Is anyone here hypothyroid?

[helderheid]

I was officially diagnosed today and put on Armour Thyroid.

[Jane Austin]

1. That's a good one because it contains T3 which Synthroid doesn't have.

n/t

[Lerkfish]

2. heading in a similar direction, I think...

just had an ultrasound, and my nodules are getting larger. doctor visit next week, though he's spoken in the past of removal.

probably doesn't help you any

[Duppers]

6. nodules

My husband just had his thyroid removed because of some nodules. We at first thought the total thyroidectomy was unnecessary, until the pathology came back: CANCER! We were shocked.
So, please don't delay in getting proper attention for those nodules.

Best of luck to ya.

[Lerkfish]

8. thanks, I'm a cancer survivor, so I don't delay on these things.

had testicular cancer surgery in '85

but your advice is well spoken, and perhaps will help someone else who happens upon this thread.

[helderheid]

3. It's comforting knowing I'm not alone.

I am exhausted, I put on weight very quickly and have been fighting to get it off with very little success, my skin is dry, my nails are brittle, and my hair is falling out. You can see why depression would be a side effect! :) This has been going on since my son was about 7 months old (I was 110 pounds then - suddenly after my periods returned, in the span of about 3 months I had gained 20 pounds and over the years gained an additional 40 pounds - I have lost about 25 pounds but that is working out 2-3 hours a day and eating nothing over the span of a year). I pray this is the answer for me!

[uppityperson]

5. here's a website I used a lot when first diagnosed, etc.

http://thyroid.about.com/health/thyroid/mlibrary.htm

[uppityperson]

4. I am and fought to get on generic Armour rather than synthetic

"Natural thyroid isn't well regulated enough and the dosage can vary too much so we'll put you on this synthetic stuff". Which works for some folks but not me. 1 piece of advice, make sure you get the same brand at refills (if Armour, that is the brand) if it is generic brand since they can vary.

(I have cats competing for under the chin while I type time)

[helderheid]

7. thanks - I got the generic and will request I don't next time!

[uppityperson]

16. Think you misunderstood, I take generic and it is fine and cheap

Just make sure you get the same brand generic each time as each brand is different. I take brand (for example) "D". When I reorder, I make sure to remind them to give me brand "D", not brand "C" or "Armour". I don't know that there is anything better about Armour brand but they were the first and the term is used like Kleenex for noseblowing tissue. If the brand you are on isn't right, then change, but stay on the same brand at refills, whatever it is.

Go ahead and get generic, just make sure it is the same brand each refill.

I buy 100 at a time, pay for them myself ($11) to have some on hand and because insuranc would charge $10/30 so why not. I switched off synthetics because I started having very odd allergy symptoms, turns out I was reacting to the fillers (the medicine part of the pill is small, so they bulk it out with something to make it big enough, this is what I was reacting to).

When I got on the generic natural thyroid, I felt closer to how I used to when healthy than I had for yrs. Not the same, but tolerable.

[helderheid]

11. hoorah! The pharmacy agreed to take back my generic and to give me

brand named Armour Thyroid! :)

[alittlelark]

9. I have Hashimotos Thyroid

http://www.night-sweats-no-more.com/hashimotos-disease.html


I am currently in the secondary phase where the Thyroid 'burns out'. I will need to be taking thyriod replacements soon. I am almost looking forward to it. The Hyperthyroid condition is wretched - low weight, hyper+++, weird.

I refused the radioactive iodine (20 years out the radiation starts mutations).

It runs in my family. My dad's been on synthetic thyroid for 25 years, my mother for 15 years.



There are worse things - it will take time to stabilize your dose, but it is a very manageable condition.

[philb]

19. See post # 18

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. My mom has that, ever since my brother was born in 1972

It took forever to get the doc to even test for it, he just kept telling her to eat less :eyes: damn old country doctor, hadn't been to seminar to bone up on new tech in years. :( She's now on Synthroid and doing better... she had gained over 100 lbs, lost 50 of it the first year she got the prescription (from a different doc, by the way).

They say the prob. tends to run in the family, I know I can put on weight pretty quick if I don't keep my exercise level up. I was tested a few years ago, and I'm "borderline". Since I've been unemployed, I've put on at LEAST 10lbs (I refuse to get on the scale, but my pants don't lie :( ) Too much time on my hands to fiddle with my favorite hobby... cooking. My teenage boys love it though... "Mom, what's for dinner?" insert :homersimpsonsmilie: :P

You'll be ok, I bet your energy comes back pretty quick once they get the meds adjusted. :)

V.

[w8liftinglady]

12. I'm SO glad you are on armour thyroid-I think people develop a

resistance to synthroid over the years...just my observation as a nurse..

[JuniperLea]

13. Ok, I guess I'm just weird

I WAS hypothyroid and took medication for about 10 years... then had my first child... and my thyroid levels went back to "normal". That was 27 years ago. I keep waiting for it to reverse again.

