Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

[Guest guest]

Our bodies are really amazing when it comes to what they can over come and recover from. How much the body can actually repair years of damage is pretty hard, for me, to tell. But I strongly believe that even if they can't fix everything that is broken they can do a pretty awesome job of working around a lot of things if we figure out what to give them to let them do the things they need to do.

Our brains can reroute function and form new learning pathways, we can relearn things that we've forgotten or learn new ways of remembering things... as for our hearts... when the rest of our body functions are working better... the heart doesn't have to struggle so hard to do it's job either... so even if it's not like it used to be, getting your hormones up and your body working more efficiently will help your heart work better too....

Just my thoughts...

Topper ()

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 16:32:52 +0100 "" writes:

BIG GRIN:-)))) The chances are I'll have forgotten I already asked the question and got an answer, so I won't even be embarrassed at asking it again LOL! But it's so lovely not to have to worry about that LOL! Thank you:-)))))

Yes, I'm wondering about the heart side of things - can that get back to 'normality'? But then I'm thinking that the heart is a muscle, and muscles can be built up again? What about the brain bit - brain cells die, don't they - can the brain get much better after getting so 'bad'? I'm wondering (don't laugh too much here, because I am serious, and thought about deleting this sentance, but I am wondering about it) what about if I lose the weight that I've gained over the last few years - what will happen to the skin!? Will it all fall down!? I'm 55 - will it shrink back???? I think I've probably always been hypothyroid - well as far back as into my teens I think there was something wrong, but only about five years or so ago the weight suddenly piled on so rapidly, so I don't know what I can hope for as the end result when medication is got right. Thanks for mentioning about the different kinds of synthetic/natural hormones - I wouldn't have thought of that. I'm so glad my husband is a bit more 'with it' than I am, so he can come to the doctors with me and ask all the questions I'm forgetting, even though I've got them written down on a piece of paper in front of me. I am so lucky to have found this group. I hope no-one minds me encouraging other people to join? There are so many in the same boat as me!

All of you who are so much better now, thank you - you are the ones leading us to get to the same place:-)))) And we in turn will be holding our hands out to others behind us.

Love Chris

Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

Getting the meds right, the hormone levels where they need to be can make a HUGE difference. Will everything come back? Will it be as though nothing ever happened? That all depends on how hypo you were and for how long...

Our bodies are pretty amazing, they can deal with low level thyroid hormones for a long time, they adjust things and reorganize how things work to stay alive even when things are all messed up... but that can also cause some damage if it goes on for too long. No, I don't say this to scare.... Honest. But I want to make sure that you understand how important it is to jump in and do something. Keep on top of things, learn everything you can and how it all affects your body. It doesn't affect all of us the same way, we're all very individual on how our bodies react. So the more you know about the hormones and the meds and your body the better everything goes.

I base this opinion on what happened to me... over a decade of being underdosed by a string of docs that kept blaming everything on my weight and bad attitude. Well, the weight was a symptom of the hormone imbalance and the attitude had a lot to do with increasing pain levels, decreased abilities to do things, and eventually the loss of my home... I should be happy?

I ended up on crutches while under the care of bad docs. Did they look closer at my hormone levels, nope, blamed it on my weight.... yet when I switched the type of med that I was using... they had my on synthetic and I switched to an over the counter grade of natural, I got off the crutches.... as time passed and my dose increased my chronic pain went away, my sleep improved... well a ton of things improved. Things that I'd been dealing with for years and years cleared up.

My point in bringing that up is that for some it's not just the dosage (how much you are taking) but what kind.

Each of the different brands of synthetic (Synthroid, Levothroid, Levothyroxine, etc) contain slightly different fillers. Same goes for the different brands of naturals (Armour, Time-Caps Labs, Thyroid-S, etc). Some of us react differently to those fillers. And then there are some of us that do better on natural thyroid and others that do better on synthetics. And those on synthetics.... some to great with T4 only meds, some need T3 added.

I know... some of the new folks here are totally lost.... don't worry, you'll learn all the terms and such as you go, just ask questions, be it the first time you ask, or the tenth (hypo brain fog makes it easy to forget things so don't be shy about asking the same question again if you forget or just want to review, we're used to that)

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to find a doc that is open to different thyroid meds, by that I mean both naturals and synthetics so that if you aren't responding to a particular brand or type of med you have the option to try something else until your body is responding.

I could go on and on with this...I'm in a rambly mood today... hehehehe but I have over a hundred emails yet to go through and need to get going...

Ask questions, be open to learn, observe your body's reactions, find a doc that will work WITH you....

