-Thyroid medication does not get absorbed when calcium is consumed up to 4 hours of taking your pill (learned this one the hard way)

Are you serious? Doctors have told me to wait for breakfast only 20 minutes after the pill....
Who told you 4 hours?

My meds and docs have advised 1 hour before anything to eat or drink and to take the meds with a full glass water.

I stay away from soy. As advised, I take my medication 30 mins to 1 hr prior to eating with a full glass of water and I have increased my protein.

WOW! What am I going to do if I can't have my cereal with milk for breakfast?
Since joining this group I have learned so much. I understand now not having calcium. SOOOO any suggestions for a quick breakfast for a mother of 3 that works full time?

All of my medication says to wait for 60 minutes before eating. I had no idea that I shouldn't be having calcium. I get up at 4:30 .. take my medication, start exercising at about 4:45 and have a cup of decaf coffee (i can't give up my coffee, but switched to decaf) with milk at about 6:30 every morning. Could this be hindering my weight loss?

I feel super hungry by 10am if I don't have protein for breakfast. I do really well with eggs too. Kashi is the only cereal I eat, because it advertises protein. However, it tastes kind of like tree bark after awhile.

Greek yogurt has lots of protein and is good for breakfast.

I was advised to take my pill 1 hour before breakfast, but I have started taking it at night. I take it 2-3 hours after dinner. I have been on numerous hypothyroid groups all over the internet, and after I heard of some other patients doing this, I started too. This seems silly, but it helps my bathroom routine if I take it at night. Otherwise, I can't go in the morning until I'm at work, and I hate dropping a deuce at work. I prefer to handle that at home, before my shower.

Anyway, from what I understand, the most important thing about taking your medication is that you do it consistently. You must take it at the same time every day, with the same amount of time between meals, etc. That way, when you get your blood work done, it will give the doctor a good idea of how you are doing and they will be better able to give you the right dosage.

I have been on Levothyroxine for about 8 months now. I started out at 25 mcg, but my dosage was upped to 50 mcg a couple months ago. My medication bottle actually has a tag that says not to ingest calcium for 4 hours. I swear my first bottle didn't have that tag on it though; I started out taking my pill with orange juice with added calcium, and couldn't figure out why I was still so tired! I definitely figured that out the hard way as well. I have found that I can get away with eating calcium about 3 hours after, but I'm still a little paranoid as well.

I have yet to find a good quick breakfast food, but that's only because I'm not a morning person at all so I usually get up and rush out the door. For lunch I usually eat a protein bar; the Market Pantry brand ones at Target are comparable to the Zone and come in a few different flavors and are pretty good.

Does anyone find that a particular type of exercise is better than others for hypothyroidism?

Hey!

Yoga is very good for hypothyroidism - helps with the stress / anxiety symptoms and all of the upside-down poses increase blood flow to the thyroid in your neck and helps to stimulate it.

Avoid goitrogens like soy products (which unfortunately are found in just about every product in the supermarket, unless you can afford to shop at an organic food store) calcium and iron (this knocks out cereal, cream of wheat, instant oatmeal, most breakfast foods), and multi-vitamins or supplements shouldn't be taken within four hours or the medication. I noticed an improvement in how the medication worked for me when I started taking it before bed. I have dinner no later than 6pm as a rule and take the pill by 9 or 10, this just works better for my schedule--between teaching and taking classes early in the morning, I would have to skip breakfast to make this work.

Hi Everyone

It's been really great to read the responses in this group, it's so very helpful to know what other people have found out or what they have been told.

The calcium near tablet in a morning is sadly only something I have found out from trawling through websites and even then I seem to have only read about leaving 30 mins!

I tend to leave a little longer as I like a yogurt in a morning but I may replace this with some oats/hot water and fruit etc and leave my yogurt til the afternoon?

I also read that having 6 smaller below 300cal meals are better for those with underactive thyroid. Does anyone else do this? It said maintaining the metabolism with 6 smaller low cal meals a day rather than having 3 larger meals will balance out the bodys 'highs and lows' and keep things running better?!

Good luck to everyone, the support everyone gives to eachother is fantastic

xKx

I am just curious if the soy and calcium consumption that limit the effectiveness of Synthroid actually show up in the blood work. If it did then your doctor could adjust it accordingly.

My PMD always wants to lower my dosage even though I still have symptoms.