Greetings Everyone,

I just wanted to ask... I found out this morning that I have a thyroid issue. My doctor has said that I need to start taking sithroid (spelling) for my underactive thyroid. Being on the atkins diet and keeping my carbs to around 30 per day will that bother me alot or is there any side effects? I tried to look online but have come up empty handed. I know that the meds will help me with lossing weight... But I had such a great weekend on the carbs that I don't want to give up now... any ideas all?

S.

Glad the low thyroid was discovered, and you can start treatment. Synthroid is a brand name for the T4 thyroid hormone that you will need to take, probably for life ... there are other brands, including generic, which are exactly the same, and less expensive ... so do have a chat with your pharmacist.

Keeping blood sugar & insulin under control by following a lowcarb diet will be one of the BEST things you can do. Even for people who don't have an overweight problem, controlling sugar and carbs is the recommended diet for all hypothyroids.

Being low thryroid, and NOT treated, or UNDERtreated will make it very difficult to lose weight, because your metabolism will be slowed from lack of the thyroid hormone. Once the levels of the T4 start to normalize in your body, this will be less of a problem. But it's not a cure. You will still need to follow a weight loss program and EXERCISE ... even walking is great.

For excellent information on thyroid problems, About.com can't be beat. Click here for the Hypothyroid pages. Especially check out "Thyroid Disease 101: The Starting Place", and "Hypothyroidism--Common Questions & Answers Post-Diagnosis". There's a section devoted especially to weight control and diet .... on the main Hypothyroidism page, in the column on the left, click on Diet/Weight Loss.

hope this helps ..

Doreen

Hey Saliena. I was diagnosed last week for the same thing and am starting the thyroid meds. So far so good but it takes a couple of months to show any results from what everyone here says. I'm just taking it one day at a time and keeping on this woe because my cholesterol was down significantly from my last checkup. Let's keep tabs on eachother with this thyroid thing. Any support is wonderful. Take care and cheers. Lara

Hey Laura and all,

Thanks for the reply... I know this might not effect me right away... but ya know for now I am happy that perhaps putting on all the way I did might not have been my fault... I had felt bad because I eat the same amount as everyone else in my family... and always gained the weight. Blah... but I look forward to keeping an eye on you. I am happy that things are wokring out for you.

There was a tinnnnnnny little part of me worrying about why I was losing sooo slowly compared to others but I may have found the reason. I take T4. I was overactive, had an operation 20 years ago and as a result went underactive - they cut out too much of the gland. I do have to take T4 for the rest of my life.

And exercise definitely gives me a boooooooosst that I can't get any other way. The diet has helped no end.

Thanks Doreen - still continually amazed at your skills and innumerable ways of helping.
Take care.