So I'm going to have a bath and try and forget this ever happened but I had my first endocrinology app today and he was beyond awful well into the realms of negligent.
He said ALL of my symptoms are nothing to do with my thyroid or hashimotos but because I have an anxiety disorder. My heart rate was measure at 97bpm this morning which he also said was perfectly normal. To add insult to injury he said Levothyroxine doesn't have side effects so that is also all in my head and that I have a healthy happy thyroid at tsh 3.2
He seemed like he would have been happy to admit me to a physchiatric ward and be done with me.
The only positive of seeing him was that I found out my T3 is 5.8 - I don't know what this means so any advice on that would be great.
I am a thyroid patient who was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in February 2017 and take 75mg levothyroxine.
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wowserclo
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You are a woman so clearly you suffer from hysteria and everything you complain of is psychosomatic.
Being more serious without a range we can't inform you were exactly you are but it appears that you have hypothyroidism. If the doctor wasn't a fecking idiot then he would ask for you to be retested in 3 months to confirm it. However the NHS frequently doesn't treat people until their TSH is above 10 and they have no life.
If you have any money then get some private tests done in 3 months. Regardless start reading up as it is clear that doctors aren't interested in helping you. Start here - thyroiduk.org.uk/ in the "About the thyroid" section.
Thankyou! Sorry I should of said in my main post I have hashimotos and got diagnosed in February. I definitely do have hypothyroidism. I'm on 75mg of Levothyroxine x
He has to provide this info to you, by law! I suggest you ring the surgery and either ask for the results and ranges, over the phone or request a printout which they may charge a small fee.
Tsh 3.2 is fine is it? According to Nice guidelines when in treatment,
Aiming for a stable TSH in the lower half of the reference range
The recommendation on aiming for a stable TSH in the lower half of the reference range (0.4–2.5 mU/L) is based on the clinical guideline Management of subclinical hypothyroidism [Pearce, 2013].
This should be the bare minimum you should expect.
Your T3 is quite good but your TSH is low. You may in fact have anxiety and it may be caused by your thyroid. Try taking selenium or a combo thyroid supplement and adding seaweed to your diet for some iodine. Nacent iodine is a good form of low dose iodine. When adding iodine to your diet always use selenium and a pinch of sea salt in your water. Iodine detoxes your body and these things help with that process in order to avoid nasty detox symptoms
Thanks for the tips i shall give it a go. My TSH is actually still way too high for me. As greybeard said it should be below 2.5 for a thyroid patient. I do have anxiety but it's purely down to being hypothyroid and I'm cross he told me that's my only problem! Totally ridiculous!
Yes it is too high. TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone. That is like the gas peddle for your thyroid . When it is high it is pushing your thyroid to make more T4. By adding things like selenium or iodine you are giving your body the raw materials it needs to make T4 so your body can ease off in the gas peddle and your TSH will come down.
wowserclo Supplement with selenium by all means, it's recommended to help reduce antibodies where there's Hashi's. But please don't supplement with any form of iodine or thyroid support as Skeptical has suggested.
Iodine needs to be tested and only supplemented where there is a known deficiency, and only then under the guidance of an experienced practioner.
Most thyroid support supplements contain iodine, so again shouldn't be used. They give a temporary boost and a crash usually follows.
I guess we could debate this but everyone needs to make their own decision. Dr Brownstein has written a good book on the topic and I have been seen in his office. Have taken 50 mg a day of iodorol for years. I don't recommend people jump into high doses without sound extensive research. Adding seaweed to your diet should be safe and nacent iodine is only taken at dosages of 1 or 2 mg. Another good book to read for hashimotos is "The Root Cause"
And it's the author of The Root Cause who wrote the article I linked to above in which she says
"..... iodine given to a subset of people with Hashimoto’s can flare up the attack on the thyroid gland. Iodine needs to be processed by the thyroid gland, and when the thyroid is inflamed, the processing of iodine will likely produce more inflammation. You give an angry and overwhelmed organ more work to do, and you’ll likely see it become even angrier! (5)
A person may feel more energetic when first starting an iodine supplement, but lab tests will reveal that their “new energy” is coming from the destruction of thyroid tissue which dumps thyroid hormone into the circulation, and reports will show an elevated TSH, elevated thyroid antibodies, and in some cases, low levels of active thyroid hormones. This is why I don’t generally recommend iodine supplements to people with Hashimoto’s. I don’t believe that the short-term artificial boost in energy is worth destroying your thyroid gland! ....."
You've suggested a book by someone who is promoting iodine. To balance, I have linked to an article with an opposing view.
You suggested the other member take iodine. I suggested testing first then get guidance on supplementing if it's necessary.
