(Hopefully, this question is not redundant) I wanted to know why does it take a long time to recover from a thyroid condition?

I wanted to why does it take a long time to recover from a thyroid condition. I see some people; it takes a few months and other years? Is it because the exogenous hormones are hard for the body to adapt to the human body.

[Lora7again]

You don't really recover because it is a life long condition and you need to take replacement thyroxine for the rest of your life.

[Hidden in reply to Lora7again]

Yes, I suppose the treatment depends on the particular thyroid hormone brand. I struggled with finding the hormone brand, but I wish my body were able to tolerate regular levothyroxine. Regular levothyroxine is easier to get anywhere!

[Lora7again in reply to Hidden]

I perhaps said that wrong. What I meant to say is everyone is different and I know a lot people do well just on Levothyroxine and they have no need to visit this site. I was having my hair done a couple of months ago and this woman with lovely thick hair started to chat to me. I admired her hair and she then told me she had been on Levothyroxine for over 10 years and felt well. I did notice that she was a bit overweight so I did wonder if she was taking enough Levo but I did not ask because I think she would have been offended.

[Hidden in reply to Lora7again]

You are considerate, and sometimes I see people who show and tell me hypo symptoms, and it's like you want to recommend that they see an endocrinologist or family doctor, but you get nervous if you offend them.

[humanbean]

Some people who are eventually diagnosed with hypothyroidism may have poor thyroid function for decades before diagnosis.

Every cell in the human body needs thyroid hormone to enable the cell to function at peak efficiency. If the level of thyroid hormone is too low then anything can go wrong. The fact that things are going wrong is often not obvious to a doctor, and the patients may decide that their health problems are their own fault.

For example... Having little energy to exercise - I imagine patients have assumed they are just lazy. Many of those who put on weight and/or have high cholesterol blame themselves because they can't exercise or they blame their diet and their lack of willpower.

Two common problems in hypothyroidism that I suffered from are low stomach acid and plantar fasciitis. I was diagnosed with subclinical hypothyroidism when I was 53. I'd had low energy and low stomach acid since I was a teenager. I also had plantar fasciitis since I was in my late teens. It went away with adequate nutrients but the long term damage caused by non-treatment or the wrong treatment still exists. My nutrient levels were too low because of the low stomach acid I suffered. But, naturally, doctors told me that I had too much stomach acid and gave me prescriptions to either neutralise the stomach acid I did have or they prescribed drugs which shut off stomach acid production.

The problems caused by untreated hypothyroidism are extensive and it can go on for many, many years, causing widespread damage that either won't get better at all, or will only partially improve once treatment starts.

[Lora7again in reply to humanbean]

I think I have had it longer than 12 years because when I had my two children I seemed to have too much energy after I had given birth. When I had my daughter within hours I was packing my bag ready to go home. The midwife soon stopped me because years ago you had to stay in for one night if it was your first baby. I then spent the whole night wide awake and chatting to the midwives because I was not tired. I was back down to my pre baby weight in a few weeks and didn't mind having less sleep either. I would have had a blood test to find out if I had thyroid disease then if I had known what I know now.

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

You do believe the damage can be reversible because the body can heal itself.

[hjh88]

I suspect the cause of the condition has a lot to do with it to. For example, with autoimmune thyroid conditions (grave and hashimotos) thyroid hormone levels fluctuate with the course of the illness so getting to a place of stability with treatment in a condition which is changing or fluctuating at a rate which differs person to person is an ongoing challenge.

Further to that, I imagine a lot of folk end up diagnosed generally with a thyroid condition, either hypo or hyper, and no further investigation is done into the cause. If you don’t know whether the condition is primary/secondary/tertiary, autoimmune, etc etc etc how can you begin to understand if the treatment is correct? You might stumble of it by chance but you might also prolong the journey to stability if it’s incorrect.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

I'll add my little bit by talking about something else!

If you are severely deficient for vitamin B12, you are likely to have macrocytosis. That is where the red blood cells are larger than normal and become less able to carry sufficient oxygen round the body.

