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Originally Posted by
haganah 
How do you find out about these kinds of diseases? Does it show up in routine blood work during a checkup? Or did you tell your doctor that you're tired and you want him to run a special test?
Biopsy is the only way to definitively diagnose Hashimoto's. Blood tests can tell you if you're Hyper or Hypothyroid but can't single out the specific disease. There are a few other thyroid related diseases that can fuck with your thyroid hormone production as well.
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Originally Posted by
Gibonius It's not a very elaborate blood test, but I don't know if it's a standard panel (I imagine not). Usually you find out by mentioning that you're tired or inexplicably gaining weight, or you have a particularly thorough doctor and they palpate the thyroid gland and find out that it's swollen.
Palpation is an excellent way to diagnose but most Internists don't go that far. Hell, a few Endo's don't even bother. Mostly because they're lazy.
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Originally Posted by
watchcollector2454 it's not a standard panel. like you said, the doc has to suspect something is going wrong. my mother is hypothyroid as well and it really messes with you. she, and my family, noticed a dramatic change in her (for the better) after she started taking synthroid.
Remember, you can be hyper without having the disease. I've been told that, in most cases where there is significant energy or weight problems, and the hormone levels are off anyway, its pretty standard to get a biopsy.
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Originally Posted by
fareau Actually, there's nothing wrong with generic levothyroxine. The problem is that generic levothyroxine is produced by various different sources, and although the dose may reportedly be the same, there is slight variation between different preparations of levothyroxine. So 100 mcg of generic levothyroxine from one source may have a slightly different effect than 100 mcg from a different source. The reason for this is that the method the FDA uses to determine bioequivalence with thyroid hormone replacements is flawed. They measure the level of T4 in the blood (which is what you are taking with levothyroxine), and as long as the levels fall within a certain range, they will consider two different sources of levothyroxine doses (say 100 mcg for example) "equivalent". It's a very pharmacological way of thinking about it, but it doesn't really work with hormones. If you take those same two 100 mcg doses of levothyroxine and measure the TSH levels (the brain's response to the thyroid hormone), you may end up with very different results indicating that the different preparations are not bioequivalent, despite both being labeled as 100 mcg. If cost is an issue (and these days it frequently is) generic levothyroxine is reasonable since most patients will have very minimal significant fluctuations. However, I think most of us prefer to use brand name
This is fascinating, and something I didn't know, so thank you for explaining it. Do you by any chance know what the "range" qualifies as, e.g. .005 or .5?
