My husband has Hashimoto's...

Hello, he was diagnosed about a year ago now. Consultant said take your Thyroxine, get on with your life and discharged him. GP now thinks he's a hypochondriac and when he asked to be re-referred to endocrinology said he had to wait another 6 weeks, for no apparent reason as far as I can make out. Bloods seem relatively stable now, he's on 100mcg Levothyroxine - HOWEVER, these are his current symptoms:

brain fog - forgetfulness - not thinking properly

enhanced sense of smell & hearing

tinitus increased

anxiety & depression

exhaustion

joint pain - fingers, hands

dizziness

and now rectal bleeding and urgency when needing a pooh(!)

He has asked for a gastro referral re the latter and succeeded in getting an appointment for April, which seems way off to me. He has previously had colitis, so he thinks its a flare up of that.

He is gluten, grain and sugar free (Real Meal Revolution is the diet he follows) and things have been better since he adopted this (believe it or not from the list of symptoms!!).

My question is: are we ever going to have a normal life again? This is affecting not only his life but our relationship. How can we get his health under control so that we can sort our marriage out?? Do we need to go private? If so, where do we go? We need help.

[Clutter]

Welcome to the forum, Chri55y.

Your husband should get into the habit of asking for his test results with the lab ref ranges which are the figures in brackets after results. Ask your GP receptionist for a printout of his recent thyroid results and ranges and post them in a new question and members will advise whether your husband is optimally medicated.

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

Thank you Clutter - I have a printout of his most recent results, so I will post them shortly.

[Jouleskeys]

Hi there

Well done on tracking down the cause by stopping the wheat and dairy. I would also look into floride in water which is major. As well as this, look into goitrogenic. Just so you know, i was hashimotos a year ago with my TSH at 12 (0-4) and have treated myself by the above, now my tsh is 2. Fixing leaky gut syndrome is a must. Try L-Glutamine twice daily, morning and night to stop the gut from leaking toxins out by shrinking the holes down.

Am sure this will make a difference and get you both on track again.

J

[Hidden]

Thank you J,

Yes, I think leaky gut is definitely present for him. He hasn't stopped dairy - yet! He was hoping not to have to but I think it will need to go...

Re water - do you just drink bottled water? We filter ours, but maybe that's not enough?

Goitrogenic - I have never heard of, will look into. TSH is 6.76.

L-Glutamine - again I will get some.

Thanks again.

C

[humanbean in reply to Hidden]

L-Glutamine is something I have found very helpful for my gut.

I would recommend buying it in a powder form, not as capsules. The capsules are far too low in dose and very expensive.

If you buy the powder you can adjust dose as you see fit. I have been taking one heaped teaspoon once or twice a day. It is practically flavourless and odourless (unless you buy it flavoured of course!) and should be mixed with cold water or other cold drink.

Avoid taking L-Glutamine with or near hot drinks or hot food. L-Glutamine is destroyed by heat.

Although it varies from person to person, it may interfere with sleep if taken late in the day. But some people don't find this to be an issue - trial and error is necessary.

[furcoatnoknickers in reply to humanbean]

Hello, after reading your post on L-Glutamine, I wonder if you would be kind enough to let me know which make you would recommend? I have read that powder form is best and less expensive. Thank you in advance.

[humanbean in reply to furcoatnoknickers]

I don't have a favourite brand. I go onto Amazon, look at the reviews, look at the price per kg, and look to see if there are any special offers.

The only thing I do suggest is making sure you get L-Glutamine powder with no additions at all - just L-Glutamine on its own.

I was amazed to find one brand with sugar in it on one occasion. Who would want to buy that?!?

[furcoatnoknickers in reply to humanbean]

Many thanks for your advise. It'll be ordered by the end of the day. Fingers crossed it'll help calm the hashimoto's down.

[humanbean in reply to furcoatnoknickers]

L-Glutamine is usually used to help heal the gut.

