Skip to content

Tag: adrenaline

Three Sleeping Issues you might encounter as a Hypothyroid Patient

Snoopy

(This page has been updated for the present day and time! Enjoy!)

Have trouble sleeping? Here are three scenarios you might identify with, the causes, and the solutions.

1) INSOMNIA or WAKING UP FREQUENTLY SOON AFTER YOU FALL ASLEEP

This is an extremely common problem faced by thyroid patients, and the most common reason is going to bed with high levels of cortisol–the opposite of what healthy adrenals should be doing. With normal adrenal function, your bedtime cortisol levels should be low, or at the bottom of the range of a saliva cortisol test.  Symptoms include laying awake for a long time before falling asleep for the night…or if you can fall asleep well, you tend to wake up often within the next hour or two.

Why the high cortisol?

It’s usually a left-over remnant of when you used to have high cortisol all day long, but which has since fallen to low levels of cortisol except for bedtime, or afternoon and bedtime.

And all the above can happen to certain individuals due to a continued hypothyroid state (such as being treated with the inadequate T4-only medications like Synthroid, Eltroxin, Oroxine, and/or Levothyroxine, etc) or due to undiagnosed hypothyroidism (thanks to the use of the TSH lab test).

Another cause is low bedtime cortisol (i.e below the range), which has caused issues with falling or staying asleep at bedtime. Low cortisol seems to cause high adrenaline, and the latter results in a fitful sleep pattern during the night. The solution? First do a 24-hour adrenal saliva test to prove if it’s high or low cortisol, say informed thyroid patients. Guessing can get you into trouble. (And blood cortisol is not the answer, since it’s measuring both bound and unbound cortisol.) Then compare the results to what we’ve learned they mean.

For high bedtime cortisol, patients have had success with cortisol-lowering herbs like Holy Basil, zinc or others, taken a good hour or two before they want to fall asleep. Each dose is given three nights to see if it’s enough to improve sleep. If not it’s raised…and again if needed. Then they wean off after several weeks of better sleep.

For low cortisol (below the range), patients often have to use a small dose of HC or Adrenal Cortex. Even supplementing with sea salt has been reported to help with sleep. Additionally, if bedtime cortisol is below the range, there’s a good chance your cortisol is low most of the day, which saliva testing will reveal. Chapter 6 in the revised STTM book has excellent and important information on the proper use of HC, which would also apply to adrenal cortex.

2) WAKING UP ANYWHERE AROUND 3 – 4 AM

Waking up a good three to four hours before you would normally start your morning is a strong sign of low cortisol, which in turn causes hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). And the latter can push your adrenaline up, causing you to wake up hours before you are supposed to. You might also feel shaky or hungry.

The solution? Besides taking cortisol at bedtime, if needed, patients have reported doing far better with sleep by eating a complex carbohydrate at bedtime (for example, whole wheat cracker with cheese or peanut butter…or if you need to avoid gluten, berries and cream cheese). The same strategy is used if waking up around 3 am or so, which will help raise your blood sugar levels and you might fall back asleep better.

3) WAKING UP FREQUENTLY WITH NO SET PATTERN

Time to check your sex hormones, which can get messed up with hypothyroidism, or made worse because of adrenal sluggishness or cortisol use.

Low estrogen can cause hot flashes, waking you up. A study titled Sex Hormones, Sleep and Core Body Temperature in Post Menopausal Women reveals that low estradiol (E2) and higher luteinizing hormone (LH) levels are strongly related to lessening the quality of your sleep.

Low progesterone is also known to cause insomnia and even anxiety, and may cause sleep apnea (or make you snore, ladies. Gulp). Entry into menopause has caused this, report many women.

Especially in men, low testosterone can negatively affect the quality of your sleep, i.e. you won’t stay in your deep sleep cycle long enough for recuperation of your body and mind.

SLEEPING TIDBITS:

  • Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which can cause depression, is also implicated with insomnia.
  • High cortisol can also be caused by Lyme or reactivated Epstein Barr Virus–the latter of which at least 95% of adult have dormant in their bodies, but which can reactivate due to stress or illness. .

*******************

  • Speak or read Spanish better than English?? The revised Stop the Thyroid Madness book is now in Spanish! And shipping is relatively cheaper for two or three books. laughinggrapepublishing.com Give one to a friend or family member!
  • Need a good doctor to work with your own knowledge? Learn how to find one here. And remember: make it clear you expect to be a “team”.
  • Here’s an important summary of what patients have learned in getting well again.
  • Join the STTM Facebook page for daily tips, information and inspiration!
158 replies

Why iron is so important, milk thistle for RT3, and send the revised STTM book as a Christmas present!

NOTE: though this post was originally written in 2012, it has been updated to the present day and time! Enjoy!

