Posted ByLisa on August 16, 2003 at 01:46:08:
I have been readings peoples post about not being able to lose weight due to hypothyroid. I have been hypo for 8 years now and have no problems with my weight - but I also found a doctor who knows what he is doing. If you are only taking Synthyroid - or a synthetic thyroid you are probably missing out on T3 and other things like adrenal. My suggestion to you is to make your doctors test for TSH, T3, T4, B12 and Cortisol.(There are many sites and book out there that tell you what you should MAKE your doctor test for). I am currently on 3 prescriptions: Levothroid, Armour, and Cotef plus nurtional suppliments. My doctor ran 16 blood test on me ranging from TSH levels to amino acids - that way i knew what my body was lacking and could fix it.
As all of you probably know your thyroid controls many functions in your body and if doctors think they can fix something so complex by giving one little pill a day they are crazy. The only way I found help was by going to someone who specializes in thyroid - not a general practice doctor - they don't know enough.
I read a post saying that a friend lost weight by taking Armour and she tried the same thing and it did not work for her. There is not one way to stablize your thyroid - everyone is different. One example would be the friend did not have low adrenal and the other person did - making the Armour not as effective for the other person. Now if that person was on adrenal medication and Armour she might notice a weight loss. Also if you notice that you get sick often it probably is because of low adrenal.
My point here is I hate living with hypothyroidism - its sucks. I was one of the people who was only on Synthroid - and I hated being alive sometimes. Don't let your doctors tell you what is good for you - tell your doctors what you need. It well worth going to many doctors until you find the one that is really going to work with you - and if the doctor tells you just to take synthetic T4 find a new doctor.