Re: Thyroid seizures

[Guest guest]

***Since 1992 I have been on 200mcg of thyrozine.....! GP insists all the memoryproblems are due to depression etc and gives me pills. I do not take the antidepressants as I believe that they will compund the problem.PLEASE! Can anyone tell me what is going on here? Has anyone here had a similar experience?

Hello Jeannie,

Whilst I have no personal experience of what you are going through, I do sympathize and would like to re-assure you that this is not all in your mind. The association between behavioural and psychologic changes and thyroid dysfunction has been known and officially recognized since the 19th century. I have witnessed what you are describing about yourself (seizures etc) in dogs. The 'staring into space' scenario,depression, fearfulness .... -Hypothyroidism in dogs is as rife as it is in humans, and there is little difference about the actual disease and it's symptoms between us and our pets.

In lieu of finding any human articles on the subject - perhaps an excerpt from articles by a world-renowned veterinarian, Dr. Dodds, on 'relationships between canine thyroid dysfunction and aberrant behaviour' might make things a little clearer for you.....

Dr. Dodds: (taken from 2 different articles)

.....Another interesting association which has been increasing in frequency is the link between thyroid dysfunction and aberrant behavior. Typical clinical signs include unprovoked aggression towards other animals and/or people, sudden onset of a seizure disorder in adulthood, disorientation, moodiness, erratic temperament, periods of hyperactivity, hypo-attentiveness, depression, fearfulness and phobias, anxiety, submissiveness, passivity, compulsiveness, and irritability. After the episodes, a majority of the animals were noted to behave as if they were coming out of a trance- like state and were unaware of their previous behavior.

A similar association between behavioral and psychological changes and thyroid dysfunction has been recognized in humans since the 19th century, and more recently has been noticed in cats with hyperthyroidism. In a recent human study, 66% of patients with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder were found to be hypothyroid, and supplementing their thyroid levels was largely curative.

--------------------

.......The mechanism whereby diminished thyroid function affects behavior is unclear. Hypothyroid patients have reduced cortisol clearance, and the constantly elevated levels or circulating cortisol mimic the condition of an animal (person) in a constant state of stress, as well as suppressed TSH output and production of thyroid hormones. In humans and seemingly in dogs, mental function is impaired and the animal is likely to respond to stress in a stereotypical rather than a reasoned fashion. Chronic stress in humans has been implicated in the pathogenesis of affective disorders such as depression. Major depression has been shown in imaging studies to produce changes in neural activity or volume in areas of the brain which regulate aggressive and other behaviors. Dopamine and serotonin receptors have been clearly demonstrated to be involved in aggressive pathways in the CNS. Hypothyroid rats have increased turnover of serotonin and dopamine receptors, and an increased sensitivity to ambient neurotransmitter levels.

(I can send you the whole articles privately, if you like, but don't want to put it on here, as this is strictly speaking 'canine' and 'off topic')

IMHO your GP is wrong, blaming all your problems on "depression" alone and trying to treat you with antidepressants.... I believe you are right to not accept them as the 'cure-all'. - Do you have any of your thyroid results for us ? (with norm ranges)

With best wishes,

[Guest guest]

Hello and welcome to this wonderful forum.. You've made a good start by

finding the forum and there's a wealth of experience on here. Suggest you

find your way to the files and read all you can about Hypothyroidism. (there's

plenty to go at). Have you had any tests at all? Find the test results and

post them on here for starters. The Doc has to give you the results under the

freedom of info act.

The staring into space thing, whilst your mind goes blank has happened to me in

the past. Much more on the ball now, but it's taken a while. There are so

many factors to take into consideration. If you're given Thyroxine, ( a

storage hormone), you have to be able to convert it to T3, (the useable

hormone). Once you've managed to convert it you need to be able to utilise it

and cellular uptake is not always good.

Have you been taking anything to help you convert T4 to T3? Selenuim is good,

but Vitamin C, D3, B 12, Zinc/Copper are all important too. If you've been

struggling for a long time your adrenals are probably getting tired of propping

you up, so may be worth considering too.

Read as much as you can and post any questions you have. Don't worry about

posting lots of questions, most new people do and then as you get confident, you

start to answer them too!

..

