Question for you:

Have you ever read the book: "Iodine crisis" by Lynne Farrow?

(Amazon.com even has a kindle version)

Before you dismiss me as some "conspiracy theorist", I think u should at least "skim" through that book. In our current age of fake news, conspiracy theories are not so crazy!

For the past 5-6 days straight, I have been taking Synthroid 75 mcg PLUS Cytomel 5 mcg-- (Strictly doctor's orders). But I still feel like tired as shit..

I tried taking that Iodine supplement in Farrow's book for like 2 days...and I could swear I felt better.

I know I know....the supreme authority here is my doctor, so I should ask only him if Iodine supplementation is safe.

As you can see (from my topics and style of typing) --hypothyroid can literally drive you insane!! And the last thing I want is to freak you out. But, truth is, hypothyroid is freaking ME out!

I feel like a F*CKING HYPOCHONDRIAC!

Drozer, I have lupus, fibromyalgia and Hashimoto so this cocktail is driving me crazy. I am certain my doctors have called me a hypochondriac, if not a mad woman. I feel like a crazy person with hormonal imbalance, who is very exhausted but is too insomniac to rest, and too tired to compose complex pieces of writing because I cannot for the life of me, write a decent sentence with acceptable grammar. I would sit there for an hour trying to fix a sentence because my brain cannot see why my grammar and diction have reduced to the level of a 5 years old. I am certain all these meds my doctors have given me, have contributed to some of these symptoms.

I am certain iodine supplements will help you, but too much free iodine will become toxic and cause development of a goiter, as well as making your hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism worse, or better still, INDUCES the hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism.

https://www.ign.org/6-what-happens-if-we-get-too-much-iodine.htm

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypothyroidism/expert-answers/hypothyroidism-iodine/faq-20057929

Another thing is that all that minerals and metals that you are taking, e.g calcium, copper, aluminium, iron supplements and the N-acetylcysteine will REDUCE the EXISTING IODINE in your body because they bind the free iodine in the blood and excrete them, causing a decrease in the efficacy of your thyroid hormones.

For goodness sakes my friend, stop taking minerals supplements. A general Vit B complex will do. You can ask your doctor to do a blood test to check your iodine level, AFTER you have gone off those mineral/metal supplements, and BEFORE you take the iodine supplements so that the test of your baseline blood iodine level would be accurate. The fact that iodine supplements make you feel better attests for the reduced iodine content in your body despite taking thyroid hormones.

Well, thanks for replying.

I also feel like a brain fog "on steroids"...like I am always under the influence of a half-bottle of cheap, but HARD Russian moonshine.

I also have BIG problems with memory, reading comprehension, writing (my knuckles and finger muscles get painful very quickly when writing, this even affects my ability to adequately brush teeth with enough force)..

My sister thinks I have some kind of "dyslexia"--She thinks she knows everything because she went to Med School (but Not practicing medicine). However, I still do agree that I either have Dyslexia, ADHD, or a hybrid of both.

This same sister actually called my father a "hypochondriac" because he is really into taking vitamins & supplements. Tanya is her name. But Tanya is a bit of a hypocrite, because Tanya only eats all organic foods from "whole foods" store. But my dad is highly successful, and very healthy for a man of 81 years. Also, his whole life, he's a highly "functional alcoholic". He took his first shot of Stoli when he was SEVEN years old. But all his drinking has never interfered in his ability to make good money & be a responsible adult. However, it does make him a very moody prick.

I'll be honest. I used to drink about as much as him until 2006. In 2006, I actually became ALLERGIC to all distilled liquors! I like to tell myself that it was God's way of saving me from total alcoholism.

I've been burned by many doctors in the past. So I have trust issues with most docs.

Hi Drozer, I don't think you have dyslexia, ADHD or a hybrid or both. Your writing is quite sophisticated. I don't think you have brain fog, or if you did, it would be a mild case. Are you in the medical field?

Hypothyroidism/Hashimoto can cause brain fog due to inadequate thyroid hormone, inflammation, blood sugar imbalances, and gut permeability. People with hereditary MTHFR gene variation who cannot process folic acid from supplements and processed foods will have a build up of folic acid which leads to brain fog as one of the symptoms. Foods such as soy, grain and sugar can contribute to a leaky gut where food and toxins enter the blood stream to cause inflammation to the brain, resulting with brain fog. You can check out the things you can do to prevent brain fog from the article below.

https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/brain-fog-hashimotos/

I've been drinking soy milk by the buckets, no wonder why I am having brain fog. That's it, I will have an overhaul of my diet and supplements.

My brain fog is not consistent, but waxes and wanes. Good sleep, rest, caffeine, lack of stress will eliminate my brain fog. Now I know that certain foods will lead to brain fog, I shall make certain not to eat them.

