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Diabetes and Thyroid

H

hails

Well-Known Member
Messages
98
Location
United Kingdom
Hey guys!

Hope you are all well! :)

Just wondering if anyone's blood sucking, organ eating antibodies have decided that their pancreas is not enough and have had a good go on their thyroid too? Mine has antibodies present and therefore is slowly becoming underactive.

I feel I have a lot of the symptons and told my doctor so at my last review in July, to be told by the other doctor present that as my TSH (thyroid level) or whatever it is is at 5.2 (not hitting the 5.5 which formally diagnosises you as underactive) that I wouldnt be feeling any symptons. Over the past 3 weeks or so these 'symptons' have becoming increasingly more difficult to cope with, ie tiredness, feeling the cold, sore muscles, weight gain and so on. I was doing some research to find that although over here in the UK they class underactive being over 5.5, in USA they class underactive as 4.5 and there is a big war going on trying to reclassify the diagnosis level. I also got very wound up to find many references to the fact you can have symptons even if you are in the 3s and 4s... so the doctor had accused me of making things up when it is apparent that I would be feeling these symptons.

Aswell as my symptons I have really been struggling with my levels which is another sympton of my thyroid giving in, especially as there is no other reason for my rocketing levels. I am having to inject more than I usally do and this has happened out of the blue.

I decided to go directly to my normal GP (after leaving 3 messages for my diabete nurses to get back to me.. which they didnt) and when he saw my thyroid levels were 5.2 and there were antibodies present he seemed shocked I hadnt been put on medication as there is no chance it will ever improve, the same as my pancreas! So he pulled me in for a blood test and I should get the results tomorrow, and hopefully they put me on medication! Im sick of going home at 5 from work and falling asleep for 2 hours!

Sorry to rant on but I was wondering if anyone else had experience of this auto immune disease which is connected to diabetes... i think usually type 1?

All levels I have mentioned are thyroid levels not my sugar levels.

Ahhh deep breath :oops:

Hayley x

:)
 
Yes. My son has both type one and hypothyroidism.

Autoimmune disorders are like a lucky dip. You never know what is going to pop up next.
 
Wow Sarah im intrigued! Tell me more... what have you got. It seems im going to be quite seceptible (spelling?!?!) to auto immune disorders.

Are you type 1?

H x
 
Oh poor you - this sounds familiar

I've only just become diabetic (22 August!), but been "skimming" the underactive thyroid level for years and years (and years) ...

my mum and both my aunts have this condition but I won't receive ANY treatment until such time as I hit the magic number.

My mum was so worried about me (she almost crashed her van when her illness went undiagnosed for years, she used to drive for a living and yes, it's tiring, but she used to fall asleep at the wheel regularly) that she was tempted to give me some of her medication just to see if it would have an effect. we decided it was probably a bit dim to go around swapping meds ;)

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Jem xxx
 
i too have type 1 and an underactive thyroid,although with me the thyroid came 1st lol i was in coronary care with thyrotoxicosis,a few mnths later it stopped working ,dr said the fact i had thyroid problems may be why i got diabetes grrrrrr
take care all
amanda :D
 
(((((Sarah Q))))) this just goes to show, we dont have to look far to find someone worse off than us...

Karen x
 
Hi Sarah

I'm new to the forum. I've had Type 1 for 10 years and this year my thyroid started playing up. A gp let me start on thyroxine but an endo took me off it saying that it was impossible to have symptoms if your TSH level was below 10.

Without meds, I get major fatigue, aching muscles and joints, weight gain and hair loss, also sensitivity to cold. I don't think the endos in the UK really know what they are talking about. In the US, any TSH outside of the range of 0.3-3.0 is deemed abnormal and is considered for treatment.

There are political reasons for UK doctors forcing people to wait until their TSH gets to 10 before commencing treatment as treatment leads to free prescriptions for life (like Type 1 diabetes but for some reason more contentious). Also as the disease disproportionately affects women, the doctors seem less willing to take it seriously blaming symptoms on age, menopause, post-natal depression, stress, depression etc.

If things don't go well with your doctor then there are other ways to get the problem sorted out.
Good luck
goji :D
 
don't all diabetics in the UK get free prescriptinos anyway regardess of type? Not sure about across but i know i do on Fraggle Rock? surely that wouldn[t really be a factor in deciding to put this problem on meds???
 
i think its only diabetics on medication,people on thyroxine do get free scripts :D
 
Yeh all diabetes get free med... for everything because diabetes causes so many complications. So yeh even if you needed thyroxine it would be free anyway.

The comment about 10 is still more of the worry!
x
 
Hiya

Sorry I took so long to get back to this thread.

The British Thyroid Association (staffed by all the top British thyroid consultants) recommends that doctors wait until the TSH hits 10 before commencing treatment as according to them, people shouldn't have symptoms if their TSH is under 10. You can read the guidelines at http://www.british-thyroid-association. ... elines.htm

As these are guidelines and not laws, some clinicians choose to use their own judgement (eg. my gp) whereas others (my endo) follow the guidelines to the rule.

One of the problems is that in conducting research into what constitutes a normal range, the British researchers didn't bother to exclude people who have low-lying thyroid disease (eg. they have thyroid antibodies/and or a strong family history of thyroid disease). Due to this oversight diseased people are included in the 'normal' range, thereby making the range a lot broader than it should be. This makes it harder to get diagnosed in England.

In the US where they tested all research participants for thyroid antibodies and excluded those people with antibodies from the normal range, the range is a lot narrower (0.3-3.0) so it is easier to get diagnosis and treatment. In Germany any TSH over 2.5 is considered abnormal.

Hails, you should be fine if you already get free prescriptions due to diabetes as you will automatically get thyroxine free. However many of those who are subclinically hypothyroid and who don't have diabetes have found that one of the factors that seems to prevent docs from starting treatment is the fact that the person will then get free prescriptions for life.
 
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