Stress - thyroid weight connection

[Sofie007]

I’m on levo + cytomel for a year and feel ok if I stick to a healthy , mostly glutenfree diet. But I notice that when I go through periods of high stress my weight goes up suddenly and my body seems to swell overnight. I find it really strange, never had that before. Is there an explanation ?

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

To work effectively a gluten free diet needs to be 100% strict, no point otherwise.

2 months ago you needed a dose increase. Did that happen?

When hypo we get low stomach acid which means we cannot absorb vitamins well from our food, regardless of a great diet. For thyroid hormone to work well we need OPTIMAL levels of vitamins. Have you recently or could you ask your GP to test levels of ferritin, folate, B12 & D3?

I believe stress can reduce T4 to T3 conversion so getting both thyroid replacement and vitamins to OPTIMAL is very important.

[Sofie007 in reply to Jaydee1507]

Jaydee , thank you for the reply. I did try to increase, but with levo i feel best at 75mcg and an increase in cytomel makes me feel very spacey, can’t sleep, and more weight gain. I will test my vitamins and maybe look for a cortisol test. 👣

[Jazzw]

Cortisol. In a word. It has a lot to answer for!

It’s probably a big part of the reason why there’s a rising obesity problem—we’re probably more stressed now that at any other time in human history.

[Sofie007 in reply to Jazzw]

Thanks Jazzw, yes I was thinking the same thing.. waw. After I tried to increase my T3 I was very stressed and after that i blew up like a balloon 😁.

[Libibard]

I get this phenomenon when I'm nervous about an event. It's maddening. This happened only yesterday when I was going out & yet this morning my weight had settled back and the 'rolls' had disappeared .

When I lived in France, up to 18 months ago, my weight often see-sawed & I had several changes in the strength of tablet prescribed. The doctor said that it was gas accumulating. I've never understood why I wasn't on 100 micrograms all the time as I'd had my thyroid surgically removed ! I'm now back on 100 micrograms but still get this phenomenon in advance of something that I'm nervous about.

I've no idea why - not much help I know - but it's interesting to hear that I'm not alone in this.

[HopefulMe23]

I also get swelling of my face, so from one day to another it looks like I have gained or lost significantly from my face although the scales may not have changed. I have always had this and not really sure why it happens, but I have started a gluten free diet and I have also started a diary with what I have eaten to track how this affects my mental health, physical ailments etc. it might be worth considering this to see if you can correlate the swelling with any particular foods, meds, supplements etc.