Aa
Thyroid Issues
If my TSH, is 4.67, would this be cause for difficulty in losing weight? I realize that it is not extremely high, but I believe the range for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone is .40 - 4.50. Should this be concern for visiting my doctor?
Christa
Christa
depends on which doctor you talk to. Many GPs are clueless and have not kept up with current info.
My endocrinologist would say stay in the one or under category. Fine tune your meds to be there.
Why?
I remember when I went to my GP and my TSH was 26...and she said, oh that's no big deal.
Remember now, that means you are making 26 times less hormone that what would be optimum. How is that no big deal?
The symptoms you usually hear about, dry skin, water weight, brittle hair thin hairs, lack of energy, weight gain...these are not the things to worry about...it's the long term side effects of continuously being undertreated that concern me.
Hypothyroidism can lead to several other problems. These include:
-Goiter: Often associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, a goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland which affects appearance and may interfere with breathing and swallowing.
-Heart complications: Hypothyroidism puts you at a higher risk for heart disease, as well as an enlarged heart and heart failure.
-Depression: This is most likely to occur shortly after hypothyroidism first develops and can get worse as time goes on. It can also slow the mental thought process.
-Myxedema: Myxedema is a rare, but potentially fatal condition resulting from untreated hypothyroidism.
-Birth defects: Babies born to mothers who have hypothyroidism have a higher risk of birth defects, especially cognitive impairment. If babies are born with hypothyroidism and it is left untreated, then they are also at high risk of developing physical and mental problems.
-on top of that many suffers feel lousy at 4 and their docs do nothing because
"if we overtreat your cholesterol will go up and your kidneys will suffer".
Well great...but don't we have blood tests for that? So why undertreat? Because heart disease is better than kidney disease? NO, WRONG, it's not better.
that's my 2 cents.
as far as being unable to lose weight you could also have a pituitary dysfunction.
This is common in HCV patients but rare in the general populace.
People in here who have tested have all been under, some by 50% some by 80%.
You need an IGF-1 simple blood test to determine if your pituitary function is low, and then more tests before they will treat you for this. It is very hard to get docs on board as most neither know about it, nor do they care to advocate for their patients as the treatment is expensive and insurances fight it.
Yet, if you want more info, I have a thread in here that explains it all.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/324670
mb
My endocrinologist would say stay in the one or under category. Fine tune your meds to be there.
Why?
I remember when I went to my GP and my TSH was 26...and she said, oh that's no big deal.
Remember now, that means you are making 26 times less hormone that what would be optimum. How is that no big deal?
The symptoms you usually hear about, dry skin, water weight, brittle hair thin hairs, lack of energy, weight gain...these are not the things to worry about...it's the long term side effects of continuously being undertreated that concern me.
Hypothyroidism can lead to several other problems. These include:
-Goiter: Often associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, a goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland which affects appearance and may interfere with breathing and swallowing.
-Heart complications: Hypothyroidism puts you at a higher risk for heart disease, as well as an enlarged heart and heart failure.
-Depression: This is most likely to occur shortly after hypothyroidism first develops and can get worse as time goes on. It can also slow the mental thought process.
-Myxedema: Myxedema is a rare, but potentially fatal condition resulting from untreated hypothyroidism.
-Birth defects: Babies born to mothers who have hypothyroidism have a higher risk of birth defects, especially cognitive impairment. If babies are born with hypothyroidism and it is left untreated, then they are also at high risk of developing physical and mental problems.
-on top of that many suffers feel lousy at 4 and their docs do nothing because
"if we overtreat your cholesterol will go up and your kidneys will suffer".
Well great...but don't we have blood tests for that? So why undertreat? Because heart disease is better than kidney disease? NO, WRONG, it's not better.
that's my 2 cents.
as far as being unable to lose weight you could also have a pituitary dysfunction.
This is common in HCV patients but rare in the general populace.
People in here who have tested have all been under, some by 50% some by 80%.
You need an IGF-1 simple blood test to determine if your pituitary function is low, and then more tests before they will treat you for this. It is very hard to get docs on board as most neither know about it, nor do they care to advocate for their patients as the treatment is expensive and insurances fight it.
Yet, if you want more info, I have a thread in here that explains it all.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/324670
mb
after treating for about 40 weeks, my TSH hit 0.02 and now i'm trying to bring it back up, it's onlyy 0.04 and i'm a methimazole daily. i hear some people get normal functions once they stop treating with interferon/riba
After treating for 6 mos., my TSH is rising. 5.33 (upper range is 5.6). It's been running 2 to 2.4. i'm still in range but uncomfortable with the change. In your experience, will it go back down? Thanks.
Its not that high and I guess it depends where your numbers were before and if you started treating and if the thyroid was damaged by interferon or not like Trinity said. I am hypothyroid after being hyperthyroid and to me yes there is a fantastic difference but I treated for 72 weeks and developed autoimmune problems.
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