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About Rachel
Start Here!
- Symptoms of Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s
- Order Your Own Thyroid Tests
All Articles
Newsletter
My Books
- About My Books
Store

Browsing Tag

Thyroid Awareness

‘Heard’, a Poem by Rachel, The Invisible Hypothyroidism

Originally published on 11th June 2016 Last updated on 13th June 2019 I wrote a poem…

Our ‘Invisible Illness’ Isn’t Really Invisible

Hypothyroidism, also called an underactive thyroid and thyroid disease, is an invisible illness. This means that…

My Second Endocrinologist Appointment

I’ve just got back from my second appointment with the endocrinologist. If you remember the first one,…

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theinvisiblehypothyroidism

🩸 Ahh blood tests… do you follow these ‘rul

🩸 Ahh blood tests… do you follow these ‘rules’?

📝 Psst! Save this post to refer back to later!

•••

1️⃣ Not taking your thyroid meds until after your test

Why? Because taking it before can make your levels look falsely elevated and lead to your doctor lowering your dose when what they’re seeing is just an initial spike.

2️⃣ Taking biotin

Biotin can cause falsely elevated thyroid levels on test results, making you look overmedicated or hyperthyroid when you’re not. It is advised to not take it for at least 48-hours before a thyroid blood test.

3️⃣ Researchers have found that our TSH lowers after eating

Therefore, your TSH level is likely to be at its highest and most reflective of its underlying status, when tested after fasting, in the early morning.

4️⃣ Going late in the day

Each time you have your thyroid tests done, you should aim for it to always be done at the same time, and under the same circumstances (i.e. fasting), so they’re as accurate and comparable as possible.

Given that you shouldn’t take your medication until after the draw, as early as possible in the morning and before 9am is preferable. This is because thyroid hormone levels have a circadian rhythm with a peak at night. Tests can be done before 9am in order to avoid missing subclinical hypothyroidism.

5️⃣ Being ill

Being unwell may affect test results temporarily. Infections or a bout of an inflammatory condition can alter results until the illness resolves. Diarrhoea can interfere with the absorption of your thyroid meds.

6️⃣ On Your Period?

This one isn’t conclusive yet, but some thyroid experts say that being on your period may change your thyroid levels, and that if you test in the middle of your cycle, you will not get the same results as at the beginning of your cycle.

•••

🧩 Nailing your blood tests is an important jigsaw puzzle piece. After all, we want them to be as accurate as possible so our med dosage is correct and we get the most out of it. We’ve learned so much in our thyroid family community!

👇 Share below: did you know these?!

- Rachel Hill, Thyroid Patient Advocate 🦋💙

🙆‍♀️ Hands up if you relate. 🦋 I must

🙆‍♀️ Hands up if you relate.

🦋 I must be honest and say this: I didn’t know, understand or appreciate this before I was diagnosed with a chronic condition and took years to get back to good health.

🦋 But when you DO get back to a place of good health? Oh my goodness it’s so worth it.

💔 Recovering your health can be slow going, fitting, confusing, lonely, and anything but linear. Thyroid flares still happen for all of us from time to time.

💔 Please don’t give up.

•••

👇 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! It’s all a big jigsaw puzzle but I’m here to help.

- Rachel Hill, Thyroid Patient Advocate 🦋💙

💥Do you JUMP at loud noises? 🥱Do you wake u

💥Do you JUMP at loud noises?

🥱Do you wake up tired despite a lot of sleep?

💤 Do you have on going fatigue?

•••

🦋 Adrenal dysfunction (hypothalamic-pituitary axis dysfunction) may be common in those with thyroid issues.

🦋 The adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, are responsible for producing hormones in relation to stress and the one concerned in adrenal fatigue in cortisol. If cortisol levels are out of rhythm, this can cause a whole load of symptoms.

🎢 The slope of cortisol, which we typically see at its highest first thing in the morning and gradually dropping down over the course of the day, can be disrupted when we are chronically stressed.

🎢 Chronic stress may alter this ideal slope of high cortisol in the morning and decreasing throughout the day, to:

• low cortisol all day
• high cortisol all day
• low cortisol in the morning and high cortisol at night

🎢 Our bodies can respond very interestingly to stress by causing an alteration in this cortisol slope, and this is what we refer to as adrenal dysfunction.

🦋 Sleep issues, fatigue, anxiety, jumping at loud noises, craving salty food, weight gain, dizziness, fatigue after exercise and many more symptoms may come from this.

🦋 I completed a 4-point saliva test a few years ago to check for adrenal issues and discovered that my cortisol was high all day long, contributing to symptoms of fatigue, struggling to sleep (feeling tired but wired), anxiety, hitting a slump in the afternoon, hot flushes, a weakened immune system and more.

🦋 I addressed the adrenal issues and brought cortisol levels back to normal and felt a whole lot better.

🦋 Adrenal dysfunction can make mornings incredibly difficult, with dizziness, nausea and fatigue beyond words.

🧩 I always talk about living well with hypo & Hashi’s as requiring slotting into place several jigsaw puzzle pieces. Adrenal health is often one of these.

•••

📖 My book “Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate” covers this in detail as well as those other jigsaw puzzle pieces

👇 Do you have any of these symptoms? What has helped you? Please share in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

- Rachel Hill, Thyroid Patient Advocate 🦋💙

“At least it’s the good cancer.” Why have s

“At least it’s the good cancer.”

Why have so many people heard this?!

•••

❗️One of the ways in which people can become hypothyroid is for treatment of thyroid cancer.

❗️Every year, September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month.

❗️This annual event was created to spread awareness of the symptoms and effects of thyroid cancer and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding thyroid disease, and thyroid cancer is no different!

❗️Just because it has a high five year survival rate, and is usually very treatable, does not invalidate how hard it is for someone to go through. Cancer is cancer.

❗️Treatment can be really tough, and then starting thyroid hormone replacement medication afterwards and taking a while to optimise treatment is another, separate struggle for many.

…

💌 Share this post to your stories and with your loved ones to raise awareness!

👇 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 Hill, Thyroid Patient Advocate 🦋💙

© Rachel Gask and The Invisible Hypothyroidism, 2015-2024. All Rights Reserved.

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