Topper ()

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:08:04 +0100 "" writes:

, that's amazing - for the weight to be dropping off you like that! Thank goodness you found a doctor who recognised what was happening!

My wait was gaining like that - a quarter of a stone every few weeks, despite dieting. My doctor gave me a copy of the Atkins Diet book and told me to try that:-))) I've gained four stone in a couple of years or so and it's still going up. (I was about 11 stone when it started, so four stone is quite a lot). I'm wondering about all sorts of things now that could be linked to it - history of miscarriages, heavy periods, tiredness for many years before the other symptoms started, puffy, sore dry eyes with blurry vision, yawning all the time, anxiety, depression, pain in the feet and legs, skin discolouration on my neck, and thinking as though I'm in a fog (thought I must have alzheimers), memory appalling, and, my mother was on Thyroxene before I was born (diabetic as well - is there a link there?). Is there a link to thyroid problems and angina? I think my husband just thought I'd been feeling 'lazy' for the past few years but he's very supportive now so I know he'll be pushing for me to get things sorted.

Sorry if I'm rambling here, but I'm just beginning to feel as though everything is coming together suddenly! It's quite a shock LOL! Can all the symptoms be reversed to some extent if the medication is right? Love Chris

[Guest guest]

Our bodies are really amazing when it comes to what they can over come and recover from. How much the body can actually repair years of damage is pretty hard, for me, to tell. But I strongly believe that even if they can't fix everything that is broken they can do a pretty awesome job of working around a lot of things if we figure out what to give them to let them do the things they need to do.

Our brains can reroute function and form new learning pathways, we can relearn things that we've forgotten or learn new ways of remembering things... as for our hearts... when the rest of our body functions are working better... the heart doesn't have to struggle so hard to do it's job either... so even if it's not like it used to be, getting your hormones up and your body working more efficiently will help your heart work better too....

Just my thoughts...

Topper ()

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 16:32:52 +0100 "" writes:

BIG GRIN:-)))) The chances are I'll have forgotten I already asked the question and got an answer, so I won't even be embarrassed at asking it again LOL! But it's so lovely not to have to worry about that LOL! Thank you:-)))))

Yes, I'm wondering about the heart side of things - can that get back to 'normality'? But then I'm thinking that the heart is a muscle, and muscles can be built up again? What about the brain bit - brain cells die, don't they - can the brain get much better after getting so 'bad'? I'm wondering (don't laugh too much here, because I am serious, and thought about deleting this sentance, but I am wondering about it) what about if I lose the weight that I've gained over the last few years - what will happen to the skin!? Will it all fall down!? I'm 55 - will it shrink back???? I think I've probably always been hypothyroid - well as far back as into my teens I think there was something wrong, but only about five years or so ago the weight suddenly piled on so rapidly, so I don't know what I can hope for as the end result when medication is got right. Thanks for mentioning about the different kinds of synthetic/natural hormones - I wouldn't have thought of that. I'm so glad my husband is a bit more 'with it' than I am, so he can come to the doctors with me and ask all the questions I'm forgetting, even though I've got them written down on a piece of paper in front of me. I am so lucky to have found this group. I hope no-one minds me encouraging other people to join? There are so many in the same boat as me!

All of you who are so much better now, thank you - you are the ones leading us to get to the same place:-)))) And we in turn will be holding our hands out to others behind us.

Love Chris

Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

Getting the meds right, the hormone levels where they need to be can make a HUGE difference. Will everything come back? Will it be as though nothing ever happened? That all depends on how hypo you were and for how long...

Our bodies are pretty amazing, they can deal with low level thyroid hormones for a long time, they adjust things and reorganize how things work to stay alive even when things are all messed up... but that can also cause some damage if it goes on for too long. No, I don't say this to scare.... Honest. But I want to make sure that you understand how important it is to jump in and do something. Keep on top of things, learn everything you can and how it all affects your body. It doesn't affect all of us the same way, we're all very individual on how our bodies react. So the more you know about the hormones and the meds and your body the better everything goes.

I base this opinion on what happened to me... over a decade of being underdosed by a string of docs that kept blaming everything on my weight and bad attitude. Well, the weight was a symptom of the hormone imbalance and the attitude had a lot to do with increasing pain levels, decreased abilities to do things, and eventually the loss of my home... I should be happy?

I ended up on crutches while under the care of bad docs. Did they look closer at my hormone levels, nope, blamed it on my weight.... yet when I switched the type of med that I was using... they had my on synthetic and I switched to an over the counter grade of natural, I got off the crutches.... as time passed and my dose increased my chronic pain went away, my sleep improved... well a ton of things improved. Things that I'd been dealing with for years and years cleared up.

