Why Aren't My thyroid Meds Working?

Your Thyroid & Common Prescribed Meds

Once i realized my thyroid needed attention i decided to start researching information about what i could do to help my thyroid without going back on Synthroid and or Levothyroxine.  In my research i found out many interesting things about these synthetic hormones.  Here are just a few things i found out:

1.  It seems that many, many people are on these synthetic hormones and still having issues with their thyroid.  It also seems that these T4 hormones aren't addressing all the needs of the thyroid.

2.  These synthetic drugs also have fillers.  One of the fillers is acacia and the other lactose. If a person has sensitivities or allergies to these they will feel worse on these meds.

3. If you have issues with histamine, Levothyroxine blocks the production of the DAO enzyme in the intestines which will cause more digestive upset.

So these are just a few things that i discovered about these meds.  I believe that they are the reasons why many issues i already had may have become even more pronounced or maybe even could have developed more issues, i'm still learning a lot as i go.  What i have learned though has been very enlightening and i have experienced relief from many of my issues.

Here's what I will do.  I will begin by addressing these three issues i found one by one.  You can look at them individually and do more research on your own and come to a conclusion based on your own physical symptoms.  I advise you though, never to stop or start taking any medication without consulting your doctor or naturopath.  All of the information on my site is for educational purposes only and to give an overview of my personal experience and what has helped me in my own particular case.

Let's look at #1.   Synthroid and Levothyroxine are T4 hormones and people are not finding relief while on them.  
I find this very interesting.  Why wouldn't these T4 hormones be enough to fix the problem? Well many people can't convert T4 to T3. First we need to learn exactly how the thyroid works.  I'm going to try and break it down as simple as possible so as not to cause too much unnecessary confusion.
Here is a simple breakdown:
-The Hypothalamus stimulates the Pituitary gland to produce Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH).

-TSH stimulates the thyroid to produce T4 (thyroxine). (T4 is the raw material used to make the active thyroid hormone T3.  T4 is what  Synthroid and Levothyroxine is as well.) The thyroid is responsible for producing T4,T3,T1 and T2 and cells are responsible for converting T4 into it's active form of T3.

-T4 is also converted to RT3 (reverse T3) which is physiologically inactive.

-80% of T3 is produced outside the thyroid in the Tissues of the Body

-T4 is converted to T3 by an enzyme called Deiodinase. (this enzyme can become inhibited by stress, environment, acute/chronic illness,cortisol and other things.)

-When the body is under stress it converts less T4 to T3 and more T4 to RT3 so as to conserve energy and with less T3 the cells of the body slows down.

Now the way the thyroid works is that it is regulated to ensure that the right amount of T3 is delivered to the cells but if there is any type of deficiency anywhere along the line then the result is the same, not enough T3 to the cells.  If there isn't enough T3 to the cells then the metabolism will not be fast enough and the temperature will drop and low-thyroid-like symptoms will appear.

So when you go to your doctor to complain about fatigue, hair loss in the front of your head and you tell him your hands and feet are cold and you have no energy to finish daily tasks, he says, let's check your thyroid. He then orders a TSH  blood test.  You receive the results after much anticipation and what does he tell you?  Your within the "normal" range.  What?!

I have talked to so many people who are constantly told they are within so called normal range.  Normal range for whom, i ask?  We are all individuals, what may be normal for you may not be for me.  This isn't as compelling as what i discovered next in my research though.

When they are testing your TSH they are testing the level of hormone in your blood not what's happening in your tissues and cells.  You see, blood tests work well to see if your glands are properly putting hormones into your blood but they aren't showing what's happening once they leave your blood and go into the tissues of the body.  And as we learned about the thyroid 80% of the active thyroid hormone is produced in the tissues after it's left the blood stream.  Hence, the TSH blood test result: "normal" range.  You then go home more depressed and frustrated then when you walked in the docs office.

Ok, so what factors can inhibit the proper production of thyroid hormones?
*Stress
*infection, trauma, radiation, medications
*flouride which is an antagonist to iodine.    Flouride, especially in the U.S. is added to water which can cause issues in this area.  (we will go on to learn more on the importance of iodine in another post.)
*Toxins such as pesticides, mercury, cadmium, lead
*auto immune disease: Celiac Disease

Above we learned that the body under stress converts more T4 to RT3.  We don't want that.
These are the factors that can increase the possibility of this happening:
*stress
*trauma
*inflammation
*toxins
*infections
*liver/kidney dysfunction
*some medications

As you read this you can evaluate for yourself if any of these factors could be affecting your thyroid.

