Hashimotos Diagnose

[Beefcake]

Hello!
My sister was diagnosed with hashimotos. She has elevated TSH and elevated Thyroid antibodies. She had all symptoms of low thyroid. Doctor put her on levothyroxine and she started showing symptoms of hyperthyroidism. She’s been in and out of the ER a couple of times now for having a heart rate at 130 and feeling like shes gonna have a heart attack. Now the doctors have removed her T4. She was also on propanolol beta blocker to stop the racing heart. On the levothyroxine her T4 is above reference range. T3 is close to upper side. But her TSH is still high around 5-8 and sometimes 16. It was way higher before. So now when they stopped the T4 we want to try get her TSH down naturally. Any good advice on what to do? I think she mainly need to produce more thyroid naturally and also increase her conversion from T4 to T3. She also had elevated liver enzymes and low sodium.
Also seems to have a lot of adrenaline spikes probably high cortisol but that didnt show up on cortisol blood test.

 

[LuMonty]

I haven't dealt with Hashimotos, but I have dealt with an ER trip from high heart rate (mine was in the 160-190 range) so I know that can be frightening.
Also, after reading so many accounts on this forum about thyroid in general, there doesn't seem to be a particular solution. As a note, I'm writing this as if you know nothing just so it's easier to write; making assumptions would make for an awkward style.

Sodium is always good; most of my recommendations below are liquid, so salt is doubly important if you try them. I haven't really found a non-liquid way to keep blood sugar up during acute stress. Progesterone helps guard the thyroid so it can function more normally, and it's calming effect can be helpful when the condition is stressful.

In my case, I had been using a lot of caffeine to counteract sleep apnea I didn't know I had, so my liver has been good for awhile. Some accounts show improvement, others stuck with K2. I use both. Caffeine can somewhat substitute for thyroid though, so I'm guessing for those supplementing at least T3 that it could be an issue. Coffee may be too much, but with enough good cream (minding the crappy thickeners like carageenan) and sugar can be very good. Too much caffeine at once can spike cortisol. Whole milk works pretty well too. From personal experience, if I don't have some fat in the coffee it burns too quickly. In Peat's tales of high coffee intake, he made very concentrated coffee and consumed a small amount with lots of milk and sugar.

The problem I find with thyroid surrogates is they're a stop-gap measure. Just in my experience. No doubt some caffeine, K2, even vitamin D are good. Speaking for myself though I never improved until using actual thyroid. It's all been experimentation, and that's why I'm just giving some ideas here.

Keeping blood sugar steady is good to prevent cortisol spikes. Out of all the drinks I've tried, since I have trouble eating a lot of food, OJ with maple syrup seems to be the best. Too much liquid is difficult to consume when the thyroid isn't right. I used to add sugar, but that requires a lot of extra upkeep as it burns through other vitamins and minerals. Maple milk is good too if it can be consumed, but the fructose in OJ is easiest to use.

YMMV with solid food. I had to finally admit that fruit wasn't cutting it and started on white rice with butter. The idea is to have a carb that's easy to use served with fat so she gets more of a drip than a rush.

As always, anything that lowers the stress hormones like vitamin E, aspirin, etc are welcome.

Phew, that's a lot there. I'm not sure it's so helpful since it's general thyroid advice I've read and tested. You might do a search in the email depository thread for TSH.

 

[Beefcake]

I haven't dealt with Hashimotos, but I have dealt with an ER trip from high heart rate (mine was in the 160-190 range) so I know that can be frightening.
Also, after reading so many accounts on this forum about thyroid in general, there doesn't seem to be a particular solution. As a note, I'm writing this as if you know nothing just so it's easier to write; making assumptions would make for an awkward style.

Sodium is always good; most of my recommendations below are liquid, so salt is doubly important if you try them. I haven't really found a non-liquid way to keep blood sugar up during acute stress. Progesterone helps guard the thyroid so it can function more normally, and it's calming effect can be helpful when the condition is stressful.

In my case, I had been using a lot of caffeine to counteract sleep apnea I didn't know I had, so my liver has been good for awhile. Some accounts show improvement, others stuck with K2. I use both. Caffeine can somewhat substitute for thyroid though, so I'm guessing for those supplementing at least T3 that it could be an issue. Coffee may be too much, but with enough good cream (minding the crappy thickeners like carageenan) and sugar can be very good. Too much caffeine at once can spike cortisol. Whole milk works pretty well too. From personal experience, if I don't have some fat in the coffee it burns too quickly. In Peat's tales of high coffee intake, he made very concentrated coffee and consumed a small amount with lots of milk and sugar.

The problem I find with thyroid surrogates is they're a stop-gap measure. Just in my experience. No doubt some caffeine, K2, even vitamin D are good. Speaking for myself though I never improved until using actual thyroid. It's all been experimentation, and that's why I'm just giving some ideas here.

Keeping blood sugar steady is good to prevent cortisol spikes. Out of all the drinks I've tried, since I have trouble eating a lot of food, OJ with maple syrup seems to be the best. Too much liquid is difficult to consume when the thyroid isn't right. I used to add sugar, but that requires a lot of extra upkeep as it burns through other vitamins and minerals. Maple milk is good too if it can be consumed, but the fructose in OJ is easiest to use.

YMMV with solid food. I had to finally admit that fruit wasn't cutting it and started on white rice with butter. The idea is to have a carb that's easy to use served with fat so she gets more of a drip than a rush.

As always, anything that lowers the stress hormones like vitamin E, aspirin, etc are welcome.

Phew, that's a lot there. I'm not sure it's so helpful since it's general thyroid advice I've read and tested. You might do a search in the email depository thread for TSH.

Thank you!!!

 

[Dave Clark]

Just throwing it out there that many people that are doing low dose naltrexone are being able to drop their thyroid antibodies to next to nothing. On the LDN FB groups you would see many testimonials of people who had to stop their thyroid meds because LDN has normalized their thyroid. My wife started LDN and I saw a difference in her the very next day. Low Dose Naltrexone | The Ultimate Resource | LDNscience and The Low Dose Naltrexone Homepage are two good sites to learn about LDN, if you don't know about it.

 

[Beefcake]

Just throwing it out there that many people that are doing low dose naltrexone are being able to drop their thyroid antibodies to next to nothing. On the LDN FB groups you would see many testimonials of people who had to stop their thyroid meds because LDN has normalized their thyroid. My wife started LDN and I saw a difference in her the very next day. Low Dose Naltrexone | The Ultimate Resource | LDNscience and The Low Dose Naltrexone Homepage are two good sites to learn about LDN, if you don't know about it.

Very interesting