Hypothyroidism and LDL cholesterol

[Pawz4me]

Have any of you ladies who've switched from a synthetic thyroid medicine to NDT seen an improvement in your LDL?

 

I'm curious because my cholesterol numbers were always stellar until I was diagnosed. At that point my LDL had skyrocketed. My doc said don't worry about it, it's due to your thyroid and it will come down after that's regulated. But I've been on levothyroxine for over a year and it's still high. In the meantime I've lost weight (about 25 pounds) and diet and exercise are better than ever.  FWIW, my TSH is fine (1.29) but you know the story . . .  that's ALL that's getting checked.

[Soror]

I don't believe I ever got the symptom of high cholesterol although tbh honest I don't really have a lot of data on cholesterol numbers. I do know my cholesterol on NDT and T3 is crazy low, total is like 125 or something.

[gardenmom5]

I had so many issues associated with thyroid on levo, all of which my dr focused on more than my thyroid.  (she only looked at tsh, and was fine with it around 4)  I'll be curious to see the difference on ndt once we get me stable.

 

how's your free t3 and freet4?

[Pawz4me]

I had so many issues associated with thyroid on levo, all of which my dr focused on more than my thyroid.  (she only looked at tsh, and was fine with it around 4)  I'll be curious to see the difference on ndt once we get me stable.

 

how's your free t3 and freet4?

 

 

They've never been checked. The first doc (the one who initially diagnosed me) checked total T3 and T4. 

 

I'm considering scheduling an appointment with an integrative medicine doc.

[gardenmom5]

They've never been checked. The first doc (the one who initially diagnosed me) checked total T3 and T4. 

 

I'm considering scheduling an appointment with an integrative medicine doc.

 

totals are worthless.  they don't tell you how much your body is actually using.   reverse t3 can also be important in figuring out how much you are actually using and getting into  your cells.  (iow: you can have *optimum* t3 levels, but it's not getting into your cells so you still feel hypo.)

 

my dr required me to come in every three months to have my tsh checked before writing me a rx - even though I had been on levo with previous drs (insurance change) prior to my seeing her.  each time, I asked her to run the frees - she kept brushing me off.  I got more insistent and she said fine.  she didn't - she ran the totals.  when I confronted her, she claimed my insurance would NOT pay for the frees.  I've since switched to a naturopath, I've had three sets of frees run this year - my insurance paid for each of them.  iow: my previous dr LIED.

[HSmomof2]

My LDL wasn't horrible before my Hashimotos was diagnosed, but it did improve after starting combo of levothyroxine and Cytomel. (This was after nearly 20 years of being under-treated by my primary dr, so I finally saw an endocrinologist who focuses solely on thyroid.)

[Guest]

I'm hypo and on NDT, my total cholesterol is always high.

 

That said my trigs are rock bottom low, my LDL is quite good, and by HDL is excellent. I have high total cholesterol but my ratios are always 'ideal' and 'excellent', as is my particle distribution for LDL.

 

Cholesterol isn't a very useful market compared to inflammation tests like CRP, but you can get some data from triglycerides (a good analog for starch/sugar consumption) and HDL to LDL ratios. I wouldn't worry about it overly much unless you have other serum markers that are poor, elevated liver enzymes, high white blood cell counts, etc. just having high cholesterol but no other markets for atherosclerosis is no biggie from my research.

[J-rap]

At what age were you diagnosed?  I've been on synthetic for almost 20 years now, and my cholesterol was always good until menopause.  After menopause, my LDL skyrocketed even though nothing else had changed.  This same thing happened to my mother after menopause (she never had thyroid issues), so I think in my case it's just related to a family gene and menopause, not thyroid-related.

 

I've been able to bring it down with fish oil and increasing my daily walk time.

 

 

[Pawz4me]

I'm hypo and on NDT, my total cholesterol is always high.

 

That said my trigs are rock bottom low, my LDL is quite good, and by HDL is excellent. I have high total cholesterol but my ratios are always 'ideal' and 'excellent', as is my particle distribution for LDL.

 

Cholesterol isn't a very useful market compared to inflammation tests like CRP, but you can get some data from triglycerides (a good analog for starch/sugar consumption) and HDL to LDL ratios. I wouldn't worry about it overly much unless you have other serum markers that are poor, elevated liver enzymes, high white blood cell counts, etc. just having high cholesterol but no other markets for atherosclerosis is no biggie from my research.

 

Yes, my total is 272. LDL is 158. But my ratio is still good because my HDL is 99. My ratio has always been excellent, but neither my HDL nor (especially) my LDL have been as high as they are now. My triglycerides and VLDL are fine.

 

 

At what age were you diagnosed?  I've been on synthetic for almost 20 years now, and my cholesterol was always good until menopause.  After menopause, my LDL skyrocketed even though nothing else had changed.  This same thing happened to my mother after menopause (she never had thyroid issues), so I think in my case it's just related to a family gene and menopause, not thyroid-related.

 

I've been able to bring it down with fish oil and increasing my daily walk time.

 

I was diagnosed at 52. My LDL was high then. The year before it was fine. But yes, I wondered if menopause had anything to do with it. But if I was due to menopause I wonder why my HDL also went up?