IRON AND ITS IMPORTANCE 

It all too common with hypothyroid patients: finding themselves with low iron levels.   I probably had insufficient iron my entire adult life, remembering that my doctors always told me I was borderline, yet nothing was done about it. So when I finally got on desiccated thyroid, and my iron needs increased due to better health, I finally fell into true anemia, and twice.  Miserable, let me tell you. I was breathless, achy, depressed and had horrific fatigue.

And why is iron so important?

  • Iron carries oxygen from your tissues to your lungs (so if iron is low, you can be breathless and your heartrate has to go up in response to less oxygen. Link here.)
  • Iron helps raise dopamine and serotonin in your brain (so if iron is low, you can feel depression or hyperactive i.e. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Link here.)
  • Iron assists with the cortisol secretion after ACTH stimulation (so if your iron is low, the cortisol secretion is decreased, lowering glucose in your cells, and that might cause the pooling of T3 in your blood. Link here.)
  • Iron promotes good conversion of thyroid hormones T4 to T3 (so if iron is low, your storage iron T4 will build too high. Link here.)
  • Iron balances your autonomic nervous sytem (so if your iron is low, you can end up in a frequent state of fight-or-flight with accompanying adrenaline surges and nervousness due to heightened sympathic activity. Link here.)
  • Iron protects women from breast tumor growth (so if your iron is low, a benign tumor can become a malignant cancer tumor. Link here.) 
  • Iron improves your immune system (so if your iron is low, you are most susceptible to infections and illness. Link here.)
  • Iron supports brain cell health (so if your iron is low, you can have brain cell death contributing to dementia and possibly Alzheimers. Link here.)

How to discern if your iron is too low

We used to think testing one’s storage iron, ferritin, was enough. But it’s not. Your storage iron can look normal because of an ongoing inflammation, which tends to thrust iron into storage. So we learned that we need four labs at the minimum : ferritin, % saturation, serum iron, and TIBC.  Even low ferritin along with optimal results in the other labs have caused problems with T3 pooling in the blood.  Go here to read what we look for in our iron results.

Raising poor iron levels

Hypothyroid patients tend to “dry up” and that also causes lowered levels of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which lowers absorption. For better absorption, try adding 1 tsp to 1 tbsp of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar to each large glass of water or juice you use to swallow your iron pills, or use Betaine, which is an OTC hydrochloric acid supplement.

To learn more, go to the following page. And for even more details, read the Odds and Ends chapter in the revised STTM book.

CAN LIVER CLEANSES/SUPPORTS HELP IMPROVE YOUR RT3 RATIO??

Because of low iron or adrenal dysfunction, many thyroid patients have found themselves with high levels of Reverse T3…or more common, a poor RT3 ratio. And too much RT3 can mean the thyroid hormone T3 won’t adequately work in your cells, and you can feel miserable. The solution for most has been to switch to T3-only, but that can have a host of difficulties.  It’s not easy to dose with T3 alone.

Recently, though, patients are discovering an alternative way to lower one’s excess RT3: the use of a good liver cleanse/support product, and most especially those with the herb called Milk Thistle. It’s an herb which, for hundreds of years, has been used as a liver tonic.  In supplements, it’s the milk thistle seeds which are used because they contain silymarin–the powerful part of the herb which does the trick.  And doses in the 400 mg’s of milk thistle extract supplements seem to be doing the trick, say patients who are reporting on it, taking it twice a day at 200 and 200 minimum. Some studies state you can go higher, if needed. Be careful with its use, as it can lower ferritin levels to some degree. But as long as you keep your serum iron levels up, you can get by with the lowering of ferritin for the short while you may be on Milk Thistle to lower RT3.

HO! HO! HO! SEND THE REVISED STTM BOOK TO A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE FOR CHRISTMAS OR THE NEW YEAR!  It can be the BEST gift they will ever receive!  Go to the following page, and put in the name and address of the recipient, YOUR email, and the publishing company will get the book out to your special someone:  //www.laughinggrapepublishing.com/

 LISTEN TO ONE OF SEVERAL INTERVIEWS I’VE DONE LATELY…AND BOSTON IS NEXT! My next interview will be aired on WBZ-AM 1030 (Boston & New England) on the program called “Women’s Watch” with host Ellen Sherman. You can also listen live here: http://boston.cbslocal.com/station/wbz-news-radio/ No specific time as I am posting this, but it may happen next week. Watch the NTH Yahoo group, STTM Twitter and STTM Facebook groups for an announcement. And there are more to come thanks to a great publicist representing Stop the Thyroid Madness. Want to donate so she can continue helping us spread the word? Go here.  Janie can’t do it without you…and this is specifically to reach millions still on T4-only meds!

 STTM NOW HAS MANY FACEBOOK GROUPS!  See what Facebook has to offer you on top of already great Yahoo groups, here.

 

NOTE: if you are reading this via the email notification, and you want to comment on it, you’ll need to click on the title of this blog post to take you directly to the blog post. Then scroll down to comment.  For those reading this on the actual blog, sign up to the left under the links. 

23 replies