>

> Hello all this is my first mail. For the past couple of days I have researched

hypothyriodism like never before. I have really been educated and I feel quite

angry by some of the stuff I have read.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the sound advise. I do believe my adrenals are shot to some extent. How do i get a test to prove this? How do I treat it? When do I start to take selenuim? I have an appointment with GP next week for results of some blood tests after he detected high blood pressure so until then I think I better not self medicate with vitamins etc. From what I have read i think I need to have a TSH done and use this as a guide to work from and monitor any change re taking vitamins etc.I am working toward using Armour Thyroid in the future because I believe this may hold the key mental stability.Yeh I have found a gem when I came across this forum.....!thank you have a brill dayjeannie thyroid treatment From: galathea@...Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:01:24 +0000Subject: Re: Thyroid seizures

Hello and welcome to this wonderful forum.. You've made a good start by finding the forum and there's a wealth of experience on here. Suggest you find your way to the files and read all you can about Hypothyroidism. (there's plenty to go at). Have you had any tests at all? Find the test results and post them on here for starters. The Doc has to give you the results under the freedom of info act.

The staring into space thing, whilst your mind goes blank has happened to me in the past. Much more on the ball now, but it's taken a while. There are so many factors to take into consideration. If you're given Thyroxine, ( a storage hormone), you have to be able to convert it to T3, (the useable hormone). Once you've managed to convert it you need to be able to utilise it and cellular uptake is not always good.

Have you been taking anything to help you convert T4 to T3? Selenuim is good, but Vitamin C, D3, B 12, Zinc/Copper are all important too. If you've been struggling for a long time your adrenals are probably getting tired of propping you up, so may be worth considering too.

Read as much as you can and post any questions you have. Don't worry about posting lots of questions, most new people do and then as you get confident, you start to answer them too!

..

>

> Hello all this is my first mail. For the past couple of days I have researched hypothyriodism like never before. I have really been educated and I feel quite angry by some of the stuff I have read.

Get a new e-mail account with Hotmail – Free. Sign-up now.

[Guest guest]

> I do believe my adrenals are shot to some extent. How do i get a test to prove

this?

Have you ever had a cortisol blood test at the GP or hospital? There is also a

more sepcific synacthin test, which involves two lots of blood being taken, and

an injection, this is done as a hospital out-patient.

Otherwise it's possible to be very ill with adrenal fatigue and this not be

detactable on the above NHS tests.

Therefore there is a private saliva test, where you have to give a saliva sample

at differerent times of the day. You do the test at home and post it to the

Genova Laboratories.

It is this saliva adrenal test that showed up my problem and I take adrneal

supplements. This is what all the talk about Nutri Adrenal Extra is about as

these people will have done the saliva testing.

Some people need steroid tablets or DHEA tablets, or for other the adrenal

supplements are sufficient.

You don't just need TSH, it's all about the T4 and T3 readings as well. Some

people have antibodies attacking the gland, have you been tested for that?

All the vitamin supplements help but there comes a point to which, if you need

thyroid tablets, you need thyroid tablets...

Fiona.

[Guest guest]

Go to the Home Page of this forum and click FILES. On the page

that opens, scroll down the folders there until you see the FOLDER entitled

DISCOUNTS. Open that and click on GENOVA. Follow the instructions there to the

letter, and put 'Thyroid Patient Advocacy' as your PRACTITIONER. You will then

be entitled to the discount shown for the thyroid and adrenal tests. If it is

discovered that you have low adrenal reserve, you can get discounts on adrenal

and thyroid supplements from Nutri Ltd (33%!). All you do is to click on 'Nutri

Ltd' in the DISCOUNT folder and order from there in the way set out, giving

them the TPA special code.

Luv - Sheila

I do believe my adrenals are shot to some extent. How do i

get a test to prove this? How do I treat it? When do I start to take selenuim?

I have an appointment with GP next week for results of some blood tests after

he detected high blood pressure so until then I think I better not self

medicate with vitamins etc. From what I have read i think I need to have a TSH

done and use this as a guide to work from and monitor any change re taking

vitamins etc.

I am working toward using Armour Thyroid in the future

because I believe this may hold the key mental stability.

Yeh I have found a gem when I came across this

forum.....!

thank you have a brill day

jeannie