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Graves' disease or Hashimoto's ?

hello i am wondering if someone can help me out with what my blood results mean . ok so i went to a walk in clinic because i was having a laundry list of stuff going on with my health . asked doc to do some blood work and see if he could find what might be wrong .

blood work came back showing some thyroid issues . my TSH was .16 my T4 free was 18 freeT3 was 6.1 and my TPO was 102

the doc said i have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and reffered me to endocrinologist which im waiting for appointment .
so my question is after doing some googling im wondering if the doc might have ment to say graves disease rather then hashimotos . it was very busy in the office and maybe he just mixed the two up ? the reason im thinking this is because when i look at what my blood work results are they point to hyperthyriod rather then hypo . can any body tell from my numbers i really would like to know and its a bit of a wait till my appointment with the specialist
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649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
GERD is a major symptom of thyroid conditions... I had it horribly for years prior to being diagnosed with Hashimoto's and my doctors kept prescribing Aciphex, which a very strong acid inhibitor.  After a few years, even the Aciphex wasn't touching the GERD.  My ENT became concerned that the GERD would damage my esophagus.

After I joined MedHelp, someone suggested that I needed MORE acid, not less, which I thought was crazy, because I'd often wake up, literally, choking on acid.  One night in desperation, I chugged some dill pickle juice, as had been suggested... It burned like fire going down, but lo and behold, after a while, things began to settle down a bit and I was actually able to sleep a few hours that night...

I started researching and found that many people with thyroid conditions actually need more acid, not less... I started drinking vinegar water, with a little honey, or the dill pickle juice.  I found that peppermint oil pills also work wonders.  Eventually, I learned that taking HCL with betaine helped a lot, but what worked best was getting my thyroid hormone levels where I needed them to be.

I haven't taken anything for GERD in quite a few years, other than a sip of dill pickle juice or peppermint tea, peppermint oil pills, etc. but then I only get it if I eat something that totally disagrees with me in the first place.  I do enjoy a cup of peppermint tea anyway as it's soothing in its own right.
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hi there , ok so i had my appointment with edno doc and said i have mild graves disease . i started taking tarazole or methimazole 5 mg once a day , started last friday . i dont know if it was just placebo or real but i started to feel better right away . i should mention im a 45 year old male . can anyone tell me if the medicine can mess with your blood pressure i went to phamicist but they couldnt really say , im waiting for a call back from doc . whlie i was at work troweling i noticed my arm was feeling kind of week and sore . i then noticed that when troweling over head that the veins in my arm seemed to be collapsing or more then usual and when i put arm down seemed to take longer to go back to normal. this alarmed me pretty good to the point im not sure i will want to take one tommor anyone here experience anything like this or know of any side effect like this ?
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
All of the symptoms you've been having - irritability, stress, ibs pain, depression and anxiety can be symptoms of a thyroid condition.  They can apply to both hyper and hypo.  

It's important to note that the TPOab antibody can be slightly elevated in Graves Disease, as well as in Hashimoto's; however, gimel is right that Hashimoto's can swing hyper, then hypo and may do this numerous times before finally swinging permanently hypo... I know I did it, I swung hypo, then hyper, then normal, at least 3 times, before settling to permanent hypo, though I didn't know what was happening at the time, because no one ever tested my thyroid levels... it was only after I turned permanently hypo and symptoms got so bad I was in misery, that I was actually tested and diagnosed.

In order to know exactly what you have, there's another antibody test you need to confirm Hashimoto's... That's called Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb).  Both TPOab and TgAb are, both, markers for Hashimoto's and need to be tested for confirmation.  In addition, the definitive test for Graves Disease is Thyroid Stimulating Immunoglobulin (TSI) and you should get that, as well... Some people have, both, Hashimoto's and Graves at the same time, with one or the other being dominant at a given time.

As for your question regarding the use of cannabis, I can't answer that, however, I did find the following:  

"It is unclear how medical cannabis might directly impact conditions such as an under-active thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) or an overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism).  However, many patients report that medical cannabis is quite effective in treating some of the clinical symptoms that are commonly associated with these diseases.  Such symptoms may include anxiety/depression, irritability, headaches, insomnia, joint and muscle aches, and others".