If you then start treating that deficiency properly, new red blood cells will start to appear which are "normal" size. A red blood cell typically has a life of 120 days or so. Therefore, after around four months of adequate treatment, you might well see that there is no macrocytosis.

Trouble is, that simple (and pleasantly hopeful) way of thinking hits a wall. B12 doesn't just affect red blood cells. Inadequate B12 also impairs production of the myelin sheath round nerves. If that has happened, well, the nervous system is notoriously slow at repairing itself. Until it does, nerve issues can and do continue. For a very long time.

The reason to switch to discussing B12 is that the impact of B12 on those two areas is quite well studied. It is an easy example. Thyroid is so all-pervading that it can leave damage and areas which don't work properly for a long time. I suggest that the time it takes to recover is strongly affected by both how long the person was hypothyroid, and how severely. Expect recovery to take as long as the original deterioration.

Those who have no thyroid hormone issues but suddenly have their thyroid removed, the only cases I can think of are cancers, and then get adequately treated, have a very different recovery to those who slowly deteriorate over many years, accumulating damage throughout the body.

[humanbean in reply to helvella]

B12 doesn't just affect red blood cells. It also impairs production of the myelin sheath round nerves. If that has happened, well, the nervous system is notoriously slow at repairing itself. Until it does, nerve issues can and do continue. For a very long time.

I think this should say that "Low B12 doesn't just affect red blood cells".

Without that word your paragraph makes B12 sound like a scary thing to take.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to humanbean]

Agreed - and edited.

[Hidden in reply to helvella]

Thank you! You gave me a good idea!

[Hidden]

I no longer have a thyroid gland at all following surgery. It is totally impossible for me to "recover" (ie to stop taking medication) as my body would simply stop to function at all and I would consequently die or live in utter misery.

The problem is that the ONLY medicine you are ever likely to receive from the NHS leaves me with residual symptoms, eg fatigue and other rotten feelings.

NDT ALONE gives me some sort of decent health, not perfect, but reasonably acceptable compared to the NHS alternative.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Things will get better!

[Hidden]

Hey MorganLeesoso, if I get it right, you meant how long for symptoms to improve on medication basically. It really depends, depends on severity. For example, my consultant said that cholesterol levels would lower after being on an optimal dose for about 6 months. My brain reacts quite fast, muscles will take longer (I have read a research regarding a type of a muscle fibre, it becomes larger when you're hypo, but that takes months , same with it changing back). I am a believer (maybe naive, but still) that you can regain your full health on a good dose (I have been on one before and felt pretty good for some years). Also, sometimes it's hard to see progress because it's slow and we loose patience, it's good to write down what did change.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Cuppaofcha

Thank you for giving me some hope! It's good to know that a good dose can bring health in line.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It certainly did that for me for many years. Things went sideways since my doctor died of cancer and was taken off meds. Three years later going back slowly to where I was well. Don't lose hope, once things improve you get more strength to get through it and the light in the tunnel is closer and brighter! And it takes 3 years for me to go back because of a drug reformulation in the meantime (none of my doses worked for 2 years), then tried Levo, but was not enough on its own and since May 2019 I've been adding t3 (but then my t4 dose combined with it was too high for too long), only this year I can see I made progress with lowering Levo to 112 from 150 since last May. I know that this is my Levo dose (most likely), my t3 is somewhere between 17.5-25 mcg (was overmedicated on 27 mcg). So now going slow As you see, loads of complications along the way, but it doesn't have to be this way for most people !

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I wish my doctors would look at the reduction of symptoms instead of bloodwork. If I have an improvement in symptoms, then I have my doctor trying to reduce my dose. They look at bloodwork, and they say ”oh my” it look like hyperthyroidism, but I don't have the symptoms. I feel better than if I had a lower dose.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Yes, definitely listen to your body, not doctors and try to be firm with them. Don't let them reduce the dose based on numbers, not symptoms. This has been done too many times to me, but thankfully this doctor listens.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I learned the hard way with some doctors who unmedicated and under-medicated me. I found for years feeling rubbish, but I found a doctor who listens or at least knows me well enough to see my dosage is not indicative of blood work.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

That's excellent that now you also have a doctor who listens! You will get there