So what factors will hep with the proper production of thyroid hormones?
Factors for proper thyroid hormone production:
Surprise, Surprise: Nutrients!
*Iron
*Iodine
*Tyrosine
*Zinc
*Selenium
*Vitamin E, B2,B3,B6,C,D,

Factors that increase the conversion of T4 to T3:
*Selenium
*Zinc

Other things that help with the cells being able to do what they need with the thyroid hormones are:
*Vitamin A
*Exercise
*Zinc

Now that you see all the things that are involved with thyroid hormone production it makes sense as to why the synthetic hormones Synthroid and Levothyroxine which are T4 hormones don't seem to work for everyone.  Even if you are on them and seem to be doing well there may be areas you could feel improvement in but just take for granted it's just life.  You may still feel a little tired in certain areas of life but just write it off to being a busy mom, having a busy workload or just being a busy person all together.  You could probably feel even more improvement by taking something other than just T4.  This is where looking into Natural Thyroid Hormone may be beneficial for you.  Many have opted to take this route and are finding they are feeling so much better on it than on the synthetic drugs, myself included.  I will talk more about Natural Thyroid Hormone in another post.

On to #2
Fillers in the synthetic hormones Synthroid and Levothyroxine.
Many people seem to have issues on these drugs after beginning them.  Some people don't notice them right away others do.  Many who have allergies and intolerances seem to have more issues with them then others. Why?  Some people have allergies to the dyes in them.  In this case their doctors decide to try them on another med without dye.  Other people have issues with the acacia and lactose in the fillers.  What is acacia?  Acacia is a family of shrubs and trees.  They put acacia in medication to give it form and shape but many who already suffer from pollen allergies and hay fever, especially to grass and tree pollens, find they are also allergic to acacia even when it's an ingredient in medications.  So people may find that when they take meds such as Synthroid and Levothyroxine they have symptoms like watery itchy eyes, congestion, mood changes and runny nose.

As for the lactose, which is the major sugar found in milk and the ingredient in some foods and medications, if they are lactose intolerant (as many with Celiac Disease are)  they will find that taking these meds trigger symptoms such as nausea, cramping, bloating, diarrhea.  This usually happens around 30 minutes to 2 hours after taking the pill.   Lactose intolerance is an inability to digest lactose.


Last but definitely not least #3
Synthetic hormones Synthroid and Levothyroxine can block DAO enzyme.
These medications not only raise histamine levels but they can inhibit the production of DAO enzyme (diamine oxidase enzyme) and monoamine oxidase enzyme.  Both of these enzymes are responsible for metabolizing histamine and tyramine.  So seeing that these enzymes help to break down the histamine in foods if we don't have enough of these enzymes being produced in our intestines (or if their production is being inhibited by medication) then we will have histamine reactions to food such as headaches, runny nose, cough, rash etc.

I bet you never realized what havoc medications can have on your body and just how much went into your thyroid.  I know that i myself never did.  After suffering for so long and dealing with so many weird issues i had to start figuring out what exactly was happening.  Being that doctors didn't seem to be helping me i had to be my own advocate.  Unfortunately this isn't always easy especially when you just don't have the energy or the time.  It can seem daunting to take on the task of being your own doctor.  I don't recommend avoiding doctors completely, after all they are the ones who attended med school.  I do recommend however becoming as knowledgeable as possible with your body and its functions and learning everything you can on any medication that your doctor wants to put you on.  There are so many side effects that come along with different medications and unfortunately sometimes we can end up feeling worse on some meds than before we started.

After i recognized all that went into thyroid function and the possible complications i was receiving from being on synthetic hormones i decided to take action and try Natural Thyroid Hormone.  I realized all the nutrients and vitamins that helped the thyroid to function so i began taking certain vitamins and looking for a Natural Thyroid Hormone that i could get without a prescription because my doctor only believed in the power of the synthetic hormones.

In my next post i will discuss what protocol i decided to start.  Don't forget to subscribe to get your updated posts!

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My Thyroid Gland

My Thyroid

(Im going to start off with some background info about my own experience with thyroid issues and that will help you to understand how i got to the place that i did with my thyroid.  I don't recommend stopping any meds without consulting your doctor.  The reason i go into detail in this post is so that you can parallel my experience to yours and see if anything makes sense in your situation as well.  Maybe you'll get a lightbulb moment like i did.  Then in another post i will go into more medical information about the thyroid that i discovered including why doctors say we're in normal range and why the synthetic meds don't seem to work.)

