I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto. Every where I read it is controlled with Armour or some kind of thyroid medicine. I have tried Armour and Synthroid and Levethroxin and have had no change in my leves. One is suppose to be a 4 and mine is a 7 and one is suppose to be less than 9 and mine is greater than 900.
What happens when it us uncontrollable with Medicine?
Hello Margaret:
My name is Shelly and I am a nurse and live in the USA. I have had Hashimoto's thyroid disease since 1987. I am 54.
Hashimoto's disease is caused by antibodies in the body that slowly attack the gland and render it useless over a period of time. It can be caused by Epstein-Barr Virus also known as Mononucleosis. It can also be a family trait. It can be passed down and skip a generation. It is a bit sneaky as symptoms do not come allat once.
some symptoms are: weight gain, feeling cold, hair loss, feeling depressed, low heart rate, being tired, no period or infrequent ones, dry skin, brittle nails, constipation and there is more these are common ones.
It does hit women more than men and normally in the ages of 20-40 yrs. old. The thyroid makes 4 hormones but for this conversation we are only going to talk about T4 and T3. A normal (non diseased) thyroid makes a hormone T4 and then through the thyroid it converts it to what they call "useable T3" and the body uses T3 in all of the cells and it provides you with energy and helps other organs.
As to meds: I did years on Synthroid with no progress in my TSH level. I tried Thyrolar and then Armour Thyroid. Armour did work but what took me many of years to find out was I can't convert T4 into T3. It took me from 1987 to about 2009 to find out about the NON-Converting of the hormone in me. I am now on just T3 called cytomel (liothyronine) which works on me.
If you had Hashimoto's for a while you may have damage in the gland and that is why you can't convert T4 into T3. There are many of us like this. So you need to talk with your doctor and get this problem fixed. You may ask for your MD to try just T3 only.
It can be controlled with meds, as I am 54 and still living...LOL. You need to TRY different meds. They have many on the market. A lot of this is Trial & Error, because we are all so different someof us are on Armour and some are on Levo, and some are on Cytomel. So you may want to tell your doctor about the converting problem. There are many of posts on this on this forum, so look at what others have done.
I hope this helps and if you have any questions, just ask, glad to help if I can,
Shelly
Hello margaret, I'd like to add to Shelley's very comprehensive reply to say:
I'm sure you will get to the point where your levels are controlled. It takes time and trial and error.
I don't wish to assume incorrectly what your blood test results relate to. It would help if for each test, you post: the name of the test; the result; the range for it.
Are you aware you need to take your thyroid meds an hour before food or 4 hours afterwards?
And you need to avoid medications containing iron and calcium within 4 hours?
I find it easiest to keep my thyroid tablets beside my bed, wake up an hour early, take them, then go back to sleep.
It's worth getting the levels of other vitamins and minerals checked as these affect how well the thyroid meds are absorbed (and the thyroid levels affect how well the vitamins and minerals are absorbed).
Have you had your iron and ferritin levels checked? Ferritin needs to be > 90 to absorb thyroxine (T4) properly. Also get vitamin B12 and vitamin D levels checked as low levels of both of these can make you feel awful.
It's also worth looking into supplements to support your thyroid. Take a good multivitamin - one that includes selenium.
Foods that impede thyroid function are soya, wheat and milk, so eat these in moderation. Some people with hypothyroidism become allergic to these.
Like Shelley, I have found out my body is not doing the next bit of the process very well, that of converting T4 to T3 (it took me 23 years to find out!). It is worth asking your doctor to test T3 as well as TSH and T4, to see if this is the case for you too. Ask for a copy of your blood test results and look to see whether:
1) T3 is in range or
2) the relative positionï of each result within its range. For example, if T4 is middle of its range, T3 should also be in the middle of its range.
Good luck, I hope you feel better soon.
it took me 10 years to get better levels in my thyroxine,its a long process it dosnt happen over night ,ive been hypothyroid,fybromyalgia,cronic fatigue syndrome for 24 years on levodidnt help so i changed to ndt been on these 2 weeks and feeling much better apart from the pain still got this,ive looked up medi check to get blood tests done hoping this helps as doctors think giving me a pill makes it all go away this isnt the case plus i had to buy my ndt as doctors in the uk dont supply them neither do they do the major blood work. karen