Serious Question

[silverbelle51]

I was advised I need thyroid replacement years back. I was active, healthy, walked 2 miles 3 x week. I was surprised , but trusted. I immediately felt like I was like someone on amphetamines. Finally after 4 3/4 yrs. I withdrew telling the MD. Most of the extreme complaints have gone or lessen. How much damage was likely done to my thyroid and what can I expect for the future? Oh , yeah 1 year after starting levothyroxine I developed low grade hypertension. I take 5mg Amlodipine. I checked the Pulse Pressure and my number was 4176. Any thoughts or ideas. Thank you

[Lalatoot]

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... down this post till you get to the reply by jimh111

[greygoose in reply to Lalatoot]

I think that reply is somewhat misleading. It's not the levo (T4) itself that causes the thyroid to atrophy, it's the lack of TSH stimulating the the thyroid that does it. If you take enough T4 for long enough, the pituitary will stop making TSH. But, if you stop taking the T4, the pituitary will sense it, and start producing TSH again - eventually, depending on several variables - and the thyroid will start making as much hormone as it is capable, just as it did before you started the T4. This is something I have experienced myself.

But it rather sounds as if the OP was under-medicated, anyway. Most people are.

[silverbelle51 in reply to greygoose]

Can you expound on what you mean by undermedicated?

[greygoose in reply to silverbelle51]

Well, I haven't checked, but I think in the dictionary the meaning is: not taking enough medication.

Yes, I know levo isn't really medication in the normal sense of the word, but that's what most people call it: thyroid meds. For it to make you well, you have to take enough of it, but doctors are so terrified of hormones that they are scared stiff of giving you too much, so the go the other way and give you too little.

You haven't told us how much you were taking, but I very much doubt it was a high enough dose to permanently suppress the TSH, as can happen with Grave's patients. Nor were you taking it for long enough for that to happen. Therefore, your thyroid should take up where it left off when stop the levo, and restart making as much thyroid hormone as it is capable, no damage done.

[greygoose]

Why do you think taking thyroid hormone replacement would damage your thyroid? It doesn't have any effect on the thyroid itself, it's just replacing the hormone your thyroid can no-longer make enough of to keep you well.

Hypertension can be a hypo symptom. When you were diagnosed with hypothyroidism, did they tell you why you had it? Did they test your antibodies? Because if you had/have Autoimmune thyroiditis - aka Hashi's - it is just going to get worse until your thyroid is completely destroyed by the immune system.

Without more detail it would be impossible to say why you reacted to levo so badly, but it was possibly because you just weren't on a high enough dose, which will make you worse, rather than better.

[silverbelle51 in reply to greygoose]

Because taking a thyroid replacement when you have a normally performing thyroid would put your body in a hyperthyroid state! Hypertension was dx after being on Levothyroxine, prior to starting the med my BP and pulse were perfect ( it is in medical literature levothyroxine will elevate BP)! I was dx using a TSH only which I was not given the number and sadly I trusted the doctor instead of trusting my own gut it didn't make sense since I had no physical symptoms of hypothyroid. I was school not to play your own doctor in nursing school. It was an out of the blue diagnosis from an annual PE. The whole time I was on it I exhibited hyperthyroid symptoms and was told I needed to get used to "feeling normal" . Many of the sx I was having disappeared since weening myself off, but I am asking if there maybe residual effects I haven't considered. Sometimes when you are too close to a problem you are blind to what is obvious to others with experience.

[greygoose in reply to silverbelle51]

Yes, I know what you're asking, and I replied.

Taking levo when you don't need it will not put you in a hyper state because your TSH will drop and your thyroid will then stop producing hormone. The levo you take does not add on to what the thyroid is producing, it replaces it.

( it is in medical literature levothyroxine will elevate BP)

Yes, it will - if your hypothyroidism was causing low BP, as it usually does. But, if like me, you have high BP, rather than low, as a hypo symptom, levo will bring it down, normalise it, in fact.

[silverbelle51 in reply to greygoose]

I gather by what you are saying and what I expected is that I would feel good, but I went from feeling good to someone who was on amphetamines and as a retired nurse I do know what I am saying. I also went from have an athletes BP and pulse to and elderly cripple! Trust me I am not exaggerating and I was no whoosh!

[greygoose in reply to silverbelle51]

I don't suppose you are exaggerating. But, thing is, despite what doctors believe, levo doesn't suit everyone. It didn't suit me. It made me very ill - although no doctor would believe it - and NDT had me bed-bound and as fat as a whale! Turned out what I needed was T3 only, my body just didn't like T4.

So, no, not everybody feels good when they start levo. I felt a thousand times worse! I had never suspected I had a thyroid problem - didn't even know what a thyroid was - so I had no expectations when I started levo. But, I went from functioning normally to a depressed, bad-tempered harriden, aching all over and putting weight on at a rate of knots. But, I still don't believe that taking the levo harmed my thyroid - it may have harmed other things, I don't know, but I doubt it. But it didn't have any effect on my thyroid itself.

[silverbelle51 in reply to greygoose]

I am asking questions cause I don't know and have zero confidence that many doctors do either, but it is their job they think to have all the answers and emphatically. What happens when they shut down your thyroid your natural T4 and replace it with a chemical that sends you into hyperthyroid state and tell you "that is "healthy" . If Levo was truly replacing a missing hormone then it wouldn't raise a normal healthy BP. Thank you I do appreciate your post. I really do.

[greygoose in reply to silverbelle51]

You're very welcome.

But, if you take the right amount of levo - it's exactly the same as the T4 produced by your thyroid, by the way, just made in a lab rather than a thyroid- it shouldn't send you hyperthyroid. If you have labs that suggest hyperthyrodism - TSH suppressed, FT4 and FT3 over-range - then you're taking too much. Just taking a modest dose won't do that. But it's impossible to discuss it in more depth without seeing the actual numbers: i.e. results and ranges without levo, and results and ranges on levo.

And, of course, if you were taking too much, it probably would raise your blood pressure. How much were you taking?

But, you're right in that doctors know next to nothing about thyroid and how to treat is, they just think they know everything.

[silverbelle51 in reply to greygoose]

I was taking 50 when first dx and the next year he jacked it up to 75. I felt awful from the get go and felt even worse with the increase and had felt well before it. I know there is something missing and I am not so arrogant to bite my nose off to spite my face, but I am never going back to how I felt ever again on Levo Again thank you

[greygoose in reply to silverbelle51]

You're welcome.

But, 75 mcg is only a small dose. I really think that rather than it making 'hyper', it was just that - like me - you can't tolerate levo. Such a pity you haven't got the numbers, I would love to see them.

If you're told again that you're hypo, ask for NDT and see if that suits you better. Or, like me, T3 only.

[Brightness14]

I can only comment on 5mg Amiodipine which raises the Heart Rate, anyway. I take Hawthorn for slight hypertension. In Germany even the GP's use this too. CCB. Hawthorn works well many use it.

[silverbelle51 in reply to Brightness14]

Good to know . Thank you!