My point in bringing that up is that for some it's not just the dosage (how much you are taking) but what kind.

Each of the different brands of synthetic (Synthroid, Levothroid, Levothyroxine, etc) contain slightly different fillers. Same goes for the different brands of naturals (Armour, Time-Caps Labs, Thyroid-S, etc). Some of us react differently to those fillers. And then there are some of us that do better on natural thyroid and others that do better on synthetics. And those on synthetics.... some to great with T4 only meds, some need T3 added.

I know... some of the new folks here are totally lost.... don't worry, you'll learn all the terms and such as you go, just ask questions, be it the first time you ask, or the tenth (hypo brain fog makes it easy to forget things so don't be shy about asking the same question again if you forget or just want to review, we're used to that)

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to find a doc that is open to different thyroid meds, by that I mean both naturals and synthetics so that if you aren't responding to a particular brand or type of med you have the option to try something else until your body is responding.

I could go on and on with this...I'm in a rambly mood today... hehehehe but I have over a hundred emails yet to go through and need to get going...

Ask questions, be open to learn, observe your body's reactions, find a doc that will work WITH you....

Topper ()

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:08:04 +0100 "" writes:

, that's amazing - for the weight to be dropping off you like that! Thank goodness you found a doctor who recognised what was happening!

My wait was gaining like that - a quarter of a stone every few weeks, despite dieting. My doctor gave me a copy of the Atkins Diet book and told me to try that:-))) I've gained four stone in a couple of years or so and it's still going up. (I was about 11 stone when it started, so four stone is quite a lot). I'm wondering about all sorts of things now that could be linked to it - history of miscarriages, heavy periods, tiredness for many years before the other symptoms started, puffy, sore dry eyes with blurry vision, yawning all the time, anxiety, depression, pain in the feet and legs, skin discolouration on my neck, and thinking as though I'm in a fog (thought I must have alzheimers), memory appalling, and, my mother was on Thyroxene before I was born (diabetic as well - is there a link there?). Is there a link to thyroid problems and angina? I think my husband just thought I'd been feeling 'lazy' for the past few years but he's very supportive now so I know he'll be pushing for me to get things sorted.

Sorry if I'm rambling here, but I'm just beginning to feel as though everything is coming together suddenly! It's quite a shock LOL! Can all the symptoms be reversed to some extent if the medication is right? Love Chris

[Guest guest]

Our bodies are really amazing when it comes to what they can over come and recover from. How much the body can actually repair years of damage is pretty hard, for me, to tell. But I strongly believe that even if they can't fix everything that is broken they can do a pretty awesome job of working around a lot of things if we figure out what to give them to let them do the things they need to do.

Our brains can reroute function and form new learning pathways, we can relearn things that we've forgotten or learn new ways of remembering things... as for our hearts... when the rest of our body functions are working better... the heart doesn't have to struggle so hard to do it's job either... so even if it's not like it used to be, getting your hormones up and your body working more efficiently will help your heart work better too....

Just my thoughts...

Topper ()

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 16:32:52 +0100 "" writes:

BIG GRIN:-)))) The chances are I'll have forgotten I already asked the question and got an answer, so I won't even be embarrassed at asking it again LOL! But it's so lovely not to have to worry about that LOL! Thank you:-)))))

Yes, I'm wondering about the heart side of things - can that get back to 'normality'? But then I'm thinking that the heart is a muscle, and muscles can be built up again? What about the brain bit - brain cells die, don't they - can the brain get much better after getting so 'bad'? I'm wondering (don't laugh too much here, because I am serious, and thought about deleting this sentance, but I am wondering about it) what about if I lose the weight that I've gained over the last few years - what will happen to the skin!? Will it all fall down!? I'm 55 - will it shrink back???? I think I've probably always been hypothyroid - well as far back as into my teens I think there was something wrong, but only about five years or so ago the weight suddenly piled on so rapidly, so I don't know what I can hope for as the end result when medication is got right. Thanks for mentioning about the different kinds of synthetic/natural hormones - I wouldn't have thought of that. I'm so glad my husband is a bit more 'with it' than I am, so he can come to the doctors with me and ask all the questions I'm forgetting, even though I've got them written down on a piece of paper in front of me. I am so lucky to have found this group. I hope no-one minds me encouraging other people to join? There are so many in the same boat as me!

All of you who are so much better now, thank you - you are the ones leading us to get to the same place:-)))) And we in turn will be holding our hands out to others behind us.

