Knee Pain
Posted , 5 users are following.
I was diagnosed with Graves' in September and was on 20mg of carbimazole until January, which has now caused me to go underactive. The dose was dropped to 10mg and now to 5mg as I was continuing to become more underactive. I am trying to low impact sport at the gym to counteract the weight gain I am now struggling with, however, the pain in my knees is awful. Is there anything I can do to help with the pain? And has anyone been overmedicated into becoming underactive? Does it take long to become euthyroid again?
0 likes, 13 replies
Guest adele27568
Posted
Hi adele27568, this older post might be of interest to you:
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/grave-s-disease-and-carbimazole-256944
Patients with Graves' disease may have other autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.
You could have your doctor check your rheumatoid factor.
You mentioned that you have become hypothyroid. Is your TSH still suppressed?
adele27568 Guest
Posted
jane75220 adele27568
Posted
linda187 adele27568
Posted
Usually when I hear about people swinging from hyper to hypo while on Carbimazole, they often have the diagnosis of Graves and Hashimoto's or Hashimoto's alone. I would ask your doc if that is a possibility with you and can he or she do testing to rule out Hashi's. The testing done is an anti-TPO level which measures inflammation and is usually high in Hashi patients and testing for the antibody TGAb.
adele27568 linda187
Posted
Can Hashimoto's present as an overactive thyroid in early stages?
linda187 adele27568
Posted
Definitely it can. There is one lady on this Board who had that happen to her and she got control of her disease using Regular L-Carnitine and occasional short uses of Carbimazole (like for one week in decreasing dosages) and then stabilizing on the Carnitine. . She is finally stable. Her doc told her she had Hashi's which just hadn't burned itself out yet. Hashi's is more sensitive to Carbimazole because the antibodies are attacking the thyroid gland itself whereas in Graves the antibodies attack the TSH receptor in the pituitary.
adele27568 linda187
Posted
Ok, so on 19th Dec I had bloods taken by my Endo. The results shown Anti-TPO antibodies were raised at 274 IU/mL and TSH receptor antibodies were significantly raised at 11 mIU/L, which confirmed Graves'. What antibodies would show Hasimoto's? Would I need a separate test? I had blood test done by my GP a few weeks ago but they only checked T4 and TSH levels, I believe.
jane75220 adele27568
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linda187 adele27568
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So your anti-TPO level is elevated which can happen with both Graves and Hashi's but definitely is elevated with Hashi's. The definitive antibody test for Hashi's along with an elevated anti-TPO is TGAb.
adele27568 linda187
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linda187 adele27568
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Block and Replace is used in the UK but is not usually used in North America. I don't know how successful it is as a treatment. Perhaps those who have been treated with this could comment on their outcomes?
lisandra_90524 adele27568
Posted
linda187 lisandra_90524
Posted
I did hear my Endo use that phrase with Graves when I asked him why my TSH which was steadily declining after I stopped Acetyl-L-Carnitine suddenly shot right up. However, I have not commonly heard that with Graves disease but i have heard it with Hashimoto's. Very often when Hashimoto patients are first diagnosed they are hyperactive and once put on Carbimazole, they go very hypo. Then if they are hypo and are given thyroid hormone replacement, will go hyper again so they are bouncing back and forth. My experience with Graves and other Graves patients (those that have Graves alone) is that they don't bounce like this when they are on Carbimazole or Methimazole. Usually their values will drop, hopefully into the normal range but then they stay there. Mine stayed identical for two years on a dose of 10 mg of Methimazole and only changed once I added supplements to my medication.