One of the reasons that i found that i had not been feeling better even after starting a gluten free diet was my thyroid.  It took a couple of years to discover this though.  Unfortunately i discovered this without the help of my doctor, which if you are also having thyroid issues you will probably understand.  You see a couple years before i was diagnosed with Celiac Disease i was put on Synthroid a synthetic version of T4 hormone for my thyroid.  I was told by the doctor that i wasn't hypothyroid or hyperthyroid and that my TSH levels (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone levels) were in the normal range.  So why put me on the hormone then?  Well he told me to supress the nodules that were growing on my thyroid  and stop them from getting bigger.  I was feeling so miserable with a whole host of syptoms so i took it for granted that the doctor knew exactly what he was talking about and started on the med.  I was told that i would more than likely have to continue on the meds forever once starting them. I was also told i'd never be able to take the generic version of Synthroid which is Levothyroxine because the effectiveness wouldn't be the same.

I was so desperate to feel better i thought, fine give it to me.  Im losing hair, i'm not sleeping, I've gotten fat (30lbs overweight) and i had absolutely no energy!  What i didn't know at the time was that if i had just realized (or if the doctor had just realized) that this was my Celiac i wouldn't have had to start the meds and once i got off gluten hopefully after 3-6 months the thyroid may have normalized.  Now i'm not saying this is a sure thing that would have happened but there are studies that prove that many Celiacs that have thyroid issues seem to get relief from thyroid symptoms after stopping the gluten.  Remember gluten causes inflammation in the body and inflammation affects the thyroid negatively.

After being on Synthroid for a couple of years i still wasn't feeling well.  Finally i received the Celiac diagnosis and i thought everything would finally be all good.  My family and friends were also expecting this of me.  I did feel really good for awhile.  I had more energy, my hair was growing back and my weight was normalizing.  I was sleeping better and i wasn't so angry all the time.  This was great!  Finally i had the answers i had been waiting for.  Time kept passing i was being very careful, of course stumbling here and there as does anyone who is newly diagnosed with Celiac disease.  Of course there's so much to learn about this disease, cross-contamination, food, auto-immune issues etc.  (I'll be getting into those more later as well) That's why i started this blog to help others going through these issues.

Anyway, one of the big things that i noticed right away was the fact that i was still dealing with acid reflux issues.  Don't get me wrong the reflux had subsided greatly, because it was really, really bad.  Now it was more annoying than anything else.  You see, everything i was reading was saying that i should be feeling good being off gluten.  I shouldn't still be dealing with acid reflux and hair falling out.  Although many of my symptoms had gotten better they hadn't completely gone away.  I was still taking my medications as well.   Now when i say medications I'm talking a lot of medications.  I'll talk more of those later though.  Right now i just want to deal with the relevant ones so as not to confuse you because this is a lot of information.
So please bare with me. : )

Ok, so a couple of years had gone by and i'm now completely off of gluten and feeling better than when i was eating gluten but not feeling great.  Why not?  I kept going to doctors for follow ups and they had no clue.  They continued to check my thyroid and i was still "within normal range".  What does that even mean?  Within normal range for whom?  They developed this thyroid blood test in the 70's with a test group of a couple hundred people.  It was now 2012 at this time and things have changed dramatically.  By now family and friends are growing quite annoyed with me because i'm still not feeling well and i should be because according to them i'm off gluten and that should fix everything, right?  Not right!  Remember this is an auto-immune disorder not just an allergy.  It's not easily fixed but because i'm sick of feeling sick i'm not going to stop looking for answers.   So i began doing my own research since i was getting no answers from the doctors.

During my research I figured out the issue with histamine intolerance (see my post on histamine intolerance) and began eating low histamine foods, supplementing with vitamins such as vitamin C, D, calcium/magnesium, zinc, potassium, vitamin B complex (vitamin b's did hurt my stomach) and i was feeling some relief.  I also started taking DAO enzyme that helped with the digestion of the food i was eating.  You see, just a quick explanation for the DAO enzyme is that in your small intestine is the place where DAO enzyme is made.  This DAO enzyme is what helps a person to digest high histamine foods or pretty much any food because all food contains some amount of histamine.  Being a Celiac damage has taken place in the small intestine and so it made sense that this enzyme was lacking.  Supplementing this enzyme and eating low histamine foods and taking the supplements i listed above did help.

