Believe it or not. I read and article recently that stated many heart palpitations and skipped beats etc can happen if a person has too little salt.
We hear harping to avoid st so much that many people go too far and cause heart anomaly’s from lack of salt and corresponding loss of electrolytes.
Not saying this is the case here. But if you have happened to be actively avoiding or eliminating salt, may want to consider it as a possibility.
In my case I had PVC’s with heart skipping feeling when I was hypo.
Heart skipping and pvc etc and anxiety also related to too much caffeine. So may want to think about the coffee and soda intake if they contain caffeine and you drink several a day.
Most all your symptoms and specifically the low body temp would most correlate to hypo. And as many stated above, heart rate issues are common with hypo.
I personally am not convinced, although possible. That a relatively small 13 mcg increase would send you hyper.
T4 medication takes several weeks to stabilize in blood. Splitting T4 medication is useless. Besides, Tirosint is a liquid gel cap, making it impossible to cut in half like a pressed powdered pill can be cut with a common pill splitter or knife.
T3 medication on the other hand acts in HOURS and therefore splitting the dose to twice a day is effective and makes sense for most people to do and I would recommend. T4 splitting dose that takes weeks to really stabilize is totally insignificant. At least in my opinion.
I have Hashimoto's as well and the skipped beats and palpitations can be brutal. I went through a few cardiologists and endocrinologist because each one kept blaming my issues on the other. I finally went to a holistic doctor that did muscle response testing. Honestly I was skeptical but I was so desperate and I felt I had nothing to lose at this point. He told me to eliminate wheat gluten soy oats and corn from my diet and although I was skeptical I did. Lo and behold two weeks later my palpitations went from everyday all day to about once or twice every few days. I feel so much better. I know you said your skipped beats started when you took your medication however maybe your hashimotos progressed around the time you started taking medicine. It must have that is why you started needing meds anyway. Sometimes people cannot tolerate the thyroid medication. It's worth eliminating the foods just to see how you feel. You have nothing to lose. I actually ended up being a vegan afterwards because once I eliminated the foods my holistic doctor suggested it made me more in tune with my body and other things that were aggravating my immune system. I never would have thought those foods were bothering me because I didn't have any type of allergic reaction to them but having Hashimoto's our immune system is already out of whack anyway. I suffered with Hashimoto's for years and I paid a lot of money to funtional medicine doctors that didnt help. But I found this holistic doctor he was so cheap it was only $50 to see him which is another reason I was skeptical because it was so cheap. But he change my life. He had me do a heavy metal detox and he gave me these tinctures for a virus and something else I forgot sorry. And then he told me to eliminate certain foods......let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food...sorry so long
I cannot feel my heart beating so I have to check my heart moniter to see what is going on. My body temp and heart rate increase with hyperthyroidism and decrease with hypothyroidism.
I had anxiety and heart palpitations/skipped beats horribly bad when I was hypo. At that time, I also had a family situation going on that I couldn't control that caused a lot of stress. I also worked full time and had little time off so that made the stress/anxiety a lot worse, which exacerbated the heart issues.
I've had a holter monitor 3 times and definitely have bradychardia (slow heart rate), which I believe to be caused, at least, partially, by my hypothyroidism.
It's important to remember that a lot of thyroid symptoms can cross over and apply to either/both hyper and hypo.
Just want to thank you all for posting it really does mean a lot to me.
A holter monitor is usually worn for 24-72 hours and only a doctor/nurse can take it off. A loop monitor is a 30 day holter (but you can take it off yourself when you need to, e.g. to shower). I think a holter should be more than enough in your case. Do you have your holter test results? If not, you can get a detailed report that lists every single skip from your cardiologist by calling their office. Go through the report and check what your heart rate was when you had the skips (in my case it was under 55 bpm 90%+ of the time I was having getting skips and my heart rhythm was completely normal over 60 bpm. Most of my skips happened at late night right before and during sleep when my heart rate was around 40-50 bpm).
You mentioned that your heart stopped skipping for a few weeks when you switched brands and that it also affected your period. This is further proof that your heart skips are related to your thyroid. I think you just need to find a doctor who would be willing to look past your TSH levels and also listen to your symptoms and history and check your FT3.
Based on your FT4 it seems like you're leaning towards hyper and that's causing your heart skips. But it's hard to tell without knowing when the skips started and stopped in relation to your labs. Could you re-post your test results with the dose you were taking and symptoms you had at the time?
I agree with Barb135. Taking your medication on the day of your labs tends to affect your test results. I always make sure to stop taking them 26-27 hours before.
Thank you both for responding. I hate to write such a long post....
Below is my TSH and Free T4. Endo does not test Free T3 said there was no need. So I will have to do it on my own. I had also mentioned adrenal issues previously but I didn't really get a answer to that.
