Does anybody else have these symptoms?

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

I have had most of what you describe.  I have had (and still do have because of

weight gain) breathlessness on exertion.  This I broke the back of by taking

iron.  Unfortunately I have had a very stressful year and taken on about 20 lbs

so I am still a bit breathless again, but not for the same reason.  I also had

extreme fatigue and stiffness in my upper arms, forearms and legs.  My hands and

feet ache too.  I got rid of most of the stiffness and fatigue by taking a high

dose of iron.  I did this because I had a full iron panel done and my ferritin

was nearly off the bottom of the scale (36).  As an experiment, I took 160mg of

iron at lunch time and the same at bedtime and woke up a new woman!  (Well,

improved anyway).  After that I went on a campaign to raise my ferrtin.  I took

45mg of zinc every day and 5 mg of copper every two days and 6 x 80 mg of iron

per day.  In about 3 1/2 months I raised my ferritin from 36 to 180.  I think I

was

quite lucky from what I have read on this site to achieve this.  Many people

seem to have a hard time raising ferritin.  I attribute my success to using the

zinc and copper at the same time.  The reasons that I did this are to be found

on Jon 's website www.ithyroid.com.  He explains in great detail the

interaction between these nutrients and how you can have a high level of

circulating iron in your blood without having much in the tissues where it is

needed.  Another thing this Jon says on his site which turned out to be

true in my case is that when you find the nutrient you are lacking, you get very

fast results when you start taking it (particularly elements and minerals, not

so much with vitamins).

As I said it was a vast improvement.  I still have these aches but nothing like

the way they were before and I am not as cold and my breathlessness

diminished..  I was also given a long lecture by two doctors about taking high

doses of iron.  Both said it was pointless because on a small amount of the iron

is absorbed.  However, the laboratory analyses (and a generally improved sense

of well being) prove that I was on the right track.    I also stopped after

about 6 weeks of taking this iron and the aches and stiffness came back.  So I

kept on going for another 6-7 weeks and then stopped again and it was OK.

A word of warning about taking high doses of iron.  It can damage your liver if

you take too much.  You should read up on this. I think it is important to

promote getting the iron INTO YOUR TISSUES/MUSCLES.  I believe that a part of

the problem I was having was that my muscles were starved of oxygen because of

lack of iron.  Hence the fatigue.

I still have some aches particularly in my feet and hands but I can type now for

a long time and walk quite long distances.  These two problems were also

alleviated by taking T3.  A year ago a phone call was a pain in the neck for me

because I had to pass the phone from hand to hand every 30 seconds.  Now it's

OK.

As Nick said in his e-mail, it looks adrenal.  I'm inclined to agree with him. 

I think I have many problems but lack of iron was a major one that has been

knocked on the head.  It's not a cure all but it has alleviated more than 50% of

my aches and pains.  I don't know what's going on with my hands and feet but

many of the paths I have investigated all seem to come back to the adrenals.  I

read something on one of the forums that I belong to which talked about

" ligament laxness " in relation to adrenal problems.  All the places I have had

problems have ligaments in them.  Feet and hands have lots of little bones held

together by connective tissue and I think that lack of elasticity in ligaments

could be causing the aches.  May be this an avenue to explore for you.  By the

way I was also considered extremely strong for a woman!

Hope this helps,

MacGilchrist