> Margaret Reid <[log in to unmask]>

>  My thyroid scans are completely normal - no change in three years
If you are referring to ultrasounds, or whatever it's called where they look
at the size of the thyroid to make sure it's not enlarged, mine was "normal"
but when not on enough thyroid meds, my thyroid chokes me and when I'm not on
enough, it doesn't and I can breathe to sleep at night.


>  Regularly declining T3 now below lower limit of range
T3 is the active thyroid hormone.  T4 doesn't do anything I've heard about
other than turn into T3, either in the liver or some organs can remove a
molecule of iodine from T4 to create T3.

>  First antibody test (a week ago) - Anti Thyroglobuline 293 (range 0-100)
Some doctors in USA won't treat until TSH is elevated even if Hashimoto's
causes thyroid to swell, which is common.  Smarter doctors will treat with
thyroid meds whenever they see antibodies.  I've heard the thyroid meds lower
the antibodies (which you want to do since they attack and do damage to the
thyroid), selenium works in some cases, and if you have low adrenals which is
a lot more common than most doctors are aware corticosteroids have been known
to lower antibodies.

>  (2) I suffer from night sweats (i'm 40) about a third of the time and

I've not thought about it, but it used to not be unusual for my wife to have
night sweats, she thought that it was when she was sick.  Since she's been
treated she hasn't complained about that.  She blamed it on Epstein Barres
Syndrome, which some doctors think is the cause of chronic fatigue and other
problems, and related to mononucleosis.  When she had mono,  she did have
night sweats.   So, if they really have gone away then that indicates the
thyroid meds probably cured that problem.  Now, low thyroid commonly means
low estrogen and even though we looked at the labs from our old doctor and
found the estrogen level extremely low and circled by the doctor's office,
the doctor (a female) never brought the reading to my wife's attention.  For
all I know, the low estrogen could have simulated menopause and caused night
sweats.   IN addition to thyroid hormones she's also on hormone replacement
therapy (HRT).  The plan is to not continue the HRT, because it's likely her
thyroid being fixed will solve that problem.  As for the recent study citing
that HRT may not be wroth it, it still depends on the situation and I'm
probably too dumb to understand the study's significance, but the reason they
made the decision to stop seemed to be based on awfully small percentages.
I've wondered if it's because it's a somewhat natural product and the
pharmaceutical industry seems to object to natural.  I't's amazing how many
people prescription drugs kill, even after bad things are known.  Not long
ago I mentioned my wife used to take an allergy medicine, Seldane while it
was still being made before they found out it killed people and was
enlightened to learn it is an often used allergy medicine in Canada still.
It killed people in the USA but can be used in Canada?

It seemed my wife was allergic to everything including fresh air.  Instead of
air conditioning we opened our bedroom windows one night and would up in the
emergency room with her throat swelling shut.  Now that her thyroid is
adequately treated, she only seems to be allergic to ragweed and cats.  From
using Polyhistine-D, a now drowsy allergy prescription that was hard to get,
and several asthma inhalers per month, she went to no serious allergies.  So,
yes, it can be affected by thyroid and the medications like Claritin and
Seldane tend to cause heart irregularities.  (They fear these when created by
thyroid meds, and so say don't take too much or it will be bad for your
heart, but then they go and prescribe things that are just as bad and only
fix the allergies and not the other problems that thyroid meds can fix.)

Many problems go away with thyroid treatment.  Including allergies.  As for
hearing, loss of senses is one symptom of hypothyroidism.  I suspect the link
to hearing is that it does damage to nerves and probably affects the nerves
of the ear.  Sometimes with thyroid treatment these things will get better.
Most of the problems are caused by poor circulation, the heart doesn't have
enough energy to pump, so to maintain blood pressure the blood vessels
constrict in peripheral areas, which makes them cold.  So, that's at least
part of the reason it makes the skin dry, the muscles hurt, and causes nerve
problems because without strong circulation the heat from the blood and the
rich oxygen doesn't get where it needs to be.   Blood pressure might be
maintained so you don't realize your heart can't keep up the blood pressure,
but if it is it's due to the constriction of blood vessels.  Later on the
blood pressure might increase and your arteries might start getting clogged
for the same reason.  That's why they used to give Armour Thyroid to anyone
with high cholesterol.

As for prescribing thyroxine, some countries have no problems giving T3
medication.  I heard that from someone in Norway.  I don't know about France.


>  Where did I get all these antibodies from? (blood transfusion 8 years ago =
>  after giving birth to my twins???)
I think an old article I saw on the Internet from the Mayo Clinic may be the
best guess, because it makes so much sense.  It said the autoimmune problem
was really not an overactive immune system as many people call it, but a
tired one that makes mistakes because it is tired.  Some with Hashimoto's
have said that there antibodies go down when they got on thyroid meds, which
would indicate that it was no longer too tired to work correctly so it
stopped attacking the thyroid.  (Or, maybe the reason they are there is
because if you don't produce enough thyroid hormone your thyroid swells and
chokes you.  Maybe somehow it's a protective mechanism for that, but I've not
seen that possibility mentioned. )

As for whether it's curable, Dennis E. Wilson, MD developed a cure that works
for some people.  Typically people who go through his treatment either don't
need thyroid meds at all or they can get by on  a lower dose because it fixes
the problem some people have converting T4 to T3.  He says it works the same
way for Hashimoto's patients too.

Skipper Beers

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