Those of you who are underactive how do you cope with the achy tired legs. I am a retail pharmacist which does not help as I’m standing mostly but do sit as often as i can.
Some days, especially when I’m in bed my legs are throbbing and can feel hot.
Tsh: 1.79 mu/l (0.27-4) . I went to the dr about this yesterday and she refused a dose increase or a blood test as i just had a blood test in oct. I also spoke to another dr about this when i first was diagnosed and they did say due to my job i will have difficulty and basically deal with it.
But I’m not buying it and will push again for a dose increase. In the meantime anyone have any tips on managing the ache?
Thanks!
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Dewberry1
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Watch out for swelling; sensitivity to a press with your fingers; skin discolouration and itching. When your legs feel hot, check (or get checked) for signs of a cellulitis infection. Compression hosiery would probably help, but long term you don't want to develop venous insufficiency or stasis dermatitis.
You'd know from the skin pigmentation if you were developing stasis dermatitis. It's usually put down to a problem with the valves in the veins, but if it spreads right around the lower leg, it's likely to be due to capillary leakage, and that's likely to be due to low free T3 levels -- but they don't test for that, do they
Keeping your legs elevated when possible should help. Foam wedges can be bought, to raise your feet above heart-level while you sleep, or you can use bricks under the bed legs.
Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers.
All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning and fasting and don't take Levo in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after. This gives highest TSH and most consistent results
If you have high thyroid antibodies then low vitamin levels are extremely common
High antibodies is Hashimoto's, (also known by medics here in UK more commonly as autoimmune thyroid disease).
About 90% of all hypothyroidism in Uk is due to Hashimoto's
With Hashimoto's, our gut can be badly affected. Low stomach acid can lead to poor absorption of vitamins. Low vitamin levels stop thyroid hormones working.
Poor gut function can lead leaky gut (literally holes in gut wall) this can cause food intolerances. Most common by far is gluten
According to Izabella Wentz the Thyroid Pharmacist approx 5% with Hashimoto's are coeliac, but over 80% find gluten free diet helps significantly. Either due to direct gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)
But don't be surprised that GP or endo never mention gut, gluten or low vitamins. Hashimoto's is very poorly understood
Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and slowly lower TPO antibodies
Thanks for all the links will be reading them tonight!
Tpo: 42iu/ml (0-50)
High end of normal so will be asking for this to be tested with my next lot of bloods.
Serum folate 14.7 ug/l (4.6-8.7)
Ferritin 28 ug/l (15-300)
B12 433 ng/l (180-700)
Vit d 57.3mmol/l
Due to stomach issues which are now settling I think due to the levo i am not much of a eater so taking vit d, magnesium, cod liver oil, and a general multivitamin with minerals and iron
There's no point in taking that. Multi's contain too little of anything to do any good, usually use the cheapest and least absorbable form of ingredients, and if it contains iron then nothing else can be absorbed, iron should be taken at least 2 hours away from other supplements. Also if it contains iodine and/or calcium, these should be tested and only supplemented if found to be deficient.
Ferritin 28 ug/l (15-300)
Best way to raise ferritin is eat liver once a week, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, and including lots of iron rich foods in your diet apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/in...
Vit d 57.3mmol/l
That level of Vit D really needs 5000iu daily for 3 months then retest. When the level recommended by the Vit D Council is reached - 100-150nmol/L - reduce to a maintenance dose which may be 2000iu daily, it's trial and error so it's recommended to retest once or twice a year to keep within the recommended range. You can do this with a private fingerprick blood spot test with City Assays vitamindtest.org.uk/
D3 softgels containing oil to help absorption (preferably olive oil, definitely not soy oil) are better than tablets or capsules, and if Hashi's is suspected then an oral spray is better for absorption eg BetterYou.
There are important cofactors needed when taking D3
D3 aids absorption of calcium from food and K2-MK7 directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissues where it can be deposited and cause problems.
D3 and K2 are fat soluble so should be taken with the fattiest meal of the day, D3 four hours away from thyroid meds.
Magnesium helps D3 to work and comes in different forms, check to see which would suit you best and as it's calming it's best taken in the evening, four hours away from thyroid meds
An extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:
"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".
"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."
I keep my level at around 1000. Sublingual methylcobalamin lozenges are what's needed if you wish to self supplement (1000mcg daily should be sufficient for your level), along with a good quality B Complex to balance all the B vitamins.
As your antibodies are quite high in the range, Hashi's is a possiblity. Supplementing with with selenium l-selenomethionine 200mcg daily can help reduce the antibodies, and it helps convert T4 to T3.
I'm a gardener, so on my feet all day, bending down, etc all day. I had the same problem, pain in legs was unbearable at end of day when sitting and in bed, pain would wake me in the night and I just didn't know where to put my legs. Family though it was arthritis. Turned out my thyroid dosage needed topping up, all my other levels were good. Now, touch wood, I am pain free.
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