Low heart rate

[pinklady756]

My resting heart rate has always been low, even though taking Levo and TSH comes back very bottom of range 0.5 m, they never check t3 or t4. The last few nights my Apple Watch is waking me in night with an alert that my heart rate drops below 40 for 10 minutes. It’s showing 38/39. The GP says I’m close to being over medicated when I don’t feel I am 🤷🏻‍♀️ surely it would cause opposite with my heart? My blood pressure always low normal but I’m dropping just below that range at the moment and had some wheezing when exercising a couple of days ago. Not sure what to make of it and would like some opinions/advice please. Going to contact GP tomorrow

[bantam12]

Best not to assume it’s thyroid related, ask for some cardiac tests to be done to check heart function.

[pinklady756 in reply to bantam12]

Thanks I’m phoning doctors tomorrow

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing yourself

What replacement thyroid hormones are you taking

Which brand and what dose

what vitamin supplements are you taking

ALWAYS test early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

T3 ….day before test split T3 as 2 or 3 smaller doses spread through the day, with last dose approximately 8-12 hours before test

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins

Post all about what time of day to test

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Medichecks and BH also offer private blood draw at clinic near you, or private nurse to your own home…..for an extra fee

Only do private testing early Monday or Tuesday morning.

Tips on how to do DIY finger prick test

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If you normally take levothyroxine at bedtime/in night ...adjust timings as follows prior to blood test

If testing Monday morning, delay Saturday evening dose levothyroxine until Sunday morning. Delay Sunday evening dose levothyroxine until after blood test on Monday morning. Take Monday evening dose levothyroxine as per normal

IMPORTANT......If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 3-5 days before ALL BLOOD TESTS , as biotin can falsely affect test results

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In days before blood test, when you stop vitamin B complex, you might want to consider taking a separate folate supplement (eg Jarrow methyl folate 400mcg) and continue separate B12 if last test result serum B12 was below 500 or active B12 (private test) under 70

[Shellybrown]

You haven't said what dose you are on? At the times l wasn't on enough, my heart dropped as well Some docs arent well up on tsh being below 1 before some if us feel better.

You need your t3 and your t4 measuring to tell you whats truly happening.

Occasionally sometimes being over medicated can make your heart slow ( as well as speed up)

Could also be your calcium levels - worth checking too as if they are too low your heart will slow too.

Hope you find your answers xx

[Maya13579]

lazy medicine and this approach can potentially make you very very ill. Get your heart checked out but take ‘thyroid’ as the very last explanation. (Speaking somewhat from experience - had cancer but diagnosed before figuring this out with ‘thyroid’ (despite stable and better numbers then before), autoimmune disease (but not 100 per cent sure which one), kidney disease (really not). Once the cancer got treated I got better but left without functioning thyroid and it is driving me mad!!!

[pinklady756]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am on 100mcg levo and results from bloods Monday TSH 0.7 (0.4-5) T4 13 (9-19) Calcium 2.2 (2.2-2.6). GP seems happy with those.

He heard systolic heart murmur and couple of issues with ECG (RBBB which my notes say may be because of ASD repair when I was a child) but there seems to be restricted blood flow so I’m being referred for an echo and to get a holter ecg fitted to wear for 72 hours. I’m now feeling pretty anxious about heart rate and my blood pressure keeps dropping low too, last night I felt a bit faint/lightheaded and it was 85/52. Guess I probably need to keep monitoring this and speak to GP again.

Good job I got it checked out 😬