Not absorbing

[Jossy789]

So ended up in hospital. TSH is extremely low and have put my up to 175mg a day. My b12 is low and on the injections. Just discovered I now have got vitamin D deficiency. Evidently I am not absorbing them. As you can imagine feeling pretty rough. Any ideas where to go from this point

[galathea]

Tsh low? Which shows you have sufficient thyroid hormones. Are you sure?

How is your stomach acid? Do you suffer with bloating, burping?

x

[Jossy789 in reply to galathea]

Sorry meant my thyroid very low. TSH reading is 55.6. I take omeprazole. Don't burp no bloating but liver damaged by hepatitis E due to a bite. Don't drink any alcohol

[Clutter in reply to Jossy789]

Jossy789,

For maximum absorption Levothyroxine should be taken with water 1 hour before, or 2 hours after, food and drink, 2 hours away from other medication and supplements, and 4 hours away from calcium, iron, vitamin D supplements and oestrogen.

If you've been observing the above your GP should test tissue transglutaminase to rule out coeliac disease as gluten intolerance is a common cause of malabsorption in hypothyroid patients and absorption may improve when gluten is eliminated from your diet.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Jossy789]

PPIs are implicated in dementia and kidney diease so it would be a good idea to see if you can get off the omeprazole - but it has to be done gradually - and on to a more old-fasioned rememdy like cimetidine. PPIs also prevent absorbtion of B12 and other nutrients, which can make your hypo worse.

[shaws Administrator]

I am not too clear on what you are not 'absorbing'. You state TSH is extremely low so have increased to 175mcg - normally an increase is given if our TSH is 'high' and reduced if it is very low.

Vitamin D - are you supplementing with Vitamin D. Many members have low Vit D and GP prescribes D3 supplements. Both B12 and Vit D are essential as they are pro-hormones so I hope doctor prescribes supplements for both B12 and VitD.

[Jossy789 in reply to shaws]

I am on injections for B12. Supplement D3. Have been under active thyroid for 19years. Not had a problem. Now it's extremely low. So they changed me from 100mg to 175mg a day levithyroxine. And it's still not balancing out. Now they are talking about putting me upto 200mg per day.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Jossy789]

Thank you for responding. I should imagine they haven't tested either Free T4 or Free T3 and this test tells what's circulating in your blood.

So it sounds to me as if your TSH was very high if they're increasing your dose by 75mcg daily.

Why don't they add some liothyronine (T3) to your dose of levothyroxine (T4). T3 is the only active hormone which is required in our cells and may help reduce your TSH. Levothyroxine's job is to convert to T3 in our body but doesn't always do so efficiently.

Some people have Resistance to Thyroid Hormones and they can only recover with liothyronine alone as their bodies cannot convert levothyroxine to liothyronine.

I doubt Endocrinologists know anything at all about Thyroid Hormone Resistance. Read about FT4 and FT3 in link below.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...