Thyroid issue with Levothyroxine and Synthroid.(new here)

[wprtpaat105]

I had hypothyroidism that my levothyroxine created twelve of the thirteen symptoms of hypothyroidism. after some twelve years or more I realized that the medication was bad for me. Despite my doctor opinion that Synthroid is the same medication I convinced him to order it.

in few minutes after my new pill I start to digest my breakfast. previously I use to run after breakfast and after early super. all the twelve symptoms disappeared and improved my eye sight.

a year plus later i forgot my pill one day and felt relieved so I stopped taking it for 6 months. My son doctor and my nurse mom suggested I should reduce the strength. I convinced the doctor to order 75 micro gram instead of 150.

same situation after six months , forgot to take it and felt better.

now a year and a half not taking it I felt good.

the lab test shows High Tsh 20 good T3 in range T4 plus antibodies 540.

Doctor cannot do anything with antibody suggested Armor pill (a pig thyroid).

today is my first week. i have one more month to get my new test.

we will see.

Levothyroxine to Synthroid decision was based on a note I received with the medication. however the Synthroid takes more than a week to see results. so the Synthroid was not the cause of removing my issues. I assume my issues disappeared due to lack of taking the levothyroxine.

The reason I chose to reduce the Synthroid by half is from my engineering practices, the doctor change up or down by 12.5 ug. by going to half and the results did not change was my theory my problem was not the pill I was taking.

Now on a30mg of armor thyroid and I see the difference. In a month I will have my new blood test.

A comment from my holistic doctor that the Levothyroxine damaged my thyroid.

[jimh111]

What were your results when you were first diagnosed? With high antibodies it's possible you have erratic secretion from your thyroid which would explain your results, although it would be quite a fluke. Levothyroxine would not damage the thyroid, a weird suggestion. It could be that your first levothyroxine contained an excipient that affected you.

[wprtpaat105 in reply to jimh111]

I know very well that when i took my levothyroxine i acquired symptoms of hypothyroidism.

You said the levothyroxine does not affect your thyroid.

Now I am 77 years old and walk 5 miles a day and play twice 3 hours of sand volleyball.

The 12 problems were solved immediately and my eye sight recovered to normal when i change the medication.

the problems I had when taking the levothyroxine's

Acid reflux, afraid of heights, claustrophobic, difficult digesting food, pain in my knees, sharp tiny pain as if I was hit with a needle, difficult to focus and finish a job and needing eye glass to drive. all these problems disappeared once I change to Synthroid.

However the Synthroid was not that fix the problem but was the lack of of taking the Levothyroxine.

in about five weeks I will have a test to see what my armor pill did for me.

[jimh111 in reply to wprtpaat105]

I wrote levothyroxine does not damage the thyroid. It can affect the thyroid in the sense it will reduce TSH and so stimulate less thyroidal secretion.

The half life of levothyroxine is seven days. If you miss one day's tablet you will still have 93% of the levothyroxine in your blood. Thus, the rapid relief you experienced indicates it was something else in the tablet that affected you. Each brand has a different formulation so if you switch brands you might get relief.

If may be that you never needed thyroid hormone treatment, or needed much lower doses. Possibly the symptoms you experienced with your first levothyroxine tablets were similar to hypothyroidism and this led to increased doses. It would be very helpful to know your blood test results from when you were first diagnosed.

[shaws]

Welcome to our forum and I'm glad you are on Armour Thyroid which is a thyroid hormone replacement which contains all of the hormones a healthy thyroid gland would produce. T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin and is made from pigs thyroid glands. It was first introduced (not Armour itself but the original NDT) from 1892 up until today.

We usually take NDT when we get up with one full glass of water and wait an hour before eating. Some prefer a bedtime dose, in that case, if having a blood test next a.m. miss this dose, take after test and night dose as usual.

Many people find NDT (armour) suits them best as levothyroxine is T4 alone and should convert to T3. T4 being an inactive hormone and T3 the Active one which is needed in our millions of T3 receptor cells.

To reduce antibodies (the presence which indicates you have Hashimoto's.) going gluten-free can help. Hashi's is the commonest form of hypothyroidism.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

All blood tests for thyroid hormones should be at the earliest possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose of Armour and test and take afterwards.

Also get checked, B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate. Everything has to be optimal.

Small increments until your symptoms are relieved is suggested. I must also state I'm not medically qualified but had to diagnose myself - TSH was then 100 and I was told a few days before I didn't have any problems.

Do you follow this method for blood tests:-

The earliest possible blood draw, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose of Armour and test and take it afterwards. The aim is to relieve all clinical symptoms with TSH around 1, with FT4 and FT3 towards the upper part of the ranges.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

[wprtpaat105 in reply to shaws]

I understand what you said. I took charge of my health when the Levothyroxine affected me. I thought I was getting old.

then the Synthroid did not improve anything 150 ug to 75 ug and ten stopped it.

