Coffee/Tea substitutes & pulse rate

[Satva]

Can anyone advise if the following are ok to drink when taking levo for hypothyroidism:

Robush tea (redbush)

Liquorice tea

Lemon/ginger blends

Turmeric tea

Dandelion coffee (not the powdered type, but the organic mix)

I love real coffee but have switched to decaf and only 1 or 2 max a day, at least 4 hours from taking the early morning levo.

Also, I've noticed my pulse rate has increased and am feeling a bit 'wobbly' today, 6 days after starting on levo - is this normal while the body is adjusting? My first 6 week blood test isn't until 5 Jan 2021. I've cut out all wheat and only have a small amount of oats for breakfast (made into a Bircher muesli) with oat milk. Wholegrain rice cakes and oat cakes, but only a few.

Thanks for any help/advice, B.

[thyr01d]

Hello Satva and thanks for asking this question. I can't help you but would like to know the answer. I too substitute Redbush tea for coffee (more successfully in summer than winter!) and try not to have wheat (etc) and am vegan. We sound similar. May I follow you to see what replies you receive please?

[Satva in reply to thyr01d]

Yes; of course. I'm not vegan but mainly vegetarian, however, my iron is a bit low and been recommended to eat some red meat. I do eat chicken occasionally. It seems to be a bit 'hit & miss' until the meds are right. Pukka teas have an extensive range & I've switched to decaf earl grey. Do miss my coffee though! Take care. B.

[tattybogle]

As i understand it, the reasoning for keeping food and drinks away from Levothyroxine is because they reduce the absorption , They don't stop it completely , just reduce it. Specifically research shows reduced absorption with Caffeine in the form of strong coffee, and Calcium and Iron. ( i think)

I do not remember any research showing significantly reduced absorption of Levo from any other food substances.

The main reason for avoiding everything except water, is to ensure that the amount we absorb from a certain dose is the same each day.

I decided when first diagnosed that rather than deny myself a hot morning cuppa for the next 50 yrs, and since i do take my Levo first thing , i would instead pick the least caffeine method and do the same consistently every day. Consequently i always have a cup of Rooibos ,which is naturally caffeine and tannin free, with half a sugar , (cos i'm short on will power), and a splash of milk because i don't like it without.

Since i do the same every day , my absorption will be the same every day, and even if this meant that i absorbed only 50% of the Levothyroxine from the tablet , it doesn't actually matter , because my dose is adjusted based on my blood test results, and my blood test results are dictated by my actual absorption of Levo. So for the sake of argument , my taking milk in a cuppa in the morning would be compensated for by a slightly increased dose.

If i was to change what i do it could cause a problem with dosing, but i don't, so it doesn't , and i get to have a brew in the morning. which in my world is essential.

I still drink proper coffee too , just not until elevenses.

I strongly suspect that the amount of caffeine in an average cup of normali - tea would not contain enough caffeine to reduce absorption by much either , but since i'd already trained myself away from most caffeine before diagnosis, i was happy on the rooibos anyway.

I may get shot down for being a heretic, but i believe people worry too much about what they can and can't ingest close to Levo. The truth is you can ingest most thing's close to it but if you do a different thing each day you will get different absorption each day which will mess up your dosing,. But apart from avoiding washing it down with an expresso and a lump of cheese and an Iron Tablet, i wouldn't worry too much , as long as whatever you do it is consistent.

I will now bravely run away and hide behind a wall before everyone say's "Noooo .. you can't say that"

[thyr01d in reply to tattybogle]

Hi Tattybogle, I'm not shooting you down, your post was interesting, but I don't think you are right on one point. I don't think blood tests show how much Levo you have absorbed but only how much is circulating in your blood. Levo is T4 which has to be converted to the biologically active T3. My TSH and T4 looked fine but I felt terrible because I was not converting as a good endo luckily discovered.

[tattybogle in reply to thyr01d]

Perhaps i needed to explain better......I mean 'absorbed ' as in absorbed through the Gut into the blood stream. I didn't mean absorbed as in 'absorbed into cells'. But the negative effects of caffeine , calcium etc are on the absorption of levo through the gut. so less T4 ends up in the blood from each tablet.

Then of course we can get an idea of how much conversion to T3 is going on by looking at fT3 in relation to fT4, assuming for the sake of simplicity that we're looking at someone with no working thyroid tissue to confuse the issue by contributing a small amount of T3 of its own.

( as far as i know, there is no way of measuring how much of either hormone gets into cells unless you want to have a bit of you chopped out and put under a microscope , since all the research i've seen with results for this side of things seems to involve disecting the the unfortunate rats)

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to tattybogle]

That is the usual meaning of absorption with respect to oral medicines - how much get from gut to blood.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to tattybogle]

There are many foods which affect absorption.

Calcium compounds

Magnesium compounds

Iron compounds

Aluminium compounds

Dietary fibre

Soybeans

Coffee

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/281...

Milk

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/295...

All too many of which constitute breakfast for many - bowl of cereal with milk, coffee, etc. Bearing in mind that a lot of cereals (as in packet breakfast foods) are fortified with numerous substances which might, or might not interfere.

[tattybogle in reply to helvella]

Cant hear you cos i'm hiding behind a wall Still not going to drink my morning brew without milk , no matter what anyone says.

My middle name is 'pigheaded'

[Satva in reply to tattybogle]

Lol...!! determined! Take care. 😀

[Satva in reply to helvella]

Thanks very much. I'm being very strict about what not to eat and the timings because I've felt so poorly! The only grain I'm eating is a small amount of oats and wholegrain rice cakes, which replace the wheat and must admit feel a difference. I want to do as much as I can before my next blood test and hoping my doctor will agree to test T3, antibodies and Vit D to give a clearer picture.

My pulse rate went crazy yesterday and felt jittery so rested as much as possible and it calmed down. I know its a slow process and hoping the tiredness and lack of energy improves...

Thanks for all your help.