levothyroxine and proximal muscle problems

I was thought to have Polymyalgia at first but I was not in the age category and my sed rate was raised and still is but not high enough for the complaint.

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) is a condition which causes inflammation of large muscles. 'Poly' means many, and 'myalgia' means muscle pain. The cause of PMR is not known.

PMR mainly affects people over the age of 65. It is rare in people under 60. About 4 in 10,000 people over the age of 60 develop PMR each year. Women are three times more likely to be affected than men.

What are the symptoms of Polymyalgia Rheumatica?

* Usual symptoms are stiffness, pain, aching, and tenderness of the large muscles around your shoulders, pelvis, and back. The stiffness is usually worst first thing in the morning. Getting out of bed may be difficult. The stiffness often eases as the day goes on.

* Inflammation and swelling sometimes occurs in other 'soft tissues' of the body. For example, tendons may become inflamed (tenosynovitis), your hands or feet may become slightly swollen, and some joints may become slightly swollen.

* Other general symptoms may also occur. These include: tiredness, depression, night sweats, fever, loss of appetite, and weight loss.

Symptoms typically develop over a few days or weeks. However, they develop more slowly in some cases. You may pass it off as 'aches and pains of getting older' when symptoms first start.

Symptoms of PMR are sometimes similar to other conditions such as frozen shoulder, arthritis, or other muscle diseases. A blood test helps to make the correct diagnosis. No blood test is 100% reliable for PMR. However, a blood test can detect if there is inflammation in your body. If the blood test shows a high level of inflammation, and you have the typical symptoms, then this usually confirms the diagnosis of PMR.

You are likely to need steroid treatment for at least two years. In some people the condition goes away, so the tablets can be stopped after 2-3 years. However, many people need treatment for several years, sometimes for life. If you stop taking the steroid tablets too soon, the symptoms return.

Polymyalgia can phase out where as Fibromyalgia is unfortunately with us for life!!!!

I hope this help you too as \"Knowledge is power\" as one of our members say!

Kind regards

Yes there is also Giant Cell Arteritis linked with Polymyalgia, when a person is diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, the doctor also should look for symptoms of giant cell arteritis because of the risk of blindness. With proper treatment, the disease is not threatening. Untreated, however, giant cell arteritis can lead to serious complications including permanent vision loss and stroke. Patients must learn to recognize the signs of giant cell arteritis, because they can develop even after the symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica disappear. Patients should report any symptoms to the doctor immediately.

Symptoms of giant cell arteritis (GCA) can develop gradually or suddenly. They require immediate treatment.

Symptoms of giant cell arteritis may include:

* Headache, often near the temple or around the eye (temporal headache). Headaches are a symptom for up to 80% of people who are examined for giant cell arteritis.3 The headache may begin as a dull, throbbing pain on one side of the head around the eye or near the temple. Occasionally the pain may feel like a stabbing or burning sensation.

* Vision problems in up to half of cases. These problems may come on quickly and be temporary, but sometimes they do not go away. Examples include:3

o Brief loss of vision or partial loss, lasting seconds to minutes.

o Blurry or double vision.

o Blindness.

o Patches of poor vision surrounded by normal vision.

o Decreased sharpness (acuity) of vision or focus.

* Tenderness on the side of the head (temple) or scalp. The blood vessel on the temple may also look swollen and its pulse may be decreased or absent. You may notice tenderness when you wear your glasses or comb your hair.

* Pain, aching, weakness, or cramping (claudication) of the tongue or jaw, especially when you chew food or talk for long periods of time.

Other uncommon symptoms of giant cell arteritis may include cough, hoarseness, chest pain, and arm weakness or cramps.

Giant cell arteritis carries a small but definite risk of blindness. The blindness is permanent once it happens. A high dose of prednisone is needed to prevent blindness and should be started as soon as possible, perhaps even before the diagnosis is confirmed with a temporal artery biopsy. When treated, symptoms quickly disappear. Typically, people with giant cell arteritis must continue taking a high dose of prednisone for one month. Once symptoms disappear and the sed rate is normal and there is no longer a risk of blindness, the doctor can begin to gradually reduce the dose. When treated properly, giant cell arteritis rarely recurs.

Just thought I would mention this too :oops: I do hope your doctor is thorough as now my doctor has left the surgery I have to look for another surgery that I can trust, I do hope you get your answers soon x.

