Hypothyroid and Atkins

[Sparky1980]

I have been getting mixed reviews on being Hypothyroid and being on Atkins.

Will I still lose the weight?

I have been on induction for a week and a half, and am unsure if the scales have changed, as I threw them out

I know my weaknesses, and the scale is a big one for me, so I figured I would just go by belt size, and how loose my clothes get.

I also have a question about Armour. I only just heard of this, and am curious if this would be ok for me, as I have NO thyroid at all.

I had Graves disease a few years back, and had Radio Active Iodine treatment for it. Is Armor meant for those to just level off the Thyroid? Or is it ok for people like me who have NO Thyroid?

I take synthroid 0.125mg, and the Dr says my levels are fine. However, since all of this, I am always tired, I sleep anywhere from 10-12 hours and still wake up tired, and my weight went from 160lbs to 220lbs in a year and a half. I have little energy in the days as well.

Thank you

[chinadoll]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

I am taking Armour, but have my thyroid, it's just sluggish. To be honest, I don't think it has done a thing for me. Exercise seems to have made the biggest difference in how I feel, sleep, mood, etc.

[Alexa]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Hi there,

I am in the UK and there is only one type of medication here for low/absent thyroid - so I don't know about amour. From what you say though - about the amount of sleep and weight gain I would say your does doesn't sound high enough. Sometimes the test look normal but you don't feel right and it can be a battle to get the Dr to listen.

Chinadoll is right though, in that exercise and eating right will help you to feel better. As to whether you will lose weight I'd be surprised if you didn't (and would say that is extra support for the idea that your dose may not be right). I have tried a lot of diets, mainly calorie restricted and this is the only one by MILES to have an impact on my weight gain which was linked to thyroid trouble. I am hypo.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on if you decide to do Atkins.

[Creek]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

I've been hypothyroid since I was 12. I currently take 100 mcg of levothyroxine (generic synthroid) a day. I've lost 25 pounds in 12 weeks and it's been soooooooo much easier than calorie restriction and low fat diets. I also read about Armour recently and that it helps regulate both T3 and T4, and I plan to ask my doctor about it the next regular visit in October.

In the meantime, I understand about the fatigue, but I'm like a brand new person with the energy that this program has given me. I think there is a vicious cycle of weight gain and fatigue....the weight makes you tired, you slow down, gain more weight, are more tired, gain more weight...

The up side is that giving up simple carbohydrates has given me a remarkable increase in energy. Try the program and when you see your face and tummy lose it's carb bloat, you'll be a believer.

[ssMarilyn]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism back in the early 90's, but had it for years before that. What was your last TSH test? It should be around 1.0 for women and never over 3.0 Check out this information from SIX years ago:

According to the American
Association of Clinical
Endocrinologists (AACE), what
was normal last year,
thyroid-wise, may now be abnormal.
According to the AACE, doctors have typically been
basing their diagnoses on the "normal" range for the TSH
test. The typical normal levels at most laboratories has
fallen in the 0.5 to 5.0 range.
The new guidelines narrow the range for acceptable
thyroid function, and the AACE is now encouraging
doctors to consider thyroid treatment for patients who
test the target TSH level of 0.3 to 3.04, a far narrower
range. AACE believes the new range will result in proper
diagnosis for millions of Americans who suffer from a mild
thyroid disorder, but have gone untreated until now.

The new target TSH level
according to AACE is now 0.3
to 3.04

At a press conference, Hossein Gharib, MD, FACE, and
president of AACE, said: "This means that there are
more people with minor thyroid abnormalities than
previously perceived."
AACE estimates that the new guidelines actually double
the number of people who have abnormal thyroid
function, bringing the total to as many as 27 million, up
from 13 million thought to have the condition under the
old guidelines. These new estimates would make thyroid
disease the most common endocrine disorder in North
America, far outpacing diabetes.

