Just about a month ago I felt extremely ill. I was pale, I thought I was going diabetic. I felt like I was going to die. I went to the er, they told me my kidneys creatinine levels were a bit elevated at a 1.6. My tsh levels were at 197. They put me on levothyroxine 100 mcg. I feel like there is a point were I'm hypoglycemic but I check bg and it's perfectly fine. I feel horrible at times and for a brief moments I feel ok. I just got bumped up to 112 and I feel nauseous and bad over all. It's my second day. My free t3 was 3.3. Has anyone felt like this? Also my tsh dropped to 49 now
Thyroid makes me feel like I'm going to faint i... - Thyroid UK
Thyroid makes me feel like I'm going to faint if I don't eat.
Written by
Chris4810
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
42 Replies
•
shawsAdministrator
Welcome to our forum and no wonder you feel so bad as you remained undiagnosed until your TSH was 197, That's a horrible number and why you were put straight onto 100mcg of levothyroxine.
It will take quite a number of weeks before you begin to feel better as your TSH has to come down to around 1 or lower. Your body will take some time to absorb the thyroid hormone replacements (levothyroxine - also known as T4). It has to convert to T3 (liothyronine) which is the active hormone required in our billions of receptor cells and it is T3 which drives our whole metabolism.
It has probably taken you years to finally become hypo due to your very high TSH.
You should have a blood test every six to eight weeks at your surgery to check your TSH is dropping. Your GP should also check Vitamin B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate.
Blood tests have to be at the very earliest possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow 24 hours gap between your last dose of levo and the test and take it afterwards). This allows the TSH to remain at its highest as you don't want unnecessary changes to your dose. Some doctors believe that once our TSH is 'somewhere' in the range (usually around 5) that you don't need any more levo but the aim is a TSH of 1.
Always get a print-out of your results, with the ranges for your own records and you can post if you have a query.
Thank you, I was diagnosed in the beginning of the year. They initaly put me on 150 mcg. I felt heart palpitations, I was suffering from bad anxiaty and panic attacks. So being young and ignorant I stopped taking my meds. At the time my tsh was 32. My b12 and vitamin d were ok. I did not however check my ferritin. What is ferritin by the way? Also I been waking up with sweating. And last I wake up feeling like I need sugar so I drink an once of orange juice at least 2-3 times at night. Is that normal? My doctors weren't able to answer me. Once again thank you. I sometimes get so desperate. I had to drop out of school and quit my job. Thank you for listening.
You will have to read, learn, and ask questions if you've to recover your health.
With hypothyroidism, our thyroid gland has stopped producing the hormones than run our whole metabolism, from head to toe and I'll give you a list of symptoms - ones like anxiety etc are very unpleasant especially when you don't understand these very unpleasant symptoms are due to low hormones.
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
I bet you can tick off a lot of symptoms on the above list.
Thyroid hormones run our whole metabolism, when hypo (low) our body struggles.
Thank you so much! Yup all the symptoms are basically there. I thought I was going crazy for a bit. It's unbelievable how doctors don't tell you any of this information.
Doctors cannot tell you as they don't know. I think all they are taught at medical school is TSH of 10 means patient is hypothyroiid - prescribe levothyroixne until TSH is somewhere in range.
That is why when patients complain of clinical symptoms and the doctor doesn't know any that we get prescriptions for the 'symptom' but not an increase in thyroid hormones which are most probably required.
Hey Chris4810, do you have a glucometer (The meter/machine used to test blood sugar). If not, I would get one. Your thyroid/tsh is high, for sure, but thyroid can cause dysglycemia, while the thyroid is irregulated. This is where the blood glucose fluctuates without clear reasoning - goes too low or too high, causing diabetes like symptoms. If you have ever had a low or high blood sugar, you may recall that it is distinguished from all other thyroid related symptoms - the feeling is unique in physiological and bodily perception. However, if one isn't diabetic the feeling may be difficult to detect. So in this regard, you should test your blood sugar to rule out glucose imbalance, over a series, of say of 7-10 days.
When your thyroid is properly medicated you may likely see the blood sugars return to a more stable level, but until that time, test your blood sugar before each meal and at least two hours postprandial (after meals).
Do you take any type of diabetes medications? I sense you're not on insulin, but what about metformin, glucofage, or any other tablet forms of meds?
