This new paper examines the implications of thyroid dysfunction (subclinical or not) in people over 80 years of age.
Thyroid VOL. 31, NO. 4
Thyroid Dysfunction: Hypothyroidism,
Outcomes of Thyroid Dysfunction in People Aged Eighty Years and Older: An Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis of Four Prospective Studies (Towards Understanding Longitudinal International Older People Studies Consortium)
Robert S. Du Puy, Rosalinde K.E. Poortvliet, Simon P. Mooijaart, Wendy P.J. den Elzen, Carol Jagger, Simon H.S. Pearce, Yasumichi Arai, Nobuyoshi Hirose, Ruth Teh, Oliver Menzies, Anna Rolleston, Ngaire Kerse, Jacobijn Gussekloo, and for the TULIPS Consortium
Background: Subclinical and overt thyroid dysfunction is easily detectable, often modifiable, and, in younger age groups, has been associated with clinically relevant outcomes. Robust associations in very old persons, however, are currently lacking. This study aimed to investigate the associations between (sub-)clinical thyroid dysfunction and disability in daily living, cognitive function, depressive symptoms, physical function, and mortality in people aged 80 years and older.
Methods: Four prospective cohorts participating in the Towards Understanding Longitudinal International older People Studies (TULIPS) consortium were included. We performed a two-step individual participant data meta-analysis on source data from community-dwelling participants aged 80 years and older from the Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Japan. Outcome measures included disability in daily living (disability in activities of daily living [ADL] questionnaires), cognitive function (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]), depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]), physical function (grip strength) at baseline and after 5 years of follow-up, and all-cause five-year mortality.
Results: Of the total 2116 participants at baseline (mean age 87 years, range 80–109 years), 105 participants (5.0%) were overtly hypothyroid, 136 (6.4%) subclinically hypothyroid, 1811 (85.6%) euthyroid, 60 (2.8%) subclinically hyperthyroid, and 4 (0.2%) overtly hyperthyroid. Participants with thyroid dysfunction at baseline had nonsignificantly different ADL scores compared with euthyroid participants at baseline and had similar MMSE scores, GDS scores, and grip strength. There was no difference in the change of any of these functional measures in participants with thyroid dysfunction during five years of follow-up. Compared with the euthyroid participants, no 5-year survival differences were identified in participants with overt hypothyroidism (hazard ratio [HR] 1.0, 95% confidence interval [CI 0.6–1.6]), subclinical hypothyroidism (HR 0.9 [CI 0.7–1.2]), subclinical hyperthyroidism (HR 1.1 [CI 0.8–1.7]), and overt hyperthyroidism (HR 1.5 [CI 0.4–5.9]). Results did not differ after excluding participants using thyroid-influencing medication.
Conclusions: In community-dwelling people aged 80 years and older, (sub-)clinical thyroid dysfunction was not associated with functional outcomes or mortality and may therefore be of limited clinical significance.
Written by
diogenes
Remembering
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I think you are probably right, I don’t trust anything that Pearce is involved with. IMO Anyone who has a closed mind, and can so strongly deny NDT and T3, when so many find them beneficial, as treatments, does not belong in medicine.
I wonder if these older people were given the ‘right medication’ at the correct doses of thyroid meds, where needed - including those ‘sub-clinical’, would they have a better QoL?
Is it me, or is there a general feeling that the medical world is trying its very best to undermine and deny hypothyroidism as a condition?
We all know, and most have probably experienced the dreadful and worsening attitude that us thyroiditees are subject to, but why is this attitude worsening? Surely the medics must realise that when so many are still struggling on T4 and saying the same things there has to be something askew? Something being missed. To just deny us and label us as hypochondriacs, depressives etc... is that really the answer? It is sticking head in sand if you ask me. This problem is only growing. Some medics somewhere have to have the sense to stop and think. Stop turning on their patients and start listening. Give the patient, the only one who can actually know what it feels like, the benefit of the doubt. Listen to them as individuals as we are not all the same! One pill does not suit all!
Also, again, is it me, or is there something wrong with these ‘Meta Analysis’ publications, that look at previous data from other studies but do they actually assess the quality of these previous studies beforehand?
I was looking to see if I could see what studies they used? Wasn’t there one published, c 2017 where they studied over 65’s giving them either 25mcg or 50mcg of T4. When, there was no real improvement seen they deemed the over 65s as not needing thyroid meds? Was there any consideration for dosage, surely these doses are ‘starting’ doses and not likely to be over all beneficial? Was there any consideration for whether there were other deficiencies that might impact thyroid hormone production or T4 processing? Was there any consideration for ability to convert T4?
