My health is worse now than when I partied, smoked, drank etc more meds than my Grandma... Why?
After 8 years, people/family thinking lazy, crazy, selfish, eating in secret, paranoid, i stopped all meds 2 weeks ago, thyroxine, citalipram, omeprozal, montilucast, 2 enhalers, antihistamines, steroids and I feel OK, not needed omeprozal which after 2 days I'd be dying... I'll take 20 citalipram periodically as was on 40 but I actually feel good and can breath.... No paranoia, no great weight gain, severe sweats gone...
After 8 years maybe a break is good for the body? 🤗
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ThyroidWilma
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Tbh you can fall into a Thyroid coma without meds but you would know the symptoms to look out for after all this time. Then go to doctor, levothyroxine is a cheap man's drug and until they expand you will all have the side affects... 💋
You are quite right, my sister is one of them she has less side effects than I but she struggles with the generic effects tiredness, aches, insomnia, anxiety but we accept that's part of levothyroxine even my doctor agreed. We just have to get on with it no point moaning but my question was after 8 years I feel OK stopping for a few weeks.. Yes it's a gamble
I definitely do not agree with your doctor. He has forgotten, or never learned, that thyroid hormone replacements are to supply the essential hormones that our failing gland wont produce.
That is T4 and T3. However, levothyroxine is synthetic T4 and it converts to T3 but some cannot convert T4 effectively.
It is only T3 (liothyronine) which is the active hormone and is required in our millions of receptor cells. T4 (levothyroxine) is inactive and has no purpose except to convert to T3.
We can cause more damage to our body if we stop taking thyroid hormones. We may feel well initially but our body cannot survive without thyroid hormone replacements. We can go into a myxedema coma.
If someone isn't well on levothyroxine, some T3 (liothyronine) can be added. At present the NHS has withdrawn this life giving hormone but some can source their own.
T3 drives our whole metabolism, brain and heart need it. It is a very, very gradual decline if stopping replacement hormones. Excerpt from above link:
This is not the usual celebratory image before and after successful treatment. It is a picture of the woman, aged 21 in 1870, and then seven years later, unrecognizably aged by the effects of undiagnosed and untreated thyroid deficiency. It is poignant because she probably dies of the disease, the introduction in 1891 of effective treatment with subcutaneous injections of thyroid extract by George Murray of Newcastle-upon-Tyne coming too late.
I was always told never stop levothyroxine. But on doing do my anxiety is much less, I'm not do hyper, and not do bloated, I've been on 2 omeprozal for past year or I'm in agony, I've hardly needed them past 2 weeks.
I had see 2 people stop levothyroxine and are feeling so much better that's why I tried it but I've an appointment with the doctor next week on my 3rd week to discuss it all in more detail. This was an experiment on my behalf. Perhaps I'm allergic to Levothyroxine we will see, as in past year I'm now allergic severlynto dust, naproxan and ibroprufen after 30years, the body is a complex beauty x
Omeprazole is given for high acid. Normally hypothyroid have low acid due to being hypo which doesn't provide sufficient acid. But as symptoms are so similar doctors are apt to think 'high acid' instead of hypo = low acid.
Many of us fare far better taking digestive enzymes with meals and some prefer Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with watr or juice. The food in our stomachs has to be dissolved and acid does this.
Be very careful!! I cut my dose in half last year thinking that the drug was giving me migraines and I felt pretty good the first two weeks then after about six weeks my body did not have enough hormones and it sent me into a downward spiral my mental health was terrible. I had terrible anxiety (never had any before), panic attacks, no energy and my heart was pounding hard every night, severe shaking from adrenaline. I thought I was going to die because my body did not have I cut my dose in half last year thinking that the drug was giving me migraines and I felt pretty good the first two weeks then after about six weeks my body did not have enough thyroid. I took me months to feel better after I increased my dose.
I will be on my second Week and still no effects and so many FB let's sitting why was I taking them each day well when I take thyroxine I need them all ill be giving a convincing argument next week
Many thousands, of course, are well on levothyroxine. Few of them would be on this forum except, of course, for new diagnosis to learn about hypothyroidism. Once on a correct dose they wont be asking questions on the forum. and will be leading a normal life.
Have you not considered that maybe you're just under-medicated, and that the symptoms you're experiencing is just from hypo and nothing to do with levo? Doctors do tend to keep patients under-medicated because they don't understand thyroid.
And, the fact that you feel better since you stopped the levo, means nothing. It is a fact that people feel better for a few weeks when they stop levo - but not just levo, it goes for NDT and T3, too. I speak from personal experience.
Do you have copies of your blood test results? If you live in the UK, it is your legal right to have copies, under the 1998 Data Protection Act. And you need to have them. You need to know exactly what was tested, and exactly what the results were. Have you had your nutrients tested? There are actually so many avenues to explore before we can say that, without a doubt, the levo is to blame. You could have low/high cortisol; a conversion problem; nutritional deficiencies; be under-medicated; etc. But, you won't know any of that unless you get hold or your test results. Don't count on your doctor to know it all and get you well. I doubt he knows very much at all. None of them do.
Forgot to say, even NDT doesn't suit everybody. We're all different, so it's a shame that we aren't given the choice to find out what suit us as an individual. That's why so many of us self-treat.
Yes tried it and told no font be stupid your fine lol hence I'm trying to fix myself... I've wasted,, 4" years being unwell due to side effects I even went celibate for, 3 as the weight. Asthma and sweats made me feel, 80 lol it's up to us, /me to find a solution as the doctors are not and I don't want anymore prescription...
