Sleep at last

[Widawake]

Hello folks, 3 months ago I began a cleaner eating regime. I cut out sugar,artificial sweetners,gluton,caffiene,tap water. I more than doubled the amount of fruit and veg,filter my drinking water and try to buy unprocessed foods. I did a bit of research and try to include foods which support my thyroid and exclude foods which dont. I added some pro biotics and B vitamins. This must have had the effect of altering my thyroid as I went from a controlled underactive to overactive in the past 3 months.

My Doctor has just reduced my prescription by a small amount. When I finally realised why I was feeling wired and not sleeping I skipped one full dose and lowered for a couple of days. Last night is the first decent sleep in about 6 weeks.

I am going to continue my new regime but will have my levels checked more often. I did not realise the thyroid levels were so sensitive to diet and a lesson is learned from this. I now know what it feels like to be over and should be able to recognise it in future.

The QUESTION I have is, what other factors do I need to consider. Does the environmental temperature effect level as I have heard other people say?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Low vitamin D and low B vitamins can be linked to poor sleep

drgominak.com/sleep/vitamin...

Do you have autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto's diagnosed by high thyroid antibodies?

Sleep apnea is often linked to Hashimoto's

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also extremely important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if Thyroid antibodies are raised

You will need Thyroid retested 6-8 weeks after recent dose reduction....especially FT3

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw). This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Is this how you do your tests?

Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random

[Widawake in reply to SlowDragon]

Thankyou Slowdragon, I will make a note of your advice and keep. Got nurse visit

tommorow, I intend to grill her a bit, nurse is usually more helpful than the Doc.

[danym]

what were your labs when u were hyper? also what fruits and veggies did you add? are you eating gluten free bread, or just cut out all the processed stuff?

[Widawake in reply to danym]

Hi, My tsh had gone to .15 My Doc didn't test t4 and t3 I have asked if I can have them tested at my next app in 3 months and she said I could. All fruits and berries, seeds nuts especially Brazil for selenium. Celery garlic onions carrots caulie,peppers beans advocado, coconut in any form. Variety as wide as possible. Wash all very well and limited amounts of the very green leaves,they must be cooked though. I cut gluten, sugar almost completely may have a little if I eat out. I use quite a bit of gram flour it's made from chick peas and makes lovely onion bajies, pancakes and even Yorkshire pud. I have enjoyed all the new tastes and have used lots of spices.

My tsh has never changed much in years, I have always been underactive and since the diet change I have gone over. I am being tested in 3 months to see if this trend continues

[danym in reply to Widawake]

that is great, please keep us updated. what meds and dose are you on now?

[Widawake in reply to danym]

Doc reduced my dose from 1.25 to 1.12.5 small reduction but the right direction. I will post any future progress

[SilverAvocado]

All kinds of things can have an impact on how much thyroid hormone we need. With a healthy working thyroid your body would be able to make minute adjustments minute by minute on how much hormone to produce and how much to convert into T3.

When on hormone replacement we are dependant on one clunky dose to adjust to all our needs!

You've mentioned at least a couple of things that are often mentioned on the forum to change hormone needs, going gluten free, and increasing the vitamins and minerals you're having. If you've lost weight on the new regime that may have impacted it, too. Or if you were a bit undernourished on your old diet having enough food might also have made you more effective in using hormone.

Weather and temperature is one of the things that lots of members notice, and some adjust their dose twice a year as the weather gets cold and then warm again. Activity level is another clear one, as all our activity uses up more energy which requires more hormone. Going gluten free is one of those things that most Hashi people benefit from, but another smaller group also benefit from being dairy free.