IMO these types of analysis are just another way of rehashing old (and often poor) thinking and publications, promoting it further and making it look like ‘new’ up to date thinking’. IMO -dangerous!
Is it me, or is there a general feeling that the medical world is trying its very best to undermine and deny hypothyroidism as a condition?
That's certainly the way I feel. After years of reading on different forums, I've come to the conclusion that the majority of doctors would rather put their eyes out with hot irons than diagnose someone with a thyroid condition!
I think the last thing they should be called is endocrinologists.
"Background: Subclinical and overt thyroid dysfunction is easily detectable", Not in my case was it easily detected. I had to diagnose myself and I also had very little knowledge or had even heard of hypothyroidism.
One doctor phoned to tell me my TSH was too low, T3 too high and T4 too low.
My response:- I take T3 only, therefore TSH will be low. T4 will be low because I take none and I take T3 only so it will appear higher.
.
His response was "But T3 converts to T4". No doctor that's wrong. T4 should convert to T3.
Is it me, or is there a general feeling that the medical world is trying its very best to undermine and deny hypothyroidism as a condition?
Doctors had this reputation decades ago that they belonged to a caring profession. There may have been lip service to this at the time but I've never believed it. I've been insulted, dismissed, and gaslighted far too often to believe that doctors really care about their patients.
What I think we have been seeing in more recent decades is capitalism at work. Medicine is now a business and absolutely nothing else. Care really doesn't come into it very much. The only requirement for most researchers is that they generate results that get them funding. And to do that they need to find a way to save money on "health care", and to increase possible profits.
Diogenes and his team are completely independent as far as I know so they can research what they want. But he would know better than any of us what pressures are put on researchers like him to produce certain types of results when their funding depends on the results.
I think any medical condition which primarily affects women is under attack from the healthcare conglomerates, and even the NHS, because cutting costs is the only game in town, and when profits are involved they must be maximised. And women have been considered to be hysterical, lazy, lying, attention-seekers since the time of the ancient Greeks so they are the obvious targets for this.
I've read about women with bowel cancer being diagnosed repeatedly with IBS and gaslighted and dismissed until it was too late to save them. People with multiple sclerosis (the majority being women) are being told their fatigue is a mental problem and they can get back to work if only they did CBT and exercise. Then there are the people with ME who can't get any treatment except gaslighting, and they are left struggling in poverty because they can't get help. They are accused of making it up and seeking "secondary gains" (i.e. benefits which are tuppence a week) because they are lazy and/or mentally ill and have the wrong beliefs about their illness and they aren't really ill. The people with Long Covid are discovering what this is like now because they are going to be treated like the people with ME in many cases. And don't forget it isn't just women who are considered to be easy targets. Children are being taken away from their parents and put into foster homes if the parents (i.e. the mothers) are assumed to be coddling and indulging the child in their beliefs that the child is ill.
I don't think the poor treatment of thyroid disease is particularly unusual. Personally, I think that the capitalists have decided that there are too many of us, so they want to make as much profit as possible while killing off the vulnerable. But then I have been accused of being a conspiracy theorist by my husband, and laughed at by family and friends. So take this with a pinch of salt and make up your own mind.
I’m with you all the way here humanbean ! Laughing at you being a conspiracist. My husband thinks the same about me! Do I care! lol And yes survival of some friends and family questionable, that said most of my family.... Funny a few are starting to see the light!
My son said population control when we were discussing the T3 withdrawal issue a few years ago...I didn’t think he was wrong then...the more I hear the more I think he was spot on.
Seamus O’Mahoney sums up the research issue in his book ‘Can Medicine be Cured’ It is worth a read.
You are deffo on to something. Women have been descriminated against for millennia. It won’t just go away it is so deeply entrenched and can be used as a means to exploit as it always has been. I’d think thyroid disorder was better treated in the past when NDT was the only medication for it , dosing was done by symptom and doctors actually knew something about the disorder and how it presented. It’s a total mess now and any attempt to get things improved is fiercely fought against by those in the establishment who hold prejuduces against women & especially old women, that should have gone out in the Middle Ages. I’m of the opinion that if you righted thyroid disorder treatment the hysterical woman stuff would pretty much go out the window too.
