Changed from eltroxin to nature thyroid.

[Nessynu]

Hi guys. so I've hashimotos and after 1+ yrs on Eltroxin my symptoms were not fully resolved. Extremely tightness across shoulders and neck, fatigued after minor tasks and some numbness in lower leg and lots of brain fog and memory issues. So I went private and I am now on Nature Thyroid 3 weeks. I couldn't start on 1 grain and I felt hypo within 2 hours of taking it (rapid heartbeat, felt very anxious etc so had to start on by cutting 1 grain into 4 and taking 1/4 etc very slowly. I'm still not up to a grain yet but went to endo yesterday and she said my memory and slught speech issues are not thyroid related and I should see a neurologist! she went on to say my tightness across shoulders my need a rheumatologist and my insomnia I should take antidepressants for! Im 46 btw. It gets better; she said I could have taken a stroke and this nature thyroid medication the she taught I had sourced off the net will cause a stroke! I'm in Ireland btw. Shocking stuff! latest results show my Tsh has need slowly rising and currently at 12.92. My question is should I stuck with the Nature Thyroid or go back to Eltroxin and increase how much I was on?

[greygoose]

To answer that question we would need to see some blood test results: a) your latest results on Nature Throid b) results on your highest dose of Eltroxin. There is no point in going back to Eltroxin if you are a poor converter.

Your endo, of course, is totally wrong about Nature Throid, but it's just what I would have expected her to say. They know nothing about it. They listen to rumours and old wives' tales and take it as fact without any practical experience. I expect she's a diabetes specialist, isn't she? Most of them are, and have very weird ideas about thyroid.

If your TSH is now 12.92, you're very undermedicated. But if you have trouble increasing, that's not surprising. Do you only ever have your TSH tested? That's totally inadequate. Have you ever had your vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested? If these are sub-optimal, that could explain why you are having difficulty increasing. So, very important to get them done.

[Nessynu in reply to greygoose]

Hi Greygoose. On my highest dose of Eltroxin April (75 Monday to Friday and 100 on Sat and Sun) my TSH was 3.15 (0.3-4.2) and my free t4 was 17.4 (12-22). In May TSH 3.15 and Free t4 was 13 and June TSH 15 and Free t4 2.83 all working off the above ranges. Vitamins are B12 545 ( 200-660) folate 7.4 (3.3-17.2) and Ferritin 117 (14-200). Yes my endo does specialise in Diabities!

[greygoose in reply to Nessynu]

OK, so you were under-medicated on Eltroxin, and your FT3 was never tested, so no way to evaluate how well you do on T4 only. And no way of knowing if it would be a good idea to go back to it.

Your ferritin looks good on paper, but did you have your CRP tested at the same time for inflammation? Because inflammation can cause the Ferritin result to be raised.

No vit D results?

[Nessynu in reply to greygoose]

sorry for the delay in getting back to you Greygoose. I've never had a CRP test and U do believe that I was under-medicated when on Eltroxin. Very poorly managed. I was more or less told that my fatigue may be my age. Im a young 46!

[greygoose in reply to Nessynu]

Oh, they always try that on! Or, if you're a new mum, your fatigue is due to the baby, and so on and so forth. Any excuse rather than actually look for the cause. Lazy doctoring! We're absolutely plagued with it. No, you were under-medicated. A TSH of over three states quite clearly that you were under-medicated and still hypo. On thyroid hormone replacement, the TSH should come down to 1 or under. Your doctor, at that time, had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

[Nessynu in reply to greygoose]

I agree wholeheartedly! She once said to me that Hashimotos is just the same as under-active thyroid! I quickly informed her that Hashis is an autoimmune problem. Crazy how they get their medical license.

[greygoose in reply to Nessynu]

Well, once again, she's right and she's wrong. Hashi's is the cause of your hypo, but hypo is hypo whatever the cause. Seems doctors only have understand things - the things they understand at all, that is. Most things they don't understand at all.

Yes, it's an immune system problem that has an effect on the thyroid, which is why the treatment is the same as for any other form of hypo. There's nothing they can do about the immune part, but they could at least learn how to treat the hypo correctly.