Thyroid Medicine

No, OP. But it will speed your heart rate up and kill you if you take it and don't need it.

As opposed to a sensible diet and daily exercise?

People who always seek the easy solution when the only sustainable one requires hard work are why we have climate change and an orange president.

[quote]No, OP. But it will speed your heart rate up and kill you if you take it and don't need it.

I'm not seeing a downside here - at least for the rest of us.

I have a sensible diet and I walk ten miles a day as well as weights and yoga. I can’t get rid of the extra ten pounds no matter what. My metabolism is slow. Someone left their old script at my house and I was just curious. Yes, who doesn’t like the easy way? What, am I supposed to go the hard way, and stop at rock bottom as well?

[quote]I can’t get rid of the extra ten pounds no matter what.

LOL - I have a sure fire way for you to lose the last ten pounds - reduce the calories you're eating.

100 calories per mile are burned for an 180-pound person. Your entire ten mile walk is undone by 1 8-oz bag of potato chips, a small bag most people get as a "single" serving - 1200+ calories. Salads often have high calorie items that push them well into the 800 calorie range.

Finally, starvation diets don't work - did it occur to you that your metabolism slowed because you spent too long on a restricted calorie diet? You need to spend time NOT in calorie deficit.

[quote]Yes, who doesn’t like the easy way?

There is a big difference between accomplishing something the least effort and looking for a quick fix - the proverbial pill. If it were easy to have a ripped, muscular body, everyone would have one. The fact that not everyone does should suggest something to you about whether there is an easy way to reach that goal. Even with steroids, HGH, and other supplements, you still need to lift weights and watch your diet - and the moment you stop with either, you revert to fit-fat, skinny-fat, or just plain fat.

I’m on Levothyroxine. It might make you gain weight, not lose it! Try Cymbalta for weight loss. I lost 10 pounds the first week. I gained it back the week I stopped. It made my heart race and caused me to scream at the top of my lungs in my sleep. But I looked good.

I've had a portion of my thyroid removed. I've had to have many tweaks to my meds over the years to get it right. If you do not need it, please don't take it. Your thyroid does a bunch of things and if you get the system out of whack, it can cause big problems. From palpitations, to dizziness, to respitory stuff, it's not fun to deal with at all.

I recommend it

Just eat only dinner about 3 hours before going to bed and drinking lotsa water during the day, and you'll shed a few pounds every week.

I took 300 mg or however it is measured for three years in my early 30s and it transformed my sluggish metabolism. I used to exist on around 1000 cals a day and if I went over that, immediately put on weight. On the levothyroxine I was eating about 2500-3000 and my weight stayed the same.

BUT it does make your body run hot. I would be in a T shirt when work colleagues were in jerseys. Summers were grim, and so were foreign holidays to hot countries like Greece or Turkey, which I used to LOVE when my body ran cold with the slug's metabolism.

Levothyroxine also changed my brown eyes to green/hazel and my hair grew thicker and longer. I looked great!

Did I keep taking it? Nope, after three years I started getting heart palps and had to stop. Eyes back to boring brown. But I really enjoyed my Fast Metabolism years.

Don't do it. My idiot doctor put me on a low dose for weight loss (ten pounds) and I ended up with so many side effects that it was fucking not worth it. Hair loss, heart palpitations, sweating. It was hell.

Thyroid is such a delicate yet important organ that should not be messed with. Seriously.

I use it and I’m fat. Hope that helps.

Any weight loss would be short lived. Some people (like R9) do seem to hold onto every calorie, so you may need to cut back even more to accomplish your goals.

There was an episode of Autopsy: The Last Hours of... on Natalie Wood and they said how she took thyroid medication to lose weight for years. She didn't need it either, there was nothing wrong with her thyroid.

When I was young I was one of those people that could eat like a truck driver and still not gain weight. I do like to cook and to eat—good food. But unless you are spending all the time at the gym or outside doing hard labor, it doesn’t seem possible to eat and be slim at the same time as you age. And I’m not getting older, actually—I am old. Old and sporting a gut full of expensive cheese and holiday home cooking.