The "establishment" has very little power over us, as a) we don't need grants and workspace, b) whatever small amounts of money needed we use and c) we are not leaned on in a department to "say the right thing" and maintain their reputation. But the way they have to operate is to try to delay proposed paper acceptance or otherwise to act like a herd of bison drawn up in a circle with their backsides sticking out - ie see no evil, hear no evil, and don't speak at all about it but just moo angrily one to another about our effrontery. So we circle like the cowboy movies of old, shooting arrows to the most tender places as they show themselves. Thus we and our papers don't exist as far as many doctors/endocrinologists are concerned. If the gurus won't move, then GP's will not either. BTW in my long scientific career I don't think I have ever enjoyed myself more chasing down the truth and, happily, annoying people..
Ah yes , being knowledgeable enough to be a proper nuisance ,and old enough to not give a fig .... one of the well deserved pleasures of age.Glad you're having fun
I met someone quite elderly, back end of 2015, lovely woman - being weaned off [just Levo] and told how she didn't need it now - so distressed because she needed to be able to look after her even more ailing husband... yeah, it was him. I better not give my views. 👺👀😅
Dreadful isn’t it! An endocrinologist suggested to me last Sept, that I could try stopping my medication (T3 mono for the last 11 years, following 20 years of fighting with T4) and see how I got on. Based on him not knowing how secure my (30yr old ) diagnosis of hypoT was, as he had only just come into the case!!! This without actually seeing me. Funny has attitude was so different with me in the March when I first spoke to him, completely. diff in Sept. Was that because he now had my file and who knows what is on that, or because my file shows that I saw his colleague 2007-10 until he sent me to a psychologist because he didn’t want to alter the meds based on the bloods. It was at this point, after seeing the psychologist, who agreed with me, it was ‘medical/chemical’ not psychological, that I decided not to return to the Endo, but to go see Dr P instead. Best thing I ever did. But something altered the way this chap spoke to me on the phone. He was quite arrogant. He was happy to dismiss me back to GP to monitor, but as he had agreed to leave me on T3, I thought no, I’d stay on his books as long as I can. Especially as I know there is something else causing the thyroid levels to go askew when flaring.
Following my call with this endo, I saw someone on Fb saying their endo had suggested they stop their meds. Is this really the way they are going?
Yes good point about the free prescriptions. I’m sure there has to be some form of discrimination in the way that thyroid health is investigated/diagnosed and treated. And in the training. I wonder if there are other health conditions that had data recording stopped as happened with thyroid in 2014? (no doubt in readiness for the systematic withdrawal of t3 starting in 2015!)
Yes. Always. They will try and replace thyroid medications with anti-depressants, statins, BP meds, beta blockers...
I really don’t get it. Why do doctors not want to provide a thyroid replacement yet are more than willing to fill their poor patients with chemicals that have nothing to do with the thyroid. It is beyond belief really.
For anyone who hasn’t heard my ‘three ages of woman’ before - it’s
1. You are too young to have anything wrong with you,
2. You are a menopausal hypochondriac
3. You’re too old to bother about. Sad but that’s how it looks to me.
These creatures... yes, I've seen this too. Within a couple of weeks+, too busy with it all right now, I'll send you some correspondence to have a look at how far this can go.
but, But, BUT we must all keep at this or... the alternative is too much to comprehend for the future of all of us hypothyroid people. xox
I saw the name and groaned then thought I wonder what clap trap is about to follow. I was not disappointed! Well I was disappointed but you get what I mean. I’d like him to have a TT and see what hypothyroidism is really like.... it can be bad enough properly medicated never mind under medicated.
I had those exact thoughts....something about that man’s name! We just know it is going to be geared towards the ‘expected’ outcome. And no sadly the doc didn’t ‘disappoint’ in that manner!
As someone who has been lucky enough to continue getting T3 via my surgery, I know exactly what you mean. Even on T3 nothing is ever ‘optimal’ for long. I think in the last 14 years (on T3 mono for 11) it is a continuous balancing act, which has been very much a sole act over the last 8 years. Dr P got me ‘settled’ on T3 mono, (I had the support of oa GP back then, now retired!) that took nearly 2 years, adjusting readjusting, reintroducing T4 (and all the symptoms) stopping T4, retrying a few months later...same result etc. But got there, with the help of adrenal supplements and other supporting vitamins etc. However. When there is something else underlying that no one will even look for, never mind acknowledge, which sends everything dolly periodically it is hard. I do believe that my adrenals are compromised in some way, but there is also something flaring, recently told not got connective tissue, then told by eye clinic they are seeing connective tissue....But as no one can tell me which... At least the eye clinic are treating.
We as hypothyroidees are very poorly supported by our GPs. Increasingly so.
