We had another similar post on here earlier in the week.
I seem to recall I reassured the postee, that once properly medicated, the muscle weakness that we suffer will go.
I now seeking some reassurance myself! For a few weeks there I felt great and the muscle weakness felt much improved, though I was still getting a feeling like some muscles might cramp if I kept up a certain movement. Small repeated movements and tight actions with my hands seem the most difficult or “tiring” for my muscles.
The last couple of weeks my meds have changed (in another post) and I feel undermedicated again. Leg heaviness is obvious again amongst other things. Today I have felt particularly tired despite having slept well and not done anything out of the ordinary the last few days. In fact, my exercise regime that I had restarted has gone back on hold these last couple of weeks since the change in meds.
But today as well as the tiredness, the muscle weakness is really bad. I couldn’t hold a lime for more than a minute or so to squeeze the juice out with a fork in my other hand. This is an example of something that was previously easy, that now I can’t do for longer than a few seconds. Also, I get the beginnings of cramp in my calves once I’ve been relaxed for a time and start to move again.
I guess I’m asking if anyone else suffers from this type of thing? And does the muscle strength come back fully, eventually? It terrifies me that there’s something else going on, so should I have this further investigated? Or will it resolve once my T3 is improved again?
Any ideas welcome as I switch between confident that I’m fine and will improve, to I have some serious illness that is incurable 😕
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Murphysmum
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I have had these symptoms with Hashi’s and undermedicated at the time but I also had bone and muscle pain. It has only started to subside since I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis and a year later am taking bone health supplements, careful diet and now weight bearing exercise. My bone/muscle strength is much improved. I initially blamed Hashi’s and possible under-medication but it wasn’t so. I posted a little while back about the blaming all symptoms on Hashi’s but they are not always. Have you recently had your necessary vit/minerals tested? Muscle cramping can be due to low magnesium. Are you post menopausal. Could you have OP? I keep reading there are no symptoms until you break a bone but this is simply not the case. Sorry, not sure this helps?
My Vit/mins are all good, all except for my ferritin which is slowly increasing. I’m 42 so no menopause issues yet but my hormones are a little bit out of sync, ie estrogen dominant but I don’t think this is the cause.
The thing is I was perfectly well until my thyroid levels went crazy low. Then it’s taken me 18 months to get to where I am now, with the muscle weakness only starting maybe, 6/8 months ago. I’m almost certain it’s thyroid related, and I think my T3 stores are probably very low so hopefully it’ll improve over time.
In the meantime it scares me though when it’s a bad day.
I relate absolutely to you being scared. I had my head in the sand for months. I thought MS or some neurological issue. It doesn’t help when so many Endos won’t consider these symptoms as being part of thyroid disease. Keep a close check on your ferritin and vit/ min levels as I know without supplements mine plummet. Low stomach acid must be the reason why this happens to me as my diet is beyond reproach. Once again this is a symptom rarely considered by Endos. All the very best on the journey to optimum health!
It’s most noticeable in my legs when doing something like climbing stairs. By this I mean my legs are burning by the time I get upstairs in my house - not flights and flights.
I also notice it in my shoulders a lot and in my hands if doing smaller movements or say, holding a paintbrush.
It seems to improve for a while when I get a dose increase, and laterally on T3 but now it’s back. Not sure if I need another increase, waiting on bloods.
I still worry it’s something else, especially when I get other kinder term pains like tendinitis.
The only thing that keeps me from worrying too much is that I have spells where I have no weakness at all, and my previous abilities are restored so I reckon if it was something more serious, I wouldn’t have these “normal” spells.
Well I'm waiting for results tmrw so prey it's meds God this is a worry cas Iv fallen also. Hope it is cause at mmment and need wheelchair. It seemed to happen when chemist changed me tooteva levo. I'm only like n 100m never felt that great but not like this thanks for answering
Oh another consideration is ‘optimum levels’. Some folk have hormone resistance and blood serum levels of thyroid hormone may not necessarily reflect quantities reaching our body tissue.
I kind of ruled it out in the past but it’s have a cycle of improvement with a dose increase, or now the addition of T3, and then symptoms return - most noticeably the weakness.
My bloods were great a month back once I’d added in some T3, but now I’m symptomatic again and I don’t know what to do next. Increases help but nothing is permanent.
Are you taking Magnesium? I’ve had similar to you in the past which corrects when I increase my Levo but Magnesium lotion or oil really helps symptoms. Might not correct the cause if you’re undermedicated but may alleviate symptoms in either lotion or pill form?
300-600 mg magnesium malate daily works well. But, oftentimes times the cramps are due to a lack of potassium. One needs 4700 mg daily. This is much more than the magnesium daily requirement. I use the scoopable powder forms. They have no taste when mixed with juice. NOW Potassium Citrate is the one I use. I put Vit C powder into the mix, as well.
