Diabetes and Hypothyroidism

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Permalink Reply by mollyjade on July 3, 2007 at 3:43pm

The nurse at my endocrinologist's office found mine at a routine visit. I had symptoms, most notably weak legs, but I didn't recognize them until after I was diagnosed. I just thought that I was lazy and out of shape. It wasn't much of a surprise because my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother all have hypothyroidism.

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Permalink Reply by JDavid on March 15, 2009 at 7:09pm

'weak legs"?

May I ask WHAT does hypothyroidism have to do with weak leggs?

When I returned to doctoring 2 years ago, after winging it for a few years with OTC insulin, I was barely able to walk into the new docs office. I have had bouts of weakness in my legs, especially my left leg. I am doing better and no longer crawl up and down the stairs.

I was put on a thyrid pill back in '71, took it for about 2 months and quit. I did not see any need or reason to take it, or beniffit taking it. I Landed in the hospital with diabetes in very early '80 after going thru a hell following a sore throat (followed by pleurasey).

Every once in a while I keep seeing thyroid topic being brought up, its even in my prepared treatment plan at the diabetes center, but never check in the nearly 2 years there, yet. Kinda like checking of feet, part of the "plan" but usually not even mentioned, let alone checked.

(*&*( GOMER

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Permalink Reply by JDavid on March 15, 2009 at 7:44pm

I just looked up hypothyroid in wiki............

INteresting reading, make me wonder a bit........

Early symptoms

YES Poor muscle tone (muscle hypotonia)
Sometimes Fatigue
YES Cold intolerance, increased sensitivity to cold
NO Depression
YES Muscle cramps and joint pain
? Goiter
Brittle Thin, brittle fingernails
THIN Thin, brittle hair
?? Paleness
YES Dry, itchy skin
? Weight gain and water retention.[9][10][11]
?(take coreg for mitral valve) Bradycardia (low heart rate: less than sixty beats per minute)
NO Constipation

Late symptoms
slow speech and a hoarse, breaking voice. Deepening of the voice can also be noticed.
Dry puffy skin, especially on the face
Thinning of the outer third of the eyebrows.
Abnormal menstrual cycles

YES, I have as long as I remember run a low normal body temp as much as 1 full degree Low basal body temperature

Less common symptoms Bold = YES
Impaired memory
Impaired cognitive function (brain fog) and inattentiveness
A slow heart rate with ECG changes including low voltage signals. Diminished cardiac output and decreased contractility.
Reactive (or post-prandial) hypoglycemia[12]
Sluggish reflexes Hair loss
Anemia caused by impaired hemoglobin synthesis (decreased EPO levels), impaired intestinal iron and folate absorption or B12 deficiency from pernicious anemia
Have a history of needing B12 shots
Difficulty swallowing
Shortness of breath with a shallow and slow respiratory pattern.
Increased need for sleep
Irritability and mood instability
Yellowing of the skin due to impaired conversion of beta-carotene to vitamin A
Impaired renal function with decreased GFR.
Elevated serum cholesterol
Acute psychosis (myxedema madness) is a rare presentation of hypothyroidism
Decreased libido
Decreased sense of taste and smell (late, less common symptoms)
Puffy face, hands and feet (late, less common symptoms)

No testing or meds since '71(*&*( GOMER

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Permalink Reply by J. Davis Harte on July 3, 2007 at 11:20pm

I was 4 when diagnosed w IDDM in '76. The meds knew to check me for low thryoid function since an early age. I was 12, I think, when I plumped up, slowed down and was probably a bit backed up too (constipated) - hypothyroid it was. I've been on .1mg of some form of synthroid ever since and get tested regularly (1-2x/yr) and my level has stayed stable. Occasionally I have insurance gaps, run out of pills etc and begin to notice changes in my metabolism after a few days.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy on July 4, 2007 at 9:35am

I was dx's in '74, never had my thyroid levels tested until 2000, when I had symptoms. I guess this is yet another situation where we need to be proactive.

