For as long as I can remember I've never been able to gulp down a drink but just accepted it as my normal....it was referred to as "the ( family name) throat". My father, aunts and who knows who else suffered from slow swallowing difficulties....coughing spluttering and choking if we forgot to be careful!
Sitting drinking a cup of coffee just now and pondering on the possibilities I began to question this for the first time....definitely been slow on the uptake!!
Yet again lots of dots to be joined up!!
Anyway, over to the search engine....and the following....
There are several reasons for slowed reflexes in hypothyroidism. One of the main reasons for this is the reduced metabolic rate caused by the lack of thyroid hormones! BINGO!!
Hypothyroidism (and hyperthyroidism) can affect nerve function related to swallowing.!
Dysphagia/ swallowing difficulties in hypothyroidism is usually reported with structural thyroid disease, which can cause dysphagia through pressure effect from the underlying enlarged goiter or secondary to lingual thyroid.
It has been shown that macroglossia/ swollen tongue in hypothyroidism is caused by a thickening of the epithelial tissue. These changes can also explain the choking and the dysphagia which the patient experienced. Dysphagia is also an unusual symptom of hypothyroidism.
It has been shown that macroglossia in hypothyroidism is caused by a thickening of the epithelial tissue. These changes can also explain the choking and the dysphagia which this patient experienced. Dysphagia is also an unusual symptom of hypothyroidism.
NHS Inform do not list hypothyroidism as a possible cause of dysphagia!!
So perhaps this has been another hidden clue to my apparently lifelong thyroid condition... a form of Thyroid Hormone Resistance.
This "dot" joins others which have led me along a trail from barely functioning to very much improved health.
It's that "voice" over my shoulder, put there by my father, which keeps asking, " Why?"
"Why?" has led me to this point, and now, focussed on today's rant my coffee has gone cold...must go and switch the kettle on again.
Keep asking "Why?"everyone ....sometimes the answer lies in the bottom of a coffee cup!!
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DippyDame
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I guess it all boils down to the fact that for good health every cell in the body needs to be constantly flooded with adequate T3.
Yes me too, it's getting worse especially when I feel my T3 has dropped....I just didn't connect it until now. Doh!!
Most likely the result of a lifetime of low (cellular) T3.
I think the only place medics could "send me" to is a padded cell....where I could hit my head against the wall in frustration at the way thyroid patients are treated!!
Yes, couldn't agree more... banging head against... indeed, madness!
Seriously, this drying throat, THAT coughing = eyes streaming until face purple, wondered for so long. Yes, along with so many other things. THANK YOU so much.
hi read your post and I also have the same issues! I spoke to a gastroenterologist recently who has recommended I have an endoscope (this Saturday) and has written on my letter dysphagia. I cough during meals sometimes feeling I’m choking and drink lots of water to help with that. Be interesting if they join up the dots as i did inform them of my hypothyroidism.
Diogenes once explained to me, in much more erudite terms than mine, that sometimes the symptoms/ damage done by low T3 can no longer be resolved with medication.
I think I've reached that point and it's now damage limitation!!
Good luck for the gastro appointment....would be interested to hear how that goes
Gastro after a scan showed a scatzki ring, not heard of that before! Oesophagus reducing in size by an inner ring. Thought I’d let you know. Unsure at present what the treatment is if any.
that was interesting - recently been reading about this as I have had an episode of swollen tongue/swallowing issues. yes joining dots- lightbulb moments continue. I will keep asking WHY?🙂
I wonder if you have or had slow ankle reflexes too? I likely still have like I still have most my other symptoms but doubt my endo would ever check now I see him on nhs. That's what nailed my diagnosis 13 years ago when I use to see him privately.I also have swollen tongue which I posted about a few weeks ago. It's sat outside my teeth as I write 😂 . Also I wonder if my slow breathing rate and below normal oxygen levels are caused by all this. Hoping to get my resting metabolic rate tested to see how bad my metabolism is. Another thing I find strange is my shbg levels are low considering the amount of t3 I'm on.
