Stomach ulcer and thyroid?

[Kitty1watson]

Hello, my consultant saw how well I was, finally, after 6 years of illness and was so thrilled he reduced my levothyroxine. After a bit I started to feel very unwell again and then developed very nasty tummy pain, chest pain and difficulty breathing. Long story short, taken to A&E and have a suspected ulcer. More tests to follow. I just wondered if anyone knew of a link between thyroid and stomach ulcers, just so I have a vague awareness for future use. (My time in hospital was a total debacle as it was, as the A&E department referred me to Surgical and Surgical was incandescent with rage, saying I shouldn't be there, they had ignored my symptoms and I should have been sent to Medical. Hence the lack of an answer to anything and discharge to outpatients.)😑

[dtate2016]

Yes - digestive issues and thyroid problems go hand in hand. Many have received great results going Gluten free. Gluten free also helps with blood pressure issues. Mainstream medical either does not want to treat autoimmune thyroid disorders or doesn't know how - or both. Try to ignore their poor bedside manners.

[Kitty1watson in reply to dtate2016]

Thank you. Been gluten free since my early 20s and agree it's much better. It causes me chronic mouth ulcers, ironically.

[dtate2016 in reply to Kitty1watson]

Mouth ulcers are caused (many times) by a lack of folic acid (found in grains). Most of us take folic acid supplements. Isabella Wentz published a nice article about using Pepsin to heal her digestive issues. I don't have it handy - but she is a great resource.

[Kitty1watson in reply to dtate2016]

Right that's interesting. Thank you. Wheat gluten causes me mouth ulcers (and, I've recently learnt, soya - not good when you would like to be vegan!!) and cutting it out means I don't get them anymore. I take several vitamins, inc folic acid. The joys of trying to manage a chronic condition eh?! Thank you for the information.

[Hidden in reply to Kitty1watson]

hi kitty1, hope you gave up soja? it is kind of very bad for the thyroid.

x

[Kitty1watson in reply to Hidden]

Yes, if you read my post above, I've discovered I'm allergic to it. It gives me mouth ulcers. Nasty! Thank you.

[Hidden in reply to Kitty1watson]

(smile)

yes i read it, but being muddled i tried to be smart.

body knows best.. x

[humanbean]

Hello, my consultant saw how well I was, finally, after 6 years of illness and was so thrilled he reduced my levothyroxine.

Your consultant saw you were well, it annoyed him, so he decided to make you ill again?

Madness!

[Kitty1watson in reply to humanbean]

I meant he was so pleased the medication had worked that I didn't need so much anymore!

[humanbean in reply to Kitty1watson]

But that is not how thyroid medication works. If you found a dose of x got you well, I can't see any reason why it would then be a good idea to reduce your dose. It would be better to stay on the dose you got well on.

[Kitty1watson in reply to humanbean]

Yes I know. But what can you do when they refuse to accept that? It's impossible to argue because they're the experts. They really don't take kindly to a lay patient trying to explain that they disagree with their medical opinion. He was very pleasant, but smiled knowingly and shook his head. Over medicated. And only on the basis of TSH. He said he would only expect to see someone with a severely hyperactive thyroid to have my suppressed TSH. And that I was at risk of heart problems. He couldn't really explain why T4 was in range but was adamant I was overmedicated. Arguably he was right given the NDT but the results were not crazy. And I hoped we would just see what happened if I stopped the NDT.

Luckily my GP seemed very laid back and I'm sure he'll agree to put me back on 100.

[Kitty1watson]

Well, he said, despite the fact that I was clearly well, I was over medicated because I had a suppressed TSH. My T4 was high in range though but no amount of discussion would dissuade. My GP was very good and suggested I drop to 75mcg instead of 50mcg and see, but I'll ask to go back up to 100mcg. I had been honest about also taking NDT that I had bought online but they didn't seem to put it together that my T3 might be high because of that. When I say "high", it was only just above range, not wildly over and I had absolutely no hyper symptoms. My husband was hyperactive and had the iodine pill so I know what to look out for.

I agreed to stop the NDT but was so disappointed when he wrote to my GP to tell him to reduce me to 50mcg from 100mcg (+ the NDT). It'll be fine, it's just another hoop I hoped not to jump through.

[silverfox7]

Wanting to drop you down from 100 to 50 wasn't showing good knowledge either!

[Kitty1watson]

It did amaze me. He was a very nice man, very patient with my 17 month old running around, but he just wouldn't have it, saying I was at risk of heart problems. I hadn't had a single overactive symptom. I took the book by Anthony Toft with me because it mentions suppressed TSH being ok if everything else was ok, but he just shook his head and said TSH was the only thing he was concerned with and it was far too low. But T4, although high, was in range. It's never-ending.

[GNina]

Levothyroxine was bad for me. I felt no better taking it. I actually didn't realize how it was making me feel worse until I lost my insurance and couldn't get my medication refilled without expensive Dr. visits and bloodwork, which they wanted every 3 months. Long story short, I was off of it for 6 months and my abdominal cramps, muscle and joint pains, diarrhea, head-to-toe itching had gone away. When I got insurance again, went back to doctor, drew TSH right away, gave me an emergency script for levothyroxine for 15 days when I'd go back for an appointment. I was off of the drug 6 months and it wasn't an emergency to the doctor then. I decided to try to take it again and see for certain if it was the medicine. Sure enough, all those symptoms came back and top it off, I thought my gallbladder was going to twist itself out of my body. An ultrasound of my abdomen was ordered. No probs with the gallbladder. My liver, however, was enlarged and "fatty". So I was sent to a GI doctor for treatment. They did a gastroscope and found esophageal ulcers with esophagitis, a gastric ulcer with gastritis, and duodenitis. Also an esophageal stricture. I looked up some info and there is at least a link between levothyroxine and non-alcoholic fatty liver.