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Permalink Reply by jillpapp on July 4, 2007 at 1:43pm

I had Type 1 10 years before my hypothyroid (technically hashimoto's for me) was diagnosed. I'm in pharma sales and had doctors grabbing my neck all the time telling me I had a goiter. After getting agitated at everyone groping my neck, I went in to have it tested (I could never see what they were talking about). Initially they told me my thyroid was fine, then my endo did more specialized testing and I've been on synthroid ever since.....about 6 years now. My dad and grandmother both have it.

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Permalink Reply by Stacie H on July 5, 2007 at 6:52am

I was diagnosed w/ Type 1 just a few days before my 10th birthday. It wasn't long after that (maybe a year or two) when my endo felt something in my neck (he poked around my neck at every visit) and had blood drawn to test my thyroid. I've been on generic synthroid ever since. My dose has been increased once since I started on it.

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Permalink Reply by Gail Suzanna on July 5, 2007 at 8:46am

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism several years before diagnosed with diabetes. I really can't remember exactly how it was discovered, except maybe from routine physical exams. I do remember having some problems with chunks of hair falling out a couple years before the diagnosis and had tests done then, but at that time they didn't believe it was problems with the thyroid. When they did finally diagnosis it, I felt they had missed it earlier!

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Permalink Reply by Emily Schelley on July 5, 2007 at 9:27am

I actually had hyperthyroidism back in high school. When I was diagnosed with type 1 at age 11 my mother made them add thyroid levels on to the list of things that they check for once a year, as she and at least four of her five sisters have hypothyroidism.

When I was sixteen they noticed my levels were a little high. I had lost a few pounds, which I hadn't worried about since it was summer and I had just switched to a vegetarian diet. I also had stopped having my period. Looking back, it was one of the better conditions I have been diagnosed with. Anyhoo, they gave me a pill to suppress my thyroid function, then tested me in a few months and decided that was too much, reduced it and tested again... until slowly just didn't need it anymore and I have been stable for several years. *shrugs*

Since the meds for hyperthyroidism aren't safe during pregnancy, there was some talk about killing my thyroid off with radioactive iodine and putting me on synthroid for the rest of my life, which is baby-safe. (I was, what, 17 at the time? I am not sure why it was an important issue to be thinking about prospective fetuses at that point.) When I was able to go off the meds my endo said "Just as well. One dysfunctional organ is probably enough."

I believe that both hyper and hypothyroidism are autoimmune diseases, which tend to clump together, so it isn't surprising for people with type 1 to have either.

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Permalink Reply by Dlinda on June 2, 2008 at 2:56pm

Interesing story. My daughter (age 7) has a somewhat similar story to you. She was diagnosed with Graves disease and we ablated her thyroid about a year ago. She has been relatively stable on Synthroid. However, we are now in the process of testing her for diabetes. We did antobody testing and her GAD65 came back high and the insulin and IA-2 are WNL.. All of htese diease are autoimmune issues. I had no idea that it is also a hereditary trait.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Stokes on July 5, 2007 at 1:36pm

I have never had hypo but every so often I so up as having mild hyperthyroidism. I hate it because it makes me feel really bad.

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Permalink Reply by DBunny on July 7, 2007 at 8:50am

I started to grow this weird bump shaped like a thumb (not a goiter, which is overall enlargement) in my neck when I was about 13 years old. The doc ignored it. Eventually, by the time I was 17, it was so big and weird looking (this bump thing sticking out of the front left side of my neck), we insisted on seeing another doc. The lump was a tumor, a cold nodule, that they believed could be cancer due to my age. I had surgery that removed half of my thyroid and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's (autoimmune hypothyroid). Suddenly it made sense why I kept gaining weight, slept 12 hours a day, was short of breath, freezing cold, hair falling out, etc. Thing is... no one in my family had ever been diagnosed with any autoimmune diseases. That is, until about 6 years later when my mom got rheumatoid arthritis. Then, years later, just after my 30th birthday (!) I passed out and was rushed to the ER. I had type 1 diabetes.

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