Where ever you can manage, skip the heavy carbohydrate (i.e. Breads, rice, bananas, cereal, candy, cakes...). Eating such high glycemic foods at this stage will make it impossible to get the blood sugars more uniform, as carbohydrate without proper insulin action/metabolism, as seen when the thyroid is out of whack, will create blood sugar spikes. This causes the pancreas to produce surges of insulin that will later rebound and cause low blood sugar and the feeling of faintness, hunger, agitation, and whatever other symptoms you tend to have with low blood sugar.
The goal for now, is to try and keep your blood sugar as linear as possible, minimizing deltas (your daily high blood sugar minus your daily low blood sugar). The best way to do this is to check your blood sugar to know if you are in fact having glucose imbalance associated with your thyroid concerns. You won't be able to really see the patterns until your test the blood sugar regularly. It won't be crazy like this for always, just until your thyroid is better.
If a meter is too expensive, use glucose urine strips that can be purchased at your local pharmacy. However, the glucose meter is superior to the urine ketone strips, so if you can get that, do so - and test regularly, as noted above.
Hi, thank you for the reply. I did buy one and here is what throws me for a loop. My blood sugar is perfect. My fasting blood sugar is always below 100. After two hours after a meal is usually less than 120. Whenever I feel like I'm going to pass out. My blood sugar is perfect, and bp is perfect as well. Yet I feel faint. As soon as I eat or get some sugar in me the symptoms dissipate. Is it all my thyroid?
That's interesting. I have Graves which is hyperthyroid as opposed to hypo. I get very dizzy and feel I could faint also queasy. If I have a biscuit or a piece of fruit it sometimes goes away. I do have low blood pressure though 🤔
If carb or some sort of glucose, and even protein, gives you some sort of relief, while this can still be thyroid related, between blood sugar and pressure however, it's more likely blood sugar as opposed to blood pressure. It's a hard call when dealing with thyroid as the endocrine system and its symptoms overlap. The only real way to confirm a drop or spike in blood glucose is to test using a glucometer. These symptoms can also appear where the t3 dosing or blood FT3 is out of whack.
Probably is, but I can't say for sure. Whether it is the thyroid or not will depend on further labs. In the meantime, I would continue to test my blood sugar, try and get a protein snack every three hours or so (handful of almonds, slice of nitrate free turkey....) to keep your blood sugar as untethered as possible. However, the annoying thing is the thyroid is the master regulator of the metabolic and endocrine system, so you may have indirect symptoms until the thyroid is regulated. That is why I say test thevblood sugar so that if it does drop too low or spike too high, you will catch it. You can't go by feeling as you try to get your thyroid together because the symptoms can blur. Use the glucometer in the meantime to confirm. Eat protein to mitigate what fluctuation in energy you are feeling.
Ferritin is the iron reserves (stored) in the body. It is one of a panel of tests used to detect low iron in the blood. The other tests are TIBC, Saturation %, and Serum Iron. A low ferritin, by itself, will not tell you whether you in fact have low iron. One could have too much iron and still have a low ferritin count, as ferritin only tells what the body has stored, held on to, so to speak. But what you want to know for the purposes of addressing thyroid, is how much iron does your body produce overall, which can be best assessed with the four labs mentioned above.
stopthethyroidmadness.com/f...
I love this forum! Thank you, just today alone I have learned so much compared to this past month.
Try not to despair. It's a lot!! When you feel like it's tooooo much info, just take a break and read when you can. This is a really great site; I'm new here...but I've had Type 1 diabetes (the rarer form of diabetes) since age 5. I'm 38 now. So much of the knowledge comes from living it, researching, self study... one thing is for sure, you can make it. Just be patient even on the tough days....it won't be like this for always. And then you will be able to spread what you've learned to others.
Hang in there....
Please be aware levothyroxine replacement is for life. It is replacing a hormone that your own body is not able to produce enough of as your thyroid isn't working properly. The thyroid isn't able to repair itself so you will need replacement hormone in order to live a normal life. It is dangerous to stop medication and if stopped long term can cause organ damage and even death. It can also take a long time to re establish a stable baseline once stopping and restarting, it can be as long as a year so do not lose hope that you will yet improve. It is important to have repeat blood tests 6-8 weeks after a dose increase with the aim of TSH around 1.0. Many gp's are happy when it is in range but if you still have symptoms push for an increase. As other members have mentioned it is also important to look at vitamins and minerals, to enable our bodies to convert the synthetic hormone to a useable form. Good luck.
