is either not going down after a meal or it's gone down too low (hypo). If I've been eating too many carbs I also get EXTREMELY sleepy, the narcoleptic kind of sleepy. I believe it's from too much insulin in my blood stream. You should try reducing your carbohydrate intake (sugar, anything sweet, and all starches and grains). If you feel better, then that is the root cause of your problems. Or you could buy a glucometer and start testing your glucose after meals or when you are feeling bad. I tested for 8 years before being diagnosed.
I do my best when I eat no sugars or starches/grains. As soon as I start eating them again, I start feeling really crappy and my skin and eyes become itchy and dry.
I lost the hair on my legs two years ago, the pubic hair about 15 years ago, the underarm also. seven years ago I lost most of my eyebrows but thankfully other than thinning and hair coming out in the shower the hair on my head is okay at the moment but my stepmother who died in her late seventies had very straggly wisps of hair before she died. Hope this helps you realise loss of hair is common to thyroid patients. My sister who is six year older than me has all of her hair and she says none of the hidden places have changed.
I'm 63 and haven't had hair on my legs for a decade I think you are doing well.I have also noticed that my sleeping habits have flip flopped with age. My mom and dad each were wonderful examples of aging. They said and lived the adage that you might as well relax cuz it's just natural. I think you should ask your clinical psychologist about aging and clinical depression as body changes happen, we don't reallyknow if its a natural part of aging or not.
Welcome to our forum and sorry to hear you are not feeling well.
Many hormone imbalances and nutritional deficiencies can cause hair loss and thyroid disorders are a common cause.
Hypoglycaemia is commonly seen in people with low thyroid hormone and each condition will exerbate the other. Low thyroid hormone will slow insulin clearance and reduce glucagon secretion and gastric emptying. It will also decrease intestinal absorption of glucose.
High blood sugar levels will create an excess of insulin eventually leading insulin resistance and low blood sugar will encourage releases of glucagon, adrenaline and cortisol placing enormous stress on the adrenal glands. All this can lead to a blunted hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal response to hypoglycaemia.
Eating regular healthy meals with protein at each will help balance blood sugar levels and keep you feeling full for longer, and may help your thyroid meds to work better.
Depression can be a result of low T3 which may be tested by private labs - link below.
Levo should be taken 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.
Post any recent test results complete with ranges (numbers in brackets) and members will comment.
I am the only one in my family that is known to have a thyroid issue. IF my thyroid is increased, then I would expect the hot sweats to also increase...correct?
My PC says that it is my weight that is causing the sweats and the fatigue.
You may find supplementing 100-200mcg selenium beneficial as is known to help convert T4 to T3.
Re hot sweats -have you had sex hormones tested ? ? .. These get out of whack when adrenals become compromised by too low thyroid hormones over many years (oestrogen, testosterone etc).
I do not know how to read blood sugar tests comprehensively. You could repost as a new question for others to comment.
The chart I made was distorted as you see it. My fasting sugar was 84...well below the high end of 100.
My 2 hr. sugar was 65...very, very below the lowest expected. After I returned home, I checked the sugar again and it was 60...no wonder I was not feeling well at all. That number is major Hypoglycemia for me...don't think I have ever tested that low before. My fasting insulin was low normal and the 2hr insulin was below the lowest value of the range. So I do not have insulin resistance...but I sure do have something !! I have been eating several small meals each day for over a decade and try to have protein each time. Not sure what else I can do there.
And like a lot of folks, especially in the Pacific Northwest of the US...I have a very low D3 value...30. I took supplement for over a year...2000-3000 mg daily...next test revealed that my value was now a ...31. I increased to 5000 mg for several months now. When I submitted that to my MD, he asked why I was taking so much and I should cut back !! I have heard that some MD's will give injections..
I am not proficient at reading blood sugar tests in people with hypothyroidism as they may only be a small part of the whole picture that needs considering, as keeping your blood sugar in range depends on an adequate supply of thyroid hormones and cortisol.
Low thyroid hormone will slow the rate of glucose up-taken by the cells, decrease the rate of glucose absorption in the gut, slow insulin response to elevated blood sugar, and insulin clearance from the blood.
Therefore, similar to our deceiving thyroid hormone blood test results that may show good levels when we are clearly symptomatic, it is possible to have normal levels of glucose, with cells that aren’t sensitive to it or low blood sugar (which actually isn’t) with too much insulin secretion and all vice versa.
Cortisol’s role in episodes of low blood sugar is to increase the amount of glucose to the brain and curb other functions that are immediately nonessential. Apart from wearing out the adrenals glands supply of hormone (so effecting thyroid function), this can eventually suppress pituitary function as the negative feedback loop may start to dysfunction (HPA axis)..
