Underactive Thyroid and Vitamin supplements like Wellwoman 50+

[sgl9mu]

Hi There, I am writing on behalf of my Mother. She has an underactive Thyroid and is currently suffering from a very bad cold. I advised that she take vitamin and mineral supplements to help ward off the cold, but she wont take additional pills besides her Thyroid medication because she has concerns regarding possible bad interactions between the medication and supplements. I would be interested to know if it is OK for her to take something like Wellwoman 50+, or any other vitamin mineral supplement. I should probably also add that I do not consider her diet to be the best (she does not eat much in an attempt to loose weight, but she relies on items like white bread and past, and consumes minimal fruits, salad and veg) and I have concerns that her diet may be compounding her thyroid (weight gain/lethargy) issues? I was going to buy here some Wellwomen 50+ but then I read that iron in supplements can cause issues with the absorption of the Thyroid medication. If anyone has any insight or comments they would be much appreciated. Thankyou.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

We don't recommend multivitamins on here....too little of what we do need and frequently cheap or difficult to absorb ingredients

What we do recommend is getting vitamins and FULL Thyroid testing

How much Levothyroxine is your Mum currently prescribed?

Does she always get same brand of Levothyroxine?

Many people find different brands are not interchangeable

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 cause is autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

Ask her GP to test her vitamin levels

Find out if she has had thyroid antibodies tested

About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is due to autoimmune thyroid disease

You may need to get full Thyroid testing privately as NHS refuses to test TG antibodies if TPO antibodies are negative

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Meanwhile starting on a daily good quality vitamin C plus zinc may help improve her ability to fight infection

Post this morning post about how good vitamin C and D help

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Vitamin D is measured in nmol here in UK

40ng/ml in the article is equivalent to 100nmol

100nmol is recommended on here as vitamin D level to aim for

Test here via NHS postal kit

vitamindtest.org.uk

[sgl9mu in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi, Thanks for that. I can find out more about her medication levels etc and what tests she has had. Her underactive thyroid has had some negative knock on effects. She has suffered with a bad hip for a few years now, but her weight gain over the last year or two has been significant and the extra weight places a lot more pressure on her hip, and therefore her mobility is now greatly reduced. She eats very little in an attempt to loose weight, but I dont think this is the way to deal with it. I feel that eating more healthy whole foods could help the thyroid and 'might' help her loose weight, but trying to convince her of that is easier said than done.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to sgl9mu]

If she's on too little Levothyroxine or poor vitamin levels it's extremely difficult/impossible to loose weight

There are over 104,000 members on here because Thyroid Treatment and testing is currently extremely poor

Vast numbers of patients left on ridiculously small doses of Levothyroxine

The aim of Levothyroxine is to increase the dose slowly in 25mcg steps upwards until TSH is under 2 (many need TSH significantly under one) and most important is that FT4 is in top third of range and FT3 at least half way through range

NHS guidelines on Levothyroxine including that most patients eventually need somewhere between 100mcg and 200mcg Levothyroxine.

nhs.uk/medicines/levothyrox...

Also what foods to avoid (eg recommended to avoid calcium rich foods at least four hours from taking Levo)

All four vitamins need to be regularly tested and frequently need supplementing to maintain optimal levels

Guidelines on dose by weight is 1.6mcg per kilo of her weight

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

sgl9mu

I would be interested to know if it is OK for her to take something like Wellwoman 50+,

No, it's a pretty rubbish supplement, all multivitamins are.

In general, multivitamins contain too little of anything to help poor nutrient levels and they often contain things we should test before supplementing, eg calcium, iodine, Vit D, because taking them when we don't need them will do harm. They tend to contain the cheapest and least absorbable forms of active ingredients such as folic acid instead of methylfolate, cyanocobalamin instead of methylcobalamin, selenite or selenate instead of selenium l-selenomethionine. They also tend to contain iron which affects the absorption of everything else, iron needs to be taken 2 hours away from other supplements.

Wellwoman 50+ also contains soya which should be avoided by us Hypos.

What she really should do is test the core nutrients and address any problems with low levels or deficiencies by supplementing at the right dose, Vit D particularly can help. So she should test:

Vit D

B12

folate

ferritin

You can always post the results here for guidance.

but she wont take additional pills besides her Thyroid medication because she has concerns regarding possible bad interactions between the medication and supplements

If she's worried it's possible to use the internet to search for interactions but thousands of us here take supplements with no problems, we just have to remember to take them 2 hours away from thyroid meds so that absorption of Levo is not affected (iron, calcium, magnesium, Vit D would all need a 4 hour gap away from Levo).

As for boosting her immune system, Vit C at a decent amount such as 1,000mg daily, perhaps a garlic supplement too.

Her diet doesn't sound the best but you can lead a horse to water...………… etc

[sgl9mu in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thankyou for that information - I will discuss these things with her today. All the best.