Hasimotos TSH 247

[Fasttalker]

Hi my name is Fran. For the past 19 years I've had an extremely high TSH level. Presently it's 247. I'm not on meds because I've tried all of them and even with a dose as low at 25mg I start getting symptoms. I have hasimotos. But I can lose weight easily have tons of energy but my cholesterol and liver enzymes are high so docs are worried. They want to put me on a combo of synthroid and atenonol as a beta blocker. Has anyone tried that?

[dang]

You likely can lose weight and have all this energy due to your extremely high TSH. It would be interesting to see your FT3 and FT4 results, I would imagine they are high. But that won't last for long as your thyroid is getting burned out.

I also have Hashimoto's and had high TSH (no where near 247 mind you) and I had energy and was losing weight, nor everyone is exhausted with weight gain.

What symptoms do you experience when you're put on Levothyroxine? You will eventually need some sort of replacement hormone medication so it's a good idea to sort that out. I also didn't do well on levo alone, it took me a long time of dose increases and changes where I continued to have bad symptoms and respond poorly (not converting to t3). Eventually they added t3 to my levo and while I had to work my way up to a right dose now I finally feel better.

Another issue you might have could be deficiencies in certain vitamins, which are important for the uptake and conversion of t4 to t3. These vitamins are b12, vitamin d, ferritin and folate. Have you had those tested? I had to improve my vitamin levels to improve a lot of my symptoms.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Hashimoto's is connected to poor gut function, low vitamins as dang has said, plus food intolerances are extremely common usually gluten, sometimes dairy.

Ask GP to test for coeliac, but even if result is negative it's worth considering gluten free diet, many of us are gluten intolerant but not coeliac

[SilverAvocado]

Some questions that might help people give you advice:

Can you give us freeT4 and freeT3 test results?

Can you give us any vitamin results? B12, vit D, ferritin and folate are the big ones for thyroid.

Are you sick at all? Or are you able to have all the activity you want, work, exercise, staying up late and doing active hobbies, etc. Is your digestion good, sleep good, skin and hair good?

Are there any symptoms at all that make you concerned, or is it only the blood test results?

[jamesal0]

Hi Fran I couldn't take sufficient Levo to get a TSH under 20 and I felt great with a high TSH. I did suffer a sight shortage of breath but apart from that and bad blood tests I felt fine. The problem is you are doing damage to your organs and eyes etc. While I couldn't tolerate Levo, I flourished on a combo of NDT and Testosterone. I believe the issue is your adrenal system gets smashed by the years of low thyroid condition and you then cant produce the necessary hormones to process the T4 and it just pools in your tissues . For me the Testosterone got my organs back into gear enabling me to take sufficient doses on NDT. You may want to get your Testosterone, Progesterone and estrogen levels checked. Keep a copy of tests and check your self that you are above the 50 percentile mark, dont accept "you are within range" from GP.

Best of luck

James

[suz70]

I would be interested in what your t4 and t3 counts are. Too high of TSH could be a pituitary problem or your body trying really hard to make thyroid hormones. Get all the info first. If you are low thyroid than yes, Synthroid is an easy fix.

[LAHs]

Be careful, Thyroid meds and beta blockers don't mix. The beta blockers will reduce the effect of the synthroid(T4). I believe they busy out the available Thyroid Binding Globulin (TBGs), that's what I have read, but I have also read that if the TBGs are saturated (with T4 and BBs) then the body generates more. However, since you get very negative symptoms if you take both, I tend to believe the first theory.

[BonM]

Hi, Fran - I, too had very high TSH numbers, up to 265 at one point. It was a help to me to cut all gluten from my diet, as well as add in supplements that I was muscle-tested to respond well to (won't include them here, since they were tailored to me). I also took 50mcg of levo, so between the mix, my level dropped like a stone. Unlike you, I was Eeyore...blue, depressed, gaining weight...the works.

Wishing you the best!