Love Chris

Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

Getting the meds right, the hormone levels where they need to be can make a HUGE difference. Will everything come back? Will it be as though nothing ever happened? That all depends on how hypo you were and for how long...

Our bodies are pretty amazing, they can deal with low level thyroid hormones for a long time, they adjust things and reorganize how things work to stay alive even when things are all messed up... but that can also cause some damage if it goes on for too long. No, I don't say this to scare.... Honest. But I want to make sure that you understand how important it is to jump in and do something. Keep on top of things, learn everything you can and how it all affects your body. It doesn't affect all of us the same way, we're all very individual on how our bodies react. So the more you know about the hormones and the meds and your body the better everything goes.

I base this opinion on what happened to me... over a decade of being underdosed by a string of docs that kept blaming everything on my weight and bad attitude. Well, the weight was a symptom of the hormone imbalance and the attitude had a lot to do with increasing pain levels, decreased abilities to do things, and eventually the loss of my home... I should be happy?

I ended up on crutches while under the care of bad docs. Did they look closer at my hormone levels, nope, blamed it on my weight.... yet when I switched the type of med that I was using... they had my on synthetic and I switched to an over the counter grade of natural, I got off the crutches.... as time passed and my dose increased my chronic pain went away, my sleep improved... well a ton of things improved. Things that I'd been dealing with for years and years cleared up.

My point in bringing that up is that for some it's not just the dosage (how much you are taking) but what kind.

Each of the different brands of synthetic (Synthroid, Levothroid, Levothyroxine, etc) contain slightly different fillers. Same goes for the different brands of naturals (Armour, Time-Caps Labs, Thyroid-S, etc). Some of us react differently to those fillers. And then there are some of us that do better on natural thyroid and others that do better on synthetics. And those on synthetics.... some to great with T4 only meds, some need T3 added.

I know... some of the new folks here are totally lost.... don't worry, you'll learn all the terms and such as you go, just ask questions, be it the first time you ask, or the tenth (hypo brain fog makes it easy to forget things so don't be shy about asking the same question again if you forget or just want to review, we're used to that)

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to find a doc that is open to different thyroid meds, by that I mean both naturals and synthetics so that if you aren't responding to a particular brand or type of med you have the option to try something else until your body is responding.

I could go on and on with this...I'm in a rambly mood today... hehehehe but I have over a hundred emails yet to go through and need to get going...

Ask questions, be open to learn, observe your body's reactions, find a doc that will work WITH you....

Topper ()

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:08:04 +0100 "" writes:

, that's amazing - for the weight to be dropping off you like that! Thank goodness you found a doctor who recognised what was happening!

My wait was gaining like that - a quarter of a stone every few weeks, despite dieting. My doctor gave me a copy of the Atkins Diet book and told me to try that:-))) I've gained four stone in a couple of years or so and it's still going up. (I was about 11 stone when it started, so four stone is quite a lot). I'm wondering about all sorts of things now that could be linked to it - history of miscarriages, heavy periods, tiredness for many years before the other symptoms started, puffy, sore dry eyes with blurry vision, yawning all the time, anxiety, depression, pain in the feet and legs, skin discolouration on my neck, and thinking as though I'm in a fog (thought I must have alzheimers), memory appalling, and, my mother was on Thyroxene before I was born (diabetic as well - is there a link there?). Is there a link to thyroid problems and angina? I think my husband just thought I'd been feeling 'lazy' for the past few years but he's very supportive now so I know he'll be pushing for me to get things sorted.

Sorry if I'm rambling here, but I'm just beginning to feel as though everything is coming together suddenly! It's quite a shock LOL! Can all the symptoms be reversed to some extent if the medication is right? Love Chris

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Topper--clear and sensible in my opinion. I know what you mean

about the spam attacks. yuck.

Deborah

topper2@... wrote:

> We have no problem with mentioning other groups when it's part of a

> discussion, as it was here, what bothers is when someone joins a group

> and pretty much just starts plugging another group (doesn't matter the

> topic, thyroid, cancer, bicycles) without really participating in the

> group. We get pretty mean when we're spammed, the person is usually

> banned and their ad deleted.

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Topper--clear and sensible in my opinion. I know what you mean

about the spam attacks. yuck.

Deborah

topper2@... wrote:

> We have no problem with mentioning other groups when it's part of a

> discussion, as it was here, what bothers is when someone joins a group

> and pretty much just starts plugging another group (doesn't matter the

> topic, thyroid, cancer, bicycles) without really participating in the

> group. We get pretty mean when we're spammed, the person is usually

> banned and their ad deleted.

