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[Guest guest]

Hi there all...

I've just been diagosed with hypothyroidism. Started taking Levothyroxin, 50mg.

Any advice as to what i can expect?

Cheers,

Simon

[Guest guest]

I've just been diagosed with hypothyroidism. Started taking Levothyroxin, 50mg. Any advice as to what i can expect?Hello Simon and welcome,

Well, all going well, the idea is to get better .... but sometimes it's not all straight forward. Often a patient starts to improve and then things go pear shaped again.

Do tell us a little more about yourself, please – your symptoms, your lab figures (incl. of ref ranges) at diagnosis (always ask your doctor for a copy) and if taking Levothyroxine has already made a difference to you.

50 mcg is a baby dose, particularly for a man, but with thyroid hormone it is always best to start low and then up the dose by a further 25 mcg every 4 weeks or thereabouts. It takes the body about 4-5 weeks to level out the hormones in the body, so there is no point in doing a blood test any earlier than 5-6 weeks after starting medication. I would imagine that your doctor will test your bloods after 6 weeks and then up your dose to 75 mcg, then re-test another 4-6 weeks later and up the dose again to 100 mcg and so on. Once you are on a decent level of Levothyroxine (between 125 mcg to 200+ mcg), you should (hopefully) have improved considerably – provided everything goes to plan. Sadly there often are obstacles in the way and you might as well start to look into things that might hamper your recovery...

One of those things are your mineral and vitamin levels. Please ask your GP to check the following:

Ferritin, Folate, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Vit B12 and Vit D3.... he might not do them all, but you can only try. All of the above mentioned minerals and vits are vital to be at the top of their respective ref ranges, else the body won't be able to utilize the thyroid hormone properly and you won't recover as well as you should. So get them all checked as far as your GP will play ball, then report your result on here. Please note that we always ask for the respective reference ranges of each blood test. Every lab has slightly different ones, so you need to know what they are.

Furthermore – please go to our files, and read the section on adrenal fatigue... if you had weak adrenals, your thyroid hormone would not be utilized either.... so it is important to know where you stand. If your body produces too little cortisol, then you would need adrenal support in form or something like NAX (Nutri Adrenal Extra), but in any case you need to supplement the following:

Vitamin C – start with 500 mg or 1000 mg per day and work your level gently up to bowel tolerance. Vit C is vitally important for us Hypos. It supports the adrenal function – and never mind the government RDA recommendation about anything ... the normal RDA is too little even for healthy people – we need a multiple of it. If you can tolerate it, up to 5000 mg daily of Vit C, in divided doses.

You also need to either eat 5 brazil nuts every day, or buy some Selenium – you need 180-200 iu every day. (best absorbed in liquid form – Biocare does a good one [Nutrisorb Selenium]... 2 drops per day in water)

Furthermore, a good Multi Mineral Complex would help, and a good Vitamin B Complex (containing at least 50 mg of each B vitamin per day... except B12 – that's a different kettle of fish)

Dr. Peatfield also recommends Q10... in as high a potency as you can afford, but at least 100 mg per day... 200 would be better. It's expensive here, so I buy mine from Vitacost in the USA.

Any other supplements would depend on your levels – whatever you are too low in (even if low inside the ref range) you need to supplement... hence you need to know your levels.

If all goes well you should be back to your old self within roughly a year... but improving all along the way. If you do NOT go on improving, then we have to look deeper into the various things that can screw things up. – But fingers crossed that it will be plain sailing for you.

With best wishes,

PS - Do consider buying Dr. Peatfields book "your thyroid and how to keep it healthy" - it's under £ 10 and worth its weight in gold. Everybody suffering from a thyroid condition should read it; it's brilliant.

[Guest guest]

>Ferritin, Folate, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Vit B12 and Vit D3.... he might not

do them all, but you can only try. All of the above mentioned minerals and vits

are vital to be at the top of their respective ref ranges, else the body won't

be able to utilize the thyroid hormone properly and you won't recover as well as

you should. So get them all checked as far as your GP will play ball, then

report your result on here. Please note that we always ask for the respective

reference ranges of each blood test. Every lab has slightly different ones, so

you need to know what they are.

i am sorry to be contradictory christina but i don't think it is correct that

zinc and copper should necessarily be at the top of their ranges ...they need to

be in proper ratio to one another (i think it is something like .7 copper to 1

zinc for women and slightly higher in zinc for men).

trish