Hashimoto's and breathing problems

[dfleming]

I know that there have been several posts in the past regarding hypothyroidism and breathing difficulties, and I just wanted to add my experience.  As a refresher, I'm a 43-year-old male who was diagnosed with Hashimoto's a month ago.  I started on a 30mg dose of Armour on May 26 and unfortunately never had a good experience with it (in other words, I consistently felt better before starting the med).  I took it for 15 days and then stopped yesterday.  The reason I stopped is because I was convinced it was giving me breathing problems.  I had two instances in two days earlier this week where I actually could not catch my breath.  After settling down, my heart would race like a racehorse.  Yesterday, I didn't have any episodes, but then again I lay in bed most of the day.

Today, I got up and moved around a bit but didn't feel very good, breathing-wise.  Well, I bit the bullet and spent the day in the ER getting poked and prodded--even had a CAT scan of my chest.  Again, nothing turned up--my lungs appear to be healthy and functioning.  But, I can tell that the two "episodes" have left my lungs feeling very fatigued and sore.  So, I'm once again left to think that my hypothyroidism is the cause of the breathing problems, as other have attested to in this forum.  But, the ER doc was just so happy to pronounce me "healthy" that he didn't send me home with as much as an inhaler.  As I said before, I was convinced the Armour was the cause based on turning up a few things about trouble breathing being a side effect and even possibly an allergic reaction.

What say all of you?  Was I foolish to quit taking it based on what I thought to be the issue?  As an aside, my GP was out of the office the day that I left a note requesting permission to stop it--he never got back to me.  Should I give Synthroid a try?  In general, how are you guys managing these breathing problems?  Because, I assume it's not going away overnight and there are only so many sick days in the world.  Oh, as another aside, the ER doc said my TSH was 6.11, which was down from 7.85 just a month ago.  So, I am headed in the right direction.  Of course, I completely changed my diet, cutting out gluten and taking certain supplements.  So, I can't really know how much the 15 days of Armour helped that--I just know what I thought it was doing to my breathing.

[LazyMoose]

Have you ever had free T3 and free T4 tested (the actual thyroid body consumable hormones). T4 is converted to T3 in the body- but not all are effiecient at it. Cant go by just TSH, that is as messenger hormone telling the thyroid gland what to do.

15 days is not enough time for meds and any pig thyroid like armour will take more time to adjust than synthetic. Armour was reformulated last yeaer and has side effects or does not work in some people anymore. I need dessicated pig thyroid (as many do), its the only thing that works for me. But this was proven after synthetics were tried.

Why did your doc start you on Armour? By all means start with a synthetic T4 hormonr like Synthroid first. And if your T3 levels are still low, then add T3 cytomel brand to the mix. If that all fails to deliver results then you go the dessicated route. And - when starting hormone replacement med, many have to start at a very small dose and work up to prevent shakes heart racing ect.

I only had breathing probs when very hypo on a med that was not working. T4 was below the range (off) at the time.

[gimel]

Rather than repeat much of what I said to rashmi73, please read my post on that thread.  Hopefully that will explain much about why TSH is inadequate as a diagnostic.  You also need the additional testing.

Not sure why the doctor decided to start you on Armour.  The old Armour formula was used by many people, myself included.  Not really sure about the current Armour.  

Since T4 meds in general have some good characteristics, I would be inclined to try a T4 med, as long as subsequent testing showed a good balance of T4 to T3.  If, however, your results showed inadequate conversion of T4 to T3,  then you would need to add in a T3 source.