Finally Feeling Some Relief from Heavy Head

[thyroidrose]

To give others hope: I am now at about four weeks on 88 mcgs of Tirosint, having worked up from a starting dose of 13 mcgs beginning in April of this year. Recently I saw a holistic medical doctor (internist) who prescribed 5 mcgs of T3 for me to take twice a day (10 mcgs total a day) and also added adrenal supplements named A-drenal made by RLC Labs. My saliva cortisol was at the rock bottom of the range (I ordered the test kit on Amazon, very easy) and the holistic doctor said it could be contributing to my remaining symptoms (mainly head & hunger issues).

The worst symptom by far throughout this whole ordeal has been a feeling of wooziness or heavy-headedness that has only recently started to subside, two years after diagnosis and now 8 months into official treatment. I tried to treat the Hashis/Hypo with diet and exercise in the beginning but failed and realized I needed to take the replacement hormone. At any rate, I now notice that I can get to about 4 pm every day before the heavy head feeling starts up, and that's if it starts up at all. Sometimes I just get pangs of it here and there throughout the day, instead of it starting up first thing in the morning and staying with me all day like it used to.

I waited a bit before posting this, wanting to make sure this wasn't a fluke. I have been feeling pretty decent now for about two weeks and am so hoping this means I have finally found some kind of a place of peace with the replacement hormones.

So to those suffering, don't give up, keep plodding, relief could be just a week away. I know it is so hard to be patient but you can get there.

[Clutter]

Thyroidrose,

I'm glad it's beginning to come together for you and hope you continue to improve. Best wishes for a Happy Christmas.

[thyroidrose in reply to Clutter]

Thank you Clutter, the same to you as well.

[Wolfiesmom08]

Just to let you know I'm and not discourage you but Tirosint gave me bad headaches. I'm headache person anyways so it was hard for me to pinpoint that it was the Tirosint. Then my mom that has Hashimoto's also switched to Tirosint and she said it gave a her a bad headache after only being on a couple days. So she's on Levoxyl plus naturethroid and I'm on Levoxyl plus compounded T3. I think it's a good drug but for some reason it gives you a headache.

[thyroidrose in reply to Wolfiesmom08]

Thank you so much for this info. As a matter of fact I am a headache person too and every time I've upped the dosage of Tirosint I've come down with a doozy of a headache but it would only last two to three days and would then subside. I will definitely consider some alternatives if I start getting more headaches though. Thanks again.

[C70rol]

Thank you so much for your post ! It's an encouragement to me, as I have heavy heads and wooziness every day, mostly mornings,.

I'm trying to recover from adrenal Fatique and low thyroid at present. I started treatment in mid October, but I can only increase the adrenal cortex slowly and in small doses, as the first 3 days of each increase makes my head extra heavy with a drugged feeling, and a sense of lowness.

And the extra stress of Christmas doesn't help!

[thyroidrose in reply to C70rol]

C70 good luck to you, and you're welcome. I figured I would post because just a month or so ago I was getting very desperate to feel some relief. I'm sitting here right now at 6:41 pm without the head heaviness and it's amazing!

Keep at it with the adrenal cortex and the thyroid hormones. It will get better.

Stress is so huge. I finally had to tell my husband that I couldn't visit my father in law weekly anymore as the guy has a very difficult personality that rubs me the wrong way. My husband didn't understand at first but now agrees that it was in my best interest for me to step aside. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions to help yourself. Hopefully you are able to.

[C70rol]

Thanks for coming back to me thyroidrose. I'm certainly finding the stress of Christmas heavy. Yesterday afternoon I was quite woosy & 'swimmy' headed as well as heavy headed after a reasonably business morning!

I am increasing my cortex in small doses every three weeks, and for the 1st of those weeks my heavy head is even heavier, almost a drugged feeling, and exhaust easily !

I also need to increase my NDT soon, but it's hard to judge when to do that, as I had night time palpitations for a couple of months, (which was what made me realise I had an adrenal problem). So I dropped my NDT by a 1/4 grain. It still took a few moves on the adrenal cortex before the palpitations went.