*Also, muscle pain is one of the side effects of levothyroxine, unfortunately.
I find potassium can increase cramps by displacing sodium and if I eat bananas I get cramp. I then have to have some salt which relieves it. Magnesium however does help and I take as a supplement 3x weekly.
That's fascinating, thanks for posting that. I had to take some medication for high blood pressure (BP) recently and the doc said that it might replace my salt (NaCl salt) with potasium. We (mostly the doc!) started off on too high a dose and I noticed I had really bad leg cramps at night. I never linked the two things but now I come to think about it I reduced my dosage of the BP meds about three weeks ago and my cramps disappeared.
If given potassium sparing blood pressure meds, then potassium isn't depleted (flushed out) and in some cases that class of meds can increase potassium levels. (Supplementation would not be required.) But, you have to keep an eye on your salt and magnesium levels in relation to potassium to keep electrolyte balance. Too much potassium in proportion to magnesium and salt can cause major muscle cramps.
Regular class blood pressure meds deplete potassium levels. Potassium supplementation is then required. Doctors generally prescribe the potassium and BP meds at the same time. But, starting off with larger doses of potassium can definitely be problematic.
We are all so individual. I figure that is why OTC potassium supplements are only 99 mg per tablet. It is much better to start low and slow to gauge your body's need/reaction.
Glad this helped. Much as I love bananas I rarely eat them. May be to do with the fact I have naturally quite low BP and carry little salt packs in case I get cramp. Can’t even remember how I found this out but amazing what we pick up over the years!
I have experienced that as well. I have had adrenal issues my entire life, so I have always had to supplement daily to keep electrolyte balance. When I was a kid (70s) I remember my doctor telling me and my mother that along with increased salt intake, I needed to keep the supplemented portion of potassium at about 2-3x the magnesium dose. Because there is a greater daily requirement of potassium, but there must be enough magnesium and salt to balance it. If not it could cause muscle cramps. Also, that as your potassium levels increase, you will need less salt to keep fluid balance. Because too much salt in relation to potassium and magnesium can also cause cramps and fluid retention in some. I find his advice to be correct to this day, at least in my case. Magnesium plays an important role, but it appears that the tweaking of potassium and salt levels are the lynchpin in my personal experience. There has to be a balance in all three. So, it makes sense that when you added more salt that you balanced a deficiency in relation to the other two which provided relief. Ultimately though, one has to work with their own chemistry to find what works best, which can be most confounding, time consuming, and costly, to say the least.
....I mean it's all so trial and error. Why can't the rules of biochemistry just be like the rules of haircare...."simple and finite."🤓
My regimen is 8-10 oz juice with 400 mg magnesium malate, 800-1200 mg potassium citrate, 1000 mg Vit C, with salt (I listen to my body for the salt dosing). I have done this for years without issue. And I am a firm believer in the adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."😊
Hi Murphysmum- I too have had these experiences and I agree with the others. although you are only 42 ( Im 51 btw) we women each go through variations before menopause. I follow Dr.SaraGottfrieds' protocols & here is an excellent article explaining the female hormone cycle from teenage to beyond. I recently bought her Magnesium & its done wonders for my legs & varicose pain. magnesium is truly incredible for what it does in the human body daily. Her version is special in that it does not need stomach acid to absorb. And we all know thyroid folks have issues w/absorption . I do not work for her or sell these products. I merely believe strongly in her teachings and products as it's saved me from being a hormonal mess & want to share info. All the best to you☀️🌺🌈
PS I believe they are in the works to ship internationally but perhaps you have a friend who can send it to you or maybe you can find a "version" where you live
I don't know where you are, or what is available where you are, but in the past, I have found that different brands of thyroid meds work differently for me. I think that it is likely an absorption issue. Anyway, in the beginning, Armour worked well for me. Unfortunately, the manufacturer changed the formulation in 2009 and all of a sudden it was like taking nothing. Doc put me on Cytomel. Worked great! No issues! Then last year, all of a sudden, Cytomel isn't available. Doc put me on generic Liothyronine. Again, like taking nothing! He then put me on one made by Mayne. It does not work as well as Cytomel, so he added one 2 grain tab of Armour. I am functional again! ... If Mayne liothyronine is available where you are, it might be an option to try.
I have the exact same symptoms. I couldn't walk to my local shop because of muscle weakness.( I'm 46 btw) and in menopause due to surgery a year ago. I've started taking selenium and magnesium and starting to feel a bit of muscle strength returning. I too believe it's due to my medication (75ml eltroxin day). My Tsh is currently 5.23 so way too high so j feel if I can get it down my arms and leg will not feel so weak.
yea it's a worry. I had. breast cancer in 2016 and the muscle weakness freaks me out that it may be something more sinister. But I really believe its due to incorrect dosage eye.
