Ok, this I long but a must read if you have been using a corticosteroid inhaler…
Yesterday, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroditis and adrenal burnout. If it had not been for Cathe’s site, I would never have been diagnosed because I would not have known where to start looking for answers.
I have always been very healthy & super fit up until recently. To relieve allergy symptoms, I was using one of the more popular brands of Rx inhalers for a couple of years. I was gaining a bit of weight during that time period but I felt fine despite my ever-worsening allergy symptoms. Last May, I switched to another heavily marketed Rx inhaler. This is where my trouble started.
Within about two months I started to feel really bad around my period each month. Later in the summer I was feeling really lousy and my allergies were worse than ever. I suspected the new inhaler may be the blame but my allergist INSISTED repeatedly that the inhaler could not be the cause.
By mid-fall, I started packing on the pounds despite a clean diet and high intensity workouts 5 days/week. I was stumped. I was also beginning to feel constantly fatigued and was catching frequent colds. As the holidays neared, I knew something just wasn’t right but I had no real clue.
I spent a good deal of time reading thru the forums here on Cathe’s site trying to piece together what may be the cause of my weight gain. At that point, I hadn’t connected my weight gain to my other symptoms (duh). It was while reading posts on this sight that I first made the connection between how I felt and a possible thyroid problem.
In early January, I went back to my Dr. and told him I felt lousy. He recommended that I stop the inhaler cold turkey (BAD move… more on that). I also had blood drawn for thyroid tests that came back “normal”. I had asked my Dr. for a thyroid antibody test but he said it was unnecessary since TSH was the main indicator of thyroid dysfunction and that is not entirely true.
After stopping my inhaler, I became so ill I could not work or barely leave the house for 2 months. I was dizzy, nauseous, exhausted and short of breath. My Dr. attempted to diagnose me as suffering from depression. That was the last time I saw that specific Dr. I made the decision to change my health care plan from an HMO to a POS plan.
I have spent a lot of time educating myself since then. I have also spent a lot of time searching for a Dr. that thinks outside the box. I have since seen two Dr.’s in different states that have given me the same diagnosis.
The inhaled corticosteroid has caused adrenal burnout. Although there is a warning in the insert packed with one of the inhalers (in the last paragraph), none of the Dr’s I saw at my HMO even mentioned adrenal burnout as a possibility. The horrible sickness I felt after stopping my inhaler was actually withdrawal symptoms from the cortisone. Adrenal burnout is curable but nonetheless a horrible, horrible thing to go thru. As for its connection to my thyroid disorder, we’re not sure. The inhaler may have exacerbated the situation but there is no way to tell. However, I learned a valuable lesson about insisting on tests. As it turns out, the thyroid antibody test I recently took showed I am in the early stages of Hashimoto’s.
I am relaying this in hopes that someone out there may find this information valuable to them. I have been thru a horrible time and may never have found my way to a healthy path if it were not for this website. If anyone is going thru something similar, I’ll be glad to e-mail the names of the inhalers and the Dr.’s that have been able to help.
--Pam
Yesterday, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroditis and adrenal burnout. If it had not been for Cathe’s site, I would never have been diagnosed because I would not have known where to start looking for answers.
I have always been very healthy & super fit up until recently. To relieve allergy symptoms, I was using one of the more popular brands of Rx inhalers for a couple of years. I was gaining a bit of weight during that time period but I felt fine despite my ever-worsening allergy symptoms. Last May, I switched to another heavily marketed Rx inhaler. This is where my trouble started.
Within about two months I started to feel really bad around my period each month. Later in the summer I was feeling really lousy and my allergies were worse than ever. I suspected the new inhaler may be the blame but my allergist INSISTED repeatedly that the inhaler could not be the cause.
By mid-fall, I started packing on the pounds despite a clean diet and high intensity workouts 5 days/week. I was stumped. I was also beginning to feel constantly fatigued and was catching frequent colds. As the holidays neared, I knew something just wasn’t right but I had no real clue.
I spent a good deal of time reading thru the forums here on Cathe’s site trying to piece together what may be the cause of my weight gain. At that point, I hadn’t connected my weight gain to my other symptoms (duh). It was while reading posts on this sight that I first made the connection between how I felt and a possible thyroid problem.
In early January, I went back to my Dr. and told him I felt lousy. He recommended that I stop the inhaler cold turkey (BAD move… more on that). I also had blood drawn for thyroid tests that came back “normal”. I had asked my Dr. for a thyroid antibody test but he said it was unnecessary since TSH was the main indicator of thyroid dysfunction and that is not entirely true.
After stopping my inhaler, I became so ill I could not work or barely leave the house for 2 months. I was dizzy, nauseous, exhausted and short of breath. My Dr. attempted to diagnose me as suffering from depression. That was the last time I saw that specific Dr. I made the decision to change my health care plan from an HMO to a POS plan.
I have spent a lot of time educating myself since then. I have also spent a lot of time searching for a Dr. that thinks outside the box. I have since seen two Dr.’s in different states that have given me the same diagnosis.
The inhaled corticosteroid has caused adrenal burnout. Although there is a warning in the insert packed with one of the inhalers (in the last paragraph), none of the Dr’s I saw at my HMO even mentioned adrenal burnout as a possibility. The horrible sickness I felt after stopping my inhaler was actually withdrawal symptoms from the cortisone. Adrenal burnout is curable but nonetheless a horrible, horrible thing to go thru. As for its connection to my thyroid disorder, we’re not sure. The inhaler may have exacerbated the situation but there is no way to tell. However, I learned a valuable lesson about insisting on tests. As it turns out, the thyroid antibody test I recently took showed I am in the early stages of Hashimoto’s.
I am relaying this in hopes that someone out there may find this information valuable to them. I have been thru a horrible time and may never have found my way to a healthy path if it were not for this website. If anyone is going thru something similar, I’ll be glad to e-mail the names of the inhalers and the Dr.’s that have been able to help.
--Pam