Vitamin D was low on prior tests, 23 I believe, so I was taking 6,000 mcg a day it went up to 92. Was told to cut down to 2,000 mcg a day. Ferritin... well is that the same as blood count? I do take iron pills because my blood count was low years ago. No test for B-12 in several years. I was taking 1,000 mcg but stopped it and the Vit D3 because I thought maybe they were contributing to heart skipping.
When I went up to 88 mcg the diarrhea started on day two and continued until I stopped the medicine completely for a few days. The heart skipping started on day 5 of the increased dose. It was so bad I had to stop and go back to my other dosage.
The cardiologist I believe he put it that I had too much thyroid medicine in my bloodstream and so it caused hyper type symptoms but never got to the thyroid. So when I stopped then went to my regular dosage my heart should have stopped skipping.
I've had anxiety for awhile and feel like it is a fall back for the doctor.
Is a loop monitor a holter monitor? I wore one during my heart tests. Actually had it twice.
The skip beats come during high and slow heart rates. So slow for me is 78 I've never had it lower than that. High heart rates are 105. Today I've only had a few skip heart beats.
Note that in March 2019 I tried to switch to Synthyroid because I just thought it was something with Tirosint. When I switched for three weeks no heart skips then suddenly it started again and much much worse. (Sorry men) I even skipped a menstrual cycle. I was told that had nothing to do with the thyroid medication as well.
I will go back to taking 50 mcg every day for a few days then more than likely back to the 75 mcg. I felt awful yesterday.
It is just so confusing. I've read so much online but need some people to guide me in the right direction.
Jan 2017 (after 2 months on tirosint)
TSH 1.430 uIU/ml ref 0.450-4.500
Free T4 1.30 ng/dl ref 0.82-1.77
Apr 2017
TSH 1.740
Free T4 1.50
Oct 2017
TSH 1.760
Free T4 1.51
(next is when my TSH started going the other direction
, also using their inside lab)
May 2018
TSH 2.9
NO Free T4
(follow up with Endo in June. Went from 75 mcg to 88 mcg for 7 days, then stopped for a few days due to reaction, started back to taking 75 mcg with food as at the time it seemed to stop the skipping beats but they would start later in the day)
From this point taking medication with food
Nov 2018
TSH 2.1 Ref 0.5-4.5
Free T4 1.53 Ref 0.75-1.54
Apr 2019
TSH 2.4
Free T4 1.36
Nov 2019
TSH 3.02
Free T4 1.44
Ectopics can be caused by hyper and hypo. I was getting lots of PVCs before I got on medication. They were so bad that they would wake me up at night, a lot. My PVCs mostly gone now that my FT3 is closer to the middle of the reference range.
Knowing your FT3 and FT4 levels can definitely help you figure out whether this is thyroid related or not. I was getting more PVCs when my FT3 was borderline low. If your PCP thinks it's anxiety and is refusing to run additional tests, maybe it's time to look for a new PCP and explain the situation to them. Doctors often refuse to accept this but thyroid issues can definitely cause ectopics.
Another way to determine whether this is caused by hyper or hypo is to wear a loop monitor (a cardiologist can order this test for you) and check how fast your heart is beating when you get those horrible ectopics. This may not be 100% accurate but at least it may give you a sense of what's causing this. If you mainly get them when your heart beats under 55-60 bpm, it's probably hypo. If they often come when your heartbeat is 100+ bpm at rest it's probably hyper. I was getting lots of PVCs when my heart rate was under 55 bpm around the same week every month (clearly hormone related, zero correlation with anxiety).
Hypothyroidism can also cause heart-related issues and with your TSH at 3.02, it's a possibility that's your problem.
You don't give us the reference range for the one Free T4 of 1.44, so we don't know where that falls within the range. If you'll post that range, we'll be able to see where in falls within the range.
Reducing your thyroid medication dosage or stopping it altogether will only make matters worse. If there's nothing wrong with your heart, I'd say your issues are related to your thyroid (hypothyroidism), not to the medication, itself.
I can't imagine how the one cardiologist could say you're over medicated with a TSH of 3.02, when there's no Free T4 or Free T3... Unless you have high thyroid hormone levels, you aren't over medicated.
Sometimes when changing medications/dosages symptoms worsen or new ones appear until the body adjusts to the new dose, which could explain the 2 days of diarrhea.
Hypothyroidism can also cause low heart rate, since the thyroid is partially responsible for controlling heart rate.
You need to find a doctor that will test the Free T4 and Free T3 consistently so you know what your levels are each time you have testing done. You also don't mention whether you took your medication on the days prior to having your blood work done.
Have you had any vitamin/mineral tests done? Vitamin B-12, D and ferritin are all necessary for the proper metabolism of thyroid hormones. Ferritin is the iron storage hormone and iron is necessary for the conversion of the Free T4 storage hormone to Free T3 which is used by nearly every cell in your body.