Recently, when I had gone too long without following up with my endo and needed a dose increase on my levothyroxine, I started having real problems walking, barely able to shuffle my feet, SO MUCH like my Mom’s Parkinson’s symptoms. Within days of increasing my dosage, the symptoms went away, as did the edema in my lower legs. This prompted me to try to find out if the same could be a treatable part of my Mom’s problems.

To my shock and dismay, she has never been thoroughly evaluated for thyroid deficits beyond a cursory check to see if her T-4 was WNL, nor for antibodies! She did NOT show high A-B levels when I finally begged her neurologist to at least look into it, but did show somewhat low T-3. (antithyroglobulin not checked)

What kills me is how many hypothyroid symptoms do overlap with serious neurological disorders and nobody seems to really be looking at that component, which is generally so very treatable.

If you have loved ones who are being treated for movement disorders, please look into the possibility of a thyroid connection.

Personally, I have been treated for years for a laundry list of “conditions” that ALL fall in line with common hypothyroid symptoms. I was in the military in southern Germany when Chernobyl blew up and was exposed to a large amount of perchlorate later, both very bad for the thyroid. I have been though that proverbial “slew of tests” and still only got (if anything) about half the T-4 dose I needed until recently. Lots of Thyroid Madnees going on here!