Underactive thyroid common with type 2 diabetes?

[ickihun]

Hi.
I'm reading up on my underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) and I see connections with type 1 but have yet to see connections with type 2.
Is it common with type 2?
Or should I query my type 2 status with specialist in january?
Any advice or info very welcome.
Thanks in advance

 

[Daphne917]

I have an under-active thyroid. I think there are a few of us on the forum.

 

[Scottish Mum]

Underactive here too. I've been told it's quite common to go together, type 1 and 2. Both metabolic conditions.

 

[Indy51]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroid at the same time as I received my Type 2 and Vitamin D3 deficiency diagnoses - GP said it's not unusual for the diagnoses to cluster in this fashion. Luckily my hypothyroid (high TSH reading) reversed as I lost weight, controlled my BG levels and achieved normal D3 levels with supplementation.

 

[Totto]

I've seen an estimate of around 30% of women with diabetes T2 suffer from under active thyroid.

 

[ickihun]

Thank you for your replies. I look forward to reducing the 200mg thyroxine with weight loss.
A little part of me wants to do meal replacements to get some weight off. I'm 8 stone overweight and I'm desperate to reduce it.

 

[Totto]

Thank you for your replies. I look forward to reducing the 200mg thyroxine with weight loss.
A little part of me wants to do meal replacements to get some weight off. I'm 8 stone overweight and I'm desperate to reduce it.

I could cut down on thyroid meds when I went on strict LCHF. with 80E% fat.

 

[ickihun]

I could cut down on thyroid meds when I went on strict LCHF. with 80E% fat.

No change for me. Some days I have to force myself to add the fat. I'm working on it thou. Difficult to change from low fat since I feel I've been on it most of my life!

 

[CarbsRok]

There are loads of people with underactive thyroids even without diabetes, so worry not.

 

[reidpj]

Even some of us guys have it

 

[debdebc]

I have been for years and take 300mcg of Thyroxine

 

[Prem51]

Even some of us guys have it

Yeah, I was diagnosed with underactive thyroid about six years ago, when I started getting a squeezing feeling round my heart, and felt like I was wearing lead boots. I thought I might have angina. I was sent for hospital heart tests, and was eventually diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I am on 100mcg of levothyroxine daily.
The only effect I feel now is that I don't have the same energy I did previously. this might have contributed to my T2 diagnosis, as I haven't been walking as much as I used to before I retired - I used to walk 3 miles to work most days. And just sitting around and eating more since I retired I put on about a stone in weight.

 

[ickihun]

It is hard. Most days I just want to curl into a ball in bed and sleep.
My young kids keep me active and stopped driving to walk more. It's my heavy weight which annoys me the most. I'm struggling on a cheap version of LCHF diet. I feel like giving up on food altogether and having water based meal replacements. Simplifying my life alittle.

 

[Fayefaye1429]

May I ask my friend has been diagnosed with under active Thyroid and is struggling with support. Does anyone know if there is more support out there?

 

[ickihun]

May I ask my friend has been diagnosed with under active Thyroid and is struggling with support. Does anyone know if there is more support out there?

On facebook there is a page called hypothyroidism mom. I guess fb will have more.
I haven't really looked. Sorry.
I was asking here as I just wanted to make sure I had been diagnosed with type 2 correctly.

 

[Totto]

Thyroid care is too often abysmal. What you want is to have TSH very low and possibly even below range, FT4 in upper quarter or even above range and FT3 in the upper quarter of range but not above range.

Very few hypothyroid patients feel well with a TSH above 1. Furthermore, not everyone is helped by Levothyroxine but needs some T3 added or to be put on NDT.

 

[ickihun]

Thyroid care is too often abysmal. What you want is to have TSH very low and possibly even below range, FT4 in upper quarter or even above range and FT3 in the upper quarter of range but not above range.

Very few hypothyroid patients feel well with a TSH above 1. Furthermore, not everyone is helped by Levothyroxine but needs some T3 added or to be put on NDT.

Totto I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about ten years before type 2 diabetes but I feel the symptoms I had at 6yr old that the diabetes affected me first.
In future I'll be more diligent when asking for my thyroid blood test results. Thank you for your knowledge.

 

[ann34+]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroid at the same time as I received my Type 2 and Vitamin D3 deficiency diagnoses - GP said it's not unusual for the diagnoses to cluster in this fashion. Luckily my hypothyroid (high TSH reading) reversed as I lost weight, controlled my BG levels and achieved normal D3 levels with supplementation.

Hi, Indy51, That's interesting regarding the connection with weight loss - did your doctors explain this and let you know this might happen? Were you on medication? if so how did you reduce it safely? i am Type one, and got autoimmune hypothyroid disease 10 years ago, and was on stable medication and in the middle of normal BMI range. Then to try to get LDL down i lost just 9 pounds - it was a difficult time with lots of symptoms my doctors did not understand, like fast heart rate, scary overheating, breathlessness, etc, and i had to stop medications and be reassessed. i realised the symptoms were due to suddenly needing less medication, and have now lost another 3 pounds , reducing medication along the way, so now on minimal medication, less than one fourteenth of what i had been using, nearly off medication altogether and battling to lose a few more pounds. Ann

 

[Lisa_bubbles_]

I got diagnosed on Wednesday this week with diabetes and under active thyroid at the same time . Went to the drs about something else. Then had bloods done and this was the diagnosis's . Trying to get my head around it all.

 

[Indy51]

Hi, Indy51, That's interesting regarding the connection with weight loss - did your doctors explain this and let you know this might happen? Were you on medication? if so how did you reduce it safely? i am Type one, and got autoimmune hypothyroid disease 10 years ago, and was on stable medication and in the middle of normal BMI range. Then to try to get LDL down i lost just 9 pounds - it was a difficult time with lots of symptoms my doctors did not understand, like fast heart rate, scary overheating, breathlessness, etc, and i had to stop medications and be reassessed. i realised the symptoms were due to suddenly needing less medication, and have now lost another 3 pounds , reducing medication along the way, so now on minimal medication, less than one fourteenth of what i had been using, nearly off medication altogether and battling to lose a few more pounds. Ann

Sorry, no explanation of why things changed. I think it was a combination of D3 supplementation and weight loss, but I've no medical evidence to back that up. Hypothyroid is an area of health that frankly confuses me. I also never had medication for it and never had blood tests beyond TSH - apparently only endocrinologists order those kind of tests here.