Finally insisted on referral to thyroid specialist after years of being fobbed off by GPs about thyroid issues ("get a fit bit, walk more blah blah"!) Got family history of auto immune conditions and been taking 125mg thyroxine for 15 years and never felt great but latterly felt really crap (now 55). Low mood, low energy, palpitations, sleep apnoea, horrendous weight gain etc etc.
I want to see someone who can look at all the test results (cortisol, adrenals too) and family history and advise thoroughly about diet, lifestyle, nutritional supplements and then finally synthetic medication.
Can anyone recommend good holistic consultants and/or thyroid specialists. I live in Herefordshire but will go anywhere. St Thomas seem to have respected thyroid unit but is that more of a cancer centre?
You can get all that advice here on the Forum. May I suggest first of all you have all the important tests done - TSH - FT4 - FT3 and Thyroid Anti-bodies TPO & Tg - and the important vits and minerals - B12 - Folate - Ferritin - VitD. Private Testing is available - kits sent to your home - and well used by 100's of members here in order to have the correct tests done that the NHS will not do. Link below ...
When you have the results come back here and start a new post with the results and ranges.
The website I have linked above is the main website of this Forum and will explain everything Thyroid
Many of us can suggest a supplement protocol - once you have your results and lots of other advice too. Look around the Forum at the following people - Seaside Susie - SlowDragon - greygoose - humanbean - and many many more - and of course all the Admins. there are over 73,000 members so lots of knowledge out there !
You can click onto anyones name in Blue and view their Bio and also read their posts and replies. A good way of getting to know people and the ones that know their stuff.
Thank you. I had a pretty full range of tests done in Nov. I felt so bad earlier last year that (rightly or wrongly!) I stopped taking thyroxine between May and Nov. I didn't feel great but didn't feel any worse and the palpitations stopped. The tests results showed tshlevel of 99 I think which triggered a panic call from the doc. I agreed to resume taking 50mcg (they wanted 125 again) of thyroxine and hsve just redone the thyroid blood tests and will get results on Tuesday. I'll share the full tests tomorrow. Was considering gluten free plus vitamins. Think may have hashimotos? I had high powered marketing jobs especially in 30's then two children 15 months apart aged 39 and 40. Think those events triggered all this perhaps.
GPS clearly don't have much knowledge and suspect endocrinologists will be restrictive too. 😊
I will look out for your latest results with ranges. Start a new post so more people see and can comment
Yes stressful careers and families can be demanding as well I know - but not always the cause of Hashimotos. There are many causes - lots of info on the internet. Izabella Wentz is a good source of information - and you can sign up for her Newsletters on her website and keep up to date.
Going gluten free can be helpful - but before starting a vitamin protocol it would be good to have tests to check levels.
Email dionne.fulcher for a list of member recommended endocrinologists. I don't think you will find an endo who will advise on diet, lifestyle and nutritional supplements. You may need to see a naturopath or functional doctor for those. Ask Dionne Fulcher whether TUK has recommendations.
Hi I posted earlier about ongoing issues with thyroxine. Just a quick question for now until I share my full test results. I stopped taking thyroxine earlier this year and then had full tests 6 months later. Tsh was 99 and the doc was clearly panicked and almost suggesting it was dangerous to cease the medication. Is that correct. It's so difficult to decide what is true or not!
TSH 99 indicates you are profoundly hypothyroid and your GP was concerned because long term untreated hypothyroidism can cause multi-organ damage which may not always be reversible. Prior to thyroid replacement being discovered many hypothyroid patients went insane and died in lunatic asylums.
Once you are optimally dosed on Levothyroxine (which for most people will be when TSH is between 0.2 - 1.0) if you still feel it isn't helping you might try alternatives ie Liothyronine (T3) or Natural Dessicated Thyroid (NDT) but you will not get them on the NHS and will have to get private prescriptions or buy online and self medicate.
Blimey thank you! It sounds a foolish thing to do but it's so difficult when GPS just seem to fob me off. I assume I could self medicate and then pay for private blood tests then.
Yes, you could, but why don't you wait until you see how you feel once you are optimally dosed on Levothyroxine before you self medicate.
Thanks I think a functional doctor seems to make more sense from the research I've done. I also suspect that functional medicine is not available on the NHS? Assume dionne is based at thyroid UK?
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