Regards

If the pains are troublesome I would get an opinion from a doctor that may listen, as I was in pain for ages and I changed my GP as he was a waste of space....... I have disc problems after confirmed by x-rays and osteo arthritis in my hips along with Fibromyalgia, I am 35......... I am not saying you have the same as me but there is no reason why you should suffer and you should be receiving treatment for your discomfort, on the other hand thyroid problems can cause aches and pains but depending on the severity of the pain you are having you know when something isn't quite right as \"we\" know our own bodies and some doctors need to realize that!!!! :doctor: :oops:

I had submitted previous symptoms as knew I had fibromyalgia before my doctor as I found the symptoms etc on here and could relate to it..... 6 months later I finally got my diagnosis for the overall body pain of \"Fibromyalgia\" from a Pain Management Consultant.

I have my thyroid levels checked frequently too so perhaps you could simply get them checked to see if your levels are at a balance?

Take care x

[quote:c1301d5599=\"Garywuk\"]Hi All

The pain i get in the muscles, especially in the hip/groin area and upper thigh, is very much like the muscles are already taut and when I go to move they are over streached (hence the pain).

I used to be very active and was training for this years marathon but had to pull out because of this and so I am gettinge very frustrated that nothiong has been properly diagnosed or any appropriate treatment offered.[/quote:c1301d5599]

Hi Gary, did this muscle pain become a problem after you started training for the marathon? Many people with hypothyroidism find that heavy exercise, particularly repetitive, causes symptoms similar to those you describe. Sometimes this can be due to being under-medicated so ask your doctor to check your thyroid levels again and ask to have your T4 levels tested as well as TSH. Ideally get T3 tested too but this is very difficult to get an NHS lab to do if the other levels are ‘normal’.

Ask your doctor for the actual figures of your tests, not just whether normal or not. The reference range for tests is quite wide and if, for example, your TSH is around 2 or above in a range of say 0.5 to 5 then you might feel a lot better if it was around 1 or even below this. (N.B. TSH goes down as thyroid function improves.) Ask for the reference ranges too as these vary around the country. See http://tinyurl.com/yyodja for an article on TSH based on a study of 65,000 people and see where your TSH falls on the graph shown there. If you look at some of my other posts there is a link to the recent UK official guidelines for thyroid function tests which acknowledge that it is acceptable for T4 to be sometimes even over the range in order to feel well when you are on T4 only medication, i.e. thyroxine.

The key to building up muscle strength when hypothyroid is pacing, taking care not to overuse any muscle group and always try to keep a bit in reserve, don’t take yourself to the point of exhaustion as it could take you much longer to recover as well as leading to prolonged muscle pain. Also eat regularly so you always have some fuel for your muscles to work on, this can make a big difference too.

Hope this helps, it's really frustrating when you can't do the things that you want to do.

and the only thing they came up with was 'lose weight' (ok fair point I have put on quite a bit and need to lose some) but even if I do I really don't think its going to make much difference ! My gp just doesnt listen to me when I sa I am sure it is being caused by the levothyroxine so I have juse give up now and survive with the help of ibuprofen I dont know what else to do !

I quit taking Tirosint when they doubled the price, figuring it wasn't worth it to pay that much to be in such pain. I could barely get out of my chair, it hurt to move, and you could hear the loose bits in my back when I sat or bent.

I started taking 75 mcg of the Sandoz generic levothyroxine, and every day this heals a little more. I am so grateful just to be getting back to the way I was before I started taking the Tirosint. To be fair, the improvement could be because of increasing the dosage to 75, but on the other hand, some of the people in New Zealand taking Eltroxin seemed to be having similar problems, and I wondered if it was some kind of a problem in the European levothyroxine. See: http://thyroid.about.com/b/2008/06/11/whats-happening-to-thyroid-patients-taking-eltroxin-brand-levothyroxine-in-new-zealand.htm

I think a lot of people may be having this and not know what to call it, so they just say that they are having joint pain, or muscle pain or aches. It just isn't easy to say your pelvis hurts.

I had a TT back in August 2011, after 15 days of the surgery I started with feet pain that lasted for about 8 months. A year and 4 months my left side back and hip started to bother me 24/7.  I cannot lay down flat or on my left side because of the pain. I take 137mg of levothyroxine everyday. Im 36 years old male with no other physical problems. Many test and all clear.

anybody else with same symptoms?