I don't know whether it will have an impact on Hashi's or not.

[furcoatnoknickers in reply to humanbean]

I've researched this since your post this morning - it seems to really calm the flares down. I've tried everything else ... got to keep the hopes up! Thank you again.

[Treepie in reply to Hidden]

Your post seems to have been partly hijacked by folk with their problems.Suggest you get all the blood results with the ranges ,shown in brackets , and post again.Most GPs seem to rely just on the TSH which is insufficient .Your husband should consider private testing : see Thyroid UK site for details.

TSH of nearly 7 is way to high for someone on levo.He is undermedicated which is why he is still ill.Your GP is ignorant.

The TSH should be 1 or below .Again see the above site re blood test results.

[Jouleskeys]

Ps, levothyroxine is likely audio to be a cause of done if the symptoms, for me it gave me vivid nightmares every night and the dog was awful which may also have been the low t4. The diet and L-Glutamine fixed it within 2 months. Am going for another year on Friday to see if I'm fully recovered. Will share as have been off the meds since November.

[Hidden]

Wow! Off meds sounds like some achievement! Can you tell me more about your diet please? Having just googled Goitrogenic, we eat quite a lot of cauliflower and almonds, which I see straight away may be causing problems.

[Jouleskeys in reply to Hidden]

Remember to cook spinach and Kale too.

Is his stomach bloated and does he drink wheat beer? Also, red wine annoyingly can contain floride, which is crazy..

[Hidden in reply to Jouleskeys]

He hates Kale! And no longer drinks much due to wheat and sugar content

All the more red wine for me?!

[Jouleskeys]

The filters do not stop the floride and the drugs can cause the symptoms you mentioned, absolutely. So yeah, bottled water, wheat free, dairy free, goitogenic diet + L-Glutamin (I use Solgar L-Glutamine free form) morning and night.

It's frustrating i know, though be patient. I think change the meds for now as I and many others have issues with most thyroid altering drugs and get on with the above I've recommended. I'm recommending these because of my own experiences and research...

Are there other autoimmune issues that he has? If so, they will also improve. I'm a type 1 diabetic and realised low blood sugars also caused leaky gut and thyroid problems. Since quitting wheat I've balanced blood sugars better, eliminated dawn phenomenon and lost a stone in weight/lost stomach bloating.

[Hidden in reply to Jouleskeys]

Ok, I'm on it.

We think - Colitis, awaiting gastro appointment to confirm, but it makes sense if it is this. Also has diarrhoea most of the time presently.

Thanks so much for your responses, very helpful.

[Jouleskeys in reply to Hidden]

Bowel issues/ibs is often due to lack of nutricion being present because of the leaky gut. Try adding fish oils to his diet too

[Hidden in reply to Jouleskeys]

Yup, he's on cod liver oil & omega 3 already, but cheap versions - I think we can do better...

[Gary19610]

Hi I have underactive thyroid and I can understand how ill your husband is because I have all the same simtams.I have bean like this for about 16 months.And the more levo I took the worst I got I was up to 100mg levo but had to go back down to 50mg then the simtams east of.Ontill my doctor said you need to up your levo to 75mg so did very slowly and know he want me to go to 100mg so I gone to 85mg and feel more poly than ever.And my TSH 16. So high.But the people on this side are very good help me a lot.

[Hidden in reply to Gary19610]

Wow Gary, with your TSH so high, you must feel really terrible. I think it is time for my husband to increase his, as it has been at 100mcg for about a year now, so a slow increase is on the cards, with all of the helpful information and advice from others on this site. You're right, people are sooooo helpful here, I feel relieved that we still have a lot to do to get him better, as I was worried that this was going to be the new normal - which is definitely not acceptable!

Wishing you wellness too.

[Gary19610 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your reply.I wish I could just up my meditation and it make feel better just make me feel really bad

[Jouleskeys in reply to Gary19610]

Gary, it's a vicious cycle and know what you're saying. Please take a look at how i got off the medication as the levothyroxine is an evil drug to take. Maybe what I have done can help you too..

