Long covid and hypothyroidism.

[celticlady]

Being referred to long covid clinic with all the symptoms :short of Breath fatigue, dizzy, tachycardia, faint feeling. Is anyone else going through this and finding thyroid issues either lower or higher TSH? Mine was 0.52 recently but previously has been 1.1/0.72.

[Obsdian]

Lots of people suffering from long covid find they have developed POTS or other forms of dysautonomia. Worth asking about while you wait on your referral.

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Do you have an FT4 & FT3 result? TSH really doesnt tell us much at all. Get a private test if GP wont test full thyroid function.

How are your vitamin levels - ferritin, folate, B12 & D3?

POTS or dysautonomia is fairly common alongside hypo and covid has triggered POTS in many people. It might be worth looking into POTS as a separate issue, not sure how good the long covid clinics are with it.

[celticlady in reply to Jaydee1507]

Thank you. Never had dysautonomia before covid. Trying to keep the 2 separate at the moment as so much going on with post covid! results last year similar to the many bloods this year. Ft4 20.1 (12-22) Ft3 4.1(3.1-6.8) F Not anaemic but results: HB 141 Fer 60 Tsat 27 HOLOTC 144. Taking all supps B12 spray vit d3 5000 etc. Folate sample from private clinic was degraded so not paying another £60 for that. Had full blood count at gp and hospital all ok. Vit D last year 71 nmol. Been supplementing since then. Hope the LC clinic can come up with some good meds recommendations but being hypothroid has probs exacerbated my post covid immune stuff, or maybe just getting old-68!! PS yes my t3 could be a bit higher but in all my 10 years I've nevr been referred to endocrinologist, he just saw my results years ago and said ft4 was too high average is 14. No further referral unlees private. Already paid ENT who was convinced it was vestibular imvalance, virus driven.

[Judithdalston]

I am a long standing hypothyroid diabetic , and have had Long Covid for 4 1/2 + years with high BP/HR, breathlessness, no sense of smell, dysautonomia ( diagnosis from tilt table test specialist of postural hypotension) etc. I have had periods concentrating on my hypothyroid, or diabetic stats, but not found any obvious difference with now and pre covid ones. However have had long disagreement with GP who, despite the PH diagnosis, insists the high HR was due to ‘overmedication of Levothyroxine’. I have been on 100 mcg levo.with 15 mcg T3 ( private endo.prescription) for 7 years. Fortunately an NHS endo. I saw last week , who has a particular interest in thyroid and cardiovascular problems, said ‘no, not thyroid hormones’ creating high HR, but Long Covid most likely. I don’t know where you live, or the quality of the LC clinic you have been referred to, but if like mine 3 years ago it was run by physiotherapists simply teaching sufferers about how to breathe, with no link to other specialists like cardio’s.or even respiratory drs. I had to get referred to specialists separately to get likes of ecgs, echocardiogram, 24 hour Holter monitor, chest X-rays, respiratory tests etc…nothing found, so just released back to GP who had me on 5 different hypertensives…perhaps not surprising I was collapsing. I DIY a NASA lean test I thought I had PoTS, which later I found wrongly. Thus I did my homework and found a dysautonomia expert to get referred to. Have you looked at PoTS UK website,has a map of clinics, though very out of date, as most were closed, but good place to start off and ring them up to check if they do tilt table tests? A excellent site to look at is Stopfainting.com, run by London cardio Boon Lim, with lots of links, on recent research/ treatment/ tips etc. Perhaps you just need some T3 to help repair the body….

[celticlady in reply to Judithdalston]

Thank you. I am referred to a long covid clinic and am on various forums re info re dysautonomia which causes many of my problems. Taking an antihistamine but need more meds; ketotifen, h1 and h2 blockers...long list. Facebook have a good community also Reddit (covid longhaulers). Lots of anecdotals which is what we need re meds as docs still working it out. Will update if any joy at LC clinic!