Puffy eyes solution?

[wano]

Anyone have a solution for puffy eyes caused by hypothyroidism? Mine are getting worse every year!

[greygoose]

Then you're probably under-medicated. Do you have a copy of your latest labs?

[Baobabs in reply to greygoose]

Yes I fully support this advice. Once optimally medicated my facial puffiness completely subsided ............. Not my face, just the puffiness!

[Aurealis]

Increase your dose

[Gatt1951]

I used to have puffy eyes but they ar good now I use cream for the eyes but my thyroids are doing good thank god

[Marymary7]

I have puffy horrible bags that stick out under my eyes, much worse in the last three years.

I'm taking 87.5 T3 and all the usual supplements suggested on here, can't seem to get it right. More doesn't help but gives me temple pains in head. Hope someone helps you and I will cotton on too!

Sorry to have no suggestions. I'm trying a caffeine cream but I honestly think it's our thyroid function. Oh another thing I'm trying is using a dermaroller under eyes.

😀x

[Alise123]

This is probably going to sound weird, but I started Taping my mouth at night when I go to sleep and I have noticed that my under eye puffiness has decreased quite a bit. I am on plenty of T3 only (I have a reverse T3 problem and can't take any T4, plus I also take Hydrocortisone for my adrenal glands). It is not being under medicated for me. The mouth taping sounded crazy to me initially, but apparently lots of people unknowingly breathe through their mouths when they sleep and their are health effects from this. I didn't start doing it to decrease my under-eye puffiness (more like a experiment just to see what would happen in general), but somehow it has helped. You might want to Google mouth taping, can't hurt!

[Marymary7 in reply to Alise123]

Very interesting thank you I have never heard of this. 😎

[CSmithLadd in reply to Alise123]

Sleep apnea is a very common hypothyroid symptom. If sleep apnea is not due to an anatomical condition, the other way it occurs is when the hypothyroid tongue swells and blocks the airway, sleep is interrupted as you slightly waken from sleep. This can happen up to around 30 times a night. Most people never notice it at all. But they notice they are tired in the daytime and the bags or dark circles under the eyes attest to the lack of good sleep.

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

Also, whether you have Hashimoto's antibodies or not, the tongue can swell when the body is hypothyroid due to simple nutrient deficiencies or for any other reason. When the body is low in T3 within its cells, any part of the body can show signs of being in short supply of T3.

The tongue can be affected as any other organ.

Keeping a pillow pushed up beneath the chin to keep the mouth closed can also work, if one doesn't sleep on their back.

And, of course, there's the mouth taping that you do, Alise! It's a brilliant solution. Absolutely harmless and can help others get the restful sleep they need as well.

Without sleep apnea interrupting deep sleep patterns, one gets more restful sleep. Many things happen during our deep sleep cycles. Sleep deprivation causes inflammation. Inflammation is an enemy to good health.

So, Alise, what you state is real truth. Even though many may not even realize their sleep is being interrupted; one safe way of finding out for sure is to try your method! If they wake up feeling much more refreshed... well, the proof is in the pudding.

It's a simple solution for an ever-increasing problem (as hypothyroidism continues to be dismissed when compared against numbers that are meaningless for so many people). Far better than a CPAP, for sure, which can have issues with bacteria and infection. Taping is a simple remedy.

The bottom line is that for anyone with sleep issues, they really should give the mouth taping a try. Because for most who think they simply have a "condition" of which they can't do anything about -- there's probably more there than meets the eye. When the body functions optimally, there's no sleep apnea unless there is an anatomical abnormality that causes it.

It there is no known anatomical reason why one has sleep apnea, the reason then will most likely be hypothyroidism. With adequate T3 in the cells, it will cease to happen as the tongue returns to normal size. Mind you, iron deficiency also makes the tongue swell.

It all comes back around to the essential requirement of ample nutrients being available for the optimal thyroid function to take place. The thyroid is the regulator of the entire body.

But it depends on ample nutrients to facilitate full thyroid function. When nutrients are lacking, so will be T3 in the cells.

Thanks for your post, Alise. I believe it will be very helpful to others.

Hope this helps others too!

Healing Hugs to all!

[TSH110]

NDT helped mine

[Marymary7 in reply to TSH110]

NDT didn't seem to help me but I wonder if I went high enough considering how much T3 I'm taking...87.5 mcg

[TSH110]

You’d need at least 3 grains to get to that I think it has 38mcg per grain of T3. I have poor conversion of T4 to T3 due to DIO2 gene so presume it was lack of T3 causing puffiness and other obdurate symptoms such as depression, brain fog, tiredness etc which all rapidly resolved in NDT unless it has something to do with T2 which does improve metabolism. I went gluten free as well. I took 1.25 grains (previously on 125mcg levothyroxine) and felt well but over the years have had to up dose to 2.25 although I am back on 2 grains at the mo as I started feeling hot all the time. I have had a glut of tomatoes on my allotment and wonder if all the vitamin c from eating masses of them on a daily basis has improved the efficacy of the NDT as I have no other explanation.