Cramps are an important indicator of too little T3. As its half life is under a day, no one has stores of it. You either take it as T3 or convert it from T4, but if you’re not converting well (the reason you’ve been prescribed T3) you can be producing rT3 in levels high enough to have all of the hypothyroid symptoms you’re describing. If you’re taking too much T4, the T3 isn’t sufficient to restore your muscles to normal power levels.
You could try cutting the levothyroxine dose in half for a couple of days and see if you feel better. It’s stored in your body for quite a long time, unlike the T3, so there’s no harm in cutting back T4 as a brief experiment. It should give the T3 more room to get to your muscles. And if it does then your doctor’s prescribed too much T4. There’s a delicate balance.
CFS, like fibromyalgia, is hypothyroidism in disguise.
My gut feeling is that my current T3 (Teva 20mcg Rx by gp) isn’t great. I’m not sure whether it’s just the fact it’s teva - I never liked teva levo but not for a specific reason, just felt it wasn’t as good/effective) or whether I’m not getting the dose right because it’s impossible to split accurately.
I felt great in sigma T3 5mcg for about 4 weeks after I started that and the weakness had all but gone. As in, I feel unfit and less strong than in the past but the immediate muscle tiredness i feel in my hands whilst typing this, was gone.
I thought I read somewhere that T3 in mysbkes/brain can be depleted over time? I know it’s short lived but this sounded familiar to me as I feel like I’ve taken a dip each time I’ve had a baby and more recently when I had a very traumatic time, and I’ve never got bs k to where I started from! Does that make sense?
I’m going to buy some sigma T3 on Monday as I can’t really tell what’s going on due to the change in meds. Maybe I need more, maybe I need less T4 (but bloods were spot on a few weeks ago), maybe it’s just teva! Hopefully another 6 weeks in the brand I felt worked will make things clearer. Then I’ll see where bloods are and I might well try the T4 experiment.
Thank you, reassurance is good or my mind continually throws up worst case scenarios!
Hi sorry to hijack... could this still be the case if T4 is in mid range and T3 is in upper part of range? I take T3 and levo and have had muscle weakness for a month particularly in my right leg and can no longer walk properly. Physical therapist did not know the cause. T4 is 15.7 (12-22) and T3 is 5.28 (3.1-6.8) All vits are good within range apart from my iron panel indicating deficiency in TIBC, UIBC and transferritin saturation. Magnesium was on the very upper end almost over although I do not supplement. I just wondered if it would be worth reducing levo in case of reverse T3.
Thank you. I will be taking your advice and cutting back my T4 by 25ml and introducing a small amount of T3 (1/4 of a grain). I never taught of reducing my t4!
low testosterone, iron, magnesium and low d can all cause muscle weakness. Many guidelines for the recommended amounts are too low so find a GP who keeps up with latest research.
I was just talking about this to my mother how I'm exhausted without doing anything ...even breathing is tiring and these horrible calf pains and cramping when I stand or walk a little too long and my inability to open jars or bags....will this ever go away.
I have had had exactly the same, my fingers would feel tired just pinking things up, went yonsee endio, got diagnosed with vitamin d deficiency. Taken two very high weekly doses and feel like a new woman. If you are underactive, b12 and vitamin d deficiencies are common.
Besides magnesium my Neurologist told me to drink electrolytes every day 1 gatorade or something similar and 400mg of magnesium and to make sure all my vitamins are optimal.
Some Celtic Sea Salt for Adrenals/Electrolytes are very important . Checking out the DHEA levels through BW can be very telling and helpful for muscle pains too .
I didn't know that I am putting together a list I want my Dr to run including cortisol, and female hormones along with my Thyroid to see what's next for my meds. Today I had an EMD at the neurologists and get my results in a few weeks.
thank you for the post and to all who replied. sorry in advance that this has turned into such a long reply.
i am a similar age and in a similar situation (supplementing w everything, etc), however I do not take T3 (and blood levels are very bottom of range) and am working on trying to improve my t4 to t3 conversion and figure out why i may not be converting better. in the meantime, although i know hashi’s/hypothyroidism is a very likely culprit, the muscle weakness is really impacting my day to day life and i have other symptoms (ptosis and facial muscle droop, early cataracts - despite the fact that my eye doc told me just two years ago that my eyes looked fantastic in that regard, sleep and breathing issues, etc) that indicate a possible neuromuscular issue so am also now seeing a neurologist to be evaluated for that. i hope it is all thyroid related and resolvable with better T3 levels but decided to get evaluated for a neuromuscular cause because one way or another i need to do something about it and if the neuromuscular evaluation doesn’t turn up anything, i figured having that ruled out would likely help convince my endo or other docs to look into the lack of T3 as a cause of my many symptoms.
