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I think GABA balances out the high NE. Try taking some GABA. I have tried it, but I didn’t notice much difference. There are different opinions on the doses of GABA and if it really crossed the brain barrier too, but give it a try.
My ACTH before any thyroid treatment was 9, and my 8am cortisol was 15. Then several months later my ACTH was as high as 42, but someone said it could be because at the time I was nervous during the blood draw when the needle fell out and i was bleeding all over and then they had to puncture me again and it hurt like the dickens.
Hi Allie,
I think I may have read the book. I have almost every thyroid book and hormonal book written. And even though I’ve gone through them, my foggy memory can’t always remember things so I come on these boards to keep myself updated.
I hear you Allie. I’m not as bad off as you seem to be. But I also have not been the same since one ovary was taken. I am functional, but in the last year, I have gained 30lbs and because of pain issues I have every day and low energy working out the way I used to is gone. I’d go to the gym and try but I’d end up in pain and leaving. I’m going to try again when school starts to see what I can manage. I am hoping that since I’m getting my iron and D up and now take T3 maybe I can manage a bit more.
Hormone craziness does awful things to some of us, not all of us, but many of us. If you have things in life, like taking care of family, and working, etc. it can wreak havoc on you.
My husband compares me to a friend of ours who is a few years older than me. She started the change and was always cold for the beginning and now has hot flashes. She didn’t want to play poker with us on the weekends, she’d stay home and read. He said she seems okay and is not looking for all these doctors and taking HC and thyroid, etc. I said, she has no children, no husband, and lives alone. Hello! Her life is not filled with the same stresses mine is. And, I have only one child. For someone with 2-3 or more, and inlaws, and illnesses, and maybe working at the same time, it’s even worse.
So we are all different and our hormones affect us differently too.
I hope you feel better soon. I’m tired of being achy and tired too. But I know I’ll get past this. I keep saying that to myself, but I’ve been saying it to myself now for 3 years or more.
Ok. Got it. That makes sense to me.
While have your attention. What do you know about trigger points? I’m thinking I should up my T3 dose to 15mcg because I’m still having pain in the triggers (knots) in the muscles in my back; mostly in the sacral area. Dr. Lowe says higher levels of T3 only seem to fix this problem. I can deal with a lot of my other symptoms, but this one and the anxiety I get from having pain is messing up my life.
I’ll be trying to get back to the gym and also work with a massage therapist that knows how to find those triggers in September. But for now, my thinking is I could up my dose. What do you think? I’m also down to 10mg of HC because I want to get off it for awhile and retest.
Very interesting. Why do adrenal extracts cause this? So isocort is an adrenal extract and not the same thing as Cortef? I haven’t taken isocort for a few weeks, but I was supplementing a few doses of that stuff a day in place of HC doses.
I’m back on the norepinephrine issue. You posted this:
5) check brain function so that one does cause too high norepinpherine with isocort (maybe you need cortef for a bit and not the whole extract)
Does isocort cause high NE. I was taking that too for awhile? And why use cortef, isn’t it the same thing as the isocort, just stronger?
I will keep checking my ferritin. I had my HIDA scan yesterday of the gall bladder and it seems from the technician that it looks normal. Today again I have more stomach pain for a little while. I didn’t take my iron yet, but I’m wondering if the iron supplements tore up my stomach or if it’s the HC.
Yesterday I couldn’t take any meds and the test took awhile and I just plumb forgot to take any the rest of the day. No NT, T3 or HC and I was okay and I don’t think I got any pain yesterday. Today I took my 7.5mg morning dose of HC and 1 grain and 5T3 (sub on those) and around an hour ago I started noticing the pains.
I’m going to just drop the one dose a day (5mg). So today I’m taking only 1 more dose around 5pm. And then I’ll get off it quicker. If I didn’t notice any adverse affects yesterday with no HC maybe I”ll be okay.
I also wonder if the pain is just slow digestion from low thyroid. You said my levels were okay, so I can’t be pooling, correct?
The pain almost feels like gas because at some points I do have to burp a lot.