Do you think that your past drinking history may have contributed to your present brain fog?

I have trust issues with doctors as well. Some docs gave the wrong diagnoses, such that I had to obtain second opinions because the original impression was so outrageous and ludicrous. Or that some docs just did not know what to make of the symptoms, so they would assume that I'd just made things up. When that happened, I would approach the professors in the best teaching hospitals in the state to obtain a correct diagnosis. Many of my illnesses went undiagnosed for a long time because my doctors had refused to admit that they knew nothing in order to refer me to the appropriate physicians.

Don't listen to people telling that you are a hypochondriac. If you are unwell, write down the symptoms and discuss them with the physicians in the appropriate fields.

A few times prior, I complained to my neuros that I had problems with spelling and grammar. The neuros subjected me to these presumably cognitive tests, which I had passed with flying colours. Since I did well on the cognitive tests, my neuros said that I had made things up to garner attention on myself. The neuros also pointed out that from the composition of my emails to them to request for an appointment, my writing was too sophisticated to be the works of someone with cognitive difficulties. So these docs refer me to a psychologist to treat anxiety (presumably because I was a hypochondriac). The "psychos" spent the entire appointment teaching me how to meditate to relieve stress, whilst charging by the hour.

My symptoms waxes and wanes just like my lupus, there is no permanence to my symptoms. So when I cannot produce symptoms for the doctors to examine at the appointment (15 minutes max), then I must be a hypochondriac !

My journey to obtain medical treatment is a comedy of errors. The last casualty of this comedy is my brain. Last week, when I complained to my rheumy about my spelling errors and grammar, the doc guffawed and advised me to get more sleep. Today, I feel alert and writing pages of articles without feeling loss of words or plagued by grammatical errors. Life is a farce sometimes !

I am sorry I have digressed to my problem.. My point is: don't listen to people who tell you that you are a hypochondriac. If there is something wrong with your health, you should seek medical treatment. The best person to detect symptoms is yourself. After all, it is your body, and you decide how you should obtain treatment !

Good luck, and best wishes.

Hey,

Just a little update.

I took my blood lab results to a "holistic/functional/integrative' MD (not ND).

He ordered some follow-up bloodwork for a few reasons: (#1) He highly suspects Hashimotos as well, so he ordered TSH, T3, T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, TPO Antibodies, Antithyroglobulin antibodies.

Also, he ordered: inflammatory markers called "ESR", "ANA", "RA", Hs-CRP, Homocysteine, G6PD.

He says I do have anemia, but just to be more certain, he ordered:
"total iron", "Retic", "ferritin", "Methymalonic acid".

He also Rx'ed me 2 supps. called "Metafolin & B12", "Vitamin K2 with D3".

I gotta admit that I became a "skeptic" of US medicine because of my Ukrainian father. He has a great engineering degree, but he was also taught to be very cautious of "western medicine" and especially, the "Bourgeois pseudoscience" of Psychology, psychiatry, anything linked to Freud.

When I was young and stubborn, I got angry and rebellious at my dad for this. But now at 38 years old, it's hard to deny that he made some good points.

Anyway, I hope your life (and family) is going well.

Hi Drozer, thank you for the update. I hope that you (and your family) are well, considering all the issues that you have gone through with your poor health.

I think your MD is covering a lot of grounds, so he is trying to rule out Hashimotos, and checking to see if you have an autoimmune disease, as well as determining the cause of your anemia. If you have tested positive to any of those tests, then you will be subjected to more (blood) tests to narrow down the specific causation of your ailments. Do you have thalassemia, since this condition can also cause anemia + B12 deficiency?

People in the older generation prefer to take herbal medicines, and for some conditions, herbs do have some effect. Western medicines have demonstrated success in treating a variety of medical conditions but for particular conditions where they have failed, I think that doctors should investigate herbs that have previously claimed success in treating these ailments. There is a trend in pharmacy schools these days to extract the active components in certain herbs, and subject these extracts to biological testing in animals to see if a new drug can be discovered. For example: the anticancer drug Paclitaxel is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, which saves the lives of countless of cancer sufferers. Certain patients with resistant leukemia who were told to go home and die, had resorted to Eastern medicines which inadvertently produced a cure beyond the expectation of doctors. Anyhow, I have digressed again !

I don't blame your father of thinking psychology, psychiatry and those Freudian kerfuffle as "bourgeois pseudoscience". Sometimes I think that if patients who are mentally unwell in the first place, are exposed to those psychological constructs that they have never heard of, they may be persuaded to adopt that way of thinking and wrought their lives into train wreck disasters, Yet for most, medications and psychological therapy have succeeded in treating persons with complex mental illnesses, so I cannot disparage the wonders of modern medicines.

