Is it a thyroid problem?

Hi. Rotten to hear that you are feeling so bad. Your symptoms and your TSH, are looking like you are borderline HYPERactive, rather than HYPOactive. In other words your thyroid may be pushing out too much thyroid hormone, rather than too little. You can also suffer from pain and fatigue with hyper aswell. You will need to push for follow up, and let them know how it is practically impacting on your life. A lot of patients think that the doc takes it as read that your life is disrupted sometimes to the point of destroyed, but they will only know if you TELL them so. If you don't they will think that it is not a factor, and that you are getting on fine despite the symptoms.

Now although the TSH test may be hyper end now, there is a very, very common added condition, which often causes the thyroid condition in the first place, called Hashimotos thyroiditis. This is a type of thyroidism that has your thybrid levels swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other, with no pattern. It would be worth you googling this and re searching it.

If you come back to euthyroid, (stable thyroid condition) or told by the doc that you are normal/subclinical, then keep an eye on your symptoms and push them for new tests if you become symptomatic again, because this will most probably change, and you will need treatment. Don't let it make you paranoid however.

It could be a thyroid problem but you should also have your adrenals tested to be sure that they are working. If they are not it can cause a lot of your symptoms, such as palpitations, feelings of anxiety it can also cause blood pressure increases and sweats. I would stay away from the antidepressant meds as they can cause all kinds of problems themselves and mask others. Good luck to you

Ron

There is a tumor that can grow on the adrenals called pheochromocytoma, it is very rare and I would not worry about having one but you should be checked for it. A 24 hour urine should be done to start with and then maybe an MRI if it is really a suspect. I am not sure how your medical system works over there but you need to see an endocrenologist and not a GP to track this problem you are having down. There are so many things that can cause your symptoms that putting you on different meds never gets to the root cause, they are treating the symptoms and not finding what is causing the problem. Perhaps is it something as simple as dewling on the symtoms which can exaserbate the problem. It can be difficult to do but try to clear your thoughts and see if diversion helps. In other words do not think about it all the time. I just had a heart transplant a year ago and was having problems with my blood preasure and was taking it every few minutes and it made the problem worse. Once I stopped doing that things settled down. I lost my thyroid due to a heart medication before I had the transplant so I had to have it removed and with some of my other medications my thyroid meds do not always get absorbed the same. It is very important to take thyroid meds by themselves no food or other meds for an hour or longer before and after taking the thyroid meds, that is if you end up taking them. When are they going to do your US on your thyroid, they might also do a nuclear med scan to see how much iodine the thyroid uptakes..

I will keep you in my prayers, God bless you.. Ron

Hi Sarah

I sympathise. I think in short get your cortisol results in print. Anything under 450 or even around there suggests you need adrenal support. If so try tinctures /adaptogens to help.

My cortisol has month on month dropped from 380 to 300 to 208 which is worrying but the whole experience is distressing so make allowances for initial worry and distress. To support some of the systems check your ferritin levels b12 and calcium and vitamins. Take magnesium and check you don't have thyroid antibodies. If you do it is wise to get nutritional igg tests done and try removing gluten, soy and dairy.

If adrenals are down remove all caffeine and other such stimulants.

I've managed to get my mineral and vitamins up which has helped with the emotional roller coaster. Magnesium helps with many symptoms too.

There is an HPA and HPT axis that needs to be in balance. If TSH levels are low but T4 is also low then it could be an issue with your pituitary instead.

It's a bit of a discovery process but the more you learn the more you will feel I'm control of your health. I'm also taking homeopathy but it's key to find a very good one if taking that route.

Although my TSH is 5.7 and t4 is 11 I cannot take levothyroxin if I wanted to because the adrenals are very low.

So each person has to work through their own root causes. There's other nutritional guidance like avoiding goitrogenic foods and chlorine /fluoride - no tea or badly filtered tap water and to check your hormones for oestrogen dominance which can affect free t4 and ft3.

Once you have all info possible you can find an integrative support plan that will help.

Hope this is useful. Get better and relax