Adrenal Fatigue & Hashimotos

[gertie]

I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I have adrenal fatigue & Hashimotos. My thyroid med says not to take if you have problems with adrenals. I couldn't take the med for AF because of migraines & I told my dr this but he still gave me a prescription for Armour. It's no wonder I stay confused.

Do any of you with Hashimotos have AF & do you take your thyroid med w/o treating adrenals? Thanks.

[ramakentesh]

How do you know that you have adrenal fatigue? I would worry about getting the thyroid right as a proirity because its fairly easily tested in terms of function and because hypoactivity can have vast consequences.

[gertie]

I've had blood test & saliva test for adrenal function. I think the reason for not taking thyroid until the adrenals are under control is that the adrenals can't handle it. Excuse me this a.m. my brain is not working well either. Thanks.

[EarthMother]

My own sense here is that illnesses like Cushings or Addison which are adrenal diseases ... are the ones that need to be taken into consideration when dosing thyroid meds.

Blood tests like the ACTH push that endos do in order to test for Addison's would be one along these lines.

"Adrenal Fatigue" is not a disease it is a syndrome (to my knowledge). Some Doctors or Naturopaths screen for this by simple saliva tests for cortesol as well as some blood samples.

I have had my cortesol checked with these spit tests before ... (reminds me I have one pending from last month, I should check on the results) ... but no matter if it shows "adrenal fatigue" or not ... I would never let it interfere with my Hashimoto eatment.

Letting Hashi go un treated will excaserbate adrenal fatigue.

[futurehope]

What does your doctor suggest as the first priority? It seems obvious to me that unless you are in an adrenal crises, you would have to start by getting one set of hormones up to snuff, because doing both at once be totally confusing, don't you think?

[jump]

Have you been being treated for Hashimoto's for a while with a different medication, or is this a new diagnosis?

Improper treatment of hypothyroid disease can CAUSE adrenal fatigue. If you are taking a medication that causes your TSH reading to be normal but your T3 and T4 readings to be off, this can result in adrenal fatigue.

However, I was under the impression that this is usually caused by synthetic thyroid replacement therapies - NOT by armor thyroid. In fact, as far as I've heard, usually people are given armor when they develop adrenal fatigue in conjunction with hypothyroid as a way of resolving both issues.

There's a good website on the adrenal/thyroid connection that someone here posted -- I can't find it right now but I'll look for it later. If you try a search of these message boards you'll probably find it.

[gertie]

Thanks everyone for taking time to reply. I've had Hashimotos for several years but was not able to take the synthetic meds. I tried Armour b/4 but had a problems with it also & stopped taking it. I just started Armour again in tiny dose hoping I can increase slowly & be able to tolerate it.

[jump]

Here's the website!

You might want to check this out, it talks about how being on a "too low" dose of armour thyroid can actually make you feel WORSE:

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/hashimotos/

And this talks specifically about the thyroid-adrenal connection:

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/adren...8a806251d4afdb1

I've found that hashimoto's is tricky to deal with, but it IS real and it DOES need to be handled properly. If your thyroid is out of control, it could be making everything else worse, including your POTS. If don't feel like your doctor is managing it well, I advise you to find someone else to work with. Sometimes PCP's are not the best people to handle thyroid diseases, because they can be so subtle and complex.