Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Morning grogginess and blurry vision

Found this one Fishtique: http://www.rxlist.com/synthroid-drug.htm but most likely you have seen it. I checked their forum posts, though only briefly. Will see what else different I can find. But putting two-and-two together like you have, result follows incident, then agree, sounds like a.m. grogginess is linked to Synthoid use. You 'could' try and come off for a few weeks, see IF it clears up, then go back on again. IF effects persist then you are throwing that side effect. In which case it needs to be reported to the drug company - which you can do yourself via the FDA web site; and also of course, to your doctor. Two prongs. (I would not accept being brushed off by the doctor. Mebbe so RARE that it aint come up much, 'yet', but...!)

Molly C (France
Keeping on Keeping on

http://www.iguard.org/medication/Synthroid.html

Here ya go. Blurred vision and grogginess associated WITH Synthroid. Go tell yr doctor as much. Daft clonker that she is. She's hiding it from you, or she just don't know about Synthroid! Makes me soooooo b....y angry when they do that to us. Think we're fools or summat.

MOST COMMON SIDE EFFECTS
FATIGUE
HAIR LOSS
WEIGHT GAIN
DRYNESS
= 10%
LESS THAN 1%: INSOMNIA, HEADACHE, NAUSEA, DROWSINESS, HOT FLUSHES, MUSCLE PAIN/STIFFNESS, MEMORY/SPEECH PROBLEMS, SUN SENSITIVITY, CONSTIPATION, COLD SENSITIVITY, WEAKNESS, LIGHT SENSITIVITY, BONE LOSS, ELEVATED GLUCOSE, SKIN PROBLEMS, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE SENSITIVITY, BREATHLESSNESS, BONE/JOINT PAIN, MENTAL HAZINESS, DRY HAIR, ANXIETY, DIZZINESS, SORE MOUTH/THROAT, FEVERS/CHILLS, COUGH, DIARRHEA, SEXUAL PROBLEMS, SWEATING, DRY MOUTH, PALPITATIONS, ABDOMINAL PAIN, INCREASED APPETITE, LOW BLOOD GLUCOSE, BLURRED VISION, BACK PAIN, CHEST PAIN/TIGHTNESS, GROGGINESS/CONFUSION, MOOD/BEHAVIOR CHANGES, FLUSHING, ALLERGIC REACTION, TREMOR, SWELLING/EDEMA, ELEVATED HEART RATE, ITCH/RASH, WEIGHT LOSS, RESTLESSNESS, BLEEDING.

There's more of the same as well. Google in: Synthroid grogginess and blurred vision - hits abounding, like 1940 (also includes thinning hair, thinning bones and gawd knows what else. strewth!) Ho-Hum chum.

Added in the side effects line-up so that everyone could see what was what - useful to read the comments on the abovew website. Interesting. But lots more info out there. Yes. Like a LOT.

Molly C (France)
diggin it up...!! Yea.

i started synthroid in the late spring and it did the exact opposite for me (took away that tired, out of it feeling). my TSH was up to 6.0, so I needed the hormone replaced (so synthroid technically a hormone replacement therapy, levothyroxine (T4)). so, for me, it worked the way it was supposed to.

however, a few thoughts:

1. my doctor put me on the synthroid, then checked my thyroid levels again 6 weeks later (TSH, etc). my TSH went from 6.0 to 1.82 (so, borderline high to normal). how long have you been on it? did she check your thyroid levels again after 4-6 weeks like she should? or is she planning to? my endocrinologist will monitor it again after i've been on the progesterone for a month and then again at the 6 month mark. he believes that the only way you can make sure you are on the correct dose is to monitor the thyroid hormones. i'm glad he feels this way.

2. i just looked at the information about the synthroid that molly linked. the active ingredient in the synthroid, i wouldn't think to cause your symptoms, as its just a hormone being replaced that your body isn't making enough of.

on the other hand, i see a number of dyes on the inert ingredients list. i know i had this funny reaction to Brach's butterscotch candies where i'd have one and then for the next few hours, i'd feel groggy, spacey, just very out of it, like there was this foggy veil separating me from the rest of the world. from my googling, i suspected a yellow dye that causes those sorts of symptoms in a number of people. so of course i stopped eating them. but it was only candy, so i had the option.

if your body isn't making enough of the thyroid hormone, it kind of does need replacing.

maybe ask for a different brand.

i also know people on here use the armour, which is T3 liothyronine instead of T4 levothyroxine. T4 is supposed to be converted to T3 in the body, but not everyone can do that properly, so some take the T3 instead.

so, maybe a different brand of T4 levothyroxine or the T3 liothyronine instead?

may be the fillers (dyes, etc) and not the hormone?

i'd be surprised if it were the hormone itself?

3. maybe the synthroid isn't working well enough and your hypothyroidism is even worse, but the blood tests would confirm that. plus the fact that it happened suddenly makes that less likely. if the synthroid were working too well and putting you into hyperthyroidism, they are not the symptoms, i would expect.

