dizziness - so like thyroid

[ramakentesh]

Has anyone else been told that their symptoms seem very much like an overactive thyroid? My tachycardia and my trembling hands were so similar and when i was losing lots of weight when this was at its worst, they thought i had an overactive thyroid. But my levels were only slightly abnormal so it was ruled out by a professor.

This guy even commented on how similar my body was acting to an overactive thyroid.

Is this a common thing?

Also, my worst symptoms is dizziness - when i sit sometimes, but especially when im standing in the morning or walking around - it get better usually as they day goes on, then at night i get the cold hands and feet and palps = my heart is racing while i lie in bed some nights.

The other thing is when i stand and i focus on nothign with my eyes - just sort of stare blankly, i can actually see my heart beating in my eyes - i can hear it in my head too - at night or when im standing or if i get stressed (i have much less stress tolerance now)-----------

[calypso]

I have had my thyroid checked three times because I have EVERY symptom of an overactive thyroid. POTS seems to put me in a super-high metabolic state that is identical to hyperthyroidism, but my values are totally normal. I also have times when I feel my heart beating in my head, like when I am trying to fall asleep at night.

Wish I had some advice for you. I have had very little luck thus far with treating POTS and have been getting progressively worse since it started eight months ago. I certainly hope you have better luck. How did you get your weight loss to stop? Were you losing weight and muscle, or just weight? I have lost so much mass that my neurologist said my state of health is very similar to that of someone who has the wasting syndrome of cancer and HIV, but he can't figure out why.

Amy

[Guest GayleP]

The hand tremor is definitely a sign of hyperthyroid. I don't know about dizziness.

A few years ago I had a bad hand tremor, the runs, weight loss and weakness. My TSH was low .32 and .15 but not so low that my HMO felt I needed treatment.

Because I still had all the symptoms I went for a second opinion. My new endo ordered a thytoid scan and it turned out I had subclinical hyperthyroid. I went on meds for a few years and now my thyroid returned to nornmal so I am off meds( for now).

My HMO wouldn't have treated me until my TSH was off the charts low where as the other endo believed it was low enough to treat.

GayleP

[ramakentesh]

Well since my mother had an overactive thyroid, the hand tremor was similar to that. But i was/am cold all the time rather than hot and sweaty like with an overactive thyroid. I also had thyroid nodules, but my TSH was never below 0.5 and my t4 was only high on two of the five occassions it was tested, and then only slightly. My thyroid scan was normal.

Im starting to put weight on again. My strategy has been to avoid processed foods, and concentrate on eating vegies, fruits and lots of fish which seems to help.

When i lost weight i lost it the same way - my upper arms and legs just dropped off - and my face looked so skinny and sallow - i went from 78Kg to 66 in about a month or so. My arms and legs are still skinny now, but my stomackh is comign back.

In short, my main symptoms are palps, tremors, dizziness, lightheadedness, balancing problems on standing worse inthe mornings, vitreous floaters, and a whole load of other stuff.

[morgan617]

actually while i was still working they were attempting to change the parameters of thyroid testing. many professionals felt the numbers were off as so many people had symptoms even tho tests were within notmal range, but if they went ahead and treated them, they felt much better. i am hoping that this will eventually happen. who knows, everything takes so long in the medical community, but it would certainly make sense. morgan

[Guest GayleP]

Morgan,

I heard the same thing, that people were being treated if they were symtomatic even if their TSH levels were in the low nornal range. But this was mainly for hypothyroid.

I don't think they do that as commonly for hyperthyroid although in my case they did. My TSH was below normal but still not in the treatable range for my HMO. Fortunately my new endo thought it wouldn't hurt to treat me at that level. They didn't want to wait until I became really sick.

GayleP

[Guest GayleP]

Morgan,

Actually for hypothyroid I meant to say TSH in the high normal range. For hyper it's low normal.

Gaylep

[morgan617]

gayle, they need to do studies on this. i really think the numbers are out dated. glad it helped you. am going to talk to my pcp about seeing and endo. there's areally good one my son goes to. he has hyperparathyroidism. she takes really good care of him. thanks morgan

[ramakentesh]

Yes they are reviewing the Thryoid levels because they believe that a TSH above 2.0 generally indicates an underactive thyroid when at the moment TSH levels up to 5.0 which can be very underactive are accepted as 'normal' - as far as im aware they havent reviewed the tsh lower leve - it will still be 0.3 or 0.5.

My TSH was around 0.6 at its lowest from a range of 0.3-5.0 so i was never treated, but my TSH is back to normal now - 1.25 and ive still got the same symptoms. My doctor told me that hand tremors were common with POTS as there is an overcompensating beta sympathetic system or something like that - the hand tremor in both hyperthyroid conditions and POTS apparently comes from a similar mechanism - this overactivity of the beta nervous system.