chest pain

[Smon6]

My daughter has a few things going on. She has had repaired heart defect. She has slightly raised TSH all other bloods are normal. She is 10 soon. Her thyroid is not being treated yet just monitored. However to me she is having symptoms tiredness, sore throats (unexplained), nausea, dizziness and some hair loss. Her school wont agree with me because her paediatrician has not informed them that she has hashimoto. The paediatrician just told me she has high thyroid antibodies and subclinical hypothyroidism.

My question is she has been complaining of chest pain can the thyroid cause this even if not at level of treatment yet?

[Clutter]

Smon6,

As your daughter has a heart defect her chest pain should be checked out by her GP or A&E rather than speculate whether it may be due to low thyroid.

High thyroid antibodies means your daughter has autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) which eventually causes 90% of hypothyroidism. There is no treatment for autoimmune disease and NHS will not diagnose hypothyroidism until TSH is over range or FT4 below range. Your daughter may be able to slow progression to hypothyroidism by adopting 100% gluten-free diet which may also reduce symptoms and antibodies.

chriskresser.com/the-gluten...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

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I am not a medical professional and this information is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice from your own doctor. Please check with your personal physician before applying any of these suggestions.

[Smon6 in reply to Clutter]

Thank you she has had echo for heart and docs assure me pain is not caused by heart. It don't stop me worrying though as she has been misdiagnosed in the past. Her TSH is over range but they still not medicating. She has been tested for gluten and does not have intolerance. She has mid line defects caused by a chromosome disorder unfortunately.

[Josiesmum in reply to Smon6]

There isn't any accurate test for gluten intolerance, better to try cutting out gluten and see if symptoms improve/antibodies reduce.

[Clutter in reply to Smon6]

Smon6,

Gluten-free can be helpful in reducing thyroid antibodies even though a patient does not have coeliac disease.

Perhaps you can make your daughter's paediatrician aware of her symptoms and how it is affecting her schooling. As she is subclinically hypothyroid (which should mean symptom free) perhaps a trial of Levothyroxine can be prescribed to see whether symptoms improve.

[Smon6 in reply to Clutter]

I didn't realise gluten free could help. Paediatrician told me there is no link between gluten and thyroid unless had coeliac disease. She definitely has symptoms but she is so complex. She has heart, bowel, polysplenia, frequent uti with visible blood so I guess he is being cautious. We have an appointment coming up so will have a long discussion with him. Thank you about the gluten information. I will read up on it.

[greygoose in reply to Smon6]

Being cautious is one thing, but I think that any problems she has will be worse, and more difficult to control, if she also has low thyroid hormones. And, if her TSH is high/over-range, then her thyroid hormones are going to be low.

[Smon6 in reply to Smon6]

This is the only legit sorce I can find and it suggests that gluten free diet makes no difference

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2...

[phronsias]

Hi

I get chest ache if I'm under medicated , if I don't increase my dose the ache turns in to a pain, sometimes from my heart region to my left shoulder. After the increase the ache goes after a day or two.

Regards

Frank

[Smon6 in reply to phronsias]

Thank you. That is interesting to know. Hopefully they will start medicating her soon then and hopefully then she can feel better.

[phronsias in reply to Smon6]

My consultant refused to believe my chest pain had anything to do with my Hypothyroidism and sent me to see a cardiologist, had a morning of tests and was told that I haven't got a problem, my consultant increased my dose and the pain stopped. It must be difficult for a child.

Best of luck

Frank

[humanbean]

Another cause of chest pain, apart from thyroid issues, is low iron. It would be a good idea to ask for her to be tested for nutrient deficiencies. The ones to start with are :

iron, ferritin, TIBC, transferrin

vitamin D

vitamin B12

folate

a full blood count would be a good idea too.

If your doctor won't test then it is possible to get tests done privately using finger-prick testing without getting doctors involved. If this interests you then let us know and we can point you in the right direction. In many cases it isn't as expensive as people expect (but it still isn't cheap).

[Smon6 in reply to humanbean]

They have done full blood count and all is normal though I wasn't given the numbers. thanks

[humanbean in reply to Smon6]

A full blood count won't tell you all you need to know about iron or the other nutrients. It would be good to get the results and reference ranges anyway, but you still need to ask for the other things I suggested.

Once you have all the tests done that your doctor is prepared to do you should ask for a print out of the results including reference ranges and post them in a new post on here and ask for feedback.

[Smon6]

NO no other family member at all. My daughter was born with mid line defects including heart, bowels, eyes, ears, spleen. Basically her eyes are paralysed, the sinus tract opens to outside of her ears, left side of heart was blocked, missing anus and colon stopped high up just behind bowel, extra spleens on right hand side. She has extra chromosome 22.