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Home
About Rachel
Start Here!
- How I Can Help You
- Take Back Control: Order Your Own Thyroid Tests
All Articles
Newsletter
My Books
Store

Browsing Tag

My Personal Experiences

A Letter to Newly Diagnosed Me

A Letter to Newly Diagnosed Me

I decided to write a letter to the ‘me’ in 2015, when I was finally diagnosed…

General Update #26

General Update #26

Read the last blog in this series. I have some exciting news to share today… After…

General Update #25

General Update #25

Read the last blog in this series. I hadn’t planned to do another update on my…

We Need To Speak About Thyroid Disease More

We Need To Speak About Thyroid Disease More

I couldn’t tell you how many times someone has asked me what I do and when…

How I Needed a Different Thyroid Medication to Get My Life Back

How I Needed a Different Thyroid Medication to Get My Life Back

Fellow UK thyroid patient and advocate, Paul Robinson, had me guest blog on his website Recovering…

General Update 22

General Update #22

Read the last blog in this series. OK, so this is longggg overdue! I know I…

Find me on Instagram

theinvisiblehypothyroidism

🫣 Did you know that people with hypo are more l

🫣 Did you know that people with hypo are more likely to have high cholesterol?!

✔️ I had mine checked a month or so ago (and it thankfully came back normal).

•••

❗️Hypothyroidism is linked to cholesterol levels. ❗️

🩸An underactive thyroid / hypothyroidism can cause cholesterol to increase and you may not even be aware that this is the cause or a factor for your high cholesterol.

🩸The main purpose of thyroid hormone is to ensure the metabolism is running properly. The metabolism’s job is to produce heat and fuel but also to regulate cholesterol levels.

🩸So, with reduced metabolic function comes poor processing of cholesterol, as the metabolism slows down from hypothyroidism, causing cholesterol levels to increase.

🩸If you have hypothyroidism and are found to have high cholesterol, then treatment for the high cholesterol may be delayed to wait until your thyroid treatment is optimal, as this often brings the cholesterol levels down on its own and so removes the need for statins (source: NHS website).

…

Other Considerations:

💊 Statins are also more likely to cause muscle damage in people with hypothyroidism (source: NHS website).
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
🍲 Diet - by reducing the amount of high-cholesterol foods you eat and increasing low-saturated fat and high fibre foods, you can improve cholesterol levels.

🐟 Omega 3 - increases ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and Omega 6 lowers ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol.

🥱 Vitamin B3 - can also reduce LDL and increase HDL.

🚶‍♀️ Increasing exercise - starting off slow and going gently, can also help to lower high cholesterol.

• • •

👇 Let me know your experiences with this in the comments and as always, follow me for more thyroid info and please check out the resources linked in my bio for more support!

- Rachel 🦋💙

😔 Not everyone responds well to standard thyroi

😔 Not everyone responds well to standard thyroid medication.

…

🦋 Levothyroxine didn’t make me better. I just felt worse and worse. Symptoms piled up.

•Heavy fatigue
•Deep muscle aches and pains
•Dry skin
•Heavy periods
•Heart palpitations
•Cold intolerance
•Depression
•Migraines
•Joint pain
•Brain fog
•Constipation
•Brittle nails
•Hair loss
•Hoarse voice
•Inability to exercise
•Sleeping 14 hours and still waking up fatigued
•Acid reflux

And so much more.

🦋 I wasn’t converting the T4-only medication in to any T3. Even when my Free T4 levels came up, my Free T3 stayed low.

🦋 When I changed to an NDT medication which contained direct T3, all of the symptoms disappeared and I finally felt human again.

🦋 I’m one of the thyroid patients who needs direct T3 in my thyroid medication in order to function and feel well. Without it, I was living a half life. A zombie.

…

❓ How do your meds work for you? Let me know.👇

📖 And remember: the book “Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate” covers my experience and journey with these different thyroid medications and how I went from extremely poor health to thriving again.

- Rachel 🦋💙

(PS- I’m currently on a combo of meds - 150mg Armour + 25mcg Levo)

❄️ Why may some thyroid patients need more thy

❄️ Why may some thyroid patients need more thyroid medication in the colder months?

•••

💙The main purpose of thyroid hormones is to ensure that the metabolism is running properly.

💚People with hypothyroidism (and possibly not optimally medicated for it) may have symptoms associated with a slow metabolism, such as feeling cold a lot of the time.

💙We need the correct amount of thyroid hormones in our bodies to burn calories in order to create heat and fuel, which is important, in particular for our body temperature and energy levels.

💚In the winter, we may have a greater need for thyroid hormones (and medication), in order to create extra heat and fuel, to keep us warm and energised in these months.

💙When it is the colder time of year, we have a greater need for thyroid hormones to produce the extra heat and energy that we need to feel well and it is for this reason, that some thyroid patients find they actually need to slightly more thyroid medication in the cold months or when they go on holiday to a colder country, with the guidance of a doctor adjusting their dosage of course.

‼️I definitely do not suggest you do this on your own!

💚It’s worth talking to your doctor about this if you notice that you feel particularly worse at a certain time of year, and think you could do with a slight medication dosage adjustment.

💙You may also feel hypo symptoms return if you require a slight increase of thyroid medication in these cooler months.

💚You should aim to have your thyroid levels (the full panel) tested twice a year if possible; once in the warmer months and once in the cooler months, so your doctor can adjust your dose as soon as possible.

•••

👇 Let me know below - did you know this?!

- Rachel 🦋💙

Do you agree?? 👇 ••• 💙 4 years ago y

Do you agree?? 👇

•••

💙 4 years ago yesterday (I’m late posting this 😂), “You, Me and Hypothyroidism” a book telling our friends, family & other loved ones how to understand and support us with hypothyroidism, was released to the world!

💙 Co-written with my husband Adam, we were so excited to deliver a book my audience had been asking for for SO long.

💙 But we weren’t prepared for the incredibly moving responses we were going to receive.

💙 That the book has saved relationships, marriages, helped people to reconnect with their children, helped parents of children with congenital hypothyroidism, helped couples conceive and more.

💙 When I see any of my 3 books (and the others I’ve co-authored) sat among so much other thyroid literature I admire, I feel so proud of all the time and work that went in to creating it.

💙 So thank you for supporting my work as a thyroid patient health advocate. I cannot wait to write even more books.

•••

📖 As always, all my books can be found on Amazon. I hope you like this quote from “You, Me and Hypothyroidism”.

💙 Adam really shared a lot of gems our loved ones can benefit from in this book!

- Rachel 🦋💙

© Rachel Gask and The Invisible Hypothyroidism, 2015-2023. All Rights Reserved.

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