i am also going to look into being more consistent with magnesium per the replies here as i haven’t been the best with that one. initially, taking 200mg or even 100 mg mag bisglycinate at one time before bed often helped me sleep but was making the muscle weakness during the day the next day much worse (has anyone else experienced this?) so had kind of given up on that. however, looked into it and read that some can’t tolerate the flood of sudden magnesium if they have been particularly deficient and it can be helpful to build up doses slowly, and i have found going down on the dose to 50 mg and building up to def be less problematic, and do seem to be able to tolerate up to 100 mg now without notable worsening of weakness, although i’ve only tried this twice so far and coming off a stomach bug, so hard to say for sure just yet. may also try mag citrate instead if that doesn’t help. also hoping to find a doc to test my rbc magnesium soon to make sure i am not overdoing it, as i have long had a generally pretty healthy diet (only gluten free since last june though) and so far supplementing with various cofactors has improved blood levels to decent/good levels but not offered much or any symptom relief (in fact most have continued to get worse :/ ) and i know excessive levels of nutrients from supplements can adversely have negative impacts as well. i’ve also recently started eating liver 1-2/per week as it contains high levels of many of the cofactors and balancing nutrients people with hashi/hypothyroidism need - iron, b vitamins, vitamin a which helps with proper iron use, some copper and zinc, some k2, etc. - and i’m personally more comfortable getting nutrients through diet than supplements, to the extent possible.
one of the other things i have tried (key word!) to start doing, since some days are worse than others, is keep a journal of my diet, exercise, supplements, herbs, sleep etc and my many symptoms to see if i can figure out if there are any correlations between when things are better and when they are worse. not easy by any means and i fell off taking the time to do it but do think it could be very useful to do.
i’m not sure how helpful this reply is - sorry if i’ve provided more questions than answers. but if nothing else did want to add to the voices here to let you to know you are def not alone! wishing you the very best in figuring out and resolving the issue. would also love to hear back at some point on how things have gone/are going.
Hi I am oneof the oldies I am going to be 84 in August - I take Armour 60 mg I was taking 75mg Doctor cut it when I started with really bad palpitations. I still dont feel right - I know they changed the company and wonder if different formula and fillers. but then I also have Hemiplegic Migraine with hole in the heart. I have taken t\Thyroid eds since I was 26
I am with you on the muscle wierdness coming and going. I had a day as week ago when I tried to walk the dog and I could barely walk. It was scary and I also wonder if I'm getting MS or something. Now I have raised my NP THYROID from 60 mg. To 75 mg., Breathlessness and legs feeling fine. but sometimes it comes back on me and I don't know why, maybe for a day. it seems like the muscles and breathlessness go together. Drs. haven't had anything to help about it. Now that I'm really feeling better I'm realizing that I have been under medicated for several years.
I understand (from a couple of doctors ) that vitamin D must be optimal ie towards upper end of range otherwise muscle weakness is more likely to happen.
Oh where do I start. I have had muscle weakness and joint pain for over a year. After seeing many specialists I am now seeing a holistic doctor
He along with all other doctors have said it's not synthroid making me feel bad but my vitamin and hormone levels are off.
I'm on vitamin d, omega 3, bioidentical hormones. He just tested my cortisol levels, and they are raised during the night. My DHEA is low.
He did neurotransmitter tests as well. My serotonin and GABA levels are low. I just ordered DHEA and Magnesium Buffered Chelate. He did genetic testing that showed I inherited inflammation from both of my parents.
I believe CBD oil has benefited me the most. I'm in the US but I HIGHLY recommend finding a dr that treats your entire body.
I've spent a fortune on tests and supplements but I continue to improve each day. Good Luck to all! Oh and I am told it's important to purchase high quality supplements. Vitamin d is the only vitamin I purchased at the drug store.
I buy them at Amazon - Lindens or Lifespan, or as powder, Now Foods. Start w no more than 1.5 to 2 g a day - and don't take it all at once! Too much at once can be dangerous. Take it after a meal with a lots of fluid. Be sure that you get at least 400 mg elemental magnesium a day as well (not citrate or oxide) - without that potassium won't work! Good luck! I couldn't get up from a chair without using my arms, and sometimes wasn't able to screw the cap off a bottle of water. When I get enough, I can get up from the sofa with a stack of books in my arms! But be careful, potassium can be dangerous - too little and too much is dangerous. Read about it!
I stopped cold turkey because I was having bad reactions, regardless of brand. Best thing I ever did. And that worked for me. But, every person is different. Maybe make a new post and see what has worked best for others making the transition. I will say that I still feel better on dessicated than I ever did on levo. It's not magic, but I have yet to find anything that is. It's definitely worth trying, in my opinion.
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