I am looking for information about hypothyroidism....?

Question

I am wondering if there is anyone out there who has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism or has had it for a while. I have many symptoms of it, including not being able to lose weight. I had a blood test for it about 5 years ago and nothing showed up but I am convinced that I do have it and it's bothering me. I have people who don't believe me because they don't think I am trying hard enough to lose weight, but I do and it doesn't work. I also have people who know me very well and can't believe that I am the size I am because I don't eat enough to by my size. So if anyone has any information or stories I would appreciate it. Also is there anyone who has started treatment for hypothyroidism and lost a lot of weight because of it? Please help.

Answer 1

People who do not have the condition will say those who are hypothyroid are overweight because of fod intake and lack of exercise. This is not true. Every medical source lists weight gain as a symptom of the condition. I am hypothyroid and I gained 50-60 pounds because of the condition. I now am at the point where I have about 20-25 pounds to lose. It took hard work of exercising, but more important was getting at the right thyroid levels and the right thyroid med for me. Failure to get at the right levels will make weight loss almost impossible.

It took me years to get diagnosed because all that was done was a TSH. Tsh changes throughout the day, so if you test in the afternoon, you might not get diagnosed. Also, labs still have the range at 0.3 to 5.5, where AACe says anything over a 3.0 is suspicious and some sources say even a 2.0 is too high.

Most don't lose weight simply by starting thyroid medication, though a few rare people do. What the medication does is helps your body to stop the weight gain once you are at the right thyroid levels. Unfortunately for most, once regulated the weight has to come off with diet & exercise. When you are hypothyroid and not on meds....usually diet & exercise will not work, but it will work once on the right med and right dosage. There are a few people who have another obstacle and that is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance develps because of the extra weight that was put on from the hypothyroidism. Once that is treated, along with the hypothyroidism weight loss is much easier. For me, I had both conditions. Once they were both treated I was able to lose 15 pounds.

Below are some thyroid links. Read up and get your thyroid tested, making sure its a morning test. They will most likely test TSH, but if you can gt a TSH, free t4, free t3, and an antibody test it will give a clearer picture. Testing for insulin resistance is a fasting glucose and fasting insulin.

Answer 2

A few months ago, I was very sick, zero energy, freezing cold, depressed, weight gain, thought I was dying. I read every word of this Hypothyroidism Revolution program and followed all the advice. My life turned around the first week. I started to feel human again. Within weeks my energy came back and I felt like living again.

Get the entire hypothyroidism revolution system today? just choose the best option for you.

Answer 3

I am hypo due to Thyroid Cancer, it is a pain! No matter what I eat I can't lose weight! Get yourself some blood tests, you will need an anti-thyroid antibody test as well as T3 and T4 tests. Doctors usually don't do all the right tests because they are expensive. Check out books by Mary J. Shomon, one "Living well with hypo-thyroidism" has a checklist that you can take to find out if your symptoms match. Also check out thyroid.about.com to find out everything you need to know. Hang in there! Help is available!

Answer 4

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the body lacks sufficient thyroid hormone. Since the main purpose of thyroid hormone is to "run the body's metabolism", it is understandable that people with this condition will have symptoms associated with a slow metabolism. Over five million Americans have this common medical condition. In fact, as many as ten percent of women may have some degree of thyroid hormone deficiency. Hypothyroidism is more common than you would believe...and, millions of people are currently hypothyroid and don't know it! [For an overview of how thyroid hormone is produced and how its production is regulated check out our thyroid hormone production page.]