As many as 27 million people
have thyroid problems under
the new guidelines

AACE made the decision to narrow the range because of
data suggesting many people may have low-level thyroid
problems that could be improved with treatment and a
narrower TSH range will give doctors reason to more
carefully consider those patients.
"The prevalence of undiagnosed thyroid disease in the
United States is shockingly high - particularly since it is
a condition that is easy to diagnose and treat," said Dr.
Gharib. "The new TSH range from the AACE guidelines
gives physicians the information they need to diagnose
mild thyroid disease before it can lead to more serious
effects on a patient's health - such as elevated
cholesterol, heart disease, osteoporosis, infertility, and
depression."


This announcement from AACE represents a
long-overdue and much-needed improvement in the level
of awareness of endocrinologists. After decades of
denying that patients within the normal range of TSH
could in fact have a thyroid condition, they are now
finally acknowledging what patients and advocates have
been saying quite vocally for years: that the high and
low end of the normal range is not, in fact, normal for
most people.
It is, however, also clear that the endocrinology
community has a long way to go in terms of true
understanding of the patient condition, when you read
the words of Dr. Gharib, an endocrinologist and president
of AACE. Dr. Gharib parrots the official endocrinologist
party line when he states that thyroid disease, "is a
condition that is easy to diagnose and treat."
Dr. Gharib's pronouncement contradicts the AACE's own
statement on many levels.
First, many family doctors, general practitioners and
even endocrinologists have absolutely no idea about
these new guidelines from the AACE, and as of this
week, are still routinely denying diagnosis and treatment
to patients who have TSH levels that fall in the level
between 3.0 and 6.0, or between .1 and .3. So, until
the word it out, and accepted, thyroid disease
continues to be a condition that is not easy to
diagnose.
Second, until this announcement, people who had clear
symptoms of thyroid disease, but were in the .1 to .3, or
3 to 6 range on the TSH scale were considered
"euthyroid" (normal) by almost all endocrinologists and
practitioners. They were not diagnosed as having a
thyroid condition, and a total lack of diagnosis cannot
be in any way said to be easy, particularly for the
unfortunate patients on the receiving end of such
sub-standard care. People who had family histories of
thyroid disease, symptoms (including enlarged thyroid,
goiter, nodules, etc.) but whose TSH tests were in the
low or high end of normal were routinely denied
treatment, and sent away with no diagnosis and no
treatment. This narrow-minded means of diagnosis has
been the "standard of care" for conventional doctors
and endocrinologists for decades, based on a near-
slavish reliance on the TSH test -- often to the
exclusion of clinical evidence, symptoms and medical
observation.
Third, and equally of concern, many people with
symptoms, whose TSH levels fell into the high or
low-normal, were told that their problems were actually
the result of depression, and given antidepressants. This
means that a percentage of the population was
misdiagnosed, sometimes stigmatized by the diagnosis of
mental illness, and unnecessarily given drugs.

I'm on 150 mcg Synthroid daily and when I lose weight, my TSH goes down and my doctor has to reduce my Synthroid dosage. I lose weight easily even with hypothyroidism, but then I am my own biggest advocate and printed out the new TSH info and took it to my doctor. He increased my medication. Before that I was lethargic, depressed, could NOT lose weight and was miserable. Every other doctor I saw told me I needed Prozac and counseling. I told all of them I was NOT depressed...that something was WRONG with me. I finally found a doctor that would listen and now my thyroid is fine. Get a hard copy of your lab tests and be sure your TSH is around 1.0 Don't let your doctor tell you your thyroid is fine if it's over 3.0, because believe me, most doctors are still going by OLD lab values.

[Sparky1980]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

I'm on 150 mcg Synthroid daily and when I lose weight, my TSH goes down and my doctor has to reduce my Synthroid dosage. I lose weight easily even with hypothyroidism, but then I am my own biggest advocate and printed out the new TSH info and took it to my doctor. He increased my medication. Before that I was lethargic, depressed, could NOT lose weight and was miserable. Every other doctor I saw told me I needed Prozac and counseling. I told all of them I was NOT depressed...that something was WRONG with me. I finally found a doctor that would listen and now my thyroid is fine. Get a hard copy of your lab tests and be sure your TSH is around 1.0 Don't let your doctor tell you your thyroid is fine if it's over 3.0, because believe me, most doctors are still going by OLD lab values.