I hope you can get the puffiness reduced because it is not pleasant and I felt tired with it too.

I thought the mouth taping stuff totally bizzare - deffo not for me

😂✖️😷✖️😂 I have a phobia of being suffocated give me boggy-eyes any day!

[jgelliss in reply to TSH110]

I was wondering you previously dosed with 1.25 NDT + 125mcg T-4 ?

[TSH110 in reply to jgelliss]

Good lord no! My optimised dose of levothyroxine was 125mcg but I always felt unwell on it if I went higher I became horribly agitated if I went lower I felt like death warmed up. I switched to NDT substituting 25mcg levo for 1/4 grain NDT gradually switching over and felt very well once I reached 1.25 grains and no Levo. Hope that makes sense now. I now take 2

Grains as it became less effective over time but has been good for over a year and I dropped back 1/4 grain recently from 2.25 as I was too hot.

[jgelliss in reply to TSH110]

It's great you found what works well for you . I found that journaling my symptoms and trusting what my body is communicating to me .Helps with my Optimal Dose for me . Cellular symptoms are so very telling .

[TSH110 in reply to jgelliss]

I agree I don’t bother with blood tests I just go on how I feel like they did in the old days when everyone was on NDT. Weirdly before I was diagnosed with atropic autoimmune hypothyroidism for years I had this voice saying “you’re dying” it was quite insistent I just thought everyone got things like that and it was of no consequence. I just ignored it. As soon as I got medication it stopped and has never come back. I think your body must know it is serious in some level and has ways to communicate this with you or how could humanity have survived for several million years without some sort of health intuition. Mind you I could just be bonkers 😂🤣😂

[jgelliss in reply to TSH110]

KODUS TO YOU … I tell my Dr are you going to believe some paper or me ? Though I still believe in running labs . My Dr chuckles when I tell him . He said he won't argue . It takes a smart Dr or a Dr who himself is on thyroid meds . He is both .

[TSH110 in reply to jgelliss]

You are fortunate to have such a GP 😉 as I feel pretty well normal these days I just presume all is well on the dosage front.

[jgelliss in reply to TSH110]

That's what counts and is Most Important . What is the use if the labs look good and one feels awful ???? Who are you going to believe ? Honestly It's MORE ART THAN SCIENCE .

[wano]

Hi everyone.

I take Armour Thyroid, twice per day, 1 grain each time. I find 2 grains very good for my energy and general well-being. I also have B12 injected once per week.

I was previously on T3 and T4 (Levothyroixine), but I wanted to switch to something natural, and something that I could order myself online in case the NHS stopped supporting T3 (I know some NHS surgeries won't prescribe T3, but I'm in a special hospital thyroid clinic that dose).

Besides optimizing T3/T4 etc, are there any tips for reducing under eye puffiness? They're slowly turning into eye bags. Yuck.

I was gluten-free for a year and will soon return to it. I think it helped a bit, but didn't remove them in any major way.

[TSH110 in reply to wano]

Just a thought have you been checked for thyroid eye disease as this can cause swelling around the eyes it is not very common with hypothyrodism but it’s is not unknown. I had signs of it but have never been given a diagnosis. My problem was a droopy eyelid,double vision and gritty puffy eyes

[wano in reply to TSH110]

Nope, don't have that. My actual eyes aren't swelling, just the underneath eye bags!

[wano]

My TSH, from my last bloods 3 months ago via my endo, was suppressed. Same as the test 6 months earlier.

[Stourie in reply to wano]

When you are on meds for hypo the tsh tells you absolutely nothing. You need t4 and t3 tested as they both have to be in the top part of the range. Jo xx

[wano in reply to Stourie]

Thanks, will check! Just finishing up a uni thesis - will ask my surgery for my recent bloods results in a couple of weeks and report back.

[Stourie in reply to wano]

My tsh has been 0.01 for a few years now and luckily my doctors are fine with that. I keep expecting it not to be but it suits me. I take t3. Jo xx

[Ivorheadache]

My last endo who diagnosed my secondary Hypothyroidism said I’d been under medicated for years. When I mentioned my puffy eyes he said they were a classic symptom of being under medicated.

I’m still gradually increasing my meds not optimum yet, so can’t say if it’s going to work.

[Hidden]

Is that under eye-bags?

I often wondered about the removal on both.

It would be very costly, though..I'm sure some people would go for it. I have seen "stuff" teased out of the bags and then stitched up.

[wano in reply to Hidden]

Yes, under eye bags. I heard of a treatment and might save up for it (Plexr), but not sure if it takes away the eye bags, and if with hypothyroidism they'd just come back...

[Hidden]

I feel tempted, but yes, it's worth asking how long before recurring, if it does. There must be thyroid patients who had this procedure. A new thread coming up?