There are two fairly common causes of hypothyroidism. The first is a result of previous (or currently ongoing) inflammation of the thyroid gland which leaves a large percentage of the cells of the thyroid damaged (or dead) and incapable of producing sufficient hormone. The most common cause of thyroid gland failure is called autoimmune thyroiditis (also called Hashimoto's thyroiditis), a form of thyroid inflammation caused by the patient's own immune system. The second major cause is the broad category of "medical treatments". As noted on a number of our other pages, the treatment of many thyroid conditions warrants surgical removal of a portion or all of the thyroid gland. If the total mass of thyroid producing cells left within the body are not enough to meet the needs of the body, the patient will develop hypothyroidism. Remember, this is often the goal of the surgery as seen in surgery for thyroid cancer. But at other times, the surgery will be to remove a worrisome nodule, leaving half of the thyroid in the neck undisturbed. Sometimes (often), this remaining thyroid lobe and isthmus will produce enough hormone to meet the demands of the body. For other patients, however, it may become apparent years later that the remaining thyroid just can't quite keep up with demand. Similarly, goiters and some other thyroid conditions can be treated with radioactive iodine therapy. The aim of the radioactive iodine therapy (for benign conditions) is to kill a portion of the thyroid to [1] prevent goiters from growing larger, or [2] producing too much hormone (hyperthyroidism). Occasionally, (often?) the result of radioactive iodine treatment will be that too many cells are damaged so the patient often becomes hypothyroid a year or two later. This is O.K. and usually greatly preferred over the original problem. There are several other rare causes of hypothyroidism, one of them being a completely "normal" thyroid gland which is not making enough hormone because of a problem in the pituitary gland. If the pituitary does not produce enough Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) then the thyroid simply does not have the "signal" to make hormone, so it doesn't.


Symptoms of Hypothyroidism

Fatigue
Weakness
Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight
Coarse, dry hair
Dry, rough pale skin
Hair loss
Cold intolerance (can't tolerate the cold like those around you)
Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
Constipation
Depression
Irritability
Memory loss
Abnormal menstrual cycles
Decreased libido


Each individual patient will have any number of these symptoms which will vary with the severity of the thyroid hormone deficiency and the length of time the body has been deprived of the proper amount of hormone. Some patients will have one of these symptoms as their main complaint, while another will not have that problem at all and will be suffering from a different symptom. Most will have a combination of a number of these symptoms. Occasionally, some patients with hypothyroidism have no symptoms at all, or they are just so subtle that they go unnoticed. Note: Although this may sound obvious, if you have these symptoms, you need to discuss them with your doctor and probably seek the skills of an endocrinologist. If you have already been diagnosed and treated for hypothyroidism and you continue to have any or all of these symptoms, you need to discuss it with your physician. Although treatment of hypothyroidism can be quite easy in some individuals, others will have a difficult time finding the right type and amount of replacement thyroid hormone. (More about this on the next page).



Potential Dangers of Hypothyroidism

Because the body is expecting a certain amount of thyroid hormone the pituitary will make additional thyroid-stimulating-hormone (TSH) in an attempt to entice the thyroid to produce more hormone. This constant bombardment with high levels of TSH may cause the thyroid gland to become enlarged and form a goiter (termed a "compensatory goiter"). Our goiter page goes into this topic in detail, and outlines that a deficiency of thyroid hormone is a common cause of goiter formation. Left untreated, the symptoms of hypothyroidism will usually progress. Rarely, complications can result in severe life-threatening depression, heart failure or coma.

Hypothyroidism can often be diagnosed with a simple blood test. In some persons, however, its not so simple and more detailed tests are needed. Most importantly, a good relationship with a good endocrinologist will almost surely be needed. More about treatment on another page.
Hypothyroidism is completely treatable in many patients simply by taking a small pill once a day! Once again, however, we have made a simplified statement and its not always so easy. There are several types of thyroid hormone preparations and one type of medicine will not be the best therapy for all patients. Many factors will go into the treatment of hypothyroidism and it is different for everybody.

Answer 5

even those with hypothyroidism can't blame being overweight because of it. It isn't how much you eat, but what you eat, and how much you exercise, that determines your weight. You need to stop trying to find excuses and accept responsibility for yourself.
The blood test is indeed the final word on hypothyroidism, if you have enough of the thyroid hormone in your blood it shows, and if you don't that shows too.

Answer 6

Try this site: http://www.endocrineweb.com/hypo1.html.

There is some conflict currently about just what is hypothyroidism and what is normal as far as lab tests go. I would suggest seeing an actual endocrinologist.

Answer 7

the only way you can know for sure is get a T3, T4,TSH test done. (these are blood tests)