Question:
I've been suffering from an undiagnosed ailment for many years. I am a 28 year old male.
My symptom are:
-mild anxiety
-mild depression
-General edema, with huge waterbags under my eyes (the edema and the eye bags completely go away temporarily when I take a prescription water pill. After I take a water pill, my eyes are no longer puffy, I
lose 2 inches from my waste and I look 10-15 pounds lighter. Two days later, I'm back where I started.)
-Chronic underarm sweating (about 75% of the time)
-Very low libido
-Fatigue
-Clouded thinking
-Memory problems
-Muscle and joint aches
-Mild G.I. issues
The only diagnosis that I've heard is depression, and I know that I am not depressed. I'm actually fairly happy, especially under the circumstances of dealing with all of these symptoms on a daily basis.
I'm a very optimistic person. I've tried 10 different anti-depressants over the years and none have helped my symptoms at all. I've also tried a few talk therapists with absolutely no improvement.
Five years ago, I had a mildly elevated TSH level of around 7. I started taking Synthroid, 25 mcg, and I felt absolutely horrible. I felt extremely nervous and edgy. But my energy was boosted quite a bit. I discontinued the Synthroid after two months. My current TSH level is less than one, but my eyes are very puffy and I am very lethargic.
I just saw an alternative type of doctor, and he thinks that I have thyroid problems that are not showing up on blood tests, and that I should try Armour. He says that many people don't react well to Synthroid, but they do react well to Armour because it is natural and because it contains T1, T2, T3 and T4.
Has anyone had a terrible experience on Synthroid, but done well on Armour or some other medication (cytomel, etc). I'm afraid I'm going to have the same reaction to Armour that I did to Synthroid.
Answer:
Your symptoms are somewhat confusing here. You have the some of the same symptoms one would have with hypothyroidsm, but with a tsh of 1, there are 3 choices I can think of:
1. Do not have hypothyroidism (TSH of about 2 is normal. Below 1 is hyperthyroid, which would not let you gain that much water).
2. Your hypothalmus isn't working correctly (it produces the tsh). The elevated tsh, followed by the low tsh would be an interesting indicator here, especially if your t3 and t4 levels were not low when you had the high
tsh.
3. You need someone with actual medical training instead of a internet. Try and endocrinologist and/or an internist. Without offense to your GP, he or she may be over their head in your case.
My suggestion is that you have your doctor run a full thyroid panel, and look especially at the t4 and t3 levels. If they are low, with a low tsh, then you have a little more difficult problem. Corroborate that with the
old tests when your tsh was 7. If the t4 and t3 are high or high normal, you might want to look elsewhere in the endocrine system (adrenals?) for a problem. The one thing you probably don't have is depression.
It would be a good idea to hunt a bit around for the problem without the addition of armour at this point. If the thryoid panel indicates it, go for the armour, though I suspect you will have the same issues as you did
with synthroid. It is always best to treat the actual issue, rather than recalling that drug or potion X does great for thyroid and take it. That goes for synthroid, armour, kelp, magnets, or whatever.
Its likely you have Hashimotos disease and yes its common for folk to feel lousy on Synthyroid >>>>>>>>thank your lucky stars that you can get Armour <<<<<<
