Restless legs and parathyroidism

[tickeyland]

Hi, Im a 34 female. I was recently diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism. I felt unwell for 18 months or more. Exhaustion, nausea, fatigue, feeling low  and stressed all the time. I was origionally diagnosed with depression (at the time I was off work caring for my partner who had cancer), so I accepted that was the correct diagnosis. In Nov 07 had kidney stones and then felt a lot worse. Several blood tests later over a number of months I am relieved to have a diagnosis. I am currently waiting for an op date. My symptoms seems to be getting worse though and I'm finding it hard to juggle work feeling as I do. I currently take metroclopramide for nausea and that seems to work ok, but I now have restless legs and arms every night. I get a couple of hours sleep at most which is making me feel worse. Does parathyroidism cause restless legs? What can I do to try and alleviate the problem?I don't know how long I will have to wait for op. I'm desperate!! Any advice or ideas that people have tried that have worked would be great.

[gimel]

First thing to understand is that TSH is a pituitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone.  Unfortunately doctors have been trained to use TSH as the main diagnostic for thyroid issues.  TSH is supposed to reflect levels of the actual thyroid hormones, but it cannot be shown to correlate well with either Free T3 or Free T4, much less with symptoms, which are the most important.  At best TSH is only an indicator, to be considered along with the more important indicators such as symptoms and also levels of the biologically active thyroid hormones, Free T3 and Free T4.  

That said, your TSH is high enough to indicate the possibility of having hypothyroidism.  What symptoms do you have?  

Also, I suggest that you should confirm the hypothyroidism by getting tested for the thyroid antibodies associated with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which is the most common cause for diagnosed hypothyroidism.  Those tests are TPO ab and TG ab.  Other tests that you should have done to confirm hypothyroidism are Free T3 and Free T4, which are not the same as Total T3 and T4.  Test results for Free T3 and Free T4 that are in the lower half of their ranges are frequently associated with being hypothyroid.

If you will get those tests done and post results and their reference ranges shown on the lab report, we will be glad to help interpret and advise further.

[Ranjad]

My name is Ranjana,i am 44 years of age,i recently done TSH Ultrasensitive serum by CMIA is 6.73,Dr said norml,though not..and i also suffered from left leg ache,should i change dr treatment,plz advice...

[Ranjad]

Jp

[kitty9309]

A good percentage of restless legs is caused by low iron.

The best test for this is ferritin.

[Thypatient]

Yes, I had that too.

I was advised to drink be-gallons of clear water while waiting for the op.  I'm just watching a morning show that talks about how a new study overturns the 8 glasses a day stuff.  That makes sense for the general public, but not when dealing with hyperparathyroidism.  I was drinking, more like, 28 glasses.

I bring this up because it did relieve some of my symptoms to do that.  Of course, for you, I wouldn't do anything without the dr okaying it first.

The web-site stella5249 mentions is helpful.  Good luck, really.

[stella5349]

I would think with this disease it would cause you those symptoms. I find a really good website for parathyroid disease to look at is:

www.parathyroid.com Very user friendly.