I’m currently on 75mcg of Levo and have recently developed what I think is restless leg syndrome. Blood tests a couple of months ago showed my ferretin levels were low at 36 so I’ve been supplementing with a ferrous fumerate tablet every day since then.
However, this last week I’ve been getting twitching in my calves and thighs and a creeping feeling in my legs as well as a weird warm sensation on my right shin. This is making me really anxious and I’m hoping it is RLS and not something worse.
Has anyone else had similar symptoms and how did you treat it? I do use a magnesium spray before bed which I thinks helps.
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Newmummy82
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Have you had vitamin D tested? Low magnesium and low vitamin D are common together and common when hypothyroid
75mcg Levothyroxine is low dose
When were thyroid levels last tested?
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
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
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
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
Medichecks currently have an offer on until end of May - 20% off
If antibodies are high this is Hashimoto's, (also known by medics here in UK more commonly as autoimmune thyroid disease).
About 90% of all hypothyroidism in Uk is due to Hashimoto's.
Low vitamins are especially common with Hashimoto's. Food intolerances are very common too, especially gluten. So it's important to get TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested at least once .
The aim of Levothyroxine is to increase the dose slowly in 25mcg steps upwards until TSH is under 2 (many need TSH under one) and FT4 in top third of range and FT3 at least half way in range
All four vitamins need to be regularly tested and frequently need supplementing to maintain optimal levels
NHS guidelines on Levothyroxine including that most patients eventually need somewhere between 100mcg and 200mcg Levothyroxine.
I last had a Medichecks test in January which showed I was deficient in vit d, I’ve gone from 48 to 74 when I was tested a couple of months ago. My t4 and t3 were last tested in January and were 4.9 and 19.4. My ferretin for some reason dramatically decreased between January and March from 65.7 to 36! I wonder if this is the reason of my leg twitching and why it should have gone down so much in just a couple of months?
I would agree your ferritin level is too low and you need to improve it - and with luck it will help to reduce your restless legs problem. However, you need to keep tabs on your iron levels, it isn't really something you can safely take without monitoring. This is a good test to check your progress and details of money off offers :
I agree with the people who've mentioned magnesium as well. There is no real point in testing magnesium - it is a very inaccurate test. As long as your kidneys are working reasonably well you can take magnesium and any excess to requirements ought to be expelled in urine.
🤷♀️ not sure but I had it on and off for 20yrs. Arms and legs. Magnesium oil was amazingly good but ultimately since learning about vitamins and being properly medicated I’ve not had it for 7wks now 🤗
Can I ask how yours felt? It’s the weird warm feeling that I’m finding most worrying. Almost like a mild sunburn, It’s confined to my right shin but the rest of both legs feel like a crawling twitching feeling in the muscles, sometimes a mild cramp in the calf. worse when I’m still and worse in the evening.
If I’m honest my left leg always felt like a boa constrictor was wrapping itself around it, if I didn’t constantly flex my muscles (calf and thigh) then it would feel unbearably tight. So I either flexed the muscles or slid my leg back and forth or flexed/waggled my foot. It would drive me to tears trying to get to sleep at night. I first got it on pregnancies and used a tens machine to keep a pulse running through the leg. Then it was better after the births and then I forgot about using a tens until it got so bad that I bought a new one.
Both my forearm muscle would feel like I had been weight lifting.The muscles were so sore.
I finally looked at my vitamins. D was extremely low. B12, ferritin and folate half way through range so I supplemented them too. But magnesium oil/lotion was a very good reliever. Love that stuff.
I had been under medicated for years so I think that was the main problem.
I hope you find your trigger, ‘restless leg’ (a bit of a generic title) was soul destroying 😢
For people with RLS it is advised that ferritin level should be around 100. Restless legs are defined by the need to constantly move legs to get some relief.
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