Jump to content
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Thyroid Problems...need Advice


mygfworld

Recommended Posts

mygfworld Apprentice

Hi, I'm havign some thyroid problems. I'm not sure yet if I'll be put on medication for Hypo or Hyper thyroid issues. Can anyone recommend what medications work best for them AND are gluten free?

Any other advice on what I need to know about thyroid problems?


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



GFinDC Veteran

Hi,

I am not an expert on thyroid problems, although I have some myself. I have a couple nodules and a cyst. I really think I am hypothyroid due to some symptoms I have had. Like sore shoulder joints, which added in sore knee joint on the right side, and then sore wrist on the right side. Also have had difficulty with memory and keeping focused on tasks, and sleeping/insomnia. Recently I found that my sore joints and other symptoms improved quite a lot when I ate some dairy. I think it kicked my thyroid into gear somehow. My doc (endo) says my TSH level is fine. But he can't explain why my symptoms improved. He refused to give me any medication for it. I found some dessicated bovine thyroid at the Vitamin Shoppe and am going to take one of those every few days to see if it helps.

I have seen other people post about using Levothyroxin and Synthroid and Armour. There seems to be a variety of opinions about which is best.

Roda Rising Star

Are you having hypo or hyper symptoms? Treatment for the two are very different. I don't know much about hyper treatments except sometimes antithyroid meds, thyroid ablation, or surgery can be used to treat symptoms.

I have hypothyroidism caused by hashimotos disease an autoimmune disorder. I take levothyroxine (generic synthroid) and liothyronine (generic cytomel). The first is a T4 and the other is T3. I started out in 2000 to 2006 only supplementing with the levothyroxine but then my new endocrinologist put me on the liothyronine also. It has made a big difference. T3 is faster acting (within a few days) vs the T4 that can take 4-6 weeks to stabilize. The thyroid converts the T4 to T3. There is also armour that is a combination pill of T3 and T4. My doctor put me on the additional T3 because of my free T3 levels still being low despite the T4 therapy. I had marginal alright TSH but was still having symptoms. If she thinks someone will benefit from both she perfers the two pills vs. the other that is a combo. She feels that it is easier to regulate if there are symptoms of over medication.

Here are a few links for you about both.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

GFinDC Veteran

Thanks for the links Roda! I found a small mention of calcium possibly interfering with thyroid medication absorption on the Mayo clinic site. Found this article on WebMD about the issue.

From WebMD article:

"Patients and their physicians need to be made aware that calcium can prevent the absorption of thyroxine" and this can be prevented by taking the two six to 12 hours apart, study author Jerome M. Hershman, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, tells WebMD. Harshman and colleagues reported their findings in the June 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Open Original Shared Link

