First of all, I apologize for any mistake, English is not my mother tongue.
I'm 20 years old, I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in 2015 by my GP, and Hashomoto's in late 2016 by my Endo. I was first put on 50 mcg of Levo, and I'm currently taking 75 mcg.
Lately, I've been having symptoms I've had before being diagnosed with Hypothyroidism (hair loss, weight gain, fatigue, etc) but I also have other symptoms that I've never had before (muscle soreness, joint pain, tiny twitches all over my body). I got so scared that I went to the ER twice when this first begun, the second time I went, the doctor said it was probably due to being Hypo. So I went to my GP, she ordered new labs, only the standar one, not the one about my Vitamin levels, and she never said what could be causing this, so my anxiety was still there. I felt I was going insane.
Late January I had my appointment with my Endo, by then, I was already reading this forum, so I kinda knew what to ask, beacuse I was suspecting this was related to absorbption issues (I still do). He told me it wasn't related to Hypothyroidism, that my levels were ok, and I should continue taking the same dose of Levo. When I asked about my T3 levels (never had those analised), he said it wasn't necessary because all he needed were my TSH levels, I was fighting myself not to roll my eyes at this. When I asked about the anti-body test, he said it's only needed once, just to get a diagnose. I left angry tbh, I was really hoping I would get some answers.
Went to my GP two weeks ago, showed her my labs, told her what the Endo said, she agreed with him, prescribed me B12 vitamins, and that was it.
I'm truly concerned about my nervous system, I don't want to end up with some damage. Will B12 Vitamin do any difference?
Labs 4/01/2018
TSH: 2,75 uUI/ml (0,34 - 4,00 uUI/ml)
Free T4: 0,92 ng/dl (0,61 - 1,12 ng/dl)
Thank you, and greetings from Argentina.
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Fiama13
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Thanks for the info! I have to see my Endo again in July, right after my TSH labs and thyroid ecography (I have two nodules), I will try to get my dose increased then, and see if he will order T3 labs as well, if he doesn't, I'll do it privately.
I am going to start a gluten free diet, I'm still trying to figure it out, because I know it can be bad if I take everything out from the beginning.
I will start B12 vitamins this monday, doctor said I have to take them daily; hopefully my symptoms will get better.
No, she just said it will help with my nervous system, and I would regain some energy, especially now with college starting again, I get really stressed. She pretty much said it sounds like I'm stressed, wich I am, but I don't think my symptoms come from that.
Apart from thyroid meds for Hashimoto's for which you will get brilliant advice on this excellent forum...there is another angle to follow.
This condition cannot be treated with a linear approach. It's not just about taking tablets. It's a multifaceted problem that needs simultaneous action from different aspects.
To help improve medication response and vitamin absorption it's important to make sure the gut/intestine is functioning at an optimal level.
85% of the immune system lives in the gut. Making sure it is functioning well is the first step.
To make sure the gut is populated by beneficial bacteria that are essential for our health, Probiotics are a good place to start. Live Probiotic Kefir that you can brew yourself will help you tremendously.
Especially if you have had to take lots of Antibiotics, or maybe even had your appendix removed.
Reducing sugar from your diet will also benefit you. It will help if nothing else to starve Candida albicans back into submission in the gut/intestine.
The Probiotics will help to repair and restore the gut/intestine...
And finally follow a gluten/ wheat / cow dairy milk and cheese/ and Soya exclusion regimen.
All of these foods could cause an inflammaatory response if you are struggling with gut issues, that you may not even be aware of.
Keep a diary of how you feel/respond as you proceed with this exclusion regimen.
Try Ewe (sheep), or Goats milk instead of Cow milk/cheese.
If you would like more information on Kefir, I am happy to explain more.
Nice to meet you I gather that if you are asking about the connection between an appendectomy and gut issues, that you may have possibly had your appendix out? Only recently in the last few years have they discovered that in fact, the appendix is not a vestigial organ from when we were grubbing around in the primordial soup but in fact it is a vital organ that is partly responsible for maintaining not only good gut health but it is involved in the immune system itself.
