dyspnea

[shruthi572]

what is the treatment for thyroid related dyspnea

[chel 81]

Dyspnea can be caused by both under and overactive thyroid. Also, certain thyroid medications can also cause it. Think back to when the dyspnea first started- was it before or after starting thyroid meds (if you are on them)? Have you been diagnosed but are not on meds yet?

I experienced it as a reaction to Cytomel- never had it before until put on it and it was relieved by getting off the medication. If you're is medicine induced though it's not something you can just cure overnight (it has taken me since Aug '08 to get mostly off mine because it has to be done slowly).

[shruthi572]

i had been diagonised with hypothyroidism before 5 yrs nd i hv been taking thyronorm 50mcg,but the problem of dyspnea has started since a year and even my doctor is unable to treat it.do u hav any solution ?

[chel 81]

What are your latest lab values? What specific medication (& current dosage) are you on?

[shruthi572]

my tsh value is 1.47 nd i hv been put on thyronorm 50mcg

[mtkst13]

i'm having breathing issues right now.  my free t3 and free t4 are normal, but my tsh is .099.  i feel like i'm gasping for air.  very frustrating.  i also feel like i'm developing deep chest congestion as well.

i've had the issues off and on for many many years.  i think it's thyroid-related, as i believe that i've had thyroiditis flares for years without being diagnosed until last year.  i feel like docs think i'm nuts when i tell them about my breathing.  they always tell me it's anxiety.  

[chel 81]

shruthi572- sorry I'm not familiar with thyronorm. Guessing you are not in the US so it might be some other drug found where you live. Make sure your doctor runs all the other tests including your Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, and the TSH all together. The TSH doesn't say anything about your thyroid status so even though it's in a good range it's where your other tests are that are important. You may be getting too much or not enough thyroid hormone but you can't know by just a TSH value.

mtkst13- even if your Free T3 and Free T4 are normal it doesn't mean they are optimum... there is a big difference. Your TSH is low but depending on what medication you take it may not be of much significance because your Free T3 and Free T4 are what will tell the story.

I'm speaking purely from personal experience here but I'd never had breathing problems until my doctors put me on synthetic thyroid hormones. I'd been on Armour thyroid for 3 years and never once experienced this type of thing. However, when I got sick again (due to mono) and my thyroid meds got out of whack they started messing around with my meds and switched me to Synthroid which gave me anxiety attacks (didn't even know that's what they were at first until I googled the symptoms) and then they put me on Cytomel which gave me the dyspnea. I felt like I was suffocating- it was like having an asthma attack for 24 hours a day for around 6-8 months straight- it was absolutely horrible! They sent me to a cardiologist and he told me it was just stress or anxiety and gave me beta blockers even though I told him I knew it was the medicine. So, I listened to my gut instead of him and slowly got off the Cytomel and back onto Armour and sure enough the breathing problems went away. The tricky thing is though that dyspnea can be caused by many things so I definitely wouldn't recommend going my path but you need to find out when it began and figure out if it's the meds, if it's you are undermedicated, need a different medication, or are overmedicated. Unfortunately it's one of those things that can be a symptom from both ends so pin pointing where/what causes it is very important or you could make it worse.