Went to the Doctor!

Originally Posted by Tink

Your TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormones) level shows how hard your body is signaling itself to put out more thyroid hormones. If your thyroid isn't working properly, your body keeps signaling for it to spit it out and if it can't, your TSH gets high because the hormones are low.

So if that level is too high, it tells the dr that your hormone levels are too low. Synthroid, Levothyroxine, etc are synthetic replacement hormones that fool the body to make it stop sending out signals for more. If your TSH is high, your metablolism will be low and you might have trouble with added weight. It takes a fairly significant imbalance to make much weight difference though... My TSH when I was diagnosed was 61... it's supposed to be around 3. Going on the meds helped me to lose 42 lbs.
I know many who had TSH levels under 10 who went on meds and didn't lose any weight, but definitely felt better once they kicked in. It will take several weeks to correct an imbalance and if yours if significantly off like mine was, it takes months.

The downside to giving too much is that while it might help you lose weight, it also decreases your bone density, can make your eyes bulge...and other systems are thrown off by it. So neither extreme is good.

Hi Tink,
My TSH was 4 at one doctor's and 6 at another ... nowhere near 61 So why is he even giving me the meds? It seems all I do is gain weight .... I appear to be constantly hungry ... I am not eating any differently than I did 2 years ago and then I was losing weight ... w/o trying to ... I have been on the Syntroid for about 15-18 months I think ... (I think I started January 2006)
But I thank you for your information, I did not know that my numbers were considerably insignificant (all I knew was that it was not in the norm) ....

so what would happen to me if I take the 1mg as opposed to the 0.025 mg???

Grave's disease?? Iis that what you mean about the bulging eyes, yes? Isn't that what Barbara Bush had???

Well, thanks to you and Judy, I made an appointment to speak with a doctor, and I am going to get a 3rd opinion ...

about the bone density, I was on Forteo and that helped a lot ... but I was on that for 2 years and you cannot be on that longer than 2 years. My rheumatologist wanted to give me Boniva infusions, but this endocrinologist said no ...

I am going to end up a short, fragile FAT lady by the time I am 60 ....

Thank you SO much for your help ... I really appreciate it ....

[Tink]

Yes, it causes you to react as if you have Graves disease if you get too much.

Also, I should mention that if you start the meds too fast... rather than ease into it, it's like jump starting your system with too big a jolt and can throw you into an emergency crisis as it shocks the heart and other organs. Even as "off" as I was when diagnosed, they started me on the lowest dose and slowly added to it every 6-8 weeks over many months time until I got to a normal level. It meant having blood tests each time to see where I was at, but is the only safe way to go.