Strangely enough I had already observed this for myself with my own observation due to a very dear friend who sadly had had to have her appendix out at 18 and who after that had become so very ill and eventually was actually diagnosed as a coeliac. I myself had my appendix out 13 years ago and I also noticed that I had great similarities with my friend, so I concluded that there was somehow something involved in the removal of an appendix and poor gut health.
Furthermore, to matters worse for both of us both my friend and I had also had our tonsils removed as youngsters. The tonsils in the throat again also play a large role in the immune system. I realised that this was a further clue; when I mentioned these two facts recently to my GP he took considerable note of the fact because he then said that clearly I had lost a great deal of lymph tissue, something he was not aware of because, this had happened prior to him being my GP.
Understanding the gut so much better these days for everything that I have read up on it and researched, I realise that nothing much has changed, because to over 2000 years ago Hippocrates himself the father of Western medicine said that all disease starts in the gut!
Unfortunately the way that the medical industry has developed and by this I mean the great pharmaceutical corporations that have greater power than countries and governments they intend to keep us ill; so that they can continue to have their medications prescribed to us; it is not in there interest to make us better therefore with the continued attitude of specialisation we get viewed as specimens by Consultants in hospitals whose only aim is to name what they think we've got so that it can equal the correct medication for prescription! No wonder we are all so ill because we're not really being treated in the manner that we should be.
Why is the gut so important? Well the gut biome which is the bacterial environment that is housed in our god is absolutely vital to our good health; it's also perfectly logical to assume that having developed as we have in our evolution that we will need to have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in order to functional at optimal levels; by symbiotic I mean a shared existence in other words we cannot live without them and they cannot live without us so we need to function together.
In fact 85% of our immune system is in fact housed in the gut; the appendix plays a vital role in this function; it is considered as lymph tissue similar to the tonsils in the throat ; when they are removed it considerably diminishes our immune defences. In fact recent research by a brilliant young woman who is a wonderful doctor in Germany (Dr Julia Ender's) suggests that people who have had an appendectomy need to supplement their diet with fermented foods such as for example homemade sauerkraut not what you buy in the supermarket ! We can also include probiotic kefir in this category as a gut biome replenishing agent
I myself have been making my own kefir and drinking it since the end of last October and have improved and felt many benefits; my next plan is to experiment with my own homemade fermented vegetables. I need to make sure that I find the right jars as the vegetables need to be submerged while fermenting; to keep them submerged one requires large thick glass weights but you have to make sure that they fit the jar and that once you get them in you can get them out! This is one of my current aims.
Unfortunately antibiotics kill pretty much everything in our gut this causes us all a real problem. Unfortunately here in the UK there is no proper advice on a post-antibiotic regimen because doctors only tell us to eat some yoghurt after taking antibiotics! This sadly is woefully inadequate. It is like taking a watering can to a forest fire!! After taking antibiotics it is vital to take high doses of probiotics preferably not in tablet form, because these take over two years to reach the shelves from production time and hence the majority of them will be long since dead; so the best solution is to actually take everyday billions worth of live probiotics, such as kefir.
If you are interested to know more read my previous posts and if you want any help and advice just contact me.
Not re-seeding the gut with the help of live probiotics after having followed a course of antibiotics leaves us very vulnerable. The creature that lives within all of us called Candida albicans (thrush) then takes up a dominant role; it prevents other beneficial bacteria from regaining a foothold in our gut; many things result from having a candida dominated gut apart from forcing us to eat sugar to feed it because being a fungus candida needs sugar; it has sharp tentacles that will pierce the gut as the gut in some places is only one cell; thick this is easily achieved and this leads to what is called a "leaky gut".
A leaky gut is a major problem because it allows food particles and other things that are small enough to pass through straight into the bloodstream.