Now remember all during this time i was on the synthroid and even on levothyroxine at one point because of my insurance company changing me.  Now i did say earlier i was told that the levo wouldn't work the same as synthroid.  I don't think this really mattered though because even while on the synthroid i still felt bad. Anyway, as i did research on the histamine dao enzyme i found that the synthetic thyroid meds i was on blocked the production of this very important enzyme.  At the time i was getting headaches, rashes, nose running, coughing while i ate.  I tried everything to minimize these issues because i was finding that more important than anything else was the need to eat and get my nutrition.  What i did next i do not recommend to anyone without consulting your doctor first.  I stopped my thyroid medication.  I was feeling crappy anyway and now it seemed to be messing with my food intake.  Food is our source of life and nutrition, so it took awhile but after doing this i finally started feeling some relief with the histamine issue. I was eating better, eating healthier foods, staying away from processed foods (gluten free processed foods) and i was starting to feel somewhat better.  Not all was better though....

Time passed and although i was feeling some histamine relief in other areas i was feeling horrible. By this time things had progressed for the worse, my energy levels had dropped drastically, I had become horribly chemically sensitive, my hair was falling out in the front of my head and my stomach was hurting all the time. I was having stomach cramping, dull pain in the right side of my abdomen and still had bad acid refllux when i ate.  My periods although came every month were sometimes heavy sometimes light.  Then they started to come more frequently and never the same time every month.  One morning when i couldn't drag myself out of bed and i was waking up in night sweats and my throat felt like i had swallowed a golf ball, a light bulb went off,  My Thyroid!  I need to figure out how to fix my thyroid without going back on those synthetic hormones!
In another post on thyroid i will tell you how i started to do this.
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Histamine Intolerance

Histamine/Methylation

Ok What is Histamine? It is a chemical in the body that is mainly produced in soft tissues,   Like your skin, lungs, sinuses and digestive system.  It is one of the primary chemicals that is released in your body during an allergic reaction that causes most symptoms. 

When a person is intolerant to Histamine the body overreacts and it produces more histamine.  This even happens when foods that contain the chemical (histamine) are consumed. (These foods can include bananas, tomatos (nightshades), dairy, chocolate, wine and others) This can cause your blood vessels to dilate and increases mucus production. This leads to a runny nose, nasal congestion, coughing, skin rashes, itching and flushing a lot of symptoms that can clear a room.  

Now how did I get to discover that I had a histamine problem? Good question...  Well I was noticing that after I would eat or actually during eating I would see a rash develop on my hands right before my eyes and my husbands eyes as well.  That's how I knew I wasn't losing it and that I really wasn't seeing things.  I also noticed that during eating, actually usually the first couple of bites I would take I would start coughing, my nose would run or depending on what it was I would even have to take my inhaler.  

What in the world was happening to me?  Like i needed another thing added onto everything else I was dealing with.  Right?  

So began more research.  I think as you read my blog you will start to see how much I enjoy research.  I've always loved biology, anatomy, physiology so even though everyone around me thought I was crazy, a hypochondriac or that I obsess, I honestly just love learning about the body and the processes that take place within us.  It's also very interesting to figure out what goes wrong and why. 

What could be happening to my body that now when I eat I feel like I've been exposed to pollen or some other allergen?  Let me back up just a bit....  I've always had allergies.  I grew up in Ohio and my parents had a lot of adjustments to make around our home because I would have almost nightly asthma attacks.  They had to cover my bed and pillows with plastic.  They had to get rid of our carpeting and replace it with wood floors.  They even had to put me on antihistamines and send me to an allergist who discovered I was allergic to almost everything except dogs.  Go figure.  I may have grown an immunity to them though because we had dogs my whole life even before I was born.  Anyway, the allergist put me on allergy shots which helped with the allergens there in Ohio.  By the time I was an adult my allergies and asthma were pretty much under control.  That is until I moved to South Jersey by the Shore.  According to many doctors this area is really, really bad for people with allergies.  I wish I would have known this 10yrs ago.  Well, hindsight is 20/20 I guess. 

Back to my research.  In my research I found out about this process called Methylation.  What in the world is Methylation you might ask?  Methylation is involved in DNA synthesis, masking and unmasking of DNA, detoxification, heavy metal detoxification, nerve myelination, carnitine and coenzyme Q 10 synthesis.  Basically methylation is responsible for a lot of functions that take place in the body.  One that I found particularly interesting is the turning on and off of genes.  It made me start thinking that this is what probably happened to turn on my Celiac gene. Something must have gone wrong with my methylation process.  You see the methylation process can go wrong at times or not work properly.  Some things that can affect our methylation process can be:  

1. Genetic factors, especially variants in the mthfr and comt genes
2. Psychological/emotional/physical stress

1. Smoking and other environmental toxins
2. Diet and nutrition (including supplements), especially B-vitamin and methonine intake

Now this can all seem confusing and well, it is.  It is also a lot of information to understand so I encourage you to do your own research on Methylation.  You definately will learn a lot.  You may be asking, ok so what does methylation have to do with histamine production?  

