Fatigue-levothyroxine

[Guest guest]

I have been having problems with exhaustion for a number of

years. I have been getting 24 hour urine tests for my thyroid and

my doctor says these show normal ranges. From what I understand

tests cannot be conclusive (or is a saliva test better?), so I

asked the doctor I have been seeing to give me something to try

and she has prescribed Levothyroxine Sodium 0.05mg (Synthroid

0.05mg). Is this a good choice? If there is something wrong with

my thyroid will this improve things and let me know if the

thyroid was the problem?

She has also given me a 24 hour urine test for my adrenals and

she said she would look into a tests for Lyme disease.

Thanks

[Guest guest]

Hi Joe, welcome to our forum where I hope you will receive all

the support and help you obviously need.

Can you post your last thyroid function test results together

with the reference range for each test and let us know whether this is for the

24 hour urine test or the blood test that was done. Doctors, sadly, will tell

us our results are 'normal' if they appear ANYWHERE within the reference range

because they have not been taught how to read these results at all. You are

absolutely correct, tests cannot be conclusive and your symptoms and signs

should be taken into account at all times and a thorough clinical examination

should be conducted.

Levothyroxine is only useful if you have low levels of thyroid

hormone being secreted by the thyroid gland. It is no good for those people who

ARE secreting normal levels of thyroid hormone, but they are suffering with

peripheral thyroid hormone reception. These are the patients who carry on

suffering the symptoms of hypothyroidism and they need the addition of either

synthetic T3 (the active thyroid hormone) or natural thyroid extract that

contains all the thyroid hormones i.e. T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin.

Thyroxine is a mainly inactive thyroid hormone that has to

convert to the active T3 through the liver, kidneys, skin, brain and many other

thyroid hormone receptors throughout the body. There are many, many reasons why

a large minority of us cannot do this. I have attached a document for you to

read so you can check whether any of the suggestions why the levothyroxine is

not working for you might be there.

I believe the 24 hour salivary adrenal profile is the best test

done, as it checks your cortisol and DHEA level at four specific times during

the day. The 24 hour urine test gives only one sample of the level of the

amount of cortisol secreted. This is not good enough.

First, go to our Files section from the Home page of this forum

web site and scroll down to 'Medical Questionnaires' and you can do the Adrenal

Questionnaire to see how you score. (You can do the Candida and Magnesium

Questionnaire whilst you are there too). If you score high, then go to the 'Adrenal'

Folder, and click on the File 'Home Testing' and see how you score with those

tests. If positive, then send for the 24 hour salivary adrenal profile through

Genova. You can find details of how you can get a discount for Genova Tests by

scrolling to the Folder 'Discounts on Tests and Supplements' and follow the

instructions in the Genova file, and remember to write 'Thyroid Patient

Advocacy' as your Practitioner. The results will be sent direct to you. You can

then take these to show Dr Peatfield if you go to see him.

Hope this helps.

Luv - Sheila

I have been having problems with exhaustion for a number of

years. I have been getting 24 hour urine tests for my thyroid and

my doctor says these show normal ranges. From what I understand

tests cannot be conclusive (or is a saliva test better?), so I

asked the doctor I have been seeing to give me something to try

and she has prescribed Levothyroxine Sodium 0.05mg (Synthroid

0.05mg). Is this a good choice? If there is something wrong with

my thyroid will this improve things and let me know if the

thyroid was the problem?

She has also given me a 24 hour urine test for my adrenals and

she said she would look into a tests for Lyme disease.

Thanks

1 of 1 File(s)

WHY ISN'T LEVOTHYROXINE WORKING.doc