BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health Hypothyroid:

FYI
Here is a great graphic on the signs of thyroid disease.
http://www.thyroidfoundation.org/thyroidsymp.htm

I just took the quiz. First half were No, second half yes score 50%. Actually I was confused on lateraly eyebrow hair.

So I think that would now be a yes - the response after quiz was done explained it more clearly. Perhaps others do not know what that means and why it is significant.

I am not sure though if it was always light in that area or not. Anyway I did not answer yes for muscle pain since I work out and would be hard to distinguish that pain and for periods I am 45 and possibly perimenopause and that could explain the changes recently.

Also my face is puffy but I think it is from taking the prednisone for my eczema and my weight gain from that. Have not taken it again even though I need it for my skin, but boy does that medication alter the personality into nastiness. I call it the nasty pill

I just checked out the site with the graphic. That is very helpful.

Thanks!

Hello
Thanks for taking the quiz.
The eyebrows. It's the outer part of the eye brows. Lot of thyroid patients lose the hair on that end of the eye brow or they get thins hairs there.

Puffy face is from predisone if that's what your taking. That's more a moon face look.
The puffy face from thyroid is more puffy in the eye area and nose area. It would be hard to answer that question if you take predisone. And that does affect your weight too.
I guess if you are taking medication that affects things like that you need to answer if you can remember what you are like before the medication.
Muscle pain in thyroid disease is different than that of working out. It's a pain that doesn't go away like work out pain does. The muscles are just tired and they hurt and the pain is there day after day with thyroid. Some people have muslce to lock up on them.
I guess the quiz wasn't helpful for you. Since most of the questions are affected by medications and age.
Look at the page of symptoms and see if you have some of those symptoms. If you do ask your doctor to test your thyroid. It's a blood test.
I feel women should be tested at least once every other year. And if there are members of their family with thyroid disease they should be tested yearly. Every women should be tested during pregnancy and after pregnancy. And women going through menopause need to be tested every year. This is just my thoughts on when to test.

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I just watched a segment on this the other morning on Good Morning America. I took notes and they mentioned getting a simple blood test - TSH. The key symptoms I jotted down were brittle hair, dry skin and constipation.>>>>>>>

The false god of TSH. TSH is a petuitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone. TSH responds to the level of Thyroid hormone it "sees". If the petuitary is messed up, or if the body has a problem converting T4, or utilizing T3, the TSH reading is meaningless. Also, if there is an antibody problem ( hashimodo's or groves) it is worhless. Also, when you are taking suplimentation, it is screwed up as well.

The only valid use for TSH is to determine when a cnacer patient is ready for Radio active Iodine (very high TSH) and when the patient is supressed after RAI. (should be .01 or less. Other than those two, there is no valid use for the TSH test.

The test that should be used are FREE T3, and FREE T4. T4 should be in the 50% to 75% of the range. T3 should be 80% to 100% of range.

Oh, my -- another Armour discussion.

The truth is that many who were on Armour before the 1970's and were switched to Synthorid have said that they never again felt as well -- so Armour deserves to be reconsidered. If there were potency issues, they date back to the 1970's when the preparation was handled in a very different fashion. Most of the thyroid replacement hormone products have experienced recalls at one time or another-- so that one issue just doesn't seem to be a valid criteria any longer.

I do not myself use Armour, but have always been tempted -- TOO many people say that it made a big difference to them -- too many have said it made a difference with their weight issues. The doctors have, in the past, been deceived by the Synthroid salesmen and their "spin"-- a few years back a court case against Synthroid was successful. Synthroid had suppressed the studies revealing that Synthroid is NOT the only effective T-4 med. It is now acknowlged that all the available T-4 meds are effective. So, should the doctors who were deceived into believing Synthroid was the only true thyroid hormone be believed concerning Armour? No. They probably have again been influenced by drug salesmen.

The only valid issue with Armour (from my perspective) is that it has 20% T-3 which is very different from the percentage the normal human thyroid produces. That ONE drawback can be easily worked out by adding in a little more T-4 from a synthetic med such as Levoyxl/Synthroid or other.

My information is from reading thousands of posts from many patients. Also, I've researched references on the normal human thyroid.


There is another source for T-3 -- but, it is synthetic, and should be carefully structured to be less than 10% of someone's thyroid replacement hormone.

~ Maureen

Everyone deserves a full life -- translation: the hypothyroid should be diagnosed and optimally treated.

Have to disagree with the consistency comment. Armour in particular is one of the most consistent thyroid replacement meds on the market. The synthetic makers put out the inconsistent line.

Forest Labs did the recall this past spring because some older product was on the line of being under potent.

The way it is processed, the tabs are made from many batches of processed thyroid that are blended to get the desired potency.

True, the individual batches do vary. That is the reason they blend many batches, to get a consistent product.

To get a true picture of your thyroid condition, the test you need are the FREE T4 and FREE T3. The TSH is a petuitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone.

The group I follow on Yahoo finds that for optimal results, the Free T4 should be above the mid point of the range, and the Free T3 should be above 80%.

Once you start taking hormones, the meds mess up the TSH test.

My mother has hypothyroidism and she had very good results with homeopathy earlier this year (her homeopath is working closely with her GP). Has anyone else tried homeopathic or naturopathic remedies?