If one is hypo, you must provide your body with the thyroid hormones that are lacking, because those hormones are what controls many of your bodily functions, such as heart rate, metabolism, body temperature and others.  If one is hyper, your body is producing too much of the hormones and you must slow down that production... merely taking medical cannabis to alleviate the symptoms is not making the body healthier; it's making the person feel better, temporarily.  

In your case, it appears that your body is producing too much of the hormones and you'll need to find out what's causing that and slow down the production, which will likely alleviate some of your symptoms.

This is a very interesting subject for further research...
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thanks for more info barb , much appreciated i also have been taking proton pump inhibitors for almost two years for gerd and a small hiatal hernia . im now wondering if there could be any connection there . i have been reading that ppi should only be taken for 6 week periods . im going to try and get off of those before my endo appointment . i have always thought that they were making me feel weird . anytime i would ask my regular doc about it he would tell me there would be no issues with ppi but googling im finding all kinds of bad crap about them its so frustrating . it seems that docs dont really know or have time to fully investigate and a patient has to pretty much help themselfs
Avatar universal
In view of the TPO result, it is most likely Hashi's.  I say that because with Hashi's it is quite common at the beginning for nodules to form on the thyroid gland.  Those nodules then leak hormone faster than normal, thus the high levels of thyroid hormone and low TSH.   The hyper phase may last for  a while and then revert to hypothyroidism.  I experienced that myself many years ago.  I was just hyper enough that built a wooden deck and then finished the basement, all in a year.  Then I became hypo and my wife likes to say that I haven't done that much work since.  LOL  

When you see the Endo I am sure you will get an ultrasound test of the thyroid gland to determine its condition.  Not sure if the Endo will want you to just wait for the hyper period to end, or if symptoms are really severe, perhaps give you some anti-thyroid med to get you through.  

The real challenge for you will be when you become hypo for good, as the thyroid gland is being destroyed by the antibodies of Hashi's.  At that point you will need a good thyroid doctor that will treat clinically, by testing and adjusting Free T4 and Free T3 as needed to relieve symptoms, without being constrained by resultant TSH levels.  Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results and especially not TSH results when taking thyroid medication.  

I know I am going way beyond what you asked about, but for the future you need to know a couple of other things.  Being an Endo does not guarantee a good thyroid doctor.  Many of them specialize in diabetes, not thyroid.  Many of them have the "Immaculate TSH Belief" and only pay attention to TSH.  That does not work.  If they test beyond TSH it is usually only Free T4 and then they use "Reference Range Endocrinology", and will tell you that a test result that falls anywhere within the range is adequate.  That is also wrong.  You can get some good info from this link written by a good thyroid doctor.

http://www.hormonerestoration.com/Thyroid.html

Finally hypothyroid patients frequently become low in the ranges for Vitamin D, B12 and ferritin.  All are very important.  D should be about 55-60, B12 in the upper end of its range, and ferritin should be about 70 minimum.  so you can get those tested and supplement as needed to optimize.  As you proceed with your diagnosis and treatment, please keep all this in mind.
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1 Comments
thank you very much for your quick reply . can i also ask another question  ? or questions lol. i have been using medical cannabis for a few years steady mostly through vaporization for some other conditions .  from my reading about hashimotos and graves  im starting to wonder if they could actually be from the thyroid problem ? . things like irritability , stress , ibs  ,pain , depression ,  anxiety  and others as well . but now to the flip side,  im starting to also wonder if the cannabis could cause hashimotos or graves  ? i have been googling and all i can really find is people that are using cannabis to treat symptoms of thyroid disease . but im just curious if there could be any connection . i did find one study in pubmed that tested 40 chronic cannabis users for thyroid issues, and all came back normal . although 40 is not a huge demographic, also another test done on mice that showed thc to dampen thyroid hormone protection but with continued administration things went back to normal . also with hashimoto and graves being autoimmune cannabis is supposed to help with these types of diseases ?  just wondering if anyone has any info on if there is any possibility of a like or if i may be worse off if i stop the cannabis . i relize  these are question that rally need to be talked over with the doc which i will but im also trying to do my own research as well . thanks for any further insight  
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