newly diagnosed, minefield. aaaggghhh - Thyroid UK

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newly diagnosed, minefield. aaaggghhh

Orkin profile image
4 Replies

I have just been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. Doctor wants me to take thyroxin. Friend wants me to try auto immune protocol diet, somebody else says I could try thyroid online available supplements etc. I am loathe to take the meds because it's for life and some of the side effects seem less than palatable. However, I feel rubbish, a lot, and would like that to improve. Any advice? Anybody tried over the counter supplements and seen improvement? I have a healthy diet, lots of exercise, meditate, blah blah blah... Thanks

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Orkin
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4 Replies

If you have high anti-bodies (ie hashimotos aka autoimmune thyroiditis) you should take thyroxine AND follow an autommune diet. If not, you shoudl certainly take the thyroxine. Hashis will destroy your thyroid and no amount of supplements can stop that. Plus most of them contain iodine which can make Hashis worse. Hypo thyroidism is a life threatening disease and being un- or under-medicated can cause heart disease, mental problems, weight gain, hair loss, pain and eventually (if you are totally unmedicated) coma and death - the side effects reported are usually the side effects of being undermedicated. Start the thyroxine and if it doesn't work for you, consider a switch to NDT or T4/T3.

If you post your blood test results with ranges, someone will be able to advise.

Orkin profile image
Orkin in reply to Angel_of_the_North

Thanks. My Serum TSH level reads 6.8 mu/L

I get that this is outside of normal but not hugely. The doctor was very non-committal when I asked about Hashis. I'm assuming that having underactive thyroid doesn't necessarily mean I have Hashis. Would be good to know re what foods to introduce and get rid of etc. Any advice would be super duper

Angel_of_the_North profile image
Angel_of_the_North in reply to Orkin

That is way over healthy normal. Although the top of the range is quite high, most healthy people have a TSH around 1.2 - the distribution curve is skewed with most results being at the low end of the range. You definitely need meds. You don't necessarily have Hashis, but it is the most common cause of hypo. You need a full thyroid panel with FT4 FT3 TSH, and TPo and TG antibodies, plus B12, folate, ferritin and D3, as deficiencies in those tend to go hand in hand with hypo (and thyroxine won't work well unless those levels are optimal). If your doctor won't do those tests, it's worth getting them done privately through Blue Horizon or Medichecks

Orkin profile image
Orkin

Thanks. Doctor almost certainly will shake his wise old head and tell me such blood tests are pointless useless and so forth. However I will give him benefit of the doubt and ask. In the meantime I shall continue to eschew wheat and sugar and caffeine and exercise and meditate and try to stay on top of stress. It's very boring and I object to having mind taken up with all this. Seems to me no point in taking thyroxin until have results from blood tests wherever it is I get them. Would you agree with that.

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