I'm on Levothyroxin for the past 18 years. My low thyroid function slowed down my metabolism and I gained weight. If I want to lose weight the easiest, in fact just about the only way, is to be very strict. Very low carbs. High protein. No rice potatoes, or breads. No cheese beyond a light sprinkle of shredded cheese on a salad or an egg. I eat one slice of bread a day. I can only "cheat " about three times a month, and then with limits. I only have a half cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt, plain, and I don't eat much fresh fruit. Sugar is sugar and it's not good. Some sliced cantaloupe or berries is it. Nuts like Almonds, pecans or walnuts are fine, but no peanuts or cashews. And tight now, I'm still about 25 pounds overweight. YOur thyroid controls everything. I'm now a borderline diabetic, and my cholesterol is high. Exercise is important, but if you want to lose weight you have to govern what you put in your mouth.

I did a carb free diet and was losing a pound a day. A female coworker was on Weight Watchers and was mad at how fast I lost the weight. I stayed on it until I started getting bad headaches. My doc told me it was because my brain was starving because it needs carbs so I had to stop.

Ask your doctor for a combo of Amphetamines & Topomax

Absolutely not. Stay away unless you have been diagnosed with a thyroid condition. Really stupid.

[R13]Natalie Wood kept her tiny figure despite consuming large amounts of alcohol. I can’t figure that out.

Crystal Meth honey. But you already knew that. Didn’t you? You were just dying for one of us to say it. So there!!

My step-mother has an over-active thyroid--which you will have, too, if you take thyroid medication without a hypoactive thyroid.

If she gets on a bike or attempts to move father than a spirited walk, her heart races, she gets dizzy, and falls on the floor. She also sees a cardiologist for this problem.

Sounds like you want these problems, too.

Enjoy!

I lost 50 pounds on phentermine in 4 months. I had loads of energy and was never hungry. I could only eat half of my plate before feeling full.

You should not take a thyroid supplement unless you have a thyroid deficiency for all the reasons discussed above! However, if you haven't done so, you might benefit from a consult with an endocrinologist. The standard thyroid test is cheaper and insurance companies love it, but it sometimes misses deficiencies.

It will keep you from putting on more weight. But you have to take enough.

[ R22] That sounds like a 1960’s housewife drug. Where do these doctors live that prescribe such things? I’ll move there.

Does anyone know about the intersections between a course of UTI meds & levothyroxine?

I’m asking for my Moms, who is in bad shape today on starting a course of prescribed antibiotics with her usual T4 scrip. She reports symptoms of headache, light sensitivity, nausea and painful cramps in the stomach & groin. She had no sleep last night and constantly has to piss (which stings and is cloudy).

Keeping her on bed-rest dosed up on tea with fresh ginger, crackers and plenty of cold water & milk right now. I’m especially worried that this will either progress to a kidney infection, or that it will lay her low enough to fall susceptible to the COVID. I pray neither happen and I’m monitoring the situation, but feel pretty helpless overall. She’s run herself down looking after her own nearly-90 year old mother, and I fear that will affect her own recovery.

In addition to all the comments above, wouldn't taking a thyroid supplement also cause your own thyroid to stop functioning as efficiently? My doctor had this reasoning when he convinced me to stop taking testosterone.

Your body has a set point for your own individual thyroxine level. If you take x mcg of levoxyl, you brain (pituitary) shuts down production, by issuing less TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) until the combined supplement AND your normal production reach the same individual level. The only way to increase your metabolism is to zero out your TSH. If you can find a doctor, for whatever reason, who will prescribe a dose that keeps you in the near high limit for T3, you have gone as far as you can go.

PS, fuck T4. I have an odd metabolic chemistry that converts T4 into into something called Fake T4. It doesn't convert into T3. I take Armour Thyroid because it has T3 in it (the already active form hormone).

R3

r27 Yes. The thyroid feedback loop would down-regulate your natural thyroid hormone production, and at higher doses of supplementation, would stop producing on its own.

R26 That doesn't sound like it is related to thyroid, unless she has altered something about how she administers her thyroid medication because of the antibiotic.

Those symptoms are probably related to the UTI, hopefully not Covid. Urinary tract infections are common in older women and have a variety of symptoms not seen in younger people.

Constantly having to piss, or feeling like you have to piss, is directly related to UTI. Cloudy is related, as is the pain. Hopefully, it is not in the bladder or kidneys and that the antibiotic will knock it out, which is probably will.

UTIs in elderly people can often mimic symptoms of dementia, so watch out for that, as well.

Bleach!