Thank you so much for the reply. I was foolish to stop. I will definitely push to be below tsh of 1. I'm currently taking vitamins and drinking a lot of water and pomogranite juice to help detoxify my body. I can't wait to be my old self.
Things work very slowly in the Thyroid world so you need patience as well but you will get there!
I have hope but I was perfectly fine one day and the next day I started feeling worse and worse. I feel a bit better now as long as I eat on time. How long intill you felt fine?
I was on thyroxine for 20 years, and relatively ok. But in 2014, something went very wrong. thyroid results were 'normal', with very suppressed TSH. I have awful feelings like I imagine low blood sugar, plus horrendous exhaustion - I could hardly stand.
Eventually I had a prolonged glucose tolerance test, and hospital said I have reactive hypoglycaemia. I'll go with that, as when I have frequent 'sensible' snacks every 3 to 3 hours.
BUT, when I finally went on T3, I lost pretty well all my symptoms, inc the blood sugar ones (like shaky, sweaty, faint) My T4 was very high, but T3 very low in ranges. SO if you can check your T3 & T4 results, you may find an answer. Good luck!
How do you feel now? Can you function fully??my free t3 range was 3.3 but I did not check all my other ranges. I've been on levothyroxine for close to five weeks and yet I still feel crapy. There's moments I feel ok and moments were I'm close to dying. It really is breaking me down. But I have hope. I will ask my doctor to order me the blood test for a complete thyroid check. Thank you once again.
I'm not quite fully functioning, as I have to pace things a bit, and I still eat regular protein and low GI snacks. I'm also still tweaking my dose slightly, to find the best for me. But from about 10% functioning for 2 years, I'm about 80%. Yes, I felt so so ill too; I had absolutely nothing left some days. I felt I was near crawling instead of walking sometimes.
Check your results, with their ranges. You need to be near the top end of the range of T4 and T3 to feel well. I was very high T4, but rubbish T3, showing I wasn't converting T4 to T3.
You could get your own blood test done. Finger-prick, at home, much easier than you'd think. Then you know exactly where you are. Quite often, GPs won't or can't get T3 tests done.
But as someone else said, things move slowly in the Thyroid world. You have to be patient, and wait a few weeks before changing your dose, and do that gradually anyway. People on here will help you hugely!
Hi Chris4810
I had similar almost diabetic type symptoms from time to time before I was diagnosed Hypo which were overcome by a sugary drink and snack but didn't think much of it.
The symptoms you're currently experiencing are also similar to mine but perhaps slightly worse but I've found after listening to sound advice from the wonderful people on this site they have improved tremendously.
It's a slow process but as long as you keep the communication going and post any results you have you'll get great advice and hopefully eventually feel so much better.
They initaly put me on 150 mcg. I felt heart palpitations, I was suffering from bad anxiaty and panic attacks.
That was too high a dose to be put on at the start. It isn't surprising that you got lots of problems with it. The body's hormone levels need to be adjusted gradually, you can't have high doses dumped on you right from the start.
Given that you are young, and your TSH was 32 when first discovered, I would have said a starting dose of 75mcg - 100mcg would have been better. Then after 5 - 6 weeks you should have had blood tests to see how you were reacting to the meds. Then a raise in dose of 25mcg per day, then another 5 - 6 weeks, more testing, then another raise, and keep going with testing and raising dose every 5 - 6 weeks until your symptoms have gone and your blood tests are good.
I realize that now but then I trusted my doctor. It amazes me how they don't understand what they are doing at times.
We usually have the opposite problem to you, in the UK. Doctors here would often prescribe a starting dose of 25mcg and tell you to come back in 6 months or a year.
Wow, here I was the one to tell my doctor to check my thyroid. After he asked me if 150 mcg sounded good. After I stoped and this event happened. I had to tell the doctor what dosage I think I needed and he agreed. It baffles me
😱 Humanbean, 6 months!!! that's horrible! Is telemedicine available? So can you "see" a doctor in another country via skype or WhatsApp?