My reasoning was that I was feeling better when I missed one pill of Synthroid.

I stopped every thing to give chance to get rid of any chemicals.

I do not take any other pills.

[shaws in reply to wprtpaat105]

Synthroid is also a levothyroxine but if you're hypothyroid you have to have a replacement. To not treat hypothyroidism can lead to bigger problems. Our body has millions of T3 receptor cells, and it is the Active thyroid hormone. Levothyroxine is supposed to convert to T3 but some people find they don't feel well.

We have millions of T3 receptor cells (levo being an inactive hormone) and T3 the active one.

This is a doctor the majority on this forum would like to consult.

hormonerestoration.com/

Excerpt from above link:-

Dear Thyroid Patients: If you have thyroid gland failure--primary hypothyroidism--your doctor is giving you a dose of

levothyroxine that normalizes your thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level. Abundant research shows that this practice usually

does not restore euthyroidism--sufficient T3 effect in all tissues of the body. It fails particularly badly in persons who have

had their thyroid gland removed. TSH is not a thyroid hormone and is not an appropriate guide to thyroid replacement therapy.

The hypothalamic-pituitary secretion of TSH did not evolve to tell physicians what dose of inactive levothyroxine a person

should swallow every day. A low or suppressed TSH on replacement therapy is not the same thing as a low TSH in primary

hyperthyroidism. IF you continue to suffer from the symptoms of hypothyroidism, you have the right to demand that your

physician give you more effective T4/T3 (inactive/active) thyroid replacement therapy.

This is the link to read the full page:

hormonerestoration.com/

[greygoose]

It is a very well-known phenomena, when taking any thyroid hormone replacement - levo, T3, NDT - that stopping it will make you feel much, much better. We read about it all the time on here. However, this feeling of well-being does not last. Sooner or later, the hypo symptoms will come back.

It is also well-known that when you have been hypo for some time, starting to take levo can exacerbate your symptoms, and new symptoms can appear. I don't really know why that happens, but there are several possibilities. It could be that taking a small dose of levo stops what production your thyroid was managing, with the effect of actually giving you a reduction in hormone levels. It could be due to absorption problems or conversion problems, etc. Things usually improve as the dose is increased.

In your case, as you found you improved with NDT, it could be down to conversion and low T3. As NDT contains T3, and T3 is absorbed and gives results faster than levo, it's the T3 that is now making you feel well.

But, that doesn't mean there's anything intrinsically wrong with levo. It's just that we're all different and have different needs and reactions. Levo is perfectly fine for a lot of people, and they do very well on it right from the start. We just have to find what works for us. If NDT works for you - it doesn't work for everybody - then it's really great that you have access to it and are now feeling well. Long may it continue.

[Bible1000]

What's a sythroid

[helvella in reply to Bible1000]

Synthroid is just a USA brand of levothyroxine.

Just like with UK levothyroxine products, some people get on with one product but not another. But Synthroid has a gigantic marketing budget which, I suspect, strongly affects sales.

[wprtpaat105 in reply to helvella]

it does not matter what is said.

The levothyroxine in the us is not the same as the Synthroid.

there is a difference may be not in the iodine but may be in the product yo encapsulate the iodine.

Even in the us the Synthroid has issue with the component they pack the iodine with,

It may contain some pesticide in it.

[helvella in reply to wprtpaat105]

I am perfectly open to the possibility that different makes affect people differently. (I seem to spend half my time here posting the various makes available in the UK so people know what is what.)

We know that different excipients (ingredients other that the active ingredient) can have a significant impact.

We know that, twenty years ago, Synthroid used to use the process called "overage". They put in more levothyroxine than should be there so that, hopefully, when the pateint received it, it was of correct strength. Overage was absolutely banned by the FDA for lots of reasons, not least that it made changes between Synthroid and prodicts which did not do use dubious approach very difficult.

We know that some patients actually positively prefer Sandoz or Unithroid to Synthroid.

But, in the final analysis, Synthroid is just another formulation of levothryoxine. It might be preferred by some, but not others. I do not think you can sensibly compare Synthroid against "all other levothyroxine in the USA" and come up with a useful answer. You can compare each of the ones you have tried. You can compare each product separately.

As for pesticide content, we simply do not know. But most pharmaceutical companies obtain their excipients from other companies in a huge market of such products and companies. It is not impossible that the makers of Synthroid apply different standards but it doesn't seem especially likely and we are very unlikely to be able to find out.

[Lizzie020649]

That may work for you. But not everyone's the same. You may have had all the symptoms of an underactive thyroid but because doctors don't do a radioactive iodine test as a rule you can't be certain that you had the correct diagnosis. I have fibromyalgia syndrome, & when I was looking at the list of possible symptoms I was shocked to find that most of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid was included. I had been diagnosed with the thyroid problem several years prior to being diagnosed with fms. I did have the radioactive iodine test. I know of a few people who were misdiagnosed & in the end they had fms.