RE: Fibromyalgia; a Beastly Condition
Yes, hashimoto's thyroditis, which is autoimmune (the body's immune system attacks the thyroid). I've had it most of my life and I have to take the synthroid because my thyroid doesn't produce enough. My TSH was a little low last time it was checked. My synthroid constantly needs to be adjusted slightly and I'm extremely sensitive to it. The synthroid is what I do best on. I never did well on levothyroxine or any other. I don't take armour thyroid because I don't like taking dessicated pig thyroid. You're right, the medical profession is pretty useless except for diagnosing. An endocrinologist thinks all of my problems are due to 'thyroid syndrome'. Of course specialists always view things through their own lenses and not holistically. Everything is a complicated interplay in the body. He even thinks my 'fibromyalgia' is from it. Actually my fibromyalgia is so much better since I have learned what I am sensitive/allergic to in my environment and food-wise and no doctor ever helped me with that. When I had allergy testing it helped a little ... but I mostly figured things out for myself.
I don't think we get Synthroid in the UK, from what I could see online isn't it just a branded version of levothyroxine?
Did you ever get side effects from it? The Levo gave me palpitations and chest pain which in turn made my anxiety 100 times worse, it seemed to be horrific stuff, I am still unsure how to treat it, have you ever been given the option of T3 medication?
Here levothyroxine is the generic of synthroid. Sythroid is the original brand name. They claim there's no difference but I've always found the quality of 'synthroid' as well as my response to it to be better. The doctor should maybe start you off in lower dosages. I couldn't sleep at first when they started me on thyroid replacement over 20 years ago even though I was dangerously low by then. The doctor slapped a full dose on me (100 mg) when now it's done in small increments beginning with a low dose and testing the blood. Everyone is different. I've tried the t3 and it gave me bad side affects -- one of them being nervousness. I didn't like it. My goal now is to be on a low of a dose as possible with the most maximum benefit. It has to be adjusted for me a lot. In other words, I either goes too high or too low.