General Medicine

» 2late4bed - understanding test results

Hello, I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism since the age of 11 years old. I went from a very skinny energetic normal kid to a very fat, sleeping almost nonstop kid almost overnight. My skin was cracked like alligator skin, hair dry with horrible large flaking scalp dandruff that wouldn't stop. I talked very slow and moved very slow. I was always cold and barely ate anything at all. My mouth was very dry and I had no saliva. I, too, have Hashimoto's as does my sister who developed the disease much later in life. My mother had a goiter removed when she was pregnant with me and seemed in every respect from common symptoms to be "hyper-thyroid" even after surgery. I am now 41 years old and have been researching everthing I possibly can about thyroid disease due to the fact that I am having increasing symptoms--new ones that I never suspected of contributing to my thyroid condition. My advice to you is to please, please get off of the levothyroxin medication. You will never feel well or completely alleviate your symptoms with this medication and this is why.....Levothyroxine is only a T4 medication. It is replacing your T4 hormone ONLY, which is probably why your T4 level is high. The active hormone which is the only one that gives you energy and is used for all bodily functions is T3. Most Hashimoto sufferers are very low in the T3 hormone which is not supplied by levothyroxine. The idea behind treating hypothyroidism with T4 only medication is the fact that T4 is normally converted into T3. A small amount of T3 is actually produced by your thyroid but mostly it is converted from T4. Well, the majority of Hashimoto sufferers have difficulty converting T4 into T3. The lack of T3 is what produces all of your symptoms in the first place, not the lack of T4 or the overproduction of TSH. There are drugs available that supply T4 and T3 hormones. The lab tests that are most important to you now that you know you have antibodies are the "free T4 and free T3" levels. The free T3 and free T4 levels should be above the middle range. It does not matter is the levels fall into the so called "normal" lab values range--your symptoms will not go away and you will not feel healthy until they are in the upper half of the range. I was started on Thyrolar when I was 11 years old and the difference was amazing. I grew 4 inches and lost ALL of the weight I had gained very quickly. I started talking much faster and all of my symptoms disappeared. I remained "healthy" until I moved and went to a new doctor that I didn't like and he insisted that Thyrolar was for kids and Synthroid (brand name for levothyroxine) was for adults---that is so not true! Synthroid is a T4 only drug and thyrolar was a T4 and T3 combo drug. I noticed the difference right away but didn't know what to do as I would never argue with the Doctor...after all, he's the Doctor, right?? Well, many years later and many, many dosage increases due to symptoms and very, very high TSH levels, I have finally begun educating myself as much as possible and I am shocked at all of the things I am experiencing that I continued to rationalize was either old age or some other problem but never suspected my thyroid....such as difficulty swallowing--a very distinct feeling that something is stuck in my throat. Joint pain--excruciating pain in my hands, hips, knees, ankles....like I'm 80 years old or something. Feeling like I've taken about 5 sleeping pills every afternoon to the point that I fall asleep sitting up sometimes. Normal cardio workouts after only a few minutes send my heart rate over 200 bpm and I can't breathe and I can't recover for 15 or 20 minutes--not the usual "that got my heart pumping" reaction after exercise---I'm saying literally thinking I was going to pass out from my heart beating out of my chest and can't breath for several minutes afterward. I have never been a stranger to long strenuous exercise routines but in the last few months it actually makes me ill. I have always been very health conscious and follow a very healthy diet--this is not normal. PLEASE....you can find some very, very important information that will explain everything you need to know at www.stopthethyroidmadness.com. It is a wonderful website that supports sufferers. There are also a number of very helpful books available. Patient advocate Mary Shoman has written several books on the subject and has a very good website at www.thyroid-info.com and at www.about.com under the search "thyroid". I hope this helps. Good luck!

-- posted by 2late4bed