I'm fairly new here I started on 25 levo and got so ill I couldn't function. Dr put me down to 1/4 but still so very ill that I'm going to stop them until I have the short test done on the 17th. My Endo thinks I may have Addison disease and that's why I can't tolerate Levo. I thought I was dying- surly this can't be right that a drug can make a person feel this ill.
Remember that all the drugs you take have probably never been tested for safely in combination. The curse of polypharmacy, when you probably just need good vitamin levels and enough thyroid hormone.
I would be very careful about quitting thyroid meds cold turkey! But if you have decided that you definitely want to be off the thyroid meds, go to a doctor to be supervised while doing so. If you are not going to see a doctor, then quit it very gradually depending on what dose you are taking, and while you do, try to alsoeat foods that help the thyroid rather than slow it down.
Other things like Omeoprazol, which has really bad long term effects, you can live without as long as you adjust and make some changes in your diet and habits, that help your acid reflux and digestive problems.
It's hard to give you advice, because I don't know your conditions nor your test results, some drugs you cannot just quit from one day to the next because you'll harm your body and mess up your immune system. But others you can, and the most important thing is that you listen to your body.
Basically, if you have a hypothyroid, or underachieve thyroid, you need to avoid RAW cruciferous vegetables, because of their goitrogenic effect. Goitrogens are substances that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. Apparently, if you cook them, the goitrogens die, SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO INCLUDE THESE VEGETABLES IN YOUR DIET AS THEY ARE VERY HEALTHY AND HAVE A LOT OF ANTI-CANCER PROPERTIES AND WONDERFUL HEALTH BENEFITS, BUT MAKE SURE THAT YOU COOK THEM FIRST. Common cruciferous veggies include: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, bok choy, collard greens, kale, all kinds of cabbage, chard, turnip greens, arugula, mustard greens, watercress, radish, horseradish, turnip, rutabaga, and wasabi.
Mind you, I sometimes do eat some of these vegetables raw, if I cannot have access to cooked ones or other healthy food, because sometimes the benefits of these, outweigh the negatives. I just try to avoid them raw when the possibility is there, specially when I have the time to cook at home. Basically use your common sense, some is okay, you can have wasabi with your sushi and you'll be okay, just don't go eating a gigantic kale salad every day when you already have an underachieve thyroid!!
Carbohydrates have nothing to do with your thyroid unless you are obese, in which case you are making your body carry a lot of weight on you, making your thyroid have to work harder, and thus it can become underactive. But carbos don't directly attack your thyroid.
Also get enough sleep and reduce stress in your life. That works for everything!!!
First of all, cooking goitrogens doesn't have any effect if you are especially sensitive to a particular goitrogen. But the good news is, not everybody is sensitive to all goitrogens. And, some people aren't affected by any of them at all. And, the goitrogens don't 'die' when you cook them, because they were never alive. They're just chemicals.
But, please explain to me how goitrogens are going to affect a hypo, if that hypo is on thyroid hormone replacement, and not reliant on his thyroid for his thyroid hormone?
Secondly, carbs do have something to do with thyroid, as explained in the link I posted above. Low carbs negatively affect conversion. No, they don't attack the thyroid, nobody ever suggested they did. None of that has anything to do with being obese. And, if you are obese, it's more likely that your underactive thyroid caused you to be obese, rather than the other way round.
Goitrogens affect everyone's thyroid, not just some people's thyroid, it's been proven. Go on line and read about goitrogens and thyroid. Now, if your thyroid has been removed, then obviously these won't affect your Thyroid, because you don't have one and you rely 100% on levo or another thyroid med. But if you still have one, like I do, I like taking care of it. And I naturally brought it down to 4 from 7 by making food and lifestyle adjustments. I do eat some carbos, but not a whole lot, never did. Then with .5 of levo it's down to 2.6, and it's been steady for a while.
I have read a hell of a lot about goitrogens in the past 15 years or so, and a lot of it is just conjecture.
I don't think that eating goitrogens is going to stop you 'taking care' of your thyroid. They don't hurt the thyroid, just reduce the amount of hormone you can make by reducing the amount of iodine that the thyroid absorbs. But, you would have to eat a hell of a lot of them for them to have that effect. Normal quantities of cabbage, etc. are not going to have that much effect - cooked or uncooked.
What did you bring down naturally from 7 to 4? The TSH? That's not a thyroid hormone. And it's a very unreliable indicator of thyroid status.
Basically, if you have a hypothyroid, or underachieve thyroid, you need to avoid RAW cruciferous vegetables, because of their goitrogenic effect. Goitrogens are substances that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. Apparently, if you cook them, the goitrogens die, SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO INCLUDE THESE VEGETABLES IN YOUR DIET AS THEY ARE VERY HEALTHY AND HAVE A LOT OF ANTI-CANCER PROPERTIES AND WONDERFUL HEALTH BENEFITS, BUT MAKE SURE THAT YOU COOK THEM FIRST. Common cruciferous veggies include: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, bok choy, collard greens, kale, all kinds of cabbage, chard, turnip greens, arugula, mustard greens, watercress, radish, horseradish, turnip, rutabaga, and wasabi.
Mind you, I sometimes do eat some of these vegetables raw, if I cannot have access to cooked ones or other healthy food, because sometimes the benefits of these, outweigh the negatives. I just try to avoid them raw when the possibility is there, specially when I have the time to cook at home. Basically use your common sense, some is okay, you can have wasabi with your sushi and you'll be okay, just don't go eating a gigantic kale salad every day when you already have an underachieve thyroid!!
Carbohydrates have nothing to do with your thyroid unless you are obese, in which case you are making your body carry a lot of weight on you, making your thyroid have to work harder, and thus it can become underactive. But carbos don't directly attack your thyroid.
Also get enough sleep and reduce stress in your life. That works for everything!!!
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