This is very similar to what I have been dealing with.
It had been well over a year since I had my levels tested when I first wrote this post, and I had to still push to get tested (kept getting the "your levels are fine" thing)

My test came back at 12.8

They have upped my dosage to 150, and I have to go in every 6 weeks to be tested (my first 6 week mark since finding out the 12.8 is the end of this week).

Thank you so much for this information!

Thank you for the responses.

[ssMarilyn]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Oh my gosh Sparky...you are SO hypo! When I get to 10 my hair falls out in clumps, my skin is dry and scaly and I can hardly get out of bed. I don't sleep well...I just can't get up. You keep pushing til you get your TSH to 1.0 because if you don't you'll keep feeling lousy. Looks like you are dealing with the same thing I USED to deal with. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, trust me!

[samanthav]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

I wasnt diagnosed with hypo until this month, but have been on atkins for a year... found that induction levels of 20 g of carbs werent low enough for me to lose weight, so I inched it down from there 1 g at a time to find my carbs for weight loss... mine was around 15. At that point, it was a breeze to lose weight, but it was difficult to hold it at that low of a level without feeling weak. I imagine once you treat the thyroid, the carb tolerance might lift some, but I am only starting on thyroid treatment so I have yet to verify this.

Regarding armour vs synthetic... your own thyroid would have produced T3 directly, and there are important bodily functions that need that T3 instead of the stuff that is converted from T4 - so at the very least you need to make sure you are getting both T3 and T4 to feel ok. The armour also has some other components that are not as easy to quantify (T1 and T2, which "they" claim is not active, but I dont question nature quite so harshly - if it is being made, there must be a reason!) .. kindof like eating an orange vs just taking vitamin c - there is a lot of stuff in the real thing that they dont even understand... yes, it is from pigs, but they have found it to be amazingly bioidentical to our own, so you would likely feel a lot better on the armour. Also, if you still had the thyroid, a high enough dose of this would have told the pituitary to stop trying to stimulate the thyroid, which would effectively calm things down with it...

[GCC]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Sparky,
Anyone can use Armour.

I think the place for you to start is with copies of your lab reports from you doctors office. By law now they must give then to you if you ask for them. They can charge you a small fee, but it will be worth it!

See exactly what they are testing and exactly what your numbers are.
See if they are even testing your FREE T3.
Some doctors only test TSH or TSH & FREE T4.
Synthroid is a T4 only med. Over time the FREE T3 can get very low.
FREE T3 is the measure of the active thyroid hormone.


Optimal TSH is a low number, around 1.0 (even though most labs still call 'normal' as high as 3.5 or even 5.5)...thats way too high!
TSH = stimulating thyriod hormone & its a pitutary hormone. The higher is the more your pitutary gland is trying to prompt your thyroid to make more thyroid hormones (called T3 & T4).


Optimal for the thyroid hormomes is the middle to UPPER part of the 'normal range', NOT the lower part. They are called T3 & T4.
FreeT3 & FREE T4 are actual , usable thyroid hormones, so you don't want them in the low part of 'normal' but at least in the middle and better yet above the middle.
It must say the word 'free' to be the usable hormone.


Its very important to have the blood drawn early in the morning too. The TSH naturelly gets lower later in the day and you want to see what is at its highest (in the morning).

[ssMarilyn]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Not everyone can use Armour. Armour has both T4 and T3 and many people don't need T3, so they get hyper and don't feel well at all on Armour. T4 is the stored hormone which converts over to T3, the useable hormone, but your thyroid might not be doing the proper conversion. (sometimes a selenium supplement will help rev up that conversion) Your doctor needs to test your FT4 and FT3, NOT F4 and F3... I have requested the FT4 and FT3 and my MD would around and order tests but take out the F, which means FREE, so I wouldn't get the correct blood tests done. I don't know why it's so difficult for most MD's to treat the thyroid properly and know which tests are required. If a person does need additional T3, but can't tolerate Armour, they can take synthroid (T4) and cytomel which is T3.

