Can someone please help me understand my latest thyroid test results? (picture attached)
I've been ill for almost a year, I have a VERY sore throat and I can only swallow liquids and therefore have lost a lot of weight. I had an endoscopy but everything looked normal. I've suffered with tinnitus (ringing ears) for years but the past year it is especially loud and unbearable at times. The doctor blamed my sore throat on acid reflux (even though I don't actually get heartburn, just burping and occasional stomach pain) and I've been taking 40mg omerprazole daily for about 6 months.
In the past few months I seem to have become hypersensitive to chemicals/scents : if I smell perfume or cleaning products it seems to make my throat/symptoms worse.
I had my cortisol tested (which was crazy high!) and put up a thread on here:
Both on low side - getting these improved by taking a daily good quality vitamin B complex , one with folate in not folic acid, may be beneficial
As you have tinnitus supplementing a sublingual B12 as well for a few months may help
If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 3-5 days before any blood tests, as biotin can falsely affect test results
As you mentioned in your previous post....it may be you have low stomach acid, not high acid. This is much more common when hypothyroid
We see hundreds of people on here misdiagnosed as high acid. As you have already found you can not just stop any PPI it must be reduced very slowly and other things put in place
There are hundreds of posts about low stomach acid on here
Thank you for your reply. I will do as you say and start on vit D right away. I am having trouble swallowing everything even water is closing my throat up so I guess I'm getting dehydrated too, I've always suffered with a dry mouth no matter how much I drink, tried adding salt too but no difference, thought it may be electrolyte imbalance so I drank lots of grape juice but still no effect, still dry mouth! I gave up gluten years ago. I would like to give up dairy too but all I can eat at the moment is fluid so its just veg soup, porridge and rice pudding. Havent been able to take supplements as I cant swallow the capsules, used to take everythng before all this, B vits, Vit C, Vit d, all the minerals etc! I amso fed up of it all! To be honest I thought my results would be much worse, How my ferritin can be that high is beyond me unless there is a lot of iron in oats? I was having molasses sugar in my rice pudding for a while maybe its that? I have only been drinking skimmed goats milk, I can't tolerate cow's milk.
Hi hebbyh, your symptoms sound very similar to mine. My tinnitus began a couple years ago. Out nowhere I started burping all the time with a sore/burning throat, dry mouth, awful feeling of a lump in my throat, difficulty swallowing food, weight loss, hoarseness, tired vocal cords, and dyspepsia. (No true heartburn in the beginning, but I feel it now in my back...) Like you, my throat symptoms are definitely compounded when I smell smoke or strong detergent, etc.
It does sound like you have "silent reflux" which is also known as Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR). This type of reflux primarily causes throat irritation as it lacks the hallmark symptom of typical GERD/acid reflux (heartburn). Prilosec/Nexium (PPIs) often don't help people with LPR, based on my research and my own experience taking PPIs. The lower esophagus sphincter (LES) & upper esophagus sphincter (UES) are not functioning correctly, which allows acid/pepcin/bile to go to places where they don't belong. Not fun!
I did get an endoscopy and it showed no damage, which my gastro doc said is typical with LPR patients. I'm scheduled for a 24-hour pH monitoring test next to monitor the acid levels in my esophagus and throat. (You might ask your doctor about this?)
When PPIs don't work, there are surgical procedures to help correct the problem. I'm looking into LINX surgery now, which insurance is not covering (except for a few states in the U.S.) Having LPR affects your quality of life quite profoundly - my heart goes out to you. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Thank you so much for responding to my post. Its comforting to know I am not alone, no one I know personally has ever suffered from this, it is truly terrible! Sometimes I feel my throat is going to totally collapse and my ears are stuffed up and screaming and crackling all the time! I cannot sleep for it, its taken over my life, I never go out except to hospital or to see the doctor, most of the time I am just talking to the doctor on the phone but he has no idea how to help apart from saying take more ppi but I don't feel like they help at all even so I am still taking 40mgs everyday! I guess I'm scared to stop them in case I get worse with the rebound acid.
My gastroenterologist did the scope and because it was clear signed me off and just said try giving up milk, well that is a bit hard when all i can eat is fluid!
The being sensitive to smells is awful, i can't even read a book as the ink used for the print makes me ill! Do you think this could be a fungal or bacterial overgrowth? Mine started after a stomach bug that made me very dehydrated and thats what I'm like now, my mouth is so dry I wake up at night with my tongue stuck to the top of my mouth!
You might try eating a lower-acid diet which tends to really help. Try softer foods that you're able to swallow which are more alkaline, such as oatmeal & bananas, mashed potatoes & chicken (limit beef and no deep fried food or spicy food). You need to eat.
Regarding overgrowth, a breath test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can be done to check if your issues are related to that, but SIBO normally impacts the gut primarily.
I see that "ear problems" and "dry mouth" can be directly related to LPR reflux - check out the list of symptoms below as they are very diverse. I consulted with Stanford University and they suggested drinking kefir (probiotic yogurt drink) to help heal the gut, which correlates with reflux issues. So I now add kefir to herbal tea in the morning, as I had to give up coffee (too acidic). I only drink alkaline water, almond milk, and chamomile tea besides that, in addition to taking "Saccharomyces Boulardii" as a daily probiotic. It's very helpful.
Symptoms of LPR:
A sensation of postnasal drip or excess throat mucus
Trouble swallowing
Trouble breathing
Sore throat
Hoarseness
Chronic cough
Reactive airway disease (asthma)
Noisy breathing or pauses in breathing (apnea)
Trouble eating, spitting up, or inhaling food
Trouble gaining weight
Excessive throat clearing
Persistent cough
Dry mouth or dry throat
Hoarseness
"Lump" in the throat that doesn't go away with repeated swallowing
Recurrent ear infections from problems with eustachian tube function
Lasting buildup of middle ear fluid
There are many online blogs (and several books on Amazon by American doctors who specialize in treating LPR reflux). Reading about LPR will help you begin to feel better, and also to realize that you are definitely not alone. I'm here anytime you need to vent!
Thank you, that means a lot to me. I will look in to the sibo thing. I try to be careful to eat low acid, My diet is very limited now anyhow, veg soup, home made just potatoes carrots and peas with a tiny bit of chicken bone broth in it, oats and skimmed goat milk and rice pudding with skimmed goats milk and thats it. I don't know how I'm existing really but I have lost loads of weight and only weigh 91pounds now! I look terrible! I wasn't very fat to start with so this rubbish about it affecting mostly overweight people is hogwash!
I can't drink water it swells my throat up, I have to add it to my rice pudding and porridge. I can't drink coffee or tea. Probiotic drink sounds good but I can't drink cow's milk, maybe I could try goat yogurt but anything with probiotics makes me worse! I have very bad digestion, always have, before this happened to me I had to take betaine with pepsin to digest any fat or protein meat or fish! So you can imagine it is hard now as I can't take them anymore! I'm really stuck with this and its making my life miserable so any ideas are gratefuly appreciated. Thank you so much. Also forgot to mention I had a pepsin test which showed very high pepsin in my saliva so I know its reflux!
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