Please feel free to continue your stubbornness and rebellion, now that you are freed from the parental yoke. There is nothing wrong with being a middle aged rebel, other than making the kids amused.

I hope your doctor will get to the roots of your medical problems, and treat you properly for once. Take care.

Andromeda,

Thanks for responding.

No, I have never heard of "thalassemia". In terms of B12, I have only heard of "Megaloblastic/Pernicious anemia", but only on Wikipedia. Meaning that I have no real idea of the difference between Iron-based anemia, Megaloblastic, Pernicious, or even thalassemia anemia.

He's got a very rough exterior, but it takes a lot of maturity and wisdom to understand that beneath his outer, rough shell there exists a loving father beneath. As a young man, I was clearly too immature to see that.

However, being a person who grew up in USSR, he was heavily indoctrinated with "Atheism". So, he did the same to me. Thats why, I am actually quite envious of many Catholics (even Muslims) who seem to live their lives with much more joy and less overthinking than I do. I also respect their views of "objective" morality, as opposed to secular "Skeptical/relative" morality. But most of all, I really love the concept that religious people have that teaches about the afterlife. Life is temporary, but your soul is eternal.
Johns Hopkins is currently running experiments on terminal patients & they observed that stuff like "Magic mushrooms", LSD, & even MDMA can actually 'remove the fear of death' from a terminally-ill patient. I even called them to try to get in, but they don't accept anyone who's not within commuting distance.

Anyway Andromeda, sorry If I went off on a tangent there... It's been good speaking with you, and I will update you whenever the anemia & autoimmune test results come back.

HI Drozer, glad to hear from you, and that you are waiting for the results of your blood tests. It must be nerve-racking to wait, but it is only confirming what you have suspected already. I don't know whether Magic mushrooms", LSD, MDMA would be helpful with your brain fog, but I wonder if you may become trapped in the delusions and cannot exit from. That would be one long "trip".

Good luck my friend, and hope that you will test negative to everything. It would be good to confuse all the doctors for once ! Take care.

Andromeda8, I used to have a bad case of Hashimoto. I no longer have thyroid disease. Although, I was only diagnosed with just low thyroid problem.

Out of 8 doctors including PAs only one took bloodwork for antibodies becuz the PA wanted to know what he was treating. It was then that God directed me to do research on Iodine. I started out by taking Sea Kelp tablets & Selenium. I took this every day because I wanted to know how much it was going to effect the results. I had a huge difference in my results and was very satisfied and so was my doctor. I was also taking Armour. I got my other hormones checked and I was hardly producing any. Once I started taking those, I began to lessen my Armour dose each night.
I also took the Armour at bedtime and felt 90% better. Andromeda8, I can give you additional information if you wish.

Andromeda,

I have 2 updates/questions for you:

First, Since I was getting nowhere with Synthroid, my endo decided to let me try "Tirosint". However, this stuff is really different. My entire skull was in extreme pain, especially my teeth. Do you think this is a sign that Tirosint may have inadvertently caused HYPER-thyroidism? Because the pharmacy insert lists "bone pain" (teeth are bone) as a possibility-- since apparently most thyroid meds may in fact sometimes trigger a state of HYPER-thyroidism.

Second, I read on "verywellhealth.com" that you should never take Vitamin C with thyroid meds because this combo can also increase absorption of thyroid drugs which also leads to symptoms of HYPER-thyroidism. I only read this today.... I was indeed taking Vitamin C for a few weeks, but now I have proof that I should stop.

I hope you're doing okay Andromeda.

Hi energylost and Drozer, I am sorry for the delay. I have not been online that frequently to read all the posts. I am sorry that I've missed both of your post.

Hi Energylost, I am glad that you have felt so much better. I have read the drug information for Armour, and it contains desiccated thyroid extract from pigs, therefore containing thyroid hormones from porcine source. Armour was used to be the official treatment for hypothyroidism up to the years 1800s, but the physicians stopped prescribing it because it contained too much T3. These days, doctors prescribe the synthetic levothyroxine instead because the use of Armour predisposes to the risks of developing hyperthyroidism and osteoporosis.

