After feeling horrible for years, with a family history of thyroid problems, but doctors telling me that my labs fell in the "normal" range, I finally have found a doctor who looked at my 3.94 TSH (she only checked TSH) and my extensive symptom list and put me on synthroid. While waiting for these labs to come back, I called my old doctor and asked for my previous TSH - it was 3.13. I wish I'd known then that the "new" guidelines are over 3.0. As it is, the nurse called me and told me my labs were "normal", and when I freaked out on her, I guess that's when they went back to the doc, and she made the prescription.

So... While I've been low-carb in the past (essentially Atkins induction) and done well on it, I stopped for a cross-country move, job change, etc. I just couldn't keep up with all the stressors. While everything is calming down, I was just about to start going low-carb again, but now, I'm not sure if I should start now, or wait.

Last time, I had a ton of "issues" come up while low-carbing. I see now that my soy intake went *way* up and that probably made so many of my hypo issues worse (especially menstrual troubles). I just want to make sure that I'm keeping any symptoms and/or relief of symptoms separate. Does that make sense?

How long should I be on the synthroid before I start feeling changes? Am I being overly cautious, and if you don't think so, how long would you wait before going low-carb again? In the meantime, I am planning to phase out the breads and pastas and such that have been creeping into the diet, being more selective with sugary things, etc., just not going all "whole hog" low-carb, so to speak.

Can I really expect that the synthroid could actually work? And how long until I really feel it? My major issues have been the overwhelming fatigue, a general apathy, depression (I'm also on Zoloft), hair and skin issues, twitchy eyes, and ridiculously heavy menses.

I know, a lot of questions all in one post, but any advice would be great (and yes, I did read the FAQ, and thanks for all the wonderful info there!)

How much synthroid are they giving you? If it's just 25mcg then it's probably not going to change much of anything for you.

As to when you'll feel it. Supposedly it takes 4-6 weeks to build up in your blood but I always felt a change in dose much quicker than that.

I don't think there's any reason not to low carb. At least get the grains, sugars and major starches out of your diet. You could try a higher carb paleo approach. Limited fruits, a few select starchy veggies, something like that.

You might want to avoid cruciferous veggies like cabbage, broccoli, turnips, brussel sprouts and such until you're feeling better, especially uncooked. They contain goitrogens that'll suppress your thyroid. Soy too.

Very low carb can suppress the conversion of T3->T4 but it sounds like the only problem you've indentified is highish TSH. If you want better treatment for your thyroid issues, I'd suggest finding a doctor or ND that uses natural thyroid (Armour, etc).