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Topper--clear and sensible in my opinion. I know what you mean

about the spam attacks. yuck.

Deborah

topper2@... wrote:

> We have no problem with mentioning other groups when it's part of a

> discussion, as it was here, what bothers is when someone joins a group

> and pretty much just starts plugging another group (doesn't matter the

> topic, thyroid, cancer, bicycles) without really participating in the

> group. We get pretty mean when we're spammed, the person is usually

> banned and their ad deleted.

[Guest guest]

In the winter time we shoot spammers with squirt bottles after we toss them.... I live in Minnesota... so they freeze... last year I took one spammer and tied 'em naked to a tree and then shot them with my squirt gun....

.... we don't like spammers !!! hehehehehehe

Topper () *who loves getting silly once in a while! heheheh*

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:00:14 -0400 Deborah Jacques writes:

Thanks, Topper--clear and sensible in my opinion. I know what you mean about the spam attacks. yuck.Deborah

[Guest guest]

In the winter time we shoot spammers with squirt bottles after we toss them.... I live in Minnesota... so they freeze... last year I took one spammer and tied 'em naked to a tree and then shot them with my squirt gun....

.... we don't like spammers !!! hehehehehehe

Topper () *who loves getting silly once in a while! heheheh*

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:00:14 -0400 Deborah Jacques writes:

Thanks, Topper--clear and sensible in my opinion. I know what you mean about the spam attacks. yuck.Deborah

[Guest guest]

Precisely LInda!!!!! Love Chris

Re: Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

I believe the brain fog is one of the reasons we are such good patients. When I first got online and started learning more about thyroid I heard a comment about how there are docs that consider thyroid problems to be a 'bread and butter' disease. Why? Because they can abuse us for years with low dosing and roller coaster dosing and make as absolutely and totally miserable without actually killing us. In the mean time the can run dozens of other meds at us to relieve us of our myriad of symptoms which, according to them, have nothing to do with our thyroids because our TSH is 'just fine'.

I think that one phrase, after how I suffered for so many years, is what got my ire up and made me look for answers.

.... I'm not somebody else's guaranteed pay check... I'm a human being....

Topper () *slides soap box back into it's corner*

[Guest guest]

Precisely LInda!!!!! Love Chris

Re: Re: Levothyroxine side-effects

I believe the brain fog is one of the reasons we are such good patients. When I first got online and started learning more about thyroid I heard a comment about how there are docs that consider thyroid problems to be a 'bread and butter' disease. Why? Because they can abuse us for years with low dosing and roller coaster dosing and make as absolutely and totally miserable without actually killing us. In the mean time the can run dozens of other meds at us to relieve us of our myriad of symptoms which, according to them, have nothing to do with our thyroids because our TSH is 'just fine'.

I think that one phrase, after how I suffered for so many years, is what got my ire up and made me look for answers.

.... I'm not somebody else's guaranteed pay check... I'm a human being....

Topper () *slides soap box back into it's corner*

[Guest guest]

I do better with the colder weather than I do with the heat... we were hot and humid here yesterday, again, and I pretty much just sprawled in front of my fan... turned the puter off to keep it from putting more heat into the room.... and to keep it from frying..... I've been here since we got here, from Germany, when I was 2 1/2... I'm 48 now, so I'm a Minnesotan! hehehehe

Oooooh... I like that.. strip them, spritz them, then push them up against that pole... they'd be stuck there till the first thaw!!!

*evil chucking ensues*

Topper ()

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:39:18 -0400 Deborah Jacques writes:

Do you stick 'em to a flagpole after spraying 'em? That would teach a lesson they'd never forget. :-)I know about Minnesota winters. I lived there (Mpls & St. Cloud) for the first 28 years of my life. You can have it! Cold HURTS!!!!!Deborah

[Guest guest]

I do better with the colder weather than I do with the heat... we were hot and humid here yesterday, again, and I pretty much just sprawled in front of my fan... turned the puter off to keep it from putting more heat into the room.... and to keep it from frying..... I've been here since we got here, from Germany, when I was 2 1/2... I'm 48 now, so I'm a Minnesotan! hehehehe

Oooooh... I like that.. strip them, spritz them, then push them up against that pole... they'd be stuck there till the first thaw!!!

*evil chucking ensues*

Topper ()

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:39:18 -0400 Deborah Jacques writes:

Do you stick 'em to a flagpole after spraying 'em? That would teach a lesson they'd never forget. :-)I know about Minnesota winters. I lived there (Mpls & St. Cloud) for the first 28 years of my life. You can have it! Cold HURTS!!!!!Deborah