Lysol!

r26 I found this, which may related to some of the symptoms, if the antibiotic is reacting with her thyroid meds. Some increase and others decrease their absorption.

Advice please - my fasting glucose level went up from 90 to 97 two years ago, and remained at 97 this year. Does this point to a thyroid problem? No diet or weight changes, no symptoms, slim.

Been on Levothyroxine for over 13 years. It's used to balance and maintain, not as a weight loss program. The last three years, with some exercise and sensible diet (no fasting or denying myself anything that tastes good) my weight has been exactly the same, give or take 2-3 lbs.

I had a complete Thyroidectomy 9 years ago. I take Synthroid to live. Do not under any circumstances take this medication unless you it's absolutely required. It took 2 years to get my levels right. I was careening from exhaustion to heart palpitations. Your dosage is tied to your weight. Your thyroid is your body's thermostat and if you destroy it you will regret it.

Been on it for years after being diagnosed with pituitary sarcoidosis. The various Rx forms (Synthroid, Unithroid, levothyroxine) and varying dosages never made me lose weight. As doctors have tweaked the dosage (mcg) back and forth it would have a small impact on my energy level. I understand, however, that the rest of it is up to me. I feel like a slug because I behave like a slug. It's very hard to peel myself off the bed or the chair and get exercising, but my numbers are fine. It's up to me to eat nutritious food, avoid sugar because I have learned that I can't simply have a little bit, and tell co-workers who say "everything in moderation" to fuck off.

My sister went hardcore and slowly got up to taking 300mc of Synthroid every day. It changed her metabolism from a very sluggish 1100 cals a day with mild exercise to about 3000 cals a day and she lost several stone. But she started getting heart palpitations and had to come off it.

I have normal T3/4 but high TSH. I smoke too. Diagnosis Datalounge?

I grew up between a nuclear submarine base at to the Northeast, whose subs passed a mile to the Northeast: and three nuclear plants to the Southeast. We used to play chicken with the subs while waterskiing, but that was the 1970s. I wouldn’t dare, today.

My sister, I, and her dog, are all on Levothyroxine. I was running out of energy and unable to do most anything.. i bought a bike and never used it. I had symptoms of depression, like sleeping late and daily napping. The last straw was when I couldn’t pickup a paper clip off the floor, I had to pay a driver to drive me home, as I was too nauseous to drive. Then my doc prescribed Levothyroxine. As far as I can tell, there are I side effects, though I never take excessive amounts, And it’s cured me completely. It’s cheap, too, I got 80-days for $16.

Like R36, I also had a thyroidectomy when I was 21—I had stage IV thyroid cancer that had metastasized throughout my neck, along my chest cavity, and into my shoulder muscles. You really realize how much your thyroid does for you when you are forced to abstain from taking the levothyroxine/synthroid, which I had to do for three months after the surgery in order for the radioactive iodine therapy (RAI) to kill off any remaining thyroid cells in my body. I was exhausted for those three months, gained 30 pounds, my hair started falling out, and I could barely get out of bed—didn't matter how much coffee I drank, it didn't help. It was terrible.

After the RAI therapy was completed and I had cleared out the cancer, it took a good 2 years to get my levothyroxine dosage right. When it was too high at one point, I ended up getting severe heart palpitations and had to go to the ER. It was an especially delicate balancing act in my case because I was born with a congenital heart problem (which I've since had surgery to repair, thankfully), so my endocrinologist was very cautious about tweaking my levothyroxine doses. High doses of it will likely help you lose weight as your thyroid is integral to your metabolism, but it's extremely dangerous for someone with an active, unimpaired thyroid to be supplementing with it. It could really mess with your heart and result in palpitations and tachycardia.

Long story short, do not, under any circumstances, start taking thyroid medicine unless it is prescribed to you. It might seem innocuous, but it's not—you are messing with hormones that are responsible for an incredibly large, complex range of processes in your body.

No taking med to lose weight, you fat whore!

r39, I have found, over 50 years after surgery, that TSH values are plainly stupid.

If your T3/T4 values are normal don't worry.

When I was on Cymbalta, i lost 10;pounds in a week.

Downside: didn’t help with pain relief, it’s purpose; made my hear race, even in my sleep; and I woke up screaming a lot. I think it was expensive, too. I regained the weight immediately after quitting. It.