I had an episode of very high blood pressure on Monday 210/129 & the gp sent me to a&e - who took my bp said it was fine and sent me home with no meds and a warning not to start meds as it was probably a one off
I wonder if messing about with my levothyroxine is causing it
My results were very low in September & the gp wanted me to drop fron 50 to 25 and I said I'd rather wait 12 weeks and retest....she grudging agreed - I was feeling pretty good/well and had lots of energy
3/4 weeks later I started getting a few odd symptoms of hyperthyroidism so I dropped to 25 within 2 weeks I was tired again and my pain increased then I had this episode of high blood pressure!
My bp isn't stable currently it can range from 119/57 to 169/97 in less than 10 mins but has only been that high twice (on Monday)
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KatyMac68
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High blood pressure can be a hypo symptom, in which case what is needed is an increase in dose, not BP medication. Sounds like your GP doesn't have a clue what she's doing! 25 mcg is only half a starter dose, nobody can live on that. And she is dosing by the TSH, which is 100% wrong. The TSH is unreliable and a very bad indicator of thyroid status. You were right to refuse to reduce to 25 mcg, and you should continue to refuse. And she should know that it's her that is causing your high blood pressure. Is there another doctor you can see that might actually know something about thyroid? Because this one will never make you well, I'm afraid, only worse.
No I meant I've done my best to change it 😆 if I hadn't left the first bit in it would have confused me if I was reading it!! So I just added a bit but it looks clunky (which stresses me a bit but whatever!!)
Hi KatyMac There are some heart related papers in this post, and some listed in a reply at the end , so hopefully you might find something of use in here :
So I saw the gp, she was only discussing the high BP
She checked my eyes and ears and throat and I have a symptomless ear infection so got drops
She refused to comment on my lumps (under my chin and below the ear (the side without an infection) just saying it would be good to get a scan and they weren't necessarily connected to the cough/hoarse voice I've had for 2 yrs+
& I'm getting a 24 hrs bp monitor and an ecg (again)
Overt and subclinical hyper- and hypothyroidism can both lead to (mostly mild) hypertension; however, the underlying mechanisms are only partially understood.
Atherosclerotic changes resulting from lipid abnormalities due to thyroid dysfunction also affect the vasculature and can cause elevated blood pressure.
Elevated diastolic blood pressure is present in ~30% of patients with overt hypothyroidism. Cardiac contractility and output decreases leading to a narrowed pulse pressure. In hypothyroidism renin release is decreased with an increased salt sensitivity. The consequent renal sodium reabsorption leads to an expansion of blood volume by 5.5%
Although they talk about overt hypothyroidism, I would say this would still apply to patients that receive too little thyroid hormones, although their results say 'normal'.
If you are on only 50mcg levothyroxine, your will be symptomatic as a result of your low thyroxine hormones to go with it.
The normal replacement level for adults is 1.6 mcg per kg of body weight, which means a person weighing 63 kg should receive around 100 mcg levothyroxine. Unless you are very petite, you will defo need an increase.
Here is a link to the NICE guidelines you could cite to her, even she cannot ignore prescribing guidelines:
Likely low vitamin levels having been left on inadequate dose levothyroxine
approx how much do you weigh in kilo
Even if we frequently start on only 50mcg, most people need to increase levothyroxine dose slowly upwards in 25mcg steps (retesting 6-8 weeks after each increase) until eventually on, or somewhere near full replacement dose (typically 1.6mcg levothyroxine per kilo of your weight per day)
Adults usually start with a dose between 50 micrograms and 100 micrograms taken once a day. This may be increased gradually over a few weeks to between 100 micrograms and 200 micrograms taken once a day.
Some people need a bit less than guidelines, some a bit more
TSH should be under 2 as an absolute maximum when on levothyroxine
If symptoms of hypothyroidism persist despite normalisation of TSH, the dose of levothyroxine can be titrated further to place the TSH in the lower part of the reference range or even slightly below (i.e., TSH: 0.1–2.0 mU/L), but avoiding TSH < 0.1 mU/L. Use of alternate day dosing of different levothyroxine strengths may be needed to achieve this (e.g., 100 mcg for 4 days; 125 mcg for 3 days weekly).
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No diagnosis but an Endo referral 
Graves, thyroidectomy, fluctuating high blood pressure
Any advice would be appreciated
BP Results
