Can anyone talk to me about celiac disease and underactive thyroid.

[navyeyelasH]

Am running and posting as have to pick someone up but will be back in 50 mins.

Long story short I have been ill for 2.5-3 years. Really vague symptoms the most debiliating include, really gross smelling wind, extreme tiredness (most days I have a nap, I'm 25 have no children and had to change my job to accommodate how tired I am), diarrhea, bloating, random muscles aches (wrist, fingers, rib cage etc) near constant lower back ache,extrelemy frequent mixing up of words / forgetting what I was saying,fluttering heart. I could go on but the others aren't as frequent occuring.

GP says I have IBS. I have found out (after doing various diets with no help from GP) that cutting out wheat, yeast and gluten more or less stops the weird pooing/bloating/gas situation but am still getting the other body issues.

Went to hairdressers on Sat (is my cousin has been cutting my hair since I had any!) and she said my hair has gone thin at the front and my eyebrow edges have vanished. She told me to get my thyroid checked.

Now 3 years ago I got my thyroid checked and it was borderline underactive but "fine". I am now wondering if I have celiac disease and underactive thyroid as after a google they seem linked?

If this is the case why hasn't my GP noticed? I also get a cold bum, tops of arms and fingers - never mentioned this to GP as never thought it might be a symptom of something!

Have never been tested for celiac (to my knowledge, but have had a few various blood tests done but not sure what they were TBH).

Am I jumping to conclusions? Have a GP apt for Thursday.

TIA!

Sounds like a reasonable connection. Autoimmune disese such as thyroid issues can be connected to coeliac. Certainly get the thyroid rechecked and suggest coeliac to the GP.
Do you have any family history of autoimmune diseases?

thanks for replying wobblypig - I'm not really sure what an autoimmune disease is classed as but my moyher had diabetes & endometreosis (SP?)

My dad has benign tremmors/shakes. Other relaties have ulcerative Colitis, chrons, cancer, heart issues & Lupus. I think lupus is autoimmune? Going to have a google!

Hi - I have a thyroid disorder and Coeliac - both are autoimmune disorders and so there is some link between them.

I was diagnosed with Graves disease about 10 years ago now (overactive thyroid) and had radiation treatment so now have a permanently underactive thyroid - so take thyroxine.

About 3 years ago I was diagnosed as being Coeliac but probably have had it for much longer.

So if you do get tested for throid disorders see if you can persuade your GP to also test for Coeliac - and if you're tired all the time you could also ask them to do a full blood count as you might be anaemic - my Coeliac diagnosis eventually came from a GP realising that as I'd been anaemic for 20 years there might be something behind it..!

Good luck!

Lupus would count. Colitis could also account for some of your symptoms but would expect more to see bloody diarrhoea.

The problem withthe anaemia business is that there are other reaosns wh you may have an abnormal full blood count includign hypothyroidism or pernicious anaemia. You shoudl have a general MOT and full panel of blood tests including coeliac - the latter requires anti-endonysial ; anti-reticulin and transglutimase.

Good luck

I know I had anemia test and I'm fine - I had a few different blood tests and they are all fine - also had an ultrasound which was fine but the preassure of the wand made me cry.

What do you mean by full panel blood test WobblyPig? I want to be quite assertive when see GP on Thurs as I'm normally meek and pathetic so just trying to get an idea of what I want tested.

Thank so much both o you for replying I really am at my wits end with this!

Full blood count and blood film - gives you hameoglobin and white cell count and can also show features typical of coeliac.

Hope it goes well at the GP. Let us know what happens.

Hey Wobbly Pig went to see new GP today who was lovely which makes a nice change to my last one! Explain my concerns and asked if I could have my thyroid checked and have a coeliac test and he said yes! My last one used to go mental if I suggested what might be wrong with me so feeling very positive today.

I have to eaten gluten though for my coeliac test to be accurate, have had 2 slices of bread at 9.30am and have thrown up twice in last 30 minutes - so am not loking forward to this "gluten challange".

I called my old GP too and found out my last thyroid check 29.05.07 was 3.7. Is the normal range 0.4 - 4? Going to investigate online now.

Thanks again for replying I felt really prepared today!

Glad things went well. TSH 3.7 sounds normal.

I had a lot of the symptoms you are talking about and had gall stones. Had my gall bladder out after a lot of pain and several years of feeling drained and dreadfull

Still not completely right after that and had lots of indigestion, bloating and general feeling of unwellness. After reading a lot of threads on coeliac I suggested it to my GP.

Had further tests including gut biopsy and no sign of coeliac condition in me. However, I then on my own decision went on a strict gluten free and lactose free (GF/LF) coeliac diet about 4 months ago. Stopped eating al gluten conating flour and all dairy products.

I feel fantastic, lost a load of weight and have a huge amount of energy. Other symptoms virtually disappeared but come back with a vengence if I have a morsal of gluten or lactose containing food.

Go to your GP ask for a coeliac test. If it comes up negative just try the coeliac diet anyway. Do not go on a GF/LF coeliac diet though before the tests though as you need to be eating gluten and dairy containing fods before the tests are done.