Sea Kelp contains high amounts of iodine as such that it may disrupt normal thyroid function to cause either hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. Selenium reduces the levels of antibodies against thyroid peroxidase and it is used in persons who are treated with T3 supplementation but not T4, but the dose is restricted to 200 micrograms a day. The Cleveland Clinic gives some information as to what type of supplements/food you can or cannot eat/drink.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/thyroid-issues-what-you-need-to-know-about-diet-and-supplements/


Hi Drozer, Synthroid and Tirosint both contain Levothyroxine, but the tablet formulations are different in that the L-thyroxine in Synthroid is affected by the presence of stomach gastric acid and use of antacids (pH changes) as such that less amount of L-thyroxine is available for absorption if there is poor stomach acid production or by the use of antacids. In contrast, the L-thyroxine in Tirosint is protected by a gel cap that can withstand pH changes in the stomach such as gastric acid and antacids, so more L-thyroxine is available for absorption. So if you were experiencing side-effects to Tirosint at equal dosing as compared to the Synthroid, it is more likely that there is too much L-thyroxine in the body, which may lead to the development of hyperthyroidism.

If your doctor wants you to remain on Tirosint, the dose of L-thyroxine would need to be adjusted (reduced) according to your blood level of T4 and TSH. I've also looked at the side effects profile at the Mayo Clinic, jaw pain is a less common side effect, and is one that you would need to raise to your endocrinologist.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/levothyroxine-oral-route/side-effects/drg-20072133

In addition, if you have developed hyperthyroidism, then there would be low stomach acid production, which in turn, increases L-thyroxine absorption from the tablets as such that it will aggravates/exacerbates the hyperthyroidism. Furthermore, taking iodine supplements also aggravates/induces/precipitates the hyperthyroidism.

Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, which increases the acidity of stomach acid, and which in turns, increases the absorption of Levothyroxine (increasing free T4 + increasing total T3 level + increasing TSH circulation), so the article that you have read at verywellhealth.com is correct on this perspective.

To prevent hyperthyroidism, I think that your change of formulation to Tirosint needs to be dose adjusted according to your TSH and T4 levels. Perhaps you should stop taking iodine supplements as well. I think that sticking to a multivitamin is the safest (vitamin B complex or all the Bs), and don't take any other supplements.

As for me, I have stopped drinking soy milk so my intellect has increased by 100 folds (at least I don't have trouble of thinking or writing, or trying to remember words, or getting lost ). I have also lost 2 kilograms of weight after stopping soy milk. The downside is that my skin looks awful, and I have an older appearance. Mom tells me that I am working longer hours at the computer and losing much sleep, so perhaps I am stressing out my body. My right hand pinky is still swollen months after its breakage, but I still have other fingers to type . So far so good !

Hoping that you are both OK, and I am so sorry for the delay. I shall check the posts more often from hereon. Cheers, and good luck !

Andromeda, thanks for your response.

I actually stopped taking Iodine like a month ago...right after you begged me to do so.

However, On that same site (which I will link again), it also stated that Biotin (a B vitamin) can artificially change your TSH levels....and its just a safer bet to stay away from Biotin - just to keep your thyroid blood labs consistent & accurate as possible. Since Biotin is basically in every single B-complex formulation, I have decided to stop the B-complex totally. (and a bunch of other sites confirm that Biotin screws around with TSH levels..) Here's the link... (Just search for "biotin"):

https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-take-your-thyroid-medication-3231861

My doctor's labs said my "Hemoglobin" was low.. (NOT the A1C)..
Boy can he be a jackass.... he lost his OWN Anemia labs! I just saw him 2 days ago!

Andromeda, I don't suppose that u know what a "low Hemoglobin" actually means? (NOT a1c)

Anyway, its really good to hear from u, Andromeda. I hope your family and friends are supportive, and I hope you're doing well... I cannot imagine how bad it must be to have Lupus PLUS Hashimotos...

God bless you, Andromeda.

Hi Drozer, I agree with you that Biotins gives false results on the thyroid test, but I think the Biotin supplement the article is talking about is where the dose is 150-300mg or above, and occurs in isolation. The biotin in multivitamins is only 10-20mg, and is so dilute so I doubt such a miniscule amount can affect thyroid function tests. It would be a shame for you to forgo the benefits of vitamin B complex because of the presence of tiny amounts of biotin which will not affect any test results at all.

Low Hemoglobin often occurs in hypothyroidism, as thyroid hormones can directly or indirectly stimulate the growth of erythroid colonies through erythropoietin,. Or that anemia may result from transient blood loss. Do you have a stomach ulcer, or ulcer in the bowel (e.g Crohn's disease...._ that may cause transient bleed? Or that your iron level is too low to bind to heme fragment to make hemoglobin, and this causes low hemoglobin. Or that you have pernicious anemia from having little of vitamin B12 in the body.

Perhaps you can ask your doctor to determine the cause of your anemia, because chronic anemia can cause heart failure, which has a poor prognosis.

I have the autoimmune lottery jackpot. I have lupus + Hashi + fibromyalgia (and my rheumy recently deletes Sjogrens which makes me very happy).

Hoping that you are well Drozer, and take care.