Just add my bit. Prior to taking levothyroixine my blood sugars dropped giving hypo like symptoms, I would eat something or use glucose sweets fromBoots. Like you shakey hunger pangs , faint, sick .!!
For me it's all gone away with my thyroid level better . So good luck, once you are optimum with treatment, you hopefully will be better. X
Chris4810. If that was for me, YES I am much better than I was.
My body is getting stronger , so hope you get there like myself.
I was started on NDT or extract as it was called then and it all went smoothly but my doctor started T the same time so we helped each other. It then a strike meant we couldn't get it for months so I went into Levo and started on 25 as that's what was done then and I think I was on 75 for a long time eventually getting up to 125 then settling on 125/100 but that's spread over 20-25 years. Menopause caused chaos, I stopped converting well. I wanted to go back on NDT but addressed the conversion first and been very good since but Endo loves my results but doesn't like NDT and wants me to stop it but I see no reason to. So many doctors have a thing about age and I disagree age should be a cut off point.
Hi. Ignore him. He can't feel how you feel. The most important matter is how you feel day to day. It doesn't matter if the stats are good, but you feel lousy. It's better to have worse stats, but feel better. It's about you at the end of the day.
Well I'm fortunate as stats good and I feel good so that makes it more gutting that he's said that!
What is ndt?
You will find the answer to that, and many more similar questions, here:
dropbox.com/s/og3lmxa1dqadb...
NDT = Natural Desiccated Thyroid
Hi I have suffered with symptoms like that I find a piece of fruit really helps as does eating small meals through out the day as suggested by someone on this forum
I do that, I'm 28 and I have so much to do but I have been enabled by this. It's really tough.
You have been on my mind bc I wanted to give you a science and biologically based answer to your post. I could only tell you how to navigate the feeling until the thyroid is better. But I wanted to find some biological explanation for the sensation of low blood sugar as it relates to thyroid.
If I may review: you're saying you feel low, test and find that it's not low, but find that taking some glucose relieves those symptoms, and also that your thyroid is not yet within optimal function/treatment. With these concerns in mind, I sought and found a few articles, but this one, I liked because it explains the biological reasons for what you described. It will get better with proper thyroid treatment, it is a real phenomenon of low blood sugar sensation despite "within range" glucose reading, and from what I've read thus far, many people go through this. The weird thing is, just yesterday, and again today, I had the same thing!! I had never heard of it until you posted that. And within two days, I had the same feeling - ok blood sugar, feeling super hypoglycemic, treated and felt relief, despite blood sugar reading never being actually low! So I did what I suggested to you - I treated the feeling of low with fast acting carbohydrate (some orange juice in my case), detested my blood sugar, and logged the occurrence in my thyroid journal. Then I started looking for your original post so I could get the article link to you (below).
Be unafraid. keep testing your blood sugar, even if it is not reading as low, treat the low with fast acting carbohydrate, retest once you feel relief to make sure you haven't overtreated with too much glucose (if it happens again, you'll know about how much carb to invest to remove without overtreating). And keep working toward getting the thyroid regulated.
While this low blood sugar sensation is a common offset symptom of thyroid, there isn't much writing on it from what I can tell. In the meantime for a more science based explanation, please see this article (separated by headings, so you can scan and find the sections you're most interested in reading):
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Feel free to private message me. Don't give up.
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Feel like I'm slowly dying.hi
Hi ,hope someone can help me out here. Was on thyroxine for sixteen yrs ,only ever classed as...
Feel like I'm going mad
Me again....! Sorry....!
I feel crazy. My head is intense and spinning and I feel scared and like...
I don't know if anyone remembers me but........
I was the lady who was having ALOT of problems back end of last year and into this year with alot...
Feel like I'm being gaslit
I've just had an appointment with a GP after my most recent blood test results showed a TSH of 6.21...
Feel like I'm going mad
At the end of January I ended up in hospital with low sodium levels and very dehydrated and then...
Related Posts
Anyone else feel like crying? The sun usually makes me feel better....
I feel like I'm loosing it! Thyroid?!
What does it feel like to have thyroid eye disease?
I feel like a zombie after taking levothyroxine, and desssicated thyroid meds. What else can I take?
Newly Diagnosed and feeling like I'm going crazy
