becoming toxic from consistently too high a dose of levothyroxine, armour

[abartme]

morning all (here). Been ill for the past month ever since my armour dose got too high causing symptoms that are scaring me to death. Posted here about possible bad armour but don't think so. I switched to Synthroid very tiny doses .25. That's after stopping all for a few days. Long story short, I have almost daily attacks of high BP up to 180 over 100 high heart rate 100 head feels like it will explode, tremors, and always diarrhea in this scene, I take Ativan right away and it does bring down the numbers. I did go to ER FIRST attack. tsh they said normal but it had gone up to 2.6 from .58. gave me Ativan. Had tests including adrenals. Still happening almost every day. Worried I could stroke. Tsh is up now to 3.7 free 3 and free 4 are okay. Did not take my .25 dose this morning, had a monster attack. what the heck ?? No Doc thinks this is a thyroid issue but they can't find anything else. So this brings me back to "toxicity". Had an endo tell me once if you get slightly hyper to stop doses for 2 weeks because of toxicity. Anyone ????

[humanbean]

Did you know that Ativan is a benzodiazepine used for treating anxiety disorders?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loraz...

And it is highly addictive, and really horrible to get off if you do become addicted?

addictioncenter.com/benzodi...

addictioncenter.com/benzodi...

I really think you need to try and find some ways of reducing your blood pressure (BP) and your heart rate (HR) without addictive drugs otherwise you are just building up problems for yourself in the future.

The problem is that BP and HR are affected by all sorts of things and you would have to do lots of research of your own to see what might or might not have relevance to you.

An incomplete list of things that may increase your BP + HR :

- Your diet. What type of diet do you eat? Low or high carbs, fat, protein?

- A high sugar/high carb diet may increase your HR and probably your BP too

- Some prescribed drugs can affect you - important to check side effects data

- Some supplements can affect BP and HR - check side effects data online

- Low salt isn't always good for BP and HR

- Low iron raises the risk of tachycardia (fast heart rate)

- Low potassium

- Vitamin D - too much or too little

- Low calcium

- Too much thyroid hormone - whether it is T4, T3 or NDT

- Too little thyroid hormone - whether it is T4, T3 or NDT

- Too little exercise

If you check for side effects or other info always check multiple sources, don't just rely on one.

[abartme in reply to humanbean]

Thanks, yes I do know this, hate taking the stuff but it's more dangerous per Docs not to. BP heart rate come on sudden and go high enough to cause a real event. This may also be coming from an adrenal gland. last test is in Monday checking for metanephrine levels. Appreciate concerns about addiction...

[jgelliss in reply to humanbean]

DIDO !!!! Great and Very Informative Post .

[radd]

abartme

Ohhh, poor you. It must be simply awful.

Sounds like massive adrenaline rushes. Did your previous adrenal test reveal anything ?

Not that it really helps you at this moment in time but Dr Peatfield's definition of toxicity is when there is a build up of unused T4 that becomes so high it may present with palpitations, tremors, etc .

Agree with hb above but understand you are stuck between a rock and hard place. I hope it all passes soon.

[abartme in reply to radd]

Oh thank you...yeah each time, I'm so afraid of stroking out. My adrenals have been checked, CT with contrast. One has mild thickening, hyperplasia. No tumors, so it's a remote chance that gland is putting out metanephrine, epinephrine type. All other urine testing comes out normal.

[Nuri55 in reply to abartme]

Did you checked plasme free metanephrines