BP Medication and Thyroid Uptake

[FancyPants54]

I posted recently about how tired I was feeling now I was on a BP medication. I also posted at the weekend with my new blood results that showed a drop in T3 regardless of a small drop in TSH and rise in T4. Suddenly I was 64% through the T4 reference range and only 27% through the T3 reference range. This was cause for concern and I was coming to terms with needing to add T3 to my medication.

I've been reluctant all week to start. I had been looking for information about BP medication and found nothing. Then last night I hit the search terms "calcium channel blocker + thyroid" and there it is! Not much research has been done, but research on rats and rabbits show that calcium channel blockers reduce the efficacy of thyroid hormone production.

Then I found the case of the middle aged woman who was put on a CCB and also medication for her diabetes. She was not hypothyroid. She was on the 2 medications for 4 years, by which time she had developed hypothyroidism, with no anti-bodies, familial history or other markers. She was put on 50mcg Levo. and her BP medication was switched to an Ace Inhibitor and monitored. After 1 year on the Levo she was carefully weaned off and her thyroid was working normally again.

omicsonline.org/proceedings...

I was already hypothyroid and under-medicated with slight conversion issues going on, so it happened fast for me. I was OK for around 10 days before the fatigue hit. My theory is that the BP tablet has created bigger conversion issues for me and made my FT3 drop.

I will be trying to get back to the doctor's tomorrow to get the medication changed.

They should know this stuff!

[greygoose]

Reducing the efficacy of thyroid hormone production is not the same as reducing conversion. One happens in the thyroid, the other in peripheral cells - mainly the liver. Do you know if you even have any working thyroid left?

[FancyPants54 in reply to greygoose]

In the reports about the rats and rabbits, at least one of them talks about the conversion of T3 been affected. I can't remember the words used though. It talked about T3 specifically.

Yes, my thyroid still works. But I am not expecting miracles if I change the BP medication, but it might account for the sudden drop in T3 relative to the rise in T4 that I have seen in the past 9 weeks.

[FancyPants54 in reply to greygoose]

Here's a snippet:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/845...

[greygoose in reply to FancyPants54]

They don't mention conversion in that snippet. One imagines they were talking about T4 and T3 produced by the thyroid. I don't know many rabbits on levo. So many things can affect conversion, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was. You'll only know if you change your medication and your conversion improves.

[FancyPants54 in reply to greygoose]

Which is what I think I want to try. I will probably still need to add some T3 to my medication routine given that I got to 125mcg Levo and still not feeling energetic or well. But given the work I have done to bring my essential vitamins and minerals up to scratch, and the changes to my HRT which were showing benefit before I started on the BP medication, I don't like that drop in conversion my last test showed. As the NHS is unlikely to give me T3, I don't like the idea that they will give me something to make my T3 situation worse.

[greygoose in reply to FancyPants54]

It's not just low nutrients that can cause poor conversion, it could be high/low cortisol, infections and viruses, low-calorie diets, fatty liver, etc. etc. etc. Still, you do need optimal nutrients, even if they don't improve conversion. Have you tried selenium?

[FancyPants54 in reply to greygoose]

Yes, I'm on selenium. I have been lax remembering it because it's in the fridge, but I've got back on that horse recently after a nudge from Seaside Susie. I am certainly not on a low calorie diet. There might be some cortisol issues, but nothing like what it used to be. I've worked hard to normalise that too. HRT has helped that one.

Other things have changed too since I started the BP medication. My natural waking time has moved from 8-8.30 am to much later. This morning I didn't wake until 10am! Unheard of for me.

I don't know. Perhaps I should just take the T3 and see what happens and forget the BP medication. I'm ridiculously afraid of starting it because I tried T3 only a few years ago and got into quite bad trouble with it. I seem to have become a dithery mess these days.

[greygoose in reply to FancyPants54]

Have you never considered that your high blood pressure might be due to your low T3? Mine certainly was. BP medication never did anything for me, but T3 brought my BP down nicely.

It could be that your didn't do well with T3 before because your nutrients weren't optimal. Maybe it will suit you better now that they're optimal.

[FancyPants54 in reply to greygoose]

I know it can be. My BP and temps were fine when I experimented with T3 only. My first and only endo appointment recently (about a cortisol test result) said my thyroid results weren't bad enough with a TSH of 6.6 at the time for it to be causing my high BP, high cholesterol and fat body. But I don't necessarily believe him. I am so exhausted all the time I can't exercise. Can't even go for a proper walk, so being fat and sedentary won't be helping my BP at all. They just tell me to go on a diet and exercise. They are so clueless as to how this feels.

[greygoose in reply to FancyPants54]

Yes, they are clueless, and have no idea about symptoms. Glad you didn't believe the endo! I've be half dead with a TSH of 6.6. You're hypo when your TSH gets to 3, but the number and severity of symptoms has nothing to do with your TSH level.

[Lulu2red]

I take T3 only and on a lot of heart medication and blood pressure medication. I take your point about interference, beta blockers should definitely be avoided. I think once your free T3 is in range you will feel better and the weight should start to come off, providing you eat clean and don't over eat. Weight is 80% what you eat and 20% exercise, but if you Free T3 is too low you will be stuck with the weight. You must take some blood pressure medication is you need it for the time being. Buy yourself a home BP monitor and take a reading every morning. When you increase your T3 keep an eye on it and your pulse. Loosing weight might bring your blood pressure down, but not necessarily. I know plenty of slim people with high blood pressure. I take Amlodipine 5 mg for my blood pressure amongst others but this tablet brought my blood pressure under better control. HRT interferes with thyroid hormones but as I have never taken it can't really comment.

[FancyPants54 in reply to Lulu2red]

Thank you. I have just taken my first T3 (1/4 of a 25mcg tablet) this morning along with my Levo of 125. It took 15 minutes for the wired feelings to start. Hot, a bit anxious and racy. But that lasted for an hour and has settled. I hope that is just my body being rather surprised and that it will soon settle down as I hate that feeling and it's what's stopped me starting T3 for a couple of weeks, knowing it was likely.

The BP medication has brought my BP down nicely. I do have a home monitor and religiously check it and record it. Best of 3 in the morning. Today it went up whilst I felt wired. But it's going back down again now.

I hope that I can get to feeling better on T3 and T4 eventually and then I can get back to exercise. I loved to dance with hula hoops it was my 'thing' and I was good at it. Great exercise but also great for my soul too. Music and movement is lovely. I miss it so much. I was fit and very active. I long to get back to that.

[FancyPants54 in reply to Lulu2red]

Oh, and you are right that some HRT can interfere with thyroid hormones, but it's the oral medications that do that. Not transdermal medications, which I use. The same for risk of stroke and blood clots, pills have the risk, transdermal patches and gels don't.