Autoimmune Disease /Thyroid Problems

LATINABONITA3

I'm struggling hard ,due to an autoimmune disease ,I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism /Hashimotos in 2015 it's been very difficult for me lately ,Can Anyone else relate ?

yirara

Please can you confirm what is difficult for you? Do you feel your medication needs adjusting? Then you should go to your gp and ask for a thyroid panel. If you can also get ferritin, vitamin D and vitamin B12 tested as those are commonly low in people with hashimotos as well.

booboo1000

Hi @LATINABONITA3, ~35 years post Hashimoto's diagnosis here. I have had periods where I thought my medication levels needed to be adjusted, but my labs were fine.

Eventually I was diagnosed with other autoimmune conditions that brought with them similar feelings of fatigue and etc. I bring this up only because I was losing hope for ever feeling normalish again. (The only reason for that kind of fatigue in my mind was an underachieve thyroid, I didn't know fatigue was common in other autoimmune conditions.) The lesson for me was that I needed to remind my doctor that the fatigue was continuing and we should pursue it further.

Fuzzipeg

I agree with yirara, vits D, b12 and ferritin are almost always low with hashi, one or other possibly.

Autoimmunity is a very complicated thing, so many issues can under pin it. Your first port of call should be your doctor. You need to know your antibody levels, your t4, t3 both the reverse and active t3, total t3 is of no help because you could need certain vitamins and minerals to facilitate the change from t4 to t3 because reverse t3 is useless, its like a three pinned plug wired the wrong way, it will never work! Tsh actually tells you little if anything about thyroid function. If your doctor is not prepared to test for all these and more pointers your fighting a loosing battle with that doctor. I know, I live in England and tsh is king here in the NHS, thanks to an organisation named NICE here. I've needed to work privately to get a life. Having tests to indicate what's underpinning ones antibody levels and addressing those dietary issues has been my greatest help.

I found the website and book, stop the thyroid madness very helpful. There are other reputable sites too, Hypothyroidmom is another. One site has a list of 300 symptoms which can go with thyroid conditions! Few are considered relevant by many doctors.

Please take an active interest in your condition, know your own body, read as much as you can from hospital paper and other scientific medical sites. If you do find information on someone's blog cross reference it to ensure its of value. You know how you should feel and cling on to that knowledge and find someone who actually listens and will work with you. Levo/Synthroid one in the same thing basically, are often held out as the only treatment but its not effective for everyone, it is possible to react to the products, Here the tablet form contains dairy and if one reacts to dairy it makes your condition much worse. I tried the liquid form which gave me even more dietary issues because of the preservatives the manufacturers use.

I hope you can get to the bottom of your issues and take great care.