Understanding and Managing Hyperthyroidism: A Patient's Concern

Question
please could you advise me, My mother has an over-active thyroid she had the iodine drink 4/5 years ago which killed off the thyroid and has being on medication ever since 2 months ago her doctor changed her medication dose as her levels were going up again and put her on beta blocks but to no avail, she is getting in a real bad state as the medication does not seam to be working she has being to casualty 3 times with heart palpitations and sent away she describes the feeling of nausea every morning like morning sickness and is getting more and more agitated/moody every day and also now she is worrying about her holiday in 3 weeks wanting to be sorted as shes going abroad if she can get sorted please please can you advise what she can do

Answer
Hi Joanne,
It sounds to me like she has been more HYPO-thyroid (under active) and her doctor is putting her on thyroid supplements to make up the difference and make her normal. It may just be that her new dose, although correct, is too strong too and was advanced too soon. It may be having an adverse affect on her (palpitations, agitation,nausea). A "fix" may be as simple as lowering her new dose of thyroid supplement and advancing it more slowly. Oft times, older folks don't deal with sharp dose changes of thyroid well at all. Unfortunately, normalization of thyroid function can take months to achieve.