From: [log in to unmask]
>I was interested in the symptoms you described. On only Synthroid for
>several years, with a lot more symptoms than when I first went on the med
Some points.
One, there is a strong thyroid / adrenal connection. One being low can affect the other and it's hard to tell whether the real problem comes from the adrenals or thyroid.
Two, most doctors don't recognize low adrenals until you're practically dead from Addison's Disease. Jacob Teitalbaum,MD, author of "From Fatigued to Fantastic", Barry Durrant-Peatfield, MD, author of "The Great Thyroid Scandal and How to Survive It" and Doc Don from this list all have that understanding.
As for your symptoms being worse than before you started Synthroid, I don't have time to find the reference right now, but in the Synthroid literature it mentions that too low a dose will exacerbate or cause hypothyroid symptoms. Yes, that's right, too low a dose can cause more problems than it solves.
Not to mention, Synthroid doesn't work for everyone. There are people who get better on Armour, Cytomel, or timed release T3.
The chest pain you refer to sometimes goes away with adequate thyroid treatment. In my case, it didn't go away until I was on both Armour and Cortef. I had that chest pain for almost 10 years when I started Cortef and it went away within a couple months.
As for foot pain, I was on Synthroid for about 8 months and felt it did nothing for me. Within two months of switching to Armour, the "plantar fascitis" that I had for 4 years started getting better. I was real careful for a long time because my podiatrist said that I could expect flare-ups anytime I did anything strenous, until I finally correllated the time the pain stopped to the time I started Armour. Why would I think that Armour could have anything to do with stopping plantar fascitis? That foot pain that hurt if I used my feet, or if I sat for long periods of time, and especially when I got out of bed in the mornings. I dreaded getting out of bed and feeling those pins and needles in my feet. Looking back, I guess my doctor explained why there was an "epidemic" of plantar fascitis in my region when he mentioned it usually started after someone suddenly gained 20 pounds or so. Why do people gain weight suddenly? Not unusual for that to be a symptom of hypothyroidism.
Doc Don has explained to us about the correlation between hypothyroidism and nerve problems, and that's probably what it really is. It felt like I was walking on raw nerves.
The pain in my hips my doctor called "rheumatoid" I developed while taking Armour. It was two years later that I started taking Cortef, and it went completely away within a few weeks.
You do need good ergnonomics at the computer. Assuming you're not in a position that's straining you, your problems are likely to be caused by the thyroid / adrenal connection.
The chest pain, which my doctor dubbed "costochondritis" was relatively mild most of the time. But, according to the Mayo Clinic website, there are times when the pain from costochondritis (which is around the breast bone) can actually feel like a heart atttack, and I did wonder about that quite a few times.
Here's that link regarding inadequate dosage, I assume the same would occur if one needed Armour and got Synthroid regardless of the dosage.
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/levothy_ad.htm
Inadequate doses of levothyroxine sodium may produce or fail to resolve symptoms of hypothyroidism.
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Inadequate dose may "produce" symptoms of hypothyroidism. Isn't that interesting. That would explain why some feel worse when they start thyroid treatment.
Skipper
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