New diagnosis anything I can do to help myself?

[curlyclaz]

Hi I was diagnosed last week with underactive thyroid. Been prescribed 50 levothyroxine. Can anyone look at my results and help me understand them more, what if anything I can do to feel better and approx how long until I can expect to see an improvement (I'm also anaemic and have started iron)

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

curlyclaz An over range TSH and an under range FT4 confirm primary hypothyroidism (which is where the thyroid gland is failing and can't produce thyroxine itself) which you now have a diagnosis for and have been started on Levo at a reasonable starting dose. You need to take your Levo daily without fail, it is replacing the thyroid hormone you can't produce so you need to take it for the rest of your life. It is replacement thyroid hormone, not a medication so don't think of it as taking it for a short while and it will be cured.

Take your Levo on an empty stomach, one hour before or two hours after food, with a glass of water only, no tea, coffee, milk, hot chocolate, etc for an hour as absorption will be affected. You can take it when you get up, before you go to bed, in the middle of the night if you visit the loo, it doesn't matter as long as it's away from food and drink (other than water) for the time mentioned. Also, take Levo 2 hours away from other meds and supplements, some need four hours.

You will need retesting with a dose increase of 25mcg 6-8 weeks after starting Levo, and repeat tests/increases until your symptoms abate and you feel well. It's not a quick fix, it can take months to feel well as hormones have to be built up slowly. You may find that you have perfect blood tests after a while, but feeling good may take longer.

The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their respective reference ranges when on Levo.

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As you are taking iron tablets, these must be taken four hours away from Levo and two hours away from any other medication and supplements as it affects their absorption.

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It would be helpful to know if you have thyroid antibodies, (autoimmune thyroid disease aka Hashimoto's), that is the most common cause of hypothyroidism. Doctors don't attach any importance to this as treatment is the same, but it's useful to know because if you do have Hashi's then adopting a strict gluten free diet helps reduce the antibodies. Ask your GP to test them, he will only be able to get Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) antibodies tested, but there are two types - TPO and TG (Thyroglobulin). You can be negative for TPO but positive for TG. If you prove negative for TPO you can get antibodies tested privately.

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It would also be useful to have vitamins and minerals tested, they all need to be at optimal levlels (not just in range) for thyroid hormone to work. So ask for

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

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There's lots of information on Thyroid UK's main website (this is their forum) so you can have a look through the different pages thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...