[GCC]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

If someone can't tolerate a small starter dose of Armour (which is the way everyone should start ....with a small dose)...if you can't tolerate a small starter dose of Armour the likely reason is weak adrenal glands and not because there is too much FREE T3 in it. (Unless you know your FREE T3 is too high, which is VERY unlikely).

Weak adrenal glands often happen with hypothroidism and is often made worse by high FREE T4 & low FREE T3.
The adrenal glands get over worked trying to compensate for that.
Its called adrenal insufficiency. The adrenal glands then will secrete too much at the wrong time and too little at the wrong time.
YOur average doctor will never test your adrenal glands for this. Its hard to diagnosis with a blood test becaue the optimal levels are very suttle and change during the day (and change suddenly when you have a sudden stress).

After 25+ years on Synthroid my adrenals were very weak and I could not tolerate Armour at first (even thouth my FREE T3 was tested and was very low). I had to treat my weak adnreal glands.

Selenium is said to be necessary in adequate amounts to convert the synthetic T4 in Synthroid into T3.
I think its a very good idea for anyone on Synthroid to make sure they are getting 100% of the RDA of selenium everyday.

[rosewood513]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Hi all,
I am not on any prescription drug, I am taking Thyromine you can get it on line without a prescription.
I shoed it to my doctor and promised that if this does not work i will take whatever he suggests, but, this is really working. I was falling asleep like you and ciuld not sleep at night, I was sleep deprived, and all the other nice little symptoms.
The only problem is that I think it is too strong, it is affecting my tinnitus, it is making it louder. Tomorrow I am goinng to cut it in half.
BTW, my doctor approves of the
Thyromine and is very happy that I am taking a natural pill.

I have lost 6 lbs in about 12 days and I really feel good.

[pincushion]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Hi there! I am new to the board but wanted to reply because I am also hypothyroid with adrenal fatigue. Most people that cannot tolerate armour have adrenal fatigue and once that is corrected, they can take armour and they feel so much better. Check out this site Stop The Thyroid Madness--just google it. There is also another forum called RealThyroid Help-google it. These two places will answer a ton of questions for you. Maybe we can be induction buddies. I hope it works for me and you! Cheers!

[Lola06]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

Last year my TSH was 75! Not 7.5 but 75 - could you imagine? Thre were times I would bend down to pick up something off the floor and I wouldn't be able to get back up. I could write my name, I could barely speak without slurring my words - at only 39 yrs old I was distraught! It's a year now and I'm ok, Thank God, I'm usually around a 1.5 or 2.5 so thats good. I was on 150 of Synthroid for a while and now I'm on 120 of Armour and I like it. I believe the Armour is fine for those with or without the actualy thyroid - everyone of course is different. I think having a caring and attentive doctor totally helps. I'm hoping this diet helps me lose the weight I gained from this disease (over 50lbs)

Good luck to all of you

[ErinB]

Re: Hypothyroid and Atkins

In reference to the comments about adrenal fatigue ... I have heard those same things and visited the thyroid madness and similar sites, so I know what they say. My personal choice, however, would be to get my information about medical conditions from WebMD and Mayo Clinic sites and then run anything I wonder about past my personal physician.

Since this topic has resurfaced, I'll add a link to a recent post I made in reference to adrenal fatigue.

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/spotlight-introduce-yourself/79148-new-here-hypothyroidism.html#post1107650

Lola, I can identify with how it feels to have a dead thyroid. Yours was killed by the radiation and mine just thrashed itself to death for many years. I didn't know the cause, but I thought I was dying. When I finally mentioned my multitude of symptoms to a doctor, he was quick to diagnose and treat. It took a year to level the meds, another year to heal, but I'm doing great.

My doc says a TSH of 6 or a TSH of 100 simply means hypothyroid, that the lab is out of range. The out of range number doesn't indicate one person is more sick than another. He keeps my TSH under 1 now because that is where I feel best.