Not like anyone would take me seriously in nhs about any of that. I don't mention any of it so not to embarrass myself when they'd roll their eyes.
I have to say I have a good endo though, knows I've taken large doses in the past and monitors me. He's ok that I dose only once but would rather I split it but after 13 years of me trying he knows I can't. He prescribes the doses I need, I'm really lucky but don't know how long it will last.
I know I have some type of resistance but know it will never be recognised in the nhs.
That really does explain a lot! My mum used to choke (alarmingly) quite a lot for no apparent reason and I have been experiencing the same lately. Definitely not much fun, especially when you’re also suffering from breathlessness (diagnosed and treated as asthma) and you can’t really get a forceful cough to bring it back up!
As to coffee going cold whilst having a rant (mine used to go cold while I got stuck into a particularly intricate bit of artwork) I now have the perfect solution… get one of these and it keeps it hot, without stewing, for at least a couple of hours! Got this one from 4Ocean which contributes to removing some plastic trash from the oceans, but you can get them from Amazon too! 😊
DippyDame I'm so glad you posted this👍My experience before being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (graves) i could swollow anything whole paracetamol / tablets ect,.. Never suffered from any throat or swollowing.
It took my surgery over 18 months to Diagnose me with hyperthyroidism and in that time I developed awful symptoms while eating, I first noticed I couldn't swollow any tablets, they kept getting stuck and no matter how much liquid I swollowed with them they always slid back up and I vomited them back.
I had to take to cutting them up into smaller pieces in order to be able to get them down.
The food started doing the same, I vividly remember even today, I'd got some steak, I cooked the meal and sat watching the TV... I chewed the meat as normal when I swollowed, it went part way down then got stuck, I took a drink and the liduid sat on to of the food causing a dam effect.
I was chocking it didn't matter how much I tried swollowing it wouldn't budge, I ran to the kitchen and gagging I vomited the drink back but the meat was still stuck, I placed my fingers down my throat and my gag reflex eventually released it and I vomited it back.
Needless to say the rest of the meal went in the bin, this continued on and my gp said it was GERD.
Now when I got my diagnosis of hyperthyroidism which turned out to be graves thyrotoxicosis I needed the thyroid removed and thought the thyroid was the cause of the choking... so thyroid removed I thought this would be over... But no I still suffer greatly with it, I've had to change my diet now and only have mushy foods or I cut chicken / meat into very small pieces.
I still struggle with tablets and have a cutting tool to help.
But recently I spoke to my surgeon in Liverpool as a peice of thyroid tissue as been found in my left thyroid bed which is vascular, I asked if my swollowing troubles could be linked to it, and lately I've been having what I can only say is waking up with a choking sensation which is frightening and I feel it's interfering with my breathing at night.
She told me the bit of thyroid (1 and a half cm) would have no such effect on those things and swollowing difficulties, I may have sleep apnea and should inform my gp.
It's weird though because if we get but a small peanut stuck in our throat it feels like a boulder.
I would say DippyDame I feel like I've lost the muscle strength to swollow😕
Another thing I'd mention is my dear mother was dying of MND and she began to have trouble swollowing food, she to felt like she was choking (muscle wastage) I took to massageing her throat to help her swollow but eventually she was put on a liquid diet.
So in conclusion it's not always the thyroid if in tact that can cause swollowing difficulties but the throat muscles themselves.... Perhaps 🤔
Yeah I mean low T3 causing muscle problems, after all we know the importance of T3 in the body,... But in my case my T3, T4 was sky high in hyper, but that doesn't necessarily mean it only happens when hypo, as I had it during hyper and now hypo... (Probably very hypo now due to not taking any thyroid medication 🙄(you know my previous posts) but I'm still having the swollowing problems 🤷.Yep more questions than answers DippyDame👍
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