Hives & Thyroid?

[ping12]

For 6-weeks now, out of the blue I have been getting hives EVERYDAY!  I can-not narrow down the cause.  It started the same day I started taking my new perscription of Synthroid.  Would there be any connection?  Also today, I woke up with a huge fat lip on the upper half right and the lower right!  Thank you~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ping12]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR YOUR HELPFUL INPUT AND COMMENTS.  MUCH APPRECIATED..............

Sami

[ChitChatNine]

When you say new prescrip of Synthroid is Synthroid new to you or that batch is a refill or was it a different strength?  Is it name brand?  If the strength changed, so did the fillers .. the colored dyes ... I would skip a day (if ok with your Dr) and see if it calms down at all .. a swollen tongue is not good and something that needs to be addressed, perhaps, with carrying an Epi Pen.

My one daughter is latex/plum anaphylactic and the other one who is 14 is bee sting and she gets a swollen tongue and swollen glands in her mouth with a bee sting along with distant swelling elsewhere from the site, too and burn-like hives which blister and can be 4 feet away from the sting so they consider it an immedaite reaction and just on the tongue, alone, scripted an epi pen.

An allergic reaction can turn anaphylactic ........ I'd insist on the Dr's helping you find an answer.

Benadryl is good but can give rebound affect when it wears off .. that is why maybe the tongue swelled .. it supresses the reaction but when it wears off it can come back worse than originally had it.

Cheryl

[GravesLady]

Armour is PIG thyroid, not human thyroid.  The raito in PIG thyroid is much more or higher than the need of human thyroid. Armour is harder to regulate in some patients and contains a much higher T3/T4 ratio than most humans need.  Armour favors T3 much more than the normal human thyroid ratio after all its from pigs and they are different then humans.

Armour is made from raw pork thyroid glands collected at slaughterhouses, which are tested for absence of Salmonella and E. Coli, then held in a frozen state until they are delivered to the processing laboratory where they are minced, placed in a vacuum dryer, defatted, then milled to a fine powder before being packaged. Samples are tested for chemical and microbiological characteristics.

Normal healthy thyroids daily production of  T4 is 100 mcg
Normal healthy thyroids daily production of  T3 is   30 mcg

Grain fed contented PIGs thyroid gland produces  38 mcg + 9 mcg  T4
Grain fed contented PIGs thyroid gland produces  60 mg (per grain) T3

Some people develop TED when they take animal-based extracts such as Armour, because the immune system  react to foreign proteins found in glandular extracts. Synthetic meds. doesn't cause this probelm.

Pure synthetic T4 is the medication that the vast majority of hypothyroid patients use. Most physicians now consider desiccated thyroid and the combinations of synthetic T4 and T3 to be obsolete. Since they contain both T4 and T3, and T3 is absorbed and used by the body more quickly than T4, their T3 content can cause some patients to develop temporary symptoms of hyperthyroidism (palpitations, nervousness) after a tablet is taken. Also, desiccated thyroid, derived from slaughterhouse animals, may have variable potency from batch to batch, depending on the animals' diet, the season of the year, and the species of animal used to make the tablets.

[kitty9309]

Armour has t3/4 like human thyroid, but the ratio of the two is not the same. I don't have personal experience to share, though.

[ifupleze]

It might be worth a try as Armour is supposed to be closer to our own natural thyroid, however, i was on armour and went way hyper on it and had to stop taking it all together until I went hypo again and now I am back on synthroid.   So if you do, I would try the smallest dose first.  There area a lot of other synthetic thyroid meds you could try.  Levoxyl for one.  Well, I hope we all have a better year.  Good luck.

[ping12]

Thanks you for your comments.  I have done the elimination deal but came up with nothing.  Been to Dr. and to the ER!  Both told me to "live with it"........last time for these Dr.'s.  This a.m. I awoke to a swollen tongue, downed 3-Benadryl took most of the day for swelling to go down.  I live in a rural area and have a satellite ER and a "doc-in-a-box" both closed today!!  What a way to start a new year.  I am getting rid of all the bad today to have 364 days of good.  Any how, My thought is that my body is telling me something, but what?  May switch to Armour...........any comments on that?

[GravesLady]

You could be allergic to Synthroid, especially to the coloring/dye if you are not taking the dose that is white. Also could be allergice to the fillers/binders in the pill. You might try Levoxyl or another brand, not all are equal, that is to say, they might not have the same ingredients of binders/fillers.  There is a certain type of hives that is autoimmune so if you are autoimmune whatever, you are susceptible to another autoimmune condition like autoimmune hives.

Who gave you the fat lip ;)    I have problem with iodine giving me what feels like a bottom fat lip and pulsates like crazy. Specifically iodize salt in this situation.

However, before blaming Synthroid I'd try to figure out if it could be from someting else by the elimination process.  I get hives/rash from brown dyes in pills.  I was getting big red rash for several years that came and went, which was from eggs.  Of all things, baby powder, which took me 15 years to figure that one out. The positive side is, I was able to figure them all out with the first eleminaion.

Just a thought!  

Happy New Year!  Good Luck and Best Wishes for 2008.

[ifupleze]

Someone else had the same question a few days ago, but you would have to check through the pages of the forum. I believe they thought it could be an allergic reaction to their medication.  Have you told your doctor?  Benadryl (I don't know the right spelling) is supposed to help with hives, but I would surely call the doctor first.