Sadly they do keep promoting this sort of rubbish pushing it out there to promote the same old same old...that is what it is designed for...to counteract the real ‘new’ thinking.
For my viewpoint, the paper again confuses the statistic from the patient. This is the ongoing hole in medical argument. Acknowledge the fact of patient individuality and propose personalised medicine and in the same breath do a collective study and view the individual as being submerged in the group statistical result and judged thereby. As I well know, people over 80 have usually a collection of ills, trivial and important , which could mask the results from a thyroid malaise. In our late 80's we know full well that we've only a little time to go and our demise will statistically be distorted by that - ie it probably won't be thyroid problems that finish us off. The authors produce a blanket approach which isn't strictly medicine but statistics.
The very bottom line in all of this is how much people are prepared to put up with? We must arrange ourselves to challenge these... before history wipes us out. Time to act.
G B Shaw: “The medical profession is singled out as ‘a conspiracy to hide its own shortcomings’, neither can the individual sympathize with or understand a profession which seeks to protect its ‘bad apples’.’
“It must be clear that the misuse of this power is a serious menace to society. Society tolerates the physician and honours him because it urgently needs his counsel and his help, but it has always endeavoured to protect itself from abuse of the physician’s power by establishing standards of medical behaviour … The standards which regulate medical behaviour have their origin in three different spheres: the government, the medical profession and the individual conscience” Sigerist ibid.
I think my earlier post: Metaphor for examination of a SCH patient. The fallacy of using statistics to diagnose. will show how the needy minority is statistically lost in the less needy majority.
Or........ if their results are interpreted with a different emphasis.... Sub clinical and even Overtly Hyper/ Hypothyroid Status doesn't make any difference to anything either. (And it still didn't make a difference even if you removed those taking any 'thyroid influencing medication' )
They looked at :-
ADL -activities of daily living - 'Thyroid Dysfunction' participants, regardless of whether .................................................................subclinical or overtly hyper/hypothyroid, had 'non .................................................................significantly different' scores to Euthyroid participants at ..................................................................baseline.
MMSE -cognitive function +
GDS -depressive symptoms +
Grip Strength-physical function..... All groups including Euthyroid had 'similar' results at ........................................................................baseline . There was 'no difference in the change ' of all ........................................................................the Thyroid Dysfunction groups (over 5 yrs)
5yr all cause mortality - No difference in 5yr mortality for Overt/ Subclinical Hyper/ Hypo , ..................................................and Euthyroid groups, regardless of whether using 'thyroid .....................................................influencing medication' or not.
So unless i'm being dense.... this lack of difference from the Euthyroid group , even for the Overtly Hyper/Hypo participants, would seem to suggest that the test's they were using were not particularly relevant to the actual symptoms of people with Thyroid Dysfunction ?
I can well believe this might be the case, because i've had to fill in load of these 'score' tests during CFS/ME therapy , and basically, none of the questions really offered an opportunity to show the actual effects of my actual symptoms... and i would also suggest that 'Grip strength' is probably not a particularly useful measure of thyroid status/treatment .
So... this study could equally well be used to suggest that Sub-clinical or even Overtly HYPERthyroid results " was not associated with functional outcomes or mortality and may therefore be of limited clinical significance." in the over 80's...
I'm not surprised they didn't emphasise that in the conclusion.... or else they'd have to let us carry on having "subclinically hyper" results ie. a low TSH or a slightly over range fT4 once we were over 80 if we felt better like that.
Have i mis-intepreted the findings of this study ?
Me too mine is awful and struggling with screw tops, pull rings and the like, I often resort to my teeth a good hard yank whilst uttering expletives and blaming young male designers for such annoying closures!
This is a great point! Lots of these questionnaire measures are so arbitrary and meaningless. It would be easy to take a sick person and a relatively well person and not actually find a difference. Especially when at 80 the whole group will likely not be that sprightly.
I think you'd have to dig quite deep, AND really care about finding it, to tease out any differences.
Isn’t it well known that most people in ICUs have low T3 levels. Isn’t that the basis of the NICE - don’t test thyroid function in people who are ill ,stance? Cos bound to be low. Again Is it me? Surely improving thyroid health if struggling would improve a persons chance of recovery from whatever the problem?
Some have low T3 syndrome. This may well be protective so the current thinking is to not intervene. A few have high T3 levels but this may be due to early treatment options such as giving corticosteroids. It's very complex.
Sadly it’s not just thyroid issues that get poor treatment. Some time ago I was told by a gastroenterologist that it was my responsibility to feed myself properly. I had lost a lot of weight .
