Results of my labs came back good for some things and not good for others. From my couple months of consistantly going to the gym, limiting my drinking and obsessively tracking my calories and macros my cholesterol was so much better! It’s always been a little on the higher side (since I was 3 to be exact) and Dr. Endo keeps threatening me to go on statins—which I won’t if I have any say in it. Other tests they do for Diabetics include the A1c for glucose average, liver and kidney functions, which were all normal. My A1c is normally pretty good, running around 7 and under for the last 20 years. I even showed the 2 lb weight loss, wearing clothes!

Per the usual, I have too many lows but am higher during the mid day point, so we adjusted my basal insulin rates and changed my I:C ratio. All pretty normal for an Endo appt. But, the lab result that was super surprising was my Thyroid TSH, which I totally knew was going to be questionable because it just doesn’t feel right. It was at .28 which is below normal and is considered a hyperthyroid level. She seemed non-plussed though…but did lower my Levothyroxin dose a bit. I thought, what the hell? I’m supposed to be around 1.something and higher! Its totally weird though, as I have no symptoms of hyper thyroid, which can be tiredness, WEIGHTLOSS, hair loss, etc. So I was a little confused by her lack of concern for that number.

She did listen to my concerns about not being able to lose any weight and said that I’ve tried doing everything myself, blah blah and maybe should consider medication. She suggested taking Ozempic (which is for type-2 diabetics) and see if that works or she suggested a combination of hard core stimulants! Yikes! So I said I’d think about the Ozempic option and do some research over the weekend. How it works is that it affects the part in your brain that in simple terms, likes food. It also slows down your stomach emptying process, to keep you full longer, so that’s how it helps lower A1c is because it lessens the post-prandial blood glucose rising that requires more insulin. So you won’t like or want to eat anything and many people suffer from nausea, vomiting and headaches.

When weighing the pros and cons, it just seems like you’re taking away the pleasure of eating and socializing this (ah yes, many people can’t handle drinking ANY alcohol while taking this) and then because of the slow food absorption, it’s a bit more dangerous for type-1 diabetics when you have low blood sugar and treating it doesn’t work as fast. And I like to have a drink once in a while. And you have to continue to take it, forever it seems, if you want to maintain any weightloss you may experience. It sorta sounds terrible. I think I just made my decision.

What I want is to work at the source of my issues, the terrible metabolism stemming from my thyroid! I want to be able to help it more naturally, without adding drugs that haven’t even been tested long term. My kidneys and liver work just fine, I’d rather preserve them as long as possible! So, I’ll take the lower levothyroxin dose and I have started taking the Selenium, which is a pretty tame supplement. When I asked my Dr. about it, she literally shrugged her shoulders.

-EDIT: I had mentioned getting Iodine supplements also, but upon more reading I found that people with Hashimoto’s shouldn’t take Iodine. So, not taking that for now.

Oh well. I’ll keep on working out harder making muscles! and see what the TSH does after a couple months. If it is still low and I’m still not losing, I am pretty interested in meeting with a functional medicine doctor, or at least someone will dig into the issues I’m fussing over. A relative reached out sharing about her Thyroid issues and how the more-complete testing that her functional doctor did was very helpful for her in finding a treatment that worked along with some lifestyle changes to support it.

Anyone have similar experiences dealing with their Hashimoto’s thyroid and weight loss issues and how you overcame them?