[Gary19610 in reply to Jouleskeys]

I have a look thank you

[Gary19610 in reply to Jouleskeys]

Doctors said I have to take medication or I could go into a coma.

[Jouleskeys in reply to Gary19610]

Take the drs advice and continue.

Add these things to what you're already doing then over the months hopefully you can reduce your meds

[Gary19610 in reply to Jouleskeys]

I will have to try something like gluten free.But hard has my wife would have to go gluten free to.To try and keep the cost down

[Hidden in reply to Gary19610]

Gluten free is tough to begin with - but worth it. I have gone gluten free with my husband.

[Gary19610 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks I am going to try it there have all on here said you would be better going gluten free and that I need B12 .iron ferritin. Florin Acid and so on and I hate taken tablets.Be fore I had underactive thyroid I would not even take a pain killer for headache.Illness has so change my life stile I am like house bound and have to keep doing things like I am doing now to keep in control of my brain but hopefully one day I could be normal again lol.

[Jouleskeys in reply to Gary19610]

Best to have a test on B12, VitD before spending lots of money on products that aren't necessary - can easily get the results, then go from there.

Remember all this starts at the gut as wheat create issues that then starve your body from the good nutrients from getting in, which then causes many autoimmune problems..

Get off the wheat and get on the L-Glutamine which will fix your stomach. it can take between 1 - 6 months. It took me 2 months and now off any medication. Funny how Dr's tell us that we will need drugs for the rest of our lives, though they don't get paid to know about natural products fixing our bodies - the drug companies keep up sick

[Gary19610 in reply to Jouleskeys]

My B12 307 (900-1000

[UrsaP]

It is the effect on the whole family that such illness has that is a very much undermentioned and underrated issue here too. Living a 'half life' at best is not conducive to good relationships. The stress can then have a further and lasting negative effect. I have been living with a HypoT for 35+ years, (Most of my 55yrs, in my view) My husband has been living with arthritis since his early 20's (treated for gout for the first 8 yrs before a locus clocked the link of psoriatic arthritis - as he already had psoriasis - Like ourselves has struggled since with 'treat symptoms' rather than 'treat cause', in constant pain. (I think our marriage has lasted because we are both in the same boat!)

The point I'm making is the stress of years of trying to cope, and dealing with the pressures of illness, causing stress, stresses the adrenals, and as the adrenals are connected to the thyroid it may be that there has been a knock on effect. If his adrenals are compromised he may not be processing the medication he is getting correctly. He would need to get his adrenals sorted out before he would get his thyroid sorted. This is what happened to me, and it was through seeing Dr P that I got sorted for the first time in my life, within the last 7 yrs.

Something to consider?

All the best.

[silverfox7]

I'm thinking about dosing according to my tinnitus! I've had a steam engine in my head for nearly 30 years, -bout the same time I have known I had a thyroid problem. One day about 6 years ago the thought I had suddenly gone deaf! It was really very frightening! I was sitting in the opticians waiting to be seen. Vet loud jazz music being played, very noise family sitting. Ext to me, phone rings etc but thankfully as asked to more to the rest of the shop to get my glasses fitted. Do wait g for some to arrive I suddenly couldn't hear a time! I felt very frightened and wished someone would speak to me butvtgen realised I could make a noise by banging in the table and yes I could here it. But tgecsteam train came. Ack as quickly as it left!

No been on NDT for two years and my FT3 is as high as it's been whilst in range and one day the tinnitus stoped so over the last few weeks been having one week in and one week on so I do feel that it's caused by being undertreated but I'm getting it spasmodically so maybe hovering around my best level. So currently charting what is happening to see if I can spot a pattern. Since noticed many thyroid suffered have tinnitus do an interested thought.

[Hidden]

Interesting! Will tell hubs to monitor his more closely!

Thanks SilverFox7