It seems there are a number of reasons why a person may have high histamine levels. Bad bacteria in the gut produce histamine and good bacteria neutralize it, so an imbalance of gut flora could be a major factor.  (Which in my case this made sense because of having celiac disease which affects the small intestine).  

Methylation is one really big way that the body gets rid of excess histamine out of the bloodstream, so people who under-methylate (or whose methylation systems are clogged with environmental toxins and yeast metabolites- which made me start thinking of the environment around me) seem to have histamine overcrowding their system.  

There are several enzymes that can help people regulate histamine levels, so a deficiency of these enzymes is suspected to be a cause.   Two of these enzymes are amylase and diamine oxidase.  There is a lot of research that has been done in Europe on this subject.  One doctor actually developed a medication that helps with this.  (More on this later)    

Now, like I said all of this can be confusing but as you do more research and learn more about these processes it will all start to come together.  As I learned more and more I started to think ok so I figured out I have high histamine levels.  How do I lower them?  How do I stop reacting to food the way I was?  And because of figuring out that I must be an under-methylator which means my system is clogged with toxins, how do I lower the toxins in my body?  As for the toxins around me could they be affecting me as well and making this whole process worse?  More to come on this....  Look for these articles soon:  How I lowered my histamine levels and Toxins they're everywhere! 

Home

"True friends accept us for the good the bad and sometimes even the ugly"

This blog is intended to be a place where i can vent about how many things in this world are making us all sick or killing us. Especially Gluten! 

I am going to share with you the different diseases i am currently dealing with, how i came to find out i had them and what research i did and am still doing to deal with them.  If you haven't noticed from the tabs one of the big ones is Celiac Disease.  The other sicknesses i am dealing with i believe stem from there.  

I'm hoping that this blog can be helpful to others who are tired of being sick either from gluten issues, Celiac Disease or even from all the chemicals, genetically modified foods, pesticides, off gassing of products etc.  You will come to find that people with Celiac Disease are often very sensitive or intolerant to chemicals and pollution around us.  I want people to learn from my experience and hopefully help them to become more aware of what could be causing some of their issues.  I'm hoping that i can share some products that have helped me and that may be of some help to you.    

I want this to be a place to help others that are tired of being judged for their illnesses instead of being looked at for their good and useful qualities.  I want to help all those that feel frustrated by losing friends because of their having to eat differently or avoid chemicals or because they have to avoid fragrances etc.  Although things may be killing us literally or figuratively this place should be an encouraging  place to come and let it all out but also to be positive because although we may be sick we can live rich and fulfilling lives, especially with the help of our understanding friends.  I'll share solutions and suggestions and ideas that i've learned from others as well.  I find this is cheaper than therapy and in some instances, not all,  maybe even more helpful. lol

Why should we have to feel like outsiders because we want to be healthy or because our bodies demand us to be healthy?  Why should we feel bad or hesitant when we have to ask our friends or family if they have something we can eat that doesn't contain gluten?  Or when we have to ask them exactly how they cooked it and with what?  Why should we feel guilty when we have to ask our friends and associates to avoid wearing perfume/cologne or smelly lotions and hair gel when they're around us?  Why do we have to put up with these things just to keep our friendships in tact, in order not to offend, or just so that we don't have to be talked about behind our backs and judged by them.  Then later we suffer the consequences of stomach pain,diarrhea, rashes, headaches, nausea, itchy watery eyes, body aches, exhaustion etc. Meanwhile they go on their merry way feeling great and then they wonder about us, "Whats wrong with them?"  "Oh they don't feel good, again?" not realizing their insensitivity helped to cause or exacerbate our symptoms. ugh!

So i hope this becomes a place where you and i can go to get away from all the ignorance and judgement in the world and we can learn from one anothers diseases.  We can learn not only how to get by but how we can cope and be happy and healthy.  I hope that you can learn from my disease and from my research and as i help you by relating my experience I'll be helping myself as well.  

Feel free to subscribe and  remember:  Different can be beautiful! Information can be empowering! Let's make a difference!

Just a side note:  blogging is new to me so please, be patient with me.  Thanks!

Disclaimer:  I am in no way a doctor or homeopath.  None of the information on this site is intended to diagnose or prescribe.  Any suggestions of products are all from my own experience and may not give you the same results.  You know your own body so use any supplement etc. at your own risk.  Always discuss with your physician any supplement, medication, diet or exercise regimen you begin.  If you have any need for medical attention seek out help from a medical professional as soon as possible. This site is just for informational purposes only always double check any and all information either by your own research or by contacting and checking it with your own physician or homeopath.