Guest guest Posted February 4, 2005 Report Share Posted February 4, 2005 In a message dated 2/4/2005 6:20:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, klb58@... writes: > I have once again started to have itchy ears, ringing in my ears, lump in > my throat and am gaining weight-2 pounds in the last week, though eating way > more protein and hardly any carbs. The skin on my legs is like fish scales and > looks like a snow storm when I take off my socks. I am still experiencing > fatigue, especially in the afternoons kerry, is it cold weather there...recently colder? that could be a factor. you pretty much take exactly what I do - except I take 2 grains in the morning for a total of 4 grains. i think some of those things you mentioned are just inherent in thyroid disease- dry skin and fatigue...and often difficult to eradicate completely....and i even think for those who have had ear problems - it's very hard to get rid of. so - you might try 1/4 more grain - i'd do it in the morning. i don't think this would send you into hyper land - but it might help those remaining items a bit. cindi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 4, 2005 Report Share Posted February 4, 2005 Sounds to me like it's time for another LITTLE increase! (Armour of course) *Artistic Grooming * Hurricane, WV Fat cat? Diabetes? Listowner for overweight or hypothyroid cats http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hypokitties/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 How low of a carb diet are you on? The reason I ask is that if the diet is too low carb, this will slow thyroid function. What is does is slow down the process of creating energy with thyroid because glucose is needed for this and so if the diet is too low in carbohydrates, there will not be enough glucose. The best thing is to have a small amount of glucose every two hours, such as you would get in a small piece of fruit or half of a piece. The fact that low carb diets that are too low in carbs are almost impossible for people to stick to long term is in large part because it eventually slows them down and then they start to crave carbs to get energy. Also, too little glucose is more work for the adrenals because then they have to kick in more to try and get energy from fats and protien. Converting fat and protien to enregy are not very efficient and take more energy per calorie obtained than eating a small amount of carbs spread out in the day would do. Too many carbs at once is also extra work for the adrenals because they have to put out more hormones to convert the excess glucose to fat and get it out of the blood. Another thing that might be happening that I did to myself is that your thyroid doseing is not quite right. When I was first starting on this journey, I could not tolerate thyroid without an adrenal crash. I found that the only way I could take thyroid was to break it up into a dose every two hours. The trouble with this is that you do a good job of balancing out your thyroid levels in the blood during the day and this is easier on the adrenals, but at night you have almost nothing and go into the red there. Studies have found that people need a little more thyroid at night than during the day. They figure that the body is using it for repairs. So, when you do not have a dose at night that is equal to or a bit more than the dose you have during the day, you are getting a deficit in your overall needs for 24 hours. So, what I'm thinking is that your total dose is still a little low for you overall, because at night you aren't getting much at all. You have figured out how to get enough during the day, but at night you aren't taking much at all and it needs to be the same as your daytime levels minimum. You have about 8 hours of thyroid deficit. It is sort of like being normal in the day and hypo at night and the result is that it's a stress on the body because thyroid levels are fluctuating too much. If you try to increase your dose in the day to make up for the deficit at night it will crash you because you will have to take too much for your needs in the day to carry some over for the night. This makes T3 too high for you in the day and will give hyper symptoms. I'm having a hard time explaining. The goal is to have even blood levels of thyroid all 24 hours of the day. Eventually I was able to work this out by taking a dose every 8 hours. I take 3-3/4 grains total. My moring dose is 1-1/8, my afternoon dose is 1-1/8 and my bedtime dose is a little higher at 1- 1/4. So, my doses in the daytime are the same and my bedtime dose is slightly more. Once I quit depriving myself at night, I did a lot better overall as far as energy was concerned and my sleep really improved. So, I suspect that you might need a little higher dose overall and you are going hypo at night and that is partly whay you still have some hypo symptoms. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 Glad you are feeling better. Bet that afternoon fatigue is related to your overall armour dose still being a bit too low. But, with adrenal problems, it takes more time to get there. I used to have to lay down in the afternoon, when I was on 2 grains. Just could not go on. It took me a long time to get from 2 grains to 3 due to my trashed adrenals. When I got to 3- 1/2, my life really turned around - no more naps. Also, it does not take very many carbs to maintain adequate glucose for thyroid function. The trick is to just do a tiny amount very often (about every 2 hours) so blood levels of glucose are enough but not so much that it requires the adrenals to kick in to help bring it it down. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 I just wanted to add one more thing. Fats deplete thyroid hormone. The low carb diets don't concern themselves too much with fats. But, fats use up more thyroid. It is not a problem for people with adequate thyroid function because it just increases output to burn the extra fats. But, if you have limited total thyroid, then fats will deplete it more than other foods. Studies found that animals greatly increased their metabolic rates when fats were totally eliminated from their diets. This is not a good thing long term, but it shows that reducing fats spares thyroid for other uses in the body. I was doing a lot of coconut oil when I was hypothyroid, because they say it speeds up the metabolism. Well, yes it does because it increases the body's use of thyroid hormone. But, if your thyroid is impaired and can't increase it's output for the increased demand of fats, then you deplete it from the blood. That's what happened to me and my hypothyroidism got worse. So, lots of fats can require an increase in thyroid replacment to help your body use them. Tish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 LOL is this an eye opener as I have never been worried about eating fat, but I can see where this could explain why I should be more circumspect!!! Thank you. *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** I just wanted to add one more thing. Fats deplete thyroid hormone. The low carb diets don't concern themselves too much with fats. But, TishN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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