help required

[Hypnic]

dear all. I think I’ve been hypo for many years, but only reached the desired disease stage about 5 years ago when the docs finally put me on Levo. They never mentioned hashimotos or autoimmune disease. It took a naturopath in USA to put me on the right path. I didn’t fair well on Levo at all, and wasn’t till I started nature-thyroid that I felt any better. I take selenium and zinc daily to help T4-T3 conversion but feel I still need the ndt. I have been doing blood tests with Medichecks to check my levels and they suggest I see a doctor- fat chance they are useless. Can’t get nature-throid now so on np-thyroid ndt 1/2 gr daily with 50levo daily. Still feel easily fatigued, dry cough, heartburn, dry skin, poor memory and concentration etc. I’m 59 now and had menopause to contend with as well. I prefer to treat things naturally where possible.

I have never had a thyroid scan, I’ve never seen an endocrinologist. My latest doctor (they keep leaving the surgery) told me they ‘know nothing about thyroid’ and that was it end of consultation!

I’m looking for an endocrinologist well versed in hashimotos disease that believes in T3 and that Levo is not the only solution.

Can anyone recommend their consultant?

Thanks.

[SarahJane1471]

Morning….. and welcome. If you go on the ThyroidUK website there is a list of private/NHS endocrinologists that will help you.Also if you post your results on here and ask questions you will get replies from people who know a GREAT deal more than the majority of specialists 🙂

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to SarahJane1471]

There’s a list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologists and doctors …only available by email from Thyroid U.K.

[SarahJane1471 in reply to SlowDragon]

I realised my mistake as soon as I read your post 😀🤦‍♀️

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Welcome to the forum

Can you add your most recent thyroid and vitamin results

Always test thyroid levels early morning, ideally before 9am and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

Day before test split NDT into 2 or 3 smaller doses spread through the day and last dose approx 8-12 hours before test

Ideally get all four vitamins tested and optimal before booking consultation

Have you had coeliac blood test done

Are you on strictly gluten free diet or dairy free diet

Roughly where in U.K. are you

Email Thyroid U.K. for list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologist and doctors

[e-mail]

[humanbean]

I prefer to treat things naturally where possible.

This is something that often gets mentioned.

A healthy thyroid in a healthy body produces 100% of the thyroxine (T4) in the body, and about 20% of the T3 in the body. The other 80% of the T3 required is produced by converting T4 into T3 in other tissues, such as liver, kidneys, gut...

Someone with thyroid disease which is making them hypothyroid (usually) has a thyroid which has been damaged by the immune system. It can't be undamaged. You can't reverse what has happened.

So, treatment for hypothyroidism involves taking levothyroxine to replace what the thyroid can no longer produce. Doctors assume that patients can produce all the T3 they need by conversion from T4. This is true for some people, but there is quite a large minority of patients who can't do the conversion from T4 to T3 very well. Since T3 is the active hormone required by every cell in the human body, having too low a level makes people feel hypothyroid (i.e. underactive) and too much T3 makes people feel hyperthyroid (i.e. overactive).

One of the effects of hypothyroidism is to reduce the production of stomach acid. This leads to the gut being poor at extracting nutrients from food, and the body being less able to absorb nutrients. This is why so many of us end up with very low levels of nutrients.

For the body to convert T4 to T3 it needs good levels of nutrients. Changing diet to make sure it is nutrient dense is good, but in many of us absorption of nutrients is so poor that we have no choice but to take supplements.

So, wanting to treat thing naturally is a laudable goal, but for most of us it isn't really achievable.