Lunaticfringe getting out wheat and gluten does seem to help if I touch either I get the most awful pain in my rib cage every tiny movement even breathing can hurt After my 2 pieces of bread and a small bowl of pasta yesterday I decided not to do the gluten challange; I've been on the floor today unable to work and nearly in tears with the pain in my ribs and tummy.

A hangover after a dodgy curry is how I feel ona good day - even with cutting out wheat and gluten I'm still horribly tired with random muscle aches. It's just my bowels, tummy and rib pain that get better by not eating wheat and gluten free.

I've been doing some investigating both on random website and using peer review journals and it seems some people don't agree with the "normal" values of TSH values. It also seems that 10-20% of people who have coelia confirmed by biopsy have negative blood work. It is these 10-20% that have often had it for years and so the disease is so "advanced" it seems the blood work doesn't pick up on the antibodies but the a test run on the stoll will confirm it in the 10-20% of people.

I think if the bloods all come back fine I will carry on leaving out wheat and gluten and also try and increase thyroid with natural products. I feel like I'm punishing myself though with no real reason hence why I am asking my GP to find the cause. Silly really.

tunamayo & wobblypig, sorry have only just seen your posts.

Wobblypig I've been doing some reading about TSH values and apparently they aren't very effective as a measure of thyroid function? Also there is some argument about what the "normal" range should be. I don't suppose you know anything about either do you?

Tunamayo, unfortunately I have been mainly gluten free for a while now hence needing to do the "gluten challange" which has made me so poorly I've decided to stop. But I think you are right that even if the test says I don't have coeliac disease I will still do gluten and wheat free.

On the gallbladder front in 2007 I have an ultrasound and that showed my gallbladder was fine.

When you have been ill for so long you forget what is normal and not normal I'm in pain every day and it is normal to me now. That's quite a sad thought!

Do also go dairy free as well as gluten free. Lactose intolerance goes hand in hand with gluten intolerance. If I eat cheese or yoghurt (especially in a curry) I feel dreadful for several days. I only drink soya milk now.

I know what you mean by feeling ill for years. The aching muscle thing is very familiar.

Luckily I don't really do dairy! That's probably why I haven't noticed it. Are you ok with live yog? I do eat quite a lot of that actually.

I also react really badly to alcohol which is a sad sad thought!

No it makes no difference what kind of yoghurt I have it is dairy and that is that. Aching muscles, pain in my back, bladder and guts. I cut out dairy totally (i.e. all milk, cream, yoghurt, cheese). Made a big difference and worth a try for a few weeks. Like you on gluten I get a severe reaction if I go back to any dairy (lactose) or any gluten containing food and it really is everywhere in a lot of foods.

Alcohol has ot be white wine and Rose. No red otherwise feel very rough. What I find helps a lot is also taking Gaviscon for the acid reflux before bed and before a meal.

I have a good diet worked out now and have got used to it. It felt a burden to start with but great now.

navy, you won't be on your own ditching gluten even w/o clear test results, why would you want to make yourself ill? Pity that medical profession doesn't concentrate better on prevention, especially when you bear in mind that prolonged/severe damage from gluten can be irreversible.

Terrific source on all things gluten related is celiac.com, where on the forum you should be able to find people who can advise you on tests and results (I had never before seen such depth of knowledge on the subject anywhere else).

We also ditched gluten, because my son is gluten-sensitive and no test would have picked it up (we did diet trial). Some enlightened drs will accept diet trials and maybe you can convince yours to treat-as-celiac even with inconclusive tests.

Navyeyelash- TSH values can vary from hopsital to hospital because of the way they are measured in the lab . TSH is considered the best way of determining thyroid status as is also used to monitor response to treatment . In rarer cases they may not tell the whole picture and a full htyroid panel is needed.

Check out the website for Wilsons Syndrome.
Good luck!

Dont; confuse with WILSONS Disease though - that is something completely different and would scare you.

Just wanted to update this my blood test came back negative for celiac but GP things it may be a false negative so having an endoscopy end of Jan.

My thyroid was "borderline underactive". Does anyone know how to increase thyroid function naturally?

What was your latest TSH score?

Technically speaking, 3.7 comes within normal range. But there's a lot of controversy about what's normal. My endocrinologist likes TSH to be under 3, ideally under 2.

I had a score very similar to yours and actually I had Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism. It was only discovered later when TSH had worsened to around level of 6.

Hi doozle, my latest TSH is 4.2 - what is the actual range that is considered normal do you know doozle?? Google shows different values.

Looking at symptoms of Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism I do have a few - what is considered to be a low temp?

Hi, to make it confusing (!) different labs have different ranges so it all depends where you were tested.

One lab said 0.5 - 4.5 is normal.

Another lab I've been tested at said 0.5 - 5.5 is normal.

They usually supply you with the reference range when giving out the results.

I reckon that my endo would maybe treat you with a TSH of 4.2. You are definitely at eh upper end of the normal spectrum.

To give you an idea, I went back for latest test and TSH was 3.87. I was already on 75mcg of thyroxine and he upped it to 100mg to try and get TSH down near to 2 again.

Seeing as you are having symptoms, can you ask for GP for a referral to an endocrinologist?

This is no help to anyone but did you know, Coeliac disease is a huge issue with people from the West of Ireland?

Like I said, no bloody help but my brother was dx about 2 years ago and we originate from Sligo.