Hypothyroidism and Macular Degeneration

[Daisydot]

Just after the birth of my DD I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism and was put on 50mg of thyroxine a day.

Despite being only 45, I was diagnosed with the start of Macular Degeneration (an eye condition whereby you can lose your sight - this normally arises when you are 60+ years old!)
The consultant prescribed I-Caps (a vitamin pill high in Lutein and Zeaxanthin which has proved to be successful in slowing down this condition) but it also contains zinc and beta carotene. After taking them for several weeks they started making me feel v. sick. I did a little bit of research and found that people with hypothyroidsm cannot break down or absorb beta carotene, so I imagined the sicky feeling was from being a little toxic! However, I now need to find an alternative supplement without beta carotene (which seems to be in most vits!)
Also, a friend told me today that she read somwhere that you shouldn't take either zinc or potassium either if you are taking thyroxine. I've tried to google this but can't find anything about it. Does anyone here know if this is true?
Sorry for the V long ramble, but hoping to get at least one reply!

Hi Daisydot, My nan suffered from macular degeneration - she was in her 90's when it hit and as such tbh no-one really seemed to care

I did quite a bit of research at the time and we found several things that were very helpful to her. I don't recall exactly what supplements we ended up giving her - there were a lot as she had many other health issues however I'm pretty sure my mum still has the list.

Off the top of my head there was something about dcp's? lcp's that had been proven to have a direct link to halting macular degeneration, but they had to be sourced correctly based on what your body does with them ie I can't remember if they were sourced from flax / fish. But you have to get it right.

Will try to find the info on my old computer so you can investigate it yourself. If I don't come back to you to quickly I apologise but I am very pregs .

Kitkatqueen thank you so much. I will sit here waiting patiently! In the meantime I will do a bit of my own research too. EFA's seem to to be the thing and I shall be heading off in the direction of the Fish Van on market day to stock up on plenty of oily fish. I went on a FAB research food behaviour (www.fabreasearch.org)
course a couple of months ago where there was much talk about essential fatty acids and how important it is to eat lots of fish in pregnancy. It's more important to the baby if you eat fish when you're pregnant than giving the baby/toddler fish when he/she is here. It apparently makes for very smart children.
When's the baby due?
My DD is going to be 4 years old at the end of September - she keeps me completely busy!
Thanks again for getting back, and look forward to chatting again at some point.
Take care of yourself in the meantime.

HaHa!! This is baby no4 dd1 is 5 dd2 is 3 ds1 is 19mnths and I'm due in 2 weeks Dp is working away 4 days a week glutton for punishment!! (and up until 2 weeks ago when the heartburn kicked in I was taking large amounts of omega 3 every day )

I should be seeing my mum tommorrow so will find out what we settled on for my nan. regarding the macular degen I found a very informative site which was aimed at people with more medical knowledge than me. It took me a long time consequently to plow through it, however a very key point that it made was to do with how the body breaks down lcp's / dcp's they are the fatty acids in the fish afai recall your body turns them into slightly diff things depending on whether they are flax / fish sourced.

There was recently a thread on here where a lady "in the trade" so to speak talked about the purest omega 3 oils you can get and where to get them from - will go and get it and post you a link. Personally though I wouldn't take anything until you/I have found that site and checked whether you need flax/fish based.

Will come back to you (hopefully ) tomorrow.

Heres the omega 3 thread

here