New here!

I was referred here from a fb group. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism last year, I also have low adrenals. I assume those work together? I am wondering which doctor to choose next or just go it alone? I have had insomnia for about 12 years now. It gets especially bad around my monthly menses. I was put on progesterone and told that would help, it has not helped. I take other natural supplements to help sleep when it’s bad. But on a good night I sleep 10 hours and if any of my rem sleep is interrupted I feel miserable the next day. I can’t let my heart rate go too high for too long or I drag for days until I recover. The most I can handle is a medium paced 20 minute walk. I can feel the cortisol spike when I have over done it and it produces these weird short bursting headaches. Not sure how else to describe it. That’s how any type of mental or body stress feels. So I try to avoid it at all costs. I did keto 2 years ago and it about destroyed my adrenals. I know just about every food and activity that causes stress and I avoid them. There are two doctors in town, one is a chiropractor and shows that she prescribes many different diets to help people, along with spine care. I think she does a blood panel of sorts. The other doctor does a blood panel of everything they suspect is wrong and go from there, they also prescribe nutritional diets. They sound similar except one is a chiropractor too. I hate to waste any more more on more doctors. What would you do? My doctor that put me on Armour and was ok that my panel was around 4. Apparently should be around 10 on medication? Should I go back or dump that doctor? Also saw on fb that I can order a cortisol test for home and possibly take adrenal cortex extract. So idk what avenue to go down. I just desperately want help. Thank you!

[fuchsia-pink]

Welcome to the forum, Rachel.

I don't know how easy is it to get the blood results you need in the US - but I'd get ALL your thyroid tests done as a useful first step - and post the results and lab ranges here in a new post (lab ranges vary from lab to lab). So that means testing: TSH, free T4, free T3, all thyroid antibodies and key nutrients - ferritin, folate, vit D and B12. Don't bother with total T4 or total T3 or reverse T3. Always have an early morning, fasting blood test when TSH is highest.

How much Armour are you taking? Do you split your dose? Leave 8 - 12 hours from your last dose before the blood test.

You can also test cortisol at various times during the day - and post the results for that here too.

As regards diet - the best advice is to avoid SOY - not good if you are hypothyroid - and eat real food. If your blood results show that you have Hashi's (the biggest single cause of hypothyroidism) you may find it helpful to go (strictly) gluten-free and/or dairy-free

Good luck x

[Hidden in reply to fuchsia-pink]

Hi there and thank you! I am taking Armour 15mg once a day. I thought it was helping in the beginning but it isn’t anymore. Thank you for the advice. I will push for that with whoever I decide to go with.

[Lotika]

I recently read a couple of books which I think address your issues, which I understand to be adrenal issues and hormonal imbalance, which are both apparently common with hypo. They are Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate by Rachel Hill, from a patient’s perspective and one by a doctor, Shawn Soszka. In both cases, the advice is to find a good functional medicine practitioner. The Soszka book has some detail on how you might interview one to find out if they are right for you as well as what tests you might want to have. It cost less than £3 ($4) in ebook format and was very readable.

I wonder if either - or both - might help you to understand more about where you are now, so that you can find the right sort of practitioner to help?