Cant tolerate Levothyroine

[Babs46]

Started three months ago on Levothyroine (one 25 tablet x10 days, and then increase to 50 per day). Started having dizziness at night, shortness of breath, anxiety and depression for which I have been on medication for years. Have discontinued Levothyroine but stall having worsened A&D. Anyone experienced anything like this?

[Clutter]

Babs46,

Can you post your thyroid results and ranges on 50mcg? If you were undermedicated then that would cause the symptoms. Levothyroxine won't work unless you are on the correct dose. There are also 4 different makes of Levothyroxine in the UK so it is worth trying the others to see whether symptoms improve.

[Mouse]

I have had years of issues with Levothyroxine. I changed to Armour and had the same problems. My GP ordered blood tests, including vit D, which the lab refused to do so a few months ago I had them done privately and discovered my vit D was very low. I have been taking 5000iu of vit d3 per day for about six weeks and have just increased my Levothyroxine to 50mcg a day without side effects.

[silverfox7]

Did you have repeat bloods after 6 weeks? The dose you were taking is just a low started dose to get your body used to the new medication but it can't perform miracles! It takes time and possibly a few dose increases to where you need to be to feel well. So your doctors should have told you to return after 6 weeks, the time it takes for any new dose to reach the right level and then if you need an increase this is done by adding 25 mcg and the sequence recreated until you are on the dose that is correct for you. Even then it can take symptoms a little time to reverse.

Did your doctor also tell you to take it on an empty stomach with a full glass of water and not to eat for another hour? (You can drink water).Otherwise you will not be absorbing it correctly.

[Hidden]

I would try a different brand of Levo.

I was taking 100mcg of one brand, and 25mcg of another as it didn't come in the same brand as the 100mcg ones. I was sensitive to 25mcg tablets which gave me gastric problems. When I swapped that bit of my dose to half a 50mcg tablet in the OK brand, my symptoms resolved within a few days. I believe the problem was acacia powder, which was in one brand but not the other.

That may or may not be the cause of your problems, but it's an easy thing to try, and it might do the trick.

The brand I got along best with was Actavis.

[Hashihouseman]

yes! Levothroxine disrupts something Quite profoundly in me. It takes months to get used to even small amounts, from initial doses to periodic increases. I get a range of histamine poisoning like side-effects the worst being persistent headaches, cluster headaches, cognitive disturbances, tingling limbs, depression. Even after 2 yens on Levo I still have to split 75 µg into 3 doses and supplement with desiccated natural thyroid to minimise the adverse effects of Levo. The only other thing that helps is antihistamine and DAO enzyme supplement, am also taking copper just in case it affects that (the clue being the sudden histamine intolerance coincident with being on Levothyroxine)