At the time and soon to be discovered I had a tumour causing blockage in my bowel.
Sadly you are right! It is easy to dismiss patients, especially women... We can be dismissed on hormone changes, life changes, age, bodily functions, existing conditions, our generally weakness by our gender....etc etc...all too easy.
I understand, I was dismissed from A&E a couple of months ago when I was actually gravely ill. I have struggled emotionally with the fact that I was dismissed too.
Whilst my experience is thankfully not so serious, I was dismissed from a lupus clinic in December with ‘no connective tissue disorder’ despite earlier bloods pointing in that direction, but the specific bloods elusive. Only to get told a month or so ago, at an eye clinic that they are definitely seeing connective tissue.... Can any specialists agree?
"but the specific bloods elusive." I had a friend years ago with a similar problem. She had problems from her late teens. In her mid 30's the Dr's told her that they didn't know exactly what was wrong, but the closest they could liken it to was Lupus.
I have been trying to get Sjogrens investigated for about 8 years. It took me 10 years to get the hypoT diagnosed. Pure lack of knowledge. I watched an Adrenal Insufficiency Webinar today, and asked a question why adrenal fatigue is dismissed based on lack of weight loss, but because HypoT tend to carry weight and not lose it, AF is automatically dismissed. Might AF be AI with comorbidity. I didn’t get a proper answer, the specialist seems to flounder and warned against giving that diagnosis. After about 3 questions on AF from myself and others, I suspect he realised he was talking to patients not Drs. LOL I wonder how long before we get blocked from attending these webinars.
Yes, I found the stupid GP telling me ‘I was needing a holiday’ when I was actually almost at rock bottom with Graves Disease really hard to put up with. I find have lost all confidence in doctors now, between that, the fact our doctors sold out to a big GP company and all of them left so I don’t even feel I have a GP never mind the fact I don’t know any9ne in town who has had a face to face appointment with a doctor - a nurse for bloods yes, but not a GP, plus watching that programme GPs : Behind Closed Doors the other night and seeing patient after patient getting what I consider to be ‘the brush off’, then reading rubbish articles like the the one at the top of the page, I pretty much despair.
Oh dear that is not a good thoughts it. Fortunately the lot who have bought us are a U.K. bunch - at the moment.
Who knows we will end up in the medical equivalent of a Super Surgery League a bit like the great footballing disaster that happened (or didn’t) this week.
Gosh, thanks for that Marz . Ours is not in that list and they are not the group who has taken us over - but - that doesn’t mean that some point in the future our new group won’t sell out their entire portfolio as AT medics have done with their 49 practices. Perhaps something needs to be put in place to stop that happening.
Gcart, I hope your tumour can be treated or has been treated successfully. The contempt for patients exhibited by doctors is just normal behaviour in medicine now, it seems.
Hi human bean. I had surgery and am on a treatment that stops any growth happening . Small tumours that got into my liver are kept at bay. I keep fairly well and don’t get the abdominal pain . I also lost my thyroid to cancer . That proved difficult until I found help here .
Quality of life much improved . No doctor offered/tried prior to this forum,
Crazy situation, I do ask myself ‘why’ . Once read up on it it isn’t that hard to understand .
I just try to get on and enjoy the improvements, help gained here .
Save us from doctors who don’t give a fig.
There are some good ones and anyone who had one make sure to treasure them!
I'm very glad the pain is now under control or much reduced. Pain that isn't explained or understood by patient or doctor (because doctors think patients are all drug-seekers, so the patient is left in limbo) can be soul-destroying and life-destroying for the patient.
There isn't, no. And, apparently, they aren't even aware that you can't 'diagnose' a symptom. That would be like diatnosing someone with a sneeze when they have a cold.
Thank you Diogenes for this post. This is a wake up call in my opinion on the contrary that anyone over the age of 60 is most likely needing some thyroid meds. In fact I think that Dr's on their own should be treating patients with thyroid meds instead of cholesterol pills BP pills sleeping pills etc.
I agree with the 1st comment, and not only thyroid meds. I am beginning to wonder if it won't only be newly diagnosed elderly patients being denied medication, but those of us already on meds when we get old. I think it is quite frightening.
We need to form a SOD Group - Support Old Dears 🥺 I buy T3 on-line like so many and do worry about having the capacity to cope with it all as the years roll on. I have also read that T3 can be taken away should we be hospitalised ....
I agree, as someone close to the 60 mark, it is very worrying as to at what age are we going to be told...you have ticked over to x age, therefore you miraculously no longer need your life saving meds?