I can’t take digestive enzymes until I get the endoscope to rule out ulcer. So the only thing I can do for now is eliminate the HC to see if it was causing some problem. If that continues then I’ll have to eliminate the iron, but I really need that, so what to do? Iron can also irritate the stomach. And, I do have a hiatus hernia, but the Aciphex usually takes care of that and I have no burning, just this other weird intense pain in the pit of my stomach that can last for hours.
Just more anxiety for me with this new symptom that is at times very unbearable.
I still think it could be a temporary spike, no? Because my estradiol level was 12 and that is way, way low. It should be 100 or a little above to feel normal. Also the progesterone of 1.1 at that time was also very low, so both are low. I really don’t think I have very high levels of estrogen at all, but I suppose I must wait for further tests. Right now I am in the middle of a 3 day migraine that I get once in a while and I think that is from low estrogen and I’m using my estradiol gel too. Go figure.
I do think I need more Progesterone in relation to the E, but I’m still trying to find the exact culprit for the high NE. That little bit of info made me nervous. I’m wondering if it wasn’t a temporary spike and maybe I’ve had that all along and maybe I’m just locked in some depressive, anxiety mode from life stresses??? Maybe I need to take what I dread, SSRI, or anxiety med?? I really felt treating hormone issues would help, but now I’m not so sure. I hope your Dr. M can shed some light on this for me as well.
Dr. M. , this is a very interesting post to me, but it’s hard for my foggy brain to understand most of it. I suffer from what I believe is a myalgia, or fibro pain syndrome. I have knots in muscles behind my neck/shoulders and big ones in my sacral/hip area. I suffer from pain most days and have anxiety about leaving home because of this. I also have 2 bulging discs but I’ve had them for a long time and had some pain from that years ago, but not the type of pain I have now.
I started to have this weird pain syndrome shortly after the removal of an ovary. I have always suffered from sensitivity to cold, cold hands/feet. Around the time of the surgery I also started having emotional issues as well and I was easily stressed. I chocked it up to low sex hormones and took vitamins. Last June I couldn’t take the pain so I started bio estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. After 6 months of not getting rid of these pains I thought I must have some type of thyroid issue. I had a thyroid scan 18 years ago and I was told I had a goiter that went away. I had a sonogram this time and they found complex cysts, nodules and enlargement. My endo wouldn’t treat them, so I found another doctor. I have since been using low doses of Armour and recently my doctor added 10mcg of Cytomel (high reverse T3 of 390). I also take 20mg of hydrocortisone and many supplements.
I’ve noticed some pain is better, but I still get spasms in my low back and I feel like my muscles are always tense even when I’m not. For instance, I’ll be sitting and notice my shoulder is all pulled forward and then I relax it back. When I’m standing I’ll notice my low back and glutes are tight and I have to release them. Very strange. Also, I cannot stand for longer than 5-10 minutes before my lower back goes weak and achy and I need to sit and rest. That is the worst part of all this besides the anxiety.
I feel that the low thyroid is an issue, but even with my levels being good for now I’m still having these pain syndromes.
You mention nutritional deficiencies as a possible problem. My ferritin was 31 several months ago and I read that needs to be higher for thyroid to function. I also had low Vitamin D at 28. Could those deficiencies be the root of my problem? I have been supplementing and getting those numbers up, but the latest levels were: Ferritin 51, Vitamin D, 46.1.
Also I have had several laparoscopic surgeries. Does one lose much blood during these? I also had C-Section 9 years ago. Could those operations plus normal monthly shedding started an iron problem for me?
I can deal with being a little tired, and cold, and the dry skin, and most of the other symptoms, but it’s the muscle pain and anxiety which has me in a depression as well that is very hard to live with.
My latest thyroid levels (none taking before test):
Free T4: 1.15 (0.61-1.76)
Thyroxine: 7.0 (4.5-12.0)
Free T3: 3.6 (2.3-4.2)
Total T3: 185 (85-205)In short, have you found that pain syndromes do get better when iron and D levels and selenium are at optimal levels? Do you think if my thyroid levels above look good, but my ferritin and D are not optimal that this is my pain syndrome problem?
Can laparscopic surgeries cause a lot of blood loss and send one into low iron problems?
Thank you.
