Itchy eyes and Levothyroxine

It has now been 7 weeks since I started on levothyroxine and I had a call from the doctor today to say my recent blood test results were great and my TSH has come right down to around 1.5 (I intend to go and get a print out of the full results).

I feel 100 times better and I think this has been helped by me religiously following the autoimmune paleo diet throughout that time. A lot of the previous symptoms I was having have subsided.

Besides some fatigue which causes an issue with me getting out of bed in the morning, the only real issue I'm having is with my eyes! They are so itchy that they are driving me to despair! This issue started almost as soon as I started the tablets. At first I was sure that it was hay fever but now I am finding myself waking up whilst itching them and I know I've been scrubbing them in my sleep. I have stopped wearing make up and trying my hardest not to think about how itchy my eyes are but they are driving me mad. I've been taking an antihistamine each day but it's making no difference.

I mentioned it to the doctor today and he has prescribed eye drops for hay fever but I think it's related to the underactive thyroid or levothyroxine. He asked that I see how it goes. Has anyone else experienced the same? Does anyone have any advice on how to stop the mad itching?

[dang]

Did you start the paleo diet at the same time as the tablets? It could very well be the diet. I had a lot of reactions on the AIP diet that led me to learning I'm Histamine Intolerant, some foods can cause allergy like symptoms in some people.

[Hidden in reply to dang]

I did start the diet as soon as I was diagnosed, but I have been feeling great and a lot of IBS-type symptoms have gone. I hadn't thought about the connection between the foods and my eyes. Was there any specific paleo foods which were causing you trouble?

[dang in reply to Hidden]

Paleo also helped me at first, but then I started leaning towards certain foods that were high in histamine and overdoing it which triggered my reactions. The ones which probably did me in were bananas and avocados as I was having the very often. I was also eating canned tuna at the time and smoked fish. Lots of raspberries. I also reintroduced nuts at some point. The combination of all of those was too much.

But the thing with histamines is that not everyone reacts to the same foods. If you want to see a basic/easy to read food list here's one:

histaminintoleranz.ch/downl...

You can look up your staple foods and see if they are reactive. There's many things that could lower one's ability to break down Histamine, gut problems and medication are two main ones. Everyone has a limit to how much histamine their body can take before they start to have reactions.

[Hidden in reply to dang]

That's really helpful. Thank you.

[lucylocks]

Which make of levothyroxine are you taking as Mercury Pharma contain acacia which I have read can cause hay fever type symptoms.

Just another thought, but my husband and I have both been suffering from really sore, itchy, watery eyes and neither of us take levo. but apparently the birch tree pollen has been really high so we think this maybe causing it.

[carer999 in reply to lucylocks]

My hayfeverhas been especially bad this year. I have had sneezes and itchy eyes for over 6 weeks. Eye drops and antihistamines seem to have little effect.

[Hidden in reply to lucylocks]

I will double check the brand. I am thinking from the responses that it may be hay fever getting worse. New allergies do like to appear every now and again! My body seems to like attacking itself!

[Pmb57]

My hay fever is bad this year as well. Sorry to say this but, we need a heavy downpour of rain to dampen the pollen down. ☹️ . Some red wine brings on my husbands hay fever symptoms.

[Hidden]

Thanks all. I am glad nobody feels that this is an obvious connection between levothyroxine and the itchy eyes. Hopefully it'll pass once the hay fever calms down. I think the combination of starting medication, radically changing my diet and the commencement of hay fever season makes it difficult to find out what is causing reactions. Hopefully it'll stop soon!