[Pathwalker]

14. You too? I was hypothyroid for 30 years, then

became hyperthyroid. I was told you need less thyroid hormones as you age, and that was why. Then, I was told I had a goiter, and had several nodules which were asperated(sp?).
I was also told that the Armour meds can cause a build-up of T-4, which they say is what happened to screw up my thyroid. I haven't been on any medication for it for several years now, and I'm okay as long as I avoid extreme cold or extreme heat.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[JuniperLea]

15. Interesting...

I don't deal well with extreme heat... not at all! Light headed and nauseous!

My Dr. switched back and forth between Synthroid and Armour... he said I souldn't be on either one exclusively for too long.

[NMMNG]

17. I was diagnosed hypothyroid several years ago

I've been taking Synthroid ever since, currently 125mcg daily.

[philb]

18. Mercury is one of the most common causes of hypothyroid & thyroiditis

And the majority who get rid of toxic exposures and detox get significantly better

here are cases from a medical study, and there is a lot of documentation and clinical cases in the medical literature

Mercury & autoimmune conditions/MS
Prochazkova J, Sterzl I, Kucerova H, Bartova J, Stejskal VD; The beneficial effect of amalgam replacement on health in patients with autoimmunity. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2004 Jun;25(3):211-8.
http://www.nel.edu/pdf_/25_3/NEL250304A07_Prochazkova_.pdf

Results of lymphocyte reactivity measured with MELISA indicate that in vitro reactivity after the replacement of dental amalgam decreased significantly to inorganic mercury, silver, organic mercury and lead. All 6 patients with MS showed significant improvement in health.
Out of 15 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) 11 (73%) had improvement of health.

Out of 8 patients with autoimmune thyroiditis 6 showed significant improvement in health (75%).

5 patients undergoing amalgam replacement had atopic eczema for which other studies have found more diverse factors in autoimmunity causes. 3 out of 5 of these patients had significant improvement in condition (60%).
Of the patients that did not have evidence of significant improvement, most tested immune reactive to nickel and the autoimmunity measure was not improved at the end of the study. For those whose condition was worse, the autoimmunity measure for nickel was higher at the end of the study- indicating that amalgam replacement did not resolve the source of nickel exposure.


Documentation of the mechanism by which mercury commonly causes thyroid problems, and those treated usually improve
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~berniew1/endohg.html

[tibbir]

20. I've been diagnosed hypothroid for years

since undergoing test dosing of lithium (I have bipolar disorder). I currently take Synthroid 0.2mg, although I'd rather take natural thyroid like Armour. Good luck with your treatment.

[Yoda Yada]

21. The June issue of Health magazine....

...has a feature article about hypothyroidism. You should still be able to buy a copy at the bookstore (or just go to the library.)

[Snow]

22. Yuppers - Hashimoto's here......

Got diagnosed, oh, 10 years or more ago - maybe 15. Who knows how long it was developing. Not a real big deal in my case. Not a huge amount of symptoms, but, as I told my doc, with a condition that can 10 years to develop, I could turn into the wolfman and not notice until my razor blade bill went through the roof.

Anyway, we checked the thyroid antibodies, and sure enough, it was hashi's, so went onto synthroid, & my family medicine doc hooked me up with an endocrinologist, who was a friend already because she sat on a dissertation committee that I was chairing. So we were cool. She told me to get my hormone levels checked whenever I felt like it, and we fiddled around getting the dose right for a year or two. I think it needs more fiddling now because I've been gaining gut weight, but that may be because I've been in a high-pressure job for the last 2 years (over now, thankfully - always avoid interim directorships if you can!). Anyway, I'm no longer at that medical school, but instead am at a very large integrated health care system (VLIHCS), which doesn't see the need for having me overseen by an endo, nor do they want me just checking my hormones any old time without asking first. And they switched me over to levothroid, and that seems to work for me just as well.

So, with dose stabilized, life is pretty good. I think I am more susceptible to running out of steam. I'm not running around tired all the time; I'm pretty active and do things like take kenpo karate classes. But I find that when I do run out of gas, that's it & it's time to stop, and I tend to attribute that to getting my thyroid hormone in a pill once a day instead of on demand from the gland. You have to be careful, though, about blaming everything on thyroid disease, while making sure you catch things that are its fault. I find it useful to keep an eye on my pulse ("Wow! 48 beats per minute, and I'm not even running or anything. I'm in better shape than I thought" no, that's low thyroid hormone, sorry. Or hot flashes at night? You're not a menopausal woman, your thyroid levels are too high).

Leading to a point for you - medications all work differently for different people, and that is true of thyroid meds as anything else. Back in the day, Armour was all there was - it's derived from slaughtered calves' thryoid tissue, and it kept a lot of people alive before the synthetics arrived. There was concern about the dose, though, understandable given the process. Unfortunately, it turns out some of the synthetics don't do much better with getting the dose accurate, and they don't contain the full spectrum of thyroid hormones. A physiologist or endocrinologist will tell you all you need is the one hormone in the synthetic, and your body will manufacture the rest from that - although not all people can do that - but most can.

In short, there's tons of advice out there, this disease affects people in a wide variety of ways, but you'll learn to live with it. Don't screw around with it though - thyroid hormones do just about everything with metabolism, and without them you die. Not as quickly as with some other diseases, but a lack of thyroid hormone is fatal. Take care of yourself.