Both Vit D and K dissolve in fat droplets within your digestive tract and are taken up by your body when your small intestine absorbs the fat droplet. If you have Hashimotos (thyroid antibodies), Vit D deficiency is common due to Gi disorders. Also inflammation, excess weight and VDR polymorphisms, etc., may all effect absorption and production of Vit D.
Many members have to supplement Vit D but levels should be retested six months after starting a high dose.
I take my supplement with good fats - coconut oil or something similar and always with food, but only October to May as my levels are not low..
Selenium deficiency is very rare in the United States and Canada.
We are not aware of common risk factors for deficiency of selenium in the United States. As mentioned earlier, the average U.S. diet exceeds all common public health recommendations for intake of this mineral. For this reason, is it not common to find research studies showing other reasons for selenium deficiency in the U.S.
According to the third National Health and Nutrition Study (NHANES III), the risk of selenium deficiency is very low. The average U.S. adult eats about 106 mcg of dietary selenium per day. This is well above the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) recommendation of 55 mcg.
Selenium deficiency is rare in the UK too but selenium is the base of the 5’-deiodinase enzyme and helps make the enzymes that remove the iodine molecules from T4, making T3.
It also regulates and recycles iodine stores, helps glutathione production and protects the thyroid gland against oxidative damage (caused by the hydrogen peroxide required to make hormones).
All (circulating and intracellular) thyroid hormone levels are controlled by a complex, highly regulated system involving three iodothyronine deiodinases (known as D1, D2, and D3) all selenium- containing enzymes.
Those suffering gut issues are more likely to have nutrient absorption problems and so the supplementation of selenium in hypothyroidism is common.
STTM recommends between 200 - 400 mcg daily. I take a more pragmatic approach as my gut issues have practically resolved, and supplement just 100mcg selenium daily as selenium can be toxic if too much is supplemented.
Selenium should be balanced with iodine but we have the required amount already in our thyroid meds.
A Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) is usually based on healthy people .
reallyfedup123 is right when she says that 'middle of the range' results doesn't necessarily mean optimal. The range for TSH is usually something like 0.3 to 5.5, however this range is for diagnosis not treatment. The general population have a TSH between 0.5 and 1.5 (there is an academic paper from Norway showing this), so that's why when we are treated for hypothyroidism we need to have our TSH corrected to around 1, not 2.9 (which would be the middle of the range). Not many doctors know this. If your TSH is above 1 you might well be under medicated, which might be part of the cause of your hair loss and your depression.
If its the outer third of your eyebrows that is vanishing you need to have blood tests for hypothyroidism which I was diagnosed for at 69. Similar hair loss on legs.
The hair on my legs stopped growing when I was pregnant with my first daughter, in the second trimester. It never grew back (yippee!) and I had PPT with TSH 70.
The hair under my arms stopped re-growing around 2 years ago around the time of my menopause.
I had a non event menopause with regards to hot flushes etc but defo less body hair.
It's probably caused by more than one thing in my opinion.
I can't see that anyone has mentioned the link between loss of body hair and adrenal health.
My Aunt had loss of all body hair, bad sweats and skin pigmentation before being diagnosed with Addisons disease. It may be worth taking a saliva cortisol test to check yours.
You say that your lipids are 'very good with treatment'. Does that mean you take statins? If so, then you shouldn't be taking them. I don't know if that has anything to do with hair loss, but it's just generally bad to take statins, and contre-indicated if you are hypo.
Diet coke is also very bad for you. All forms of artificial sweeteners are bad. For the sake of your health, give them up.
Grey goose why are artificial sweeteners bad a use Splenda I thought they were the best I have hypothyroidism and am gluten free thanks to what I have learned from this wonderful forum and and feeling a lot better for it.
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Splenda is made from chlorinated sugar, which is toxic. And the body cannot get rid of chlorinated substances, like it can other toxins.
And, if you're using it for weight-loss, then you're going to be disappointed. It actually makes you put on weight.
Splenda has been linked to cancer, so if that is the best, I dread to think what the others are like! (Well, I know what they're like, they're all bad, with aspartam being the worst.)
Ugh! I heard that bugs have the good sense not to go anywhere near it!
It's like margarine. Did you know that it was originally formulated to feed turkeys, but the turkeys all died, so they decided to market it as a 'healthy' option to butter! We really have to be so carefully what we buy and what we believe.
The Graves Disease was diagnosed about 22yrs ago. The endo discussed how it is one of the auto-immune diseases we can get...and that maybe I would be lucky and it would be the only one and that I might not develop Diabetes 2.
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I think you are doing well.I have also noticed that my sleeping habits have flip flopped with age. My mom and dad each were wonderful examples of aging. They said and lived the adage that you might as well relax cuz it's just natural. I think you should ask your clinical psychologist about aging and clinical depression as body changes happen, we don't reallyknow if its a natural part of aging or not.
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