Rather like a sieve the particles go directly into the bloodstream when this happens the active T-cells in the immune system react viciously ,to seek and destroy. This sets up a serious chain of events. Our immune system releases vast quantities of histamine throughout the body and this provokes massive inflammation.
Also as ill luck would have it the gluten molecule found in things such as pastry , bread and flour etc..looks remarkably like the thyroid so what happens is that once the T-cells have done their best to attack the gluten molecule that has passed through the gut directly into the bloodstream, because they consider it an unknown foreign aggressor once they've done that, they then discovered that there's more of the same tissue when they mistakenly identify the thyroid. Our Immune system then starts destroying our own thyroid by mistake.
This is, what more enlightened doctors now believe is the cause of autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis in other words just like Hippocrates said over 2000 years ago all disease starts in the gut!
Without having an appendix our immune system is at an added disadvantage. I interpret this as meaning it has to work harder and possibly by working harder it might be more stressed and possibly make more mistakes?
Therefore, if you have lost your appendix I would urge you to supplement your diet with fermented vegetables which you can look up on the internet for how to make them, and even brew your own live probiotic kefir. I hope this answers your question😊
Thank you so much for taking so much of your time to give me, a stranger, such a comprehensive answer.
My appendix was taken out during an op to remove fibroids some 30 years ago. I was only told after the op. The surgeon said it was very long and low and he expected it would cause me problems in the future, so he removed it.
A couple of days later I had dreadful stomach pains and was convinced they had left an instrument inside me. But nothing was found. A few weeks later they told me I had IBS. Which I still suffer from to this day. I find Biomuno daily helps a lot.
My tonsils were removed about 20 years later because of constant tonsillitis . Under active thyroid diagnosed some ten years after that and after years of going downhill.
What you say makes perfect sense !
Levothyroxine does not help all my symptoms, so I self medicate with desiccated thyroid.
My pleasure anything I can do to help a fellow sufferer.
I also have the diagnosis of IBS another one of my pet hates; anything that has the word syndrome attached to it simply means a collection of symptoms that are not correctly understood.
Have you tried taking kefir?
Due to having such a damaged gut both from a gut biome point-of-view and without a doubt, being leaky too, I have a huge list of food intolerances that provoke serious reactions for me and as a result Inflammation.
Were it not for having discovered kefir and it's wonderful benefits I don't know where I'd be at the moment as last autumn I was so reduced, I could not even drink a glass of water without having huge response. I swelled with a stomach looking like a beached whale, similar to the sort of response I have when ingesting gluten!!
It stands to reason that for having been so ill for so long that I know I'm not going to miraculously improve overnight so I'm being patient and I know that I must do everything I can to help re-seed my gut biome with beneficial bacteria and above all do everything I can to beat candida back into submission I know that all this will help my health.
I find keeping a diary of my improvements and my reactions is also very helpful because I can then look back on things and refer to it.
I think you should try kefir it's worth investigating for you.
I forgot to mention do you follow and exclusion diet avoiding gluten wheat cow dairy and soya?
If you do this will, I believe benefit your so called IBS, because it will put less strain on your system and it will be nothing but a benefit; it takes a bit of getting used to; because you have to read food labels and you have to research and you will find that ghastly soya which is no good to any of us, is actually introduced to our food surreptitiously in all sorts of different ways; if you can eliminate this it will help along with the other big three wheat gluten and cow dairy it's worth a try; you can monitor your improvements in a diary again so that you can refer to them to see how different you're feeling. I just mention it as it's worth a try because eliminating the aggressors helps a great deal; for me it's absolutely vital because every time I have an attack and I eat something either by mistake or without knowing I am so it'll it last me for weeks and weeks so I would advise you, if you are not already doing so, to consider eliminating these items from your diet and see how you feel.
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Seeing Endo #2 - please help!
Thyroid Test
Frustrated!
new labs / thyroid/ vitamins
