Overmedication causing High BP?

[OudMood]

maybe some of you remember my post from December where my private blood tests showed that I was likely over medicated after switching from Teva to Accord on same dose.

I also posted some months prior that I was worried as I was having headaches stemming from my eyes and they very swollen and painful.

I also had VERY high blood pressure (average of 150+/125) for months.

Was meant to retest with GP if I’m actually suppressed and then reduce Levo if I was.

GP cancelled appt, so I’ve gone ahead and simply reduced the Levo to 75mcg of accord by splitting my tablets manually into quarters and taking 3 quarters daily to avoid fluctuations.

And wouldn’t you know it I almost immediately felt better. It’s now been about a month and I’ve never had swollen eyes/headache not even once.

I tested my BP last week and my cuff wasn’t strangling my arm? (Thought that’s… weird…) and was normal-ish???? Like 125/90. Was shocked and said I haven’t seen numbers like that in months… well actually years as usually have high BP at the GP/hospital.

Have tested tonight just for giggles and was 119/80 and 10mins later 109/85??? Excuse me? 😏😮

So it clicked.

Can it be the Levothyroxine causing such high blood pressure?

Will continue testing to make sure it stays but OMG.

Will not test until very end of February to allow 12 weeks on new dose and see if my TSH is not suppressed anymore and FT3 is not back within range (was over).

[SlowDragon Administrator]

and make sure to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 levels too

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test 

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options and money off codes

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off down to £26.10 if go on thyroid uk for code

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

monitormyhealth.org.uk/

Monitor My Health also now offer thyroid and vitamin testing, plus cholesterol and HBA1C for £65 

(Doesn’t include thyroid antibodies) 

monitormyhealth.org.uk/full...

10% off code here 

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Only do private testing early Monday or Tuesday morning. 

Watch out for postal strikes, probably want to pay for guaranteed 24 hours delivery 

[OudMood in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you Slowdragon,

I have these tested approx every 6 months or so.

I had them checked all in summer and were all in the upper quartile of range, so very high within functional range and I’m supplementing the rest.

[GlowCoach Administrator]

It would have been good to test with GP before changing your dose. High blood pressure has many many causes so did you have any symptoms of what could have been over replacement? Also blood pressure can change and I have whats called labile hypertension so mine comes and goes. Have to say that since adding T3 my BP has gone down.

Levo itself won't cause high BP, there are many other factors but not enough would cause your BP to either drop or go high. I've had some wild high BP readings when hypo.

The 'stranging arm' effect I always get when my BP is high. I got really cross with a young GP once who told me it couldnt possibly hurt to have your BP taken. She had no clue!!

[OudMood in reply to GlowCoach]

I know.. but my GP offers very little appts at 8am and it would have meant that I would have had to wait at least a month maybe two (I still haven’t found an 8am appt) to test feeling crappy and thought the worse case scenario is simply that I discover that 75 is too small of a dose. It wasn’t risky as my results were as follows:

MMH Results: 14/12/2022

Levo= 100mcg Accord

TSH: <0.01 mU/l (Range 0.27 - 4.2) -6.62%

FT4: 29.9 pmol/l (Range 12 - 22) 179.00%

FT3: 9 pmol/l (Range 3.1 - 6.8) 159.46%

(I followed the testing protocol to the T)

The GP would have freaked out and very likely changed dose drastically. I wanted the option of monitoring it myself without having someone on my back panicking..

I’ll look into the Labile hypertension and see what’s happenening.

[Brightness14 in reply to GlowCoach]

The only times that I have had my BP taken correctly is by my old French GP she always tested both arms. My appointments were always 3/4 of an hour. She tapped knees, and ankles check ears, eyes, mouth temp etc.etc. At first I had a good giggle but after years of expert care and attention I miss her now that she has retired. I am pleased that you are feeling better.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

OudMood

Have tested tonight just for giggles and was 119/80 and 10mins later 109/85??? Excuse me?

That is quite normal. From time to time I'm doing BP readings for doctor and the advice is

1) Sit quietly with cuff on arm for 10 minutes or so before starting to do readings.

2)Take BP and discard first reading.

3) Take BP 3 more times (they're rarely exactly the same and can differ by a few points which is why we do number 4 below)

4) Take average of the last 3 readings.

I'm doing readings at the moment and I've found that it's very common for the first, discarded one to be 10 points systolic higher than the other three.

[OudMood in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you SeasideSusie, I’ll try and follow the above.

Just to clarify..I was surprised at the readings not because of the difference between them, but because 1) the cuff wasn’t strangling my arm anymore and 2) because they were very normal not 160 for the systolic!

But I think I’ll have to keep monitoring this. As

What I’ve noticed now is all the good readings are at night/evening.

Now I had many more averaging 161/118 🤷🏼‍♀️ god knows what’s going on!

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to OudMood]

What I’ve noticed now is all the good readings are at night/evening.

So are mine. I was told by my GP to try and keep to a routine, same time of day each time. So I try to do around 10am and 10pm. Here's some typical ones

1) 10.20am Avg 128/75 .......... 10pm Avg 108/60

2) 10.15am Avg 135/81 .......... 10pm Avg 120/68

3) 10.25am Avg 146/86 .......... 10.15pm Avg 119/71

So quite a difference.

[OudMood in reply to SeasideSusie]

I’ve read that readings in the morning are quite elevated due to cortisol and adrenaline if it’s close to wake up time.

I think I just had coffee when I took the readings so that might have skewed the results slightly but I’m not sure.

I’ll try to test 3 times a day an hour or so after waking up, mid day and night time and see if there’s a pattern.

Quite worried as my values tend to be very close to the “danger” zone for both systolic and diastolic, more so the diastolic close to 130 😵‍💫