Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisinhouston
Since early December we have noticed a real decline in her and her daily routine. She's gotten more forgetful, sometimes a bit confused and forgets to take her pills that we put out in daily doses.
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If she hasn't had a full thyroid workup, get it done (and do T4 and T3 tests, NOT just TSH). 80% of people over age 50 have some degree of tissue hypothyroidism due to reduced ability to convert T4 to T3. Further, one aged-care facility found (via autopsy) that 26% of their patients had some degree of hidden goiter due to undiagnosed low thyroid. MOST of what we think of as the "symptoms of aging" are actually due to this. It's possible that it's just her time, but even so this is well worth looking into.
The usual levothyroxin (synthetic T4) treatment alone CANNOT fix poor conversion; the patient needs replacement T3 either synth T3 or as natural thyroid, which will probably require chasing her doctor with a stick as most will not do it.
In fact, with ALL chronic or debilitating conditions, thyroid should be the FIRST thing looked at, rather than the last resort as is so commonly the case. Thyroid affects
everything. Frex, one study found that about half of all fatal cardiac events were due to the effects of low T3 syndrome.
I would bet she has multiple symptoms, but they've all been dismissed as "due to her age".
My own hypothyroid condition went undiagnosed for 30 years despite 50+ different symptoms. Having discovered that most doctors know very little about thyroid disorders that aren't perfectly textbook, I've had to take up reading the research literature in sheer self-defense.
Wish her the best.