I also have a very low body temperature, 94.6 when I wake up and usually under 96.8 during the day. Over the last 3 months i'm struggling with severe stomach problems that makes me unable to eat almost nothing, and i'm really underweight at the moment.
My questions are:
do I have hypothyroidism? If so, why is TSH so low? In hypo TSH usually increases.
Could my slow thyroid be the consecuence of starvation?
Or, on the contrary, does the slow thyroid, probabile due to hascimoto, cause me stomach problems? I know that hypothyroidism can cause low stomach acido and slow gastrointestinal transit.
Should I Try a T3 Supplement?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
*Last year I had another thyroid lab test, but unfortunately I lost the documents. I remember I had both high antibodies, low T3, but high TSH. I didn't have any stomach problems at the time. My endo gave me a T4 supplement and I reacted badly: weight gain, chest pain, fatigue, TSH went close to 0 but T3 only went up to the lower edge of the range, so the doctor stopped the T4 integration.
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Maty_82
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I started with 50 mcg t4 and i had to stop 3 months later. I wonder if i would have healed myself if i took T3+t4 instead of only t4.
I have been tested for celiac desease, and i don't have It.
I take a multivitamin daily and i supplement d3 too.
I weight 36kg for 160 cm, it's a very low weight, i lost a lot of weight during the last 3 months because i'm having severe stomach problems. I run every kind of investigation and seen gastroenterologist, but there Is no apparente reason for my problems.
If you have been taking a vitamin supplement that contains B12, ……it hasn’t improved B12 enough…it’s still very low
A trial of strictly gluten free diet is always worth doing
Only 5% of Hashimoto’s patients test positive for coeliac but a further 81% of Hashimoto’s patients who try gluten free diet find noticeable or significant improvement or find it’s essential
A strictly gluten free diet helps or is essential due to gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)
Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and may slowly lower TPO antibodies
Trying gluten free diet for 3-6 months. If no noticeable improvement then reintroduce gluten and see if symptoms get worse
The predominance of Hashimoto thyroiditis represents an interesting finding, since it has been indirectly confirmed by an Italian study, showing that autoimmune thyroid disease is a risk factor for the evolution towards NCGS in a group of patients with minimal duodenal inflammation. On these bases, an autoimmune stigma in NCGS is strongly supported
In summary, whereas it is not yet clear whether a gluten free diet can prevent autoimmune diseases, it is worth mentioning that HT patients with or without CD benefit from a diet low in gluten as far as the progression and the potential disease complications are concerned
Despite the fact that 5-10% of patients have Celiac disease, in my experience and in the experience of many other physicians, at least 80% + of patients with Hashimoto's who go gluten-free notice a reduction in their symptoms almost immediately.
Similarly few months later consider trying dairy free too. Approx 50-60% find dairy free beneficial
Last year my weight was around 46 kg, at that time i gained weight very easy even eating low calories. This year i eat more than last year, but i loose weight like crazy.I'm already on a GF diet dice years, because i find that gluten mess my digestion
B12 Is not my usual number, i'm usually close to the upper range, it's strange to me this low number because i eat a lot of animal proteins (except during these last 3 months)
Dairy are at the moment my only source of proteins, in the last months meat, eggs, vegetal proteins, are all too hard for my stomach. Without dairy i would have and insane low proteins diet. Is this a big problem for haschimoto?
What about a combined T3+T4 therapy? Should i have more benefits than only t4?
Thank you very much for your help, i'm going to read all your links.Understand if my thyroid Is the cause of my stomach problems, would be so much usefull for me. I'm running every kind of test, i meet many gastroenterolist, but nobody can find a cause of my pains. This problem is really changing my life. If thyroid Is causing that, i hope that healing my thyroid will solve this situation
It's not just your FT3 that is low. Your FT4 is also too low. What time of day was the blood draw for this test?
You do indeed have hypothyroidism. But, there could be several reasons for the low-ish TSH. It is not the most reliable form of test for hypo.
Could my slow thyroid be the consecuence of starvation?
It could indeed. Have you been starving yourself? But, if you have had high antibodies in the past, then the most likely cause of your hypothyroidism is autoimmune - Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - as you said.
Hypothyroidism does cause stomach problems, yes. Low stomach acid being one of them.
Should I Try a T3 Supplement?
That would not be the best course of action. You need to see your doctor and try levo again. But T4 and T3 are not 'supplements' in they normal sense of the word. They are thyroid hormone replacements. And in Italy I'm pretty sure you need a doctor's prescription to buy them.
Your last doctor was very wrong to stop your levo and leave you without anything. He should have been looking into why your FT3 didn't rise. It could just have been that you weren't on a high enough dose and/or your low B12 and lowish vit D. (No range for the vit D?) He should have sorted those out first. Do you remember what your FT4 was at that point? It could have been the problem was poor conversion, but without the results and ranges we can't really say.
OK, so it looks like your pituitary is a bit sluggish to have a TSH of 0.1 with those low Frees. And your stupid doctor should have realised that! Your FT4 did go up a bit with levo, but it would take a bit longer for the FT3 to rise - three months is not long in thyroid terms!
Antibodies were over the range, but they were lower than this year exam
That doesn't matter. Antibodies fluctuate all the time, but it is not reflection on the seriousness - or other wise - of the disease. If they are over-range they are positive and that's all you need to know.
So, all in all, you do need to start thyroid hormone replacement again. The problems you had last time were more likely to be exacerbated hypo symptoms rather than side-effects of the levo. It's not unusual to have symptoms get worse in the beginning - or even develop new ones when starting thyroid hormone replacement.
I started with 50 mcg t4 and i had to stop 3 months later. I wonder if i would have healed myself if i took T3+t4 instead of only t4.
Three months is too long to leave someone on a starter dose - your doctor really doesn't know much about thyroid, does he! It should have been increased after 6 to 8 weeks.
You cannot heal yourself with Hashi's. It can only get worse, not better. It's your immune system slowly destroying your thyroid and there is no known way of stopping it. So, don't beat yourself up with that thought. T4 converts into T3, so as your FT4 rises, so should your FT3. It will rise more slowly, but it should keep rising until you are on the right dose of levo for you. And it's highly unlikely that the right dose could ever be 50 mcg. It needs to be continually increased by 25 mcg every 6 to 8 weeks until you reach your 'sweet-spot'.
Many do. Others don't - or don't need it, they're fine on T4 mono-therapy. It all depends how well you convert. Some people are only well on T3 mono-therapy. We're all different and have to find out what we need by trial and error. And, a good place to start is T4 mono-therapy because that will show in blood tests how well you convert.
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