TSH/Vitamins

[karenscar]

Hello.  I have an interesting situation.  I have been hypothyroid for many years.  I took Synthroid for many years and now take a combination of Synthroid/Cytomel.  My dilema is that when I take vitamins (taken at least 4 hours after thyroid meds),  it raises my TSH, making me feel hypo, my TSH went from 1.13 to 4.97.  The only thing that I can think of is when I took Vitamin D by itself, it also raised my TSH.  I might add that my Vitamin D level was low.  My current vitamin has 1000 mg of Vitamin D.  I have heard that Vitamin D is a hormone, so maybe this is what is affecting the TSH.  My question is:  Should I continue the vitamins w/D and ask for an increase in thyroid or discontinue the vitamins and just concentrate on thyroid.  Very confused.

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

Some vitamins will interfere w/ thyroid hormone absorption -- take the vitamins at a separate time of day to minimize this effect (ie at night).  The 4 hours you had been allowing is usually adequate though...

[amir650]

Do you mean 1000 IU of vitamin D?  I am in the same boat as you are except I am not taking synthroid.  I have hashi's and my TSH is borderline hypo.  When I tried synthroid it made me feel worse so I discontinued it.  My doctor is encouraging me to try to get my vitamin D up.  It's currently at 16 (I don't know what the units are).  I wonder if vitamin D is well tolerated or needs to be ramped up slowly.