Hashimotos with hyper symptoms?

[NCR77]

Hi, I'm new... and trying to figure out what is wrong with me.
I think it's Hashimotos/Thyroid related, but doctors (as I hear is common) keep telling me No, not yet maybe in a few years...

I'm a 37 year old female, migraines & allergies/sinus stuff have been my only issue up until the last 1-2 years. Gluten-Free for 1.5 years (for migraines, originally).
My mother had Graves/hyperthyroid & drank the radioactive iodine a few years ago to kill off her thyroid - so there's a genetic link.

I wasn't feeling great most of 2014 - it seemed to follow the Mon-Fri work week pattern, like something environmental was triggering symptoms.  Symptoms worse at the end of the day, and especially the end of the week - spike in migraines, nausea, old injury inflammation pain, eventually body aches started, lymph nodes in my groin swelling up- overall sick & fatigued feeling. Also I kept losing weight.  Over 2 years I went from 135 to 109.  And I eat a LOT.

In August my doctor ran a heavy metals urine test which came back positive for Arsenic - 74 mgc/g H  (creatinine 19.5 mg/dl L).  She put me on medical leave from work in Oct 2014, and I seriously needed it.  I was really sick and couldn't do much, despite eating healthy and taking good care of myself.  I still had up & down flu like symptoms and a whole bunch of issues & couldn't gain weight - getting well wasn't going well.  In Nov she retested & the Aresenic was "none detected". I was still feeling bad, so she extended the leave into November, and I was a little better, but the progress was very slow.  I asked her to run thyroid tests in November.

Thyroid tests from mid-Nov 2014 read as follows: (no one did T3)

TSH 1.51 mlU/L
T4, Free 1.2 ng/dL
Thyroglobulin antibodies 336 lU/mL
Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies 278 lU/mL

My doctor said the results were normal, and the antibodies just meant something could develop down the road.
The endocrinologist said the same thing.  Despite my symptoms.

I have a good acupuncturist who helped me along the way with herbs, and believed there is a thyroid issue. I found a Naturopath in Dec who recognized there was something going on, at the very least Auto-immune something, and she put me on Moducare Immune Support and Adrenal Support, Gaba, as well as a good Vitamin D (as I was deficient).  Those things helped some.  Less body aches, less migraines, felt better-ish.  (Tho the Endocrinologist told me to stop taking all the supplements the Naturopath prescribed -as they could be dangerous).

In December I started eating only organic grass fed butter & meat and organic veggies, and cut out nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes etc) to avoid inflammation. Cut out 90% of dairy in Sept. I still eat organic pasture raised eggs. And the tiniest bit of coffee in the am.  Limit sweeteners to only a bit of raw honey.  I'm trying to be hardcore about my health.  But the results are.... eh, ok-ish.

I went back to work this week, feeling better-ish, hoping to keep on that track.... and by Monday late afternoon I was feeling bad and it snowballed fast - a non-stop 4 day migraine that Rx could barely make a dent in, body aches, and eventually the nausea came back.  From what I've read chemical sensitivity can really amp up auto-immune/thyroid issues?  I don't know if that was at play?

I've been trying to educate myself as much as possible, but sometimes I start to feel crazy.  And I don't know who to believe Western Medicine?  Eastern Medicine?  How do you pick and choose?  I'm an artist, not a doctor.

Are my thyroid test levels possible to be positive that I have Hashimotos now?  (as oppose to could develop it).

I really want to figure out what is going on, so I can be proactive in treating it!

Thank you to you anyone who can offer some info or perspective!
NCR

[Red_Star]

Good for you for being proactive!  I wrote in more detail about oxidative stress on another link. My mother is in remission with Hashimoto's thyroiditis getting rid of all the oxidative stress in her life. Pretty cool. :)

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Thyroid-Disorders/TPO-keeps-on-raising/show/2418991

[Barb135]

Yes, your antibody tests are definitely positive for Hashimoto's as opposed it being "something down the road"... the something down the road is the hypothyroidism caused by the Hashimoto's as it destroys your thyroid and it's not the least bit unusual for symptoms to show up long before labs (TSH, and FT4) indicate that there's a problem.

TSH is a pituitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone, so it's a diagnostic tool at best.  FT4 is only one of the thyroid hormones... it's a storage hormone that must be converted to FT3, which is the hormone that's actually used by individual cells.  That's the one you don't have a result for, but it's also the last one to drop off, also.  Try to get FT3 tested next time you get TSH and FT4.

What's the reference range for the FT4?  Reference ranges vary lab to lab and have to come from your own report.

What was your actual Vitamin D level?  Vitamin D is necessary for the metabolism of thyroid hormones, so if you have low levels of vitamin D that could be part of your problem.

As you can see from changing the diet, it won't cure a anything, though eating healthy is always good for us.  Just no point in getting too carried away with it...

Do you know where the arsenic poisoning came from?