Thirst

[Northman]

Hi I’ve been struggling with thirst for many years now and now I’m drinking about 6litres in 24 hours with lots of toilet trips. My health collapsed about 12 years ago and the thirst became even worse.

I’ve had lots of diabetes tests but have been normal. I now suffer chronic fatigue and brain function and sleep a lot. I know also get palpations and shortness of breath

Many thanks Craig

[Greekchick]

Hi Craig,

Sorry to hear you are feeling so ill. Have you ever had your thyroid tested? If not, you may wish to get a full thyroid panel and vitamin testing (see posts of SeasideSuzie or SlowDragon for full list) and if you are in the UK, you can have them done yourself through Medichecks or Blue Horizons for a fee. Most UK docs won’t do a full panel from what I read in the forum - I am in Canada. It is hard to say if high have any thyroid condition just on symptoms alone. Diet can also affect your health in a significant way.

6 litres is an enormous quantity of water - you can deplete your electrolytes and experience fatigue etc. I would suggest you cut back on that and also get tested for potassium, sodium etc. if you are drinking that much water. It can be dangerous to do that and you can experience some significant health problems which you don’t need. Try ice chips for thirst rather than drinking all that water.

I hope someone here can give you some good advice, and sending you best wishes for getting an answer soon.

[greygoose]

Did you ever manage to find a sympathetic doctor and get a diagnosis of hypo? Have you had your thyroid tested recently? If so, let's see the results and ranges.

Excessive thirst can by a hypo symptom.

[Nico101]

i had the exact same thing a few years back and almost killed myself with drinking that much water. then it went away and i forgot about it.

last year or so it came back after loads of severe stress. i was using a lot of dioralyte to replace salts and then ended up with a blood sugar problem.

then i started having a little mineral salt in my water and sipped it all day and kept a jug by my bed. this was a game changer. i am still thirsty, but as bad as before. i'm also now not peeing every hour and sleep better.

i am trying to get my thyroid issues under control and hope this symptom will go away like it did before. but it's truly awful. i couldn't even do a saliva test my mouth was so dry - and that's after some improvement!

himalayan rock salt did the trick for me. i put about 1/3 teaspoon in a litre of water and now get through 2 1/2 litres a day only.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

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)

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