Sorry folks another question

[maplewood]

Since I have increased my dose to 75mg from 50 mg I have had hot flashes/sweating episodes (make me feel rubbish). I am talking literally after 4 days of increase. I did this the last time I tried to increase so I stopped. Then my bloods showed TSH 6.5 so Thursday last week I resumed the 75mg again. The day before however (wednesday) I felt exhausted and jelly legged like I was coming down with something. Nothing much symptom wise after that apart from headaches and neck pain. Sweats still coming today. Do you all think this is Thyroid related or have I picked up a virus that has upset the Thyroid? I am not sure what's happening. any ideas xx

[humanbean]

Sounds more like a cortisol problem to me, or possibly an issue with nutrient levels.

In a healthy person cortisol rises as thyroid hormones drop and lowers if thyroid hormones rise. The adjustments are very small, but they go on all the time in people who are healthy.

But there are some people who have "the wrong levels" of cortisol whose levels don't change (or don't change in the way they should) when thyroid hormone levels rise with an increase in dose.

Unfortunately, symptoms of low and high cortisol have a lot of overlap, so it is not possible to tell reliably which one you might be suffering from (if either) without proper testing.

Note that doctors test cortisol in the blood, but it isn't measuring just the amount of "active" cortisol that the body can immediately make use of, it also measures the cortisol which is attached to transport proteins which move cortisol around the body. And the body can't immediately make use of cortisol which is attached to transport proteins, it needs to be split off from those proteins.

Cortisol found in saliva is just "active" cortisol and is more likely to reflect your actual state of health.

Note that some people can have very healthy levels of cortisol in the blood but have very low levels of cortisol in saliva. I've never worked out what the solution to that problem is.

[maplewood in reply to humanbean]

I have just been reading a post you replied to and actually we have some similarities. I was diagnosed in 2013 and when I first started taking T4 I had shooting pains all over body to name one side effect but was never told to stop taking it. I had 6 years of hell and when in conversation I said to my GP I have felt more ill taking the Levo and don't think for what ever reason I can tolerate it she said lets take you off and see what happens. I felt great at first and lost lots of symptoms. My TSH was rising so eventually I had to go back on meds. Within a week of taking the levo I had shooting pains all over body so was told to stop taking. I then started on liquid which I am ok with for what ever reason. I also have no antibodies just hypo and am working on getting my supplements up to top notch. The funny thing is this jelly leg sensation used to happen a lot before when I was on the tablets but they checked my cortisol years ago and said it was ok. The endo refused to see me recently as they said the 2013 was a isolated incident but with a TSH of 6.5 on 50mg of levo I am not sure how that could be the case.

[humanbean in reply to maplewood]

I assume that checking your cortisol just involved a morning, or possibly a random, blood test. As long as your result was in range you would be told that your result was "okay".

Have you ever done a saliva cortisol test? It might be enlightening.

[maplewood in reply to humanbean]

No i havent. I will give it a try

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Vitamin levels need to be optimal for levothyroxine to work

In previous post you said you have pernicious anaemia....yet B12 injections were stopped

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[maplewood in reply to SlowDragon]

In about 2010 they said i had it and was put on injections for it. They then said i didnt have it and stopped injectios saying my levels were fine. I had injections for about two years.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to maplewood]

I suggest you go to the Pernicious Anaemia Society forum:

healthunlocked.com/pasoc

Explain what happened. There have been many who have had injections stopped when it was inappropriate to stop them - both in pandemic and before.

[Jazzw]

Pretty awful that your B12 injections were stopped. As Paul Robinson says here: paulrobinsonthyroid.com/b12...

“low B12 it seems to affect many thyroid patients. This might be due to the fact that low B12, makes T4 to T3 conversion worse. However, low thyroid hormone is likely to make the absorption of B12 from food or supplements less effective.”

It’s an absolutely vicious circle—and your B12 levels, looking at your last set of results, have fallen through the floor.

Doctors don’t know this stuff. They should but they don’t. They see a high B12 reading (because you’re on B12 injections) and assume you don’t need it any more. But PA doesn’t cure itself. It’s a lifelong condition. You need those jabs reinstating.