That was news to me. I hadn't heard there were interactions with calcium to be aware of. I think I will try taking my thyroid pill in the morning and my calcium at night. Or take the thyroid one day and the calcium the next day.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      132,397
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Megannnnn
    Newest Member
    Megannnnn
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
      I had the same thing happen to me at around your age, and to this day it's the most painful experience I've ever had. For me it was the right side of my head, above my ear, running from my nerves in my neck. For years before my outbreak I felt a tingling sensation shooting along the exact nerves that ended up exactly where the shingles blisters appeared. I highly recommend the two shot shingles vaccine as soon as your turn 50--I did this because I started to get the same tingling sensations in the same area, and after the vaccines I've never felt that again.  As you likely know, shingles is caused by chicken pox, which was once though of as one of those harmless childhood viruses that everyone should catch in the wild--little did they know that it can stay in your nervous system for your entire life, and cause major issues as you age.
    • trents
    • Clear2me
      Thanks for the info. I recently moved to CA from Wyoming and in that western region the Costco and Sam's /Walmart Brands have many nuts and more products that are labeled gluten free. I was told it's because those products are packaged and processed  in different  plants. Some plants can be labeled  gluten free because the plant does not also package gluten products and they know that for example the trucks, containers equipment are not used to handle wheat, barely or Rye. The Walmart butter in the western region says gluten free but not here. Most of The Kirkland and Members Mark brands in CA say they are from Vietnam. That's not the case in Wyoming and Colorado. I've spoken to customer service at the stores here in California. They were not helpful. I check labels every time I go to the store. The stores where I am are a Sh*tshow. The Magalopoly grocery chain Vons/Safeway/Albertsons, etc. are the same. Fishers and Planters brands no longer say gluten free. It could be regional. There are nuts with sugar coatings and fruit and nut mixes at the big chains that are labeled gluten free but I don't want the fruit or sugar.  It's so difficult I am considering moving again. I thought it would be easier to find safe food in a more populated area. It's actually worse.  I was undiagnosed for most of my life but not because I didn't try to figure it out. So I have had all the complications possible. I don't have any spare organs left.  No a little gluten will hurt you. The autoimmune process continues to destroy your organs though you may not feel it. If you are getting a little all the time and as much as we try we probably all are and so the damage is happening. Now the FDA has pretty much abandoned celiacs. There are no requirements for labeling for common allergens on medications. All the generic drugs made outside the US are not regulated for common allergens and the FDA is taking the last gluten free porcine Thyroid med, NP Thyroid, off the market in 2026. I was being glutened by a generic levothyroxin. The insurance wouldn't pay for the gluten free brand any longer because the FDA took them all off their approved formulary. So now I am paying $147 out of pocket for NP Thyroid but shortly I will have no safe choice. Other people with allergies should be aware that these foreign generic pharmaceutical producers are using ground shellfish shell as pill coatings and anti-desicants. The FDA knows this but  now just waits for consumers to complain or die. The take over of Wholefoods by Amazon destroyed a very reliable source of good high quality food for people with allergies and for people who wanted good reliably organic food. Bezos thought  he could make a fortune off people who were paying alot for organic and allergen free food by substituting cheap brands from Thailand. He didn't understand who the customers were who were willing to pay more for that food and why. I went from spending hundreds to nothing because Bezo removed every single trusted brand that I was buying. Now they are closing Whole foods stores across the country. In CA, Mill Valley store (closed July 2025) and the National Blvd. store in West Los Angeles (closed October 2025). The Cupertino store will close.  In recent years I have learned to be careful and trust no one. I have been deleberately glutened in a restaurant that was my favorite (a new employee). The Chef owner was not in the kitchen that night. I've had  a metal scouring pad cut up over my food.The chain offered gluten free dishes but it only takes one crazy who thinks you're a problem as a food fadist. Good thing I always look. Good thing they didn't do that to food going to a child with a busy mom.  I give big tips and apologize for having to ask in restaurants but mental illness seem to be rampant. I've learn the hard way.          I don't buy any processed food that doesn't say gluten free.  I am a life long Catholic. I worked for the Church while at college. I don't go to Church anymore because the men at the top decided Jesus is gluten. The special hosts are gluten less not gluten free. No I can't drink wine after people with gluten in their mouth and a variety of deadly germs. I have been abandoned and excluded by my Church/Family.  Having nearly died several times, safe food is paramount. If your immune system collapses as mine did, you get sepsis. It can kill you very quickly. I spent 5 days unconscious and had to have my appendix and gall bladder removed because they were necrotic. I was 25. They didn't figure out I had celiac till I was 53. No one will take the time to tell you what can happen when your immune system gets overwhelmed from its constant fighting the gluten and just stops. It is miserable that our food is processed so carelessly. Our food in many aspects is not safe. And the merging of all the grocery chains has made it far worse. Its a disaster. Krogers also recently purchased Vitacost where I was getting the products I could no longer get at Whole Foods. Kroger is eliminating those products from Vitacost just a Bezos did from WF. I am looking for reliable and certified sources for nuts. I have lived the worst consequences of the disease and being exposed unknowingly and maliciously. Once I was diagnosed I learned way more than anyone should have to about the food industry.  I don't do gray areas. And now I dont eat out except very rarely.  I have not eaten fast food for 30 years before the celiac diagnosis. Gluten aside..... It's not food and it's not safe.  No one has got our backs. Sharing safe food sources is one thing we can do to try to be safe.        
    • Mmoc
      Thank you kindly for your response. I have since gotten the other type of bloods done and am awaiting results. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.