Oh ! Wish I had bookmarked the piece. I am aware that T3 can reduce in order to conserve energy - not just in illness - but also in sun deprived months to conserve energy ! Time to consult hedgehogs !!
It's not really about conserving energy. Some of the T3 regulation is local. For example in stroke the lower T3 reduces reperfusion injury. I guess it puts the damaged tissue in a sort of suspended animation.
Which makes it very odd that they have been researching the use of T3 to protect against reperfusion injury!
3,3',5-triiodothyroxine inhibits apoptosis and oxidative stress by the PKM2/PKM1 ratio during oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion AC16 and HCM-a cells: T3 inhibits apoptosis and oxidative stress by PKM2/PKM1 ratio
Conclusions: In children undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB, preoperative oral small-dose thyroid hormone therapy reduces severity of postoperative ESS and provides a protection against myocardial IRI by increasing HSP70 and MHCα expression.
[They used thyroid tablet - which I assume to be T4, but the aim was to increase T3.]
First a thousand apologies I got my details mixed up although the principle of adjusting local T3 levels still apply. I was thinking of this study which demonstrates that reducing local T3 levels is protective against reperfusion injury ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... .
I'm rather hypo at the moment (trying to restore my axis by reducing my L-T3 but failing, about to give up) and getting a bit confused. I won't have time to look at your reference as I'm not up to it and busy on another project. I'd like to avoid a game of citation tennis! Both studies demonstrate that this is an incredibly complex subject which we are only beginning to understand. When do reductions in local T3 or circulating T3 protect us or harm us? And do they sometimes go in opposite directions. I suspect nature will be better at this game than us.
I was interested inthe paper because it shows reverse T3 inhibits type-2 deiodinase. So, reverse T3 is not completely inactive. It has a role that isn't clearly reflected in blood tests.
I can accord with that - I was in a sort of suspended animation at times as my thyroid went on the blink punctuated by periods of utter frenzy. I presume that was just a total malfunction rather than any attempt by the body to rectify things.
My mum is 88 and her feet and legs are swollen to her hips. They are hard and non pitting. They do not subside on elevation. The GP tested her for everything full blood screening for heart, kidney's, diabetes and thyroid. All came back normal except her thyroid function. She has been on 100 mcg of T4 since she was diagnosed hypothyroid many years ago. For some stupid reason he reduced it to 75 mcg 5 years ago. He tells her it's fluid retention but the water tablet's do nothing. He has now increased her dose back to 100 mcg. I told him I have the faulty DI02 gene so he needs to test her Free T3 because to me her legs resemble Myxodema. Myxodema does not always present as a coma. He told me we are not allowed to test for Free T3! I have just sent off her DI02 gene test and await the results so I can get her prescribed T3. I have inherited one copy of the gene, I told him it's probably from mum. He said it could have been someone 100 years ago, or you might just have switched it on all my yourself'. He has prescribed another water tablet and it's been 2 weeks and her legs are huge and hard. She is severely hypothyroid, hoarse voice, feels cold, slow pulse constipation, body aches, no appetite. It's as if they don't care. I know she has to die of something but if it's just severe hypothyroidism it can be addressed. My worry is that she may fall and is struggling to walk to the toilet.
Thank you I will be doing that next. I opted for gene test first because I have been hypothyroid for 20 years with known low T3 and was told by Endocrinologists combination therapy or T3 only didn't work and they were not allowed to prescribe it anyway. But when they saw I had the faulty gene they had no choice but to do so. I am prepared to source T3 over the internet if need be but there is a duty of care when someone is presenting with severe hypothyroidism and the GP can give no other explanation for the symptoms. I will call an ambulance if he refuses to treat her if she tests positive. Roll on the results. It's true people in ICU or fighting Covid19 will have low T3 because the body is using T3 to fight for to their recovery, but they do not present with a shed load of hypothyroid symptoms. At least we on this forum know them inside out even if doctors don't. It's so frustrating 🙏🙏
I'm sorry your Mum is having such a hard time. It's a good job she's got you battling for her, and I hope the increased Levo helps.
"I have inherited one copy of the gene, I told him it's probably from mum. He said it could have been someone 100 years ago, or you might just have switched it on all my yourself'. Oh, because the odds on that are more likely 🥴. Your Mum's GP is a **** who can't admit he doesn't know the answer.
The Elaine Morgan book is VERY funny indeed, the other one is not great on amusement - its very shocking so you need to brace yourself before opening it up!
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