Diabetes With Hypothyroidism And Hyperthyroidism

You'll want to see your endocrinologist (endocrine system, remember?) or primary care physician asap. You may be referred to a doctor who specializes in thyroid issues (as opposed to diabetes), but your endocrinologist will know exactly how to diagnosis you. The primary way to diagnose thyroid disease is something called a tsh (thyrotropin stimulating hormone) test, which checks the amount of thyroid-stimulating hormone in your system. It's a very easy and inexpensive blood test, so don't delay if you think you have symptoms!

However, sometimes the test will come back false-normal, so testing for antibodies or having a full thyroid panel can also turn up things that the tsh test might leave out.

Autoimmune thyroid diseases, like hashimoto's disease, are usually much easier to manage than diabetes. The hormone replacement treatment comes in pill form, so taking the medication is easy-peasey. But some patients have difficulty finding the right type of thyroid replacement pill. While there are two types of natural thyroid hormones, called t3 and t4, only t4 is found in the common thyroid replacements. For many people, this doesn't work well. In theory, t4 medication would also convert to t3, but research suggests this doesn't always happen. You'll want to do your homework and make sure you get on the right treatment for you!

Patient lindsay o'rourke writes on the tu diabetes group for hypothyroidism "I went on my generic prescription, levothroid, and even at a very low dose it was an extreme difference. I felt back to normal. My energy was back, and a slew of other symptoms went away."

Hyperthyroidism can be treated with anti-thyroid medicines such as methimazole (tapazole) and propylthiouracil (ptu), but the most common way of treating hyperthyroidsim is radioactive iodine therapy. Weirdly, it kills off the thyroid, causing permanent hypothyroidism.