4. last summer i went on a statin, for a month. it gave me edema. so bad that at the end of that month, i could not stand to give a lecture without my legs hurting so bad. i read all the drug literature, talked to my pharmacist, talked to the doctor. none of us could find anything saying that this could happen. but it did. and the doctor, thankfully, believed me, and said "everyone reacts to drugs differently". and when i went off the statin, within a week or two, i was back to normal (well, normal for me anyway, no more edema). if i have to try another statin, i'll hope there is one i can take. right now i'm trying to control my lipids without a statin.

but, not taking a hormone that your body isn't making and needs vs not taking a drug that your body doesn't make but controls some symptom, is a little different.

i hope you can get this straightened out, hope its one of the nonactive ingredients in the drug and just changing brands or changing to the T3 liothyronine will make the symptoms go away.

it is unfortunate that your doctor won't even consider the possibility, but maybe if you offer her a suggestion of what to try instead, maybe she'll consider that?

Rather a lot of people reporting grogginess and blurred vision Sue. Not just the odd few. But, also if one looks up the ingredients, one will note 'aluminium lake' in reference to colour. It looks like all the various 'makes' contain 'aluminium lake'. Our old friend aluminium again. Of course it is cheap to use so pharma use it, willy nilly.

Fishtique, have a word with your doctor about the whole shooting match, but you'll just have to be a tad firm with her, as she appears unwilling to accept that such a side effect exists.

Read the comments section. Very interesting. From those who swear by the drug to others reporting bothersome side effects **including groggyness, blurred vision, tiredness etc etc. One suggested (and does) take it in the morning.

Think what would bother me, would be the thinning bones. There are alternative routes that one can follow. A chum of mine follows alternative, very successfully. Her doctor, a thyroid specialist, is UK based. Has a clinic devoted to thyroid. Will see IF I can contact her. She has just recently relocated to the UK, and darn diff to get a hold of her. (Only saw her here 10 days ago, nuisance that I didn't get the info from her then. Sigh.)

i was hoping to "fix the thyroid" alternatively / more naturally too if i could.
am going to try the bioidentical progesterone, hope that will help.

is there none of the hormone replacements that are "more natural", don't contain so many dyes and other chemicals?

do you know what else can be done "naturally" to avoid having to take the hormone replacement?

curious for myself as well......

some googling.......

this was interesting:

thyroid info 1

thyroid info 2

maybe switching brands or forms would work?

http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs/unitedkingdom.htm

Interesting looking site. Could follow up with a discussion with one of the many doctors listed...? Weeeeeeel. IF you can get past the secretary/receptionist!

Worth checking out the information though. Can't see my chum's doc listed. Know he's down in the Guilford / Farnam area. Think his name begins with an 'H'. So annoying; she was over the moon with him. Saved her thyroid. Over here in France they wanted to remove it completely (they are fairly keen on 'cutting' out over here, have a deserved reputation for it!) whereas, in the UK the small tumour on the thyroid was successfully removed, and the thyroid saved, completely. (She relocated back from France back to the UK and intends staying there - France was a disappointment, big time.) She is on alternative medication and doing VERY well. Had problems for a few years, op coming up a year. She herself is in her mid 60s and is an ex nurse - knows where it's all happening from.

http://simonwaters.technocool.net/UKthyroidlinks.html

Link here: Dr Barry Peatfield. Knew I would recognise the name IF I fell over it. Looks like he 'may' be controversial... NO harm having a word with him though. Will check out the web site to ensure it is the same chap, but name clanging bells and cymbals!!.

Got him - it was Crawley, Sy. But he has several clinics around and about (UK). Here's the website: http://thyroid-disease.org.uk/index.php?...mp;limitstart=1

Looks VERY interesting. Well, my chum said he was A1-OK. Big believer in dietary factors. Very approachable.

Here's his book: 'Your Thyroid and How to Keep it Healthy' http://www.hammersmithpress.co.uk/yourthyroid.html VERY interesting booksite with many links including for vitamins and supplements, dietary factors etc etc speaks of candida and the gut (where have we heard this before?). Also, this link to a USA guy - who practices the same as Peat...Ah-Ha. So for you guys in the USA...perhaps an answer on your doorstep? 'Smile':-
http://www.brodabarnes.org/

Molly C (France)
diggin it up an piling the info

thanks molly for all the info, will check it all out.

i myself am going to see a doctor in town that is trained and certified in both western and alternate medicine. the insurance companies don't cover her as she doesn't just stick to what's "on the list" of what the insurance companies cover, as described to me by her office when i called.

found her when i decided i wanted to at least try the LDN and the compounding pharmacy that is whipping up my progesterone gave me her name. would be so much easier than trying to build my case for the rheumy, though i'm also going that route as well. hopefully one of the two approaches will work. always good to have a plan A and a plan B.

i'm hoping that she will address my insulin resistance / metabolic syndrome stuff as well. so far, i've been making a difference with diet and exercise, but having a doctor that knows more about that approach will be great. and now that i'm in perimenopause, she should also have some thoughts on the best way to manage those symptoms, as naturally as possible.

so yes, pretty excited....... appointment set for early october.

I know other folks haveexperience gorgginess and fatigue with it but those are also CAUSED by hypothyroidism, as Sue said, so you can see why the doc wouldnt take that seriously and would blame perhaps not having the does right yet.

When drugs report interactions less than 1%, dont forget !% of us could have those interactionson any given day even without being on drugs! Who hasnt felt moody, tired, crampy, etc... but legally the drug company has to report it because their test group claimed to have those symptoms while on the druf. Doesnt mean it was caused by the drug.

Hovever, I really do beleive in my case it IS caused by the drug, ahah! So I will look into the other things you said. Im in the middle of working late on the laptop and cooking dinner at the same time... so havent checked it all out yet.