I made the decision to stop taking levothyroxine some 6 weeks ago and try using ashwagandha 1600mg per day instead. Thought I felt ok, but have had it pointed out to me stopping taking levothyroxine is almost as bad as not eating and drinking as it is a hormone replacement that is 100% necessary. My GP surgery took me off levothyroxine due to believing I was over-replaced as was having high heartrate, palpitations and physical shaking especially of my hands. It turns out the cause of the symptoms was due to Propranolol withdrawal caused by coming off Propranolol too quickly. Went back on Propranolol at 10mg 4 times daily and am now taking 10mg twice a day and will very gradually taper it off, even if it means taking quarter of a tablet 3 times a day as coming off too quickly caused it to mess with heart rate and adrenal levels, so was in fight or flight mode for 5 weeks and consequently lost almost half a stone, but not recommended as was a horrendous experience and landed me in A&E twice where blood tests were done which showed my heart is fine. Rang GP surgery two weeks ago to arrange repeat blood tests but they refused to do them saying that they are due to be repeated in February,despite receiving a letter from endocrinology department that stated keep on same dose (125mg) levothyroxine and repeat blood in 6-8 weeks. Doctor told me to restart levothyroxine at 25mcg and build up repeating bloods every 4 weeks or so after each increase. I'm totally confused and have restarted my levothyroxine at 25mcg as advised but I know that's far too small a dose to do anything.
Any thoughts or advise on all this and sorry for length of post.