I began having dizzy spells, bouts of anxiety attacks, weird heartbeats and palpitations, my hands are always cold, my skin is dry, some of my hair was falling out, major digestive issues, problems gaining weight, and an overall sense of shittyness. Went in to the doc, who checked my TSH levels and said everything was fine. I started a paleo diet and about half the symptoms disappeared, but I still had some lingering symptoms. The more I read though, the more I realized that my doc was mistaken about my results and that I was in fact Hypothyroid, my tsh was 5.17, but she said it was between range. Now I am currently attempting to solve this issue, and hopefully the remaining symptoms will slowly disappear.

i was low carb and grain free for 3 years and only lost about 20 pounds when i was about 80 pounds overweight. that aint right! hair loss on head and very little body hair, dry dry skin especially on feet, tired, brain fog/memory problems... i have nodules in my thyroid gland but my blood test results, like the poster above, always all came back "within range". after a long search i found a dr who prescribed levothyroxine and i have done great on it.

TSH on its own does not tell you much, KL. But lots of doctors think it is all they need to look at. You should get your TSH, T4, T3 and T2 measured to see a much bigger picture; you might also want to get your iodine level checked (there is a big relationship between thyroid and iodine).

Several years ago I had some symptoms that I told my doctor about. He ordered a number of blood test, including TSH. The result was that my TSH was high; so he put me on Synthroid. It worked for seven or eight years; then I got a bunch more symptoms, but my doctor said my TSH was fine.

Then I found website Synthroidhaters, which has a list of symptoms that are common with Synthroid use. Most of my symptoms were on that list – I had well over 50% of them.

Just under a year ago, I went to a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) with my symptoms highlighted on the list and he prescribed armour thyroid. After four months all the Synthroid symptoms are gone.

I have been off and on Paleo for most of the year. It seems to help my thyroid functioning. I have seen that some people can go off their hypothyroid meds after being on Paleo a several months (some ND say so, too). I would like to be able to do so. But for lots of reasons, I have not been able to be Paleo for extended times; but I will keep on trying.

I don't have an answer to the main question, but I wonder if you guys with thyroid issues make sure you get enough selenium? My understanding is that you can (assuming you don't have an autoimmune condition) rectify low T4 levels with iodine, but that the conversion of T4 to T3 requires a selenium-based enzyme. Someone with a low TSH could still have a low T3 if they're deficient in Se, and it's supposed to be a very common deficiency.

I eat a couple of lamb kidneys every day and a small can of smoked oysters and it ends up being a significant quantity of selenium. Were I not to eat those, I would have precious little in my diet. For iodine I eat some laminaria kelp every day.

I had classic hypothyroid symptoms and it took years to get diagnosed. Weight gain, cold hands and feet, lethargic, forgetful, hair loss etc. were on the list.

I now take Eltroxin, which may not be ideal, but it got me functional again. I had an allergic reaction to Synthroid so I think you need to find a supplement that works for you.

An excellent source of information is Mary Shomon at http://thyroid.about.com/ .

I finally went to the doctor after a lot of weight gain with no success at losing it no matter what I did. I had also noticed my hair was getting thinner (I have fine/thick hair, and at the time could actually see my scalp, whereas I couldn't before), my skin was very dry and I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without needing to sit down. I was freezing all the time, whereas before, I was heat sensitive and rarely cold, even in the middle of winter. I usually had a good memory but nearly lost my short term memory for a while. I was put on synthroid and that helped. I was also diagnosed with PCOS and pre-diabetes, so I was put on birth control and glucophage for those.

Paleo seems to be working for me. My skin doesn't dry out, my hair came back and I can exercise without wanting to die. I've managed to lose weight and gain some muscle tone. I also incorporate as much seaweed and fish as I can in my diet, which is easy to come by living in South Korea. However, since I have private insurance due to some illegal paperwork on the part of my employers, I am not covered for preexisting conditions under private insurance and therefore can't get my medication cheaply. I took the risk a few months ago and stopped taking what I had left to see if I still needed the medication, because within the last couple of months of taking synthroid, I became agitated a lot and scattered. So far, I am fine. However, this is less than a year after being diagnosed, and my TSH levels weren't that high to begin with. When I go home in a few months, I plan to visit the doctor first thing to see if I have been correct in my assessments.

I had bouts of rapid heartrates, anxiety and heart intolerance. Then I got my tsh, t4 and t3 checked, and found I have hyperthyroid.

As the others say, you want t4 and t3 more than tsh.