Drs Abraham, Brownstein and Flechas regard iodine deficiency as the leading cause of auto-immune thyroid disease in the US. This is based on the fact that auto-immune thyroid disease has increased to epidemic proportions during the past forty years, all the while Iodine levels have fallen by 50% based on NHANES government surveys.(23,24) The decline in iodine levels has been related to reduced iodine content in milk and dairy products, the removal of iodine from bread and its replacement with bromine, a goitrogen, the reduced salt intake for blood pressure control, the increased use of noniodized salt etc.(23) Drs Abraham, Brownstein and Flechas have discussed the use of Iodine in Hashimoto’s patients and conclude that Iodine supplementation is safe and beneficial in this group in the 6-50 mg per day range.(8,9)
I'm not going to engage in an iodine debate nor pretend to know what is right for a body other than my own. I just want to make others aware of the information available to us when having to make these decisions. When weighing conflicting view points one has to consider the sources offering those views. The author of the root cause is a pharmacist who offers some very good advice on diet. I am not sure that I would give her suggestions the same weight as the work of Dr Brownstein, Dr Abrahamson and Dr Flechas who have spent many years studying this topic and documenting their work.
Someone with Hashimoto's absolutely does not want to take iodine
greygoose has already pointed that to offer your opinion on a such highly controversial subject as iodine supplements to new members as a definite fact is not a good idea
Thanks guys. If I'm honest I was never going to start taking iodine, I think I'm going to give selenium a go but I have heard that iodine isn't something to mess with!
There's always rubbish amongst the good stuff, but selenium isn't for everybody, just like a lot of other things. It makes me feel bad, I just can't take it. But, I recognise that it would be a good thing if I could - although, perhaps it just means I don't need it, I don't know. In any case, you can only try it and see how it works for you.
Sceptical made a mistake in her early post: ....Your T3 is quite good but your TSH is low.' Being Hashi since 1990 (self diagnosed late 1999) it is common for me to always say/type the direct opposite of what I mean. I'm sure it was meant to be HIGH. Words get lost in transition between the pituitary and hypothalamus and confuse my Hashi brains.
Sitting on the other side of the globe, I read the posts where we all attempt to "help" our fellow sufferers and often wonder if we are being helpful OR creating more unease/confusion. Just saying....
Commisserations!! I suffered something similar here in France about 11 years ago....was put on levothryox too soon and too strong...and I can confirm that thanks to a rubbish gynae who prescribed oestrogen for an osteoporosis which I didn't have (though I did have endometriosis...) which triggered a seizure...and an equally incompetent endocrinologist, who ignored my palpitations (nothing to do with levothryox...), I ended up having a 2nd seizure after 3 years of being overmedicated by levothryox and my brain forcing my body to go to work for 3 years.. ...so please don't feel that you are alone...and I can assure that the stereotype of a female 'hysteric' is well and truly alive in France...in fact I can also confirm that my gastroenterologist also told me I should see a psy...this was when I was 3 times over the dose that I should have been on with levothryox, and of course that played havoc with my IBS. Having done battle with French endocrinologists, neurologists and gastroenterologists, I can assure you that you (like all of us) know your body better than any specialist....listen to the signs... I ended up with a heart murmur......which a cardiologist told me I had since birth (which is definitely not true)..
So just to say keep faith and courage! My 'wonderful' endo at the time was just obsessed about the tsh and ignored the antibodies etc..... after upteen changes - including another one - who did reduce the levo but then when I had very low bp, and lost weight and antibodies were going through the roof told me 'we don't care about those'....and was only happy that I'd lost weight as I'd 'obviously' gone on a diet?? In a sad way you have to feel sorry for these types of doctors, they were obviously never trained properly, and haven't kept up with modern research..... my osteo/acupuncture guy here in France told me I should write a book about my 'experiences'...but to be honest I think it would be too depressing to read!!!
take care and try and find someone else who actually listens to what you are telling them about your symptoms...
Well you know what I would do us take up the offer of psychiatry as psychs are taught about thyroid conditions then when you prove him wrong you sue. Well that's my fantasy as my doc 40 years ago wa happy to refer me to a psych. Sounds like yo may need more thyroxine and it's early days and will take longer than a few months to stabilise. By the time you've got your results things coukd have changed. Sad that endos are still seeing people as walking thyroids disconnected from human beings.
Research Thyro-Gold on google, Tammy Lowe her phone # will be there! She and her late husband,Dr John Lowe are wonder workers. Be sure to read the testimonials,? Then call Tammy M-F 10am to 4 pm! It will be the best thing you ever did for yourself ! Patients are amazed, because the abuse and ignorance that you went through, we all have gone through! She will answer all your questions and give you the best advise with Charisma!
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