Many people throughout the world are affected by fibromyalgia. While more women than men are affected, those who are affected are going to find that their entire lives are going to forever be changed when they have to deal with this illness. People suffering from fibromyalgia feel as if they are too tired to get through a regular day.
They may also be in so much pain that they simply cannot make it through a routine, regular day. As you can see, it affects people in a wide variety of ways, but one thing is for sure, it will disrupt the person’s life to the point that many people do not recognize what they have become in a year or so of dealing with fibromyalgia.
Pain throughout the body is one of the widespread issues with fibromyalgia; the swelling and the muscle weakness are others. However, what most people do not realize is that many of these symptoms can also be associated with a thyroid issue. The dilemma is that the thyroid, same as fibromyalgia, is something that is repeatedly the last illness diagnosed by a doctor, for whatsoever reason.
Fibromyalgia and the thyroid connection
Did you know that thyroid conditions are routinely misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia? I’m sure most of our doctors ran a TSH test to check our thyroid function before we were labeled with fibromyalgia, since hypothyroidism is one of the many diseases that are thought to be ruled out before diagnosing fibromyalgia. But did you know that you can have a normal TSH test result and still have a thyroid disorder?
According to fibromyalgia specialist Dr. David It happens recurrently still, some people have been erroneously misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia when they may in fact have a treatable thyroid disease. That’s for the reason that the TSH test, the test most frequently used by doctors to diagnose thyroid problems, is a poor marker of overall thyroid health.
Why do thyroid patients get the Fibromyalgia diagnosis?
The diagnosis of fibromyalgia may in fact be telling symptoms of poorly treated hypothyroidism for particularly those thyroid patients whose hypothyroidism is treated with Synthroid, levothyroxine or any other T4-only medicine. Dr. John S. Lowe said, in most cases, fibromyalgia is the result of “hypometabolism of selected tissues”, to be precise, “the clinical manifestation of inadequate thyroid hormones is due to thyroid hormone deficiency and/or resistance. When Lowe wrote what I quoted above, he referred to it as a hypothesis–a soft way to propose to his medical colleagues that there may be more to this story.
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Once they were capable to escape their hypothyroid state, the fibro pain at last went away .When patients stop letting the insufficient TSH lab test describe whether they are “normal” or not, and when patients stop treating their hypothyroidism with the inadequate T4-only meds like Synthroid and go with T3 in their treatment, such as natural desiccated thyroid, symptoms of “fibromyalgia” have been completely removed. Treatment which uses direct T3 like natural dried out thyroid or T3-only added in, some patients tells that they need to bring low cortisol and low iron levels back up in the full treatment.
Those with Hashi’s can also get the Fibromyalgia diagnosis simply because of their autoimmune inflammatory reaction to certain foods. It’s individual and not black and white, but those foods can include gluten, dairy, or sugar, etc. Then if one with Hashi’s is also on T4-only, or being underdosed on NDT or T3, you get a double whammy. All cases of fibromyalgia are not related to thyroid condition, there can be other causes of the pain too.
Mayo lists several here. There can be a Fibro totally unconnected to one’s hypothyroidism for some people. But it’s still a fact that for a large body of hypothyroid patients, it just may be related to an undiagnosed or undertreated hypothyroid state. Because doctors rely on the TSH lab test many cases of thyroid disease go undiagnosed. The TSH can be normal for years before it raises high enough to disclose one’s hypothyroid unfortunately, so you could have been hypo all those years.
The TSH never rises for some people and one is still hypothyroid. Being on T4-only like Synthroid has caused some patients to have a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia if they have are hypothyroid, And the pain vanished when they moved over to Natural Desiccated Thyroid or T3. Undiagnosed cortisol problem and/or low iron can be the cause of fibromyalgia, as either of the latter mean you will continue to have hypothyroidism.
According to several studies that have been performed, the thyroid master gland in the brain is the responsible gland for many of the issues that both of these illnesses share, such as the constant fatigue, being unable to get a good night’s sleep, and the like. Many medical professionals for this reason are looking for treatment of a thyroid dysfunction for those who have fibromyalgia. The hopes in doing this is that the result will ensure the patient simply feels better and is able to function from day to day on a level that they believe to be normal.
Treating with Synthroid
Those who suffer with a thyroid disease or fibromyalgia Synthroid is becoming a widespread medicine that is given to them. This is basically a synthetic thyroid hormone that is meant to replace the low levels of hormone that are naturally found in the body. It is also known as levothyrozine.
It can also be prescribed in situations when the person may have an inflamed thyroid gland due to hormone imbalances, radiation treatment or surgical procedure. Side effects include Changes in menstrual periods, Appetite changes and Weight changes. There are other side effects that can occur in which the person should be aware of.
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Reference:
- Fibromyalgia and Thyroid issues by Naomi Prex Arbaa via Fibromyalgia Resources