So I really don't want them back again !

It's all such a minefield. I have been on this protocol for 3-4 months. So I'm looking forward to the New Year...........please feel free to reply by PM, as it's encouraging for me to find a fellow sufferer. Thanks 🎄

[thyroidrose in reply to C70rol]

Once the hormones start to work for you (and it all happened very slowly for me, unfortunately I didn't wake up one day and feel cured) your head won't be such an issue for you. I feel for you though because I was just there and that wooziness makes even the smallest task like playing with your child or doing laundry feel like a marathon event.

I am not sure if your mind wanders like mine does but I got very worried after a while that the hypo wasn't even the problem and that I had a brain tumor since the majority of my symptoms were head related! It's so easy to stress out about other ailments being the cause!

Have you had other testing like ferritin, vit D and B12 levels? Last year I found out that I had H Pylori and iron deficiency. After solving both of those issues I felt better. Sometimes there are more than 1 or 2 things going on.

Thank you and please feel free to PM me too.

[C70rol in reply to thyroidrose]

Yes,I am very good at taking all the vitamins and minerals I need.

I also can be concerned about some of my symptoms ! I occasionally have waves in my head and or body and sometimes a fluttering in my heart. I know that it's all hormone related, but it can stop me in my tracks.

Is your temperature at normal yet.- I saw Dr Peatfield for the adrenal problem and he's told me to keep a daily record of my temperature and pulses, and report them to him.

Also how much adrenal cortex were you taking before increasing your thyroid meds? I haven't increased Armour thyroid yet, as I don't think I'm taking enough Cortex , ( if that's how it works)!

Thanks for your help !

[thyroidrose in reply to C70rol]

Hey there, I went in full bore with the adrenal supplements. My holistic MD said not to decrease my Tirosint so I didn’t. I take 2 a-Drenal capsules at 8 am, 2 at 11 am and 2 more at 3 pm. In fact the doc also added T3, 5 mcgs twice a day, to my regimen as well. I have heard of decreasing thyroid meds when working on adrenal issues but she didn’t say to do it in my case so I went with her advice.

Also I haven’t yet started tracking my temp and it seems like I might not have to, if the improvement continues. Originally I would try to correlate my symptoms to what my labs would say but I’ve given up on that as it drove me even more insane (although I’m still going in regularly for labs of course) and for now I am just going by symptom relief only.

[mistygrey]

Hi thyroid rose

I am trying to get rid of a heavy head feeling I have every day, usually most mornings but also at night too.

It feels like I have a head cold or fluey but no flu is present or cold. It comes over me and makes me feel so unwell, I recently have been tested for thyroid eye disease as my eyes are very dry and Endo suspected this however it also feels like my face is all puffy and sore tender to touch around under my eyes and cheeks. Does this sound familiar and how can I stop it?

[thyroidrose in reply to mistygrey]

Misty what do your lab results say? Do you have thyroid disease of some kind? If so are you under or over medicated? I have the heavy head when I’m either under or over medicated. I’m now on what might be my “sweet spot” dose of 88 mcgs of Tirosint and the heavy head is going away. Instead of it being present every waking moment I now only get pangs of the sensation here and there. Thank goodness because I felt like I was slowly dying! OMG it was awful.

If tests confirm that you do not have any thyroid problems I would have other things tested such as B vitamin levels, D vitamin levels, ferritin and also even if you have a sinus infection it can cause a heavy head so maybe investigate that too.

[Hidden]

I wanted to post my experience and see if people could relate at all. When I was 3 years old my throat went numb, from there my head got too heavy to hold up. All my muscles had a feeling of falling and I was in pain a bunch. Now as an adult being on Levothyroxine for like 5 years I am using Gonstead Chiropractic among other things to crack, stretch, unwind my body. My neck being the worst case, and causing me to lose feeling in my body. I was dizzy and nausous every day. As I slowly fix my body and let go of all the stress that has been trapped, I do get dizzy and nausous at times... but I'm also getting feeling in my body back.