Levothyroxine: Waking Up With Heart Pounding

I'm 33, diagnosed with Hashimoto, started 25 mg of Levo a day - after two weeks of taking it, I was constantly out of breath, felt lightheaded and panicky, would wake up with rapid heat beating and out of breath in the middle of the night. (During those two weeks, my TSH dropped from 4.26 to 3.13, T 3 and T 4 as well - so, clinically, it was going in the right direction, perhaps only too abruptly). They made me wait for a couple of days and reduced my meds to 12.5 mg and last night (after taking the 12.5 mg dosage for only two days!) I was woken up with no breath, heart pounding, it felt like I was dying. I'm scared for my heart. I'm afraid to even go to sleep - the experience of waking up breathless was not pleasant at all. I'm seeing the doctor on Monday. I don't think I'll take this medication again. Living with an underactive thyroid was easier than this. Reading about your experiences helps so much!

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I am very sorry to read of what happened to you.

The symptoms you mentioned are warned about happening to people that are given too high of a dosage.

As to the reason it still happened with the lower dosage, that is because after only two days, your body has still not adjusted to the lower dosage. The effects of being on the higher amount can still persist for a week or two, unfortunately.

Learn more:

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Levothyroxine/­

Are there any questions or comments?

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Thank you so much for answering! My EKG was normal - so that everybody who experiences these palplitations knows that they don't have to be irreparably bad news in the end. They are putting me on half a 25 mg tablet every two days now. It seems that some people are oversensitive to these hormones. I'll have to gather some courage to start taking it again. What I couldn't believe, though, is that the doctor told me how these side-effects, even though they occur, are very very rare (that he saw only 2 or 3 cases in his 30-year career). This sounds somewhat implausible when I see how many people DO experience problems when put on Levoxyl and other artificial thyroid hormones.

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I had completly same problems at beginning and I stopt taking 'letrox'-50mg for a while. After some time I had suggestion from a doctor to continue, and I'm still taking same dosage. Somtimes, I felt similar problems, but not for a long time, except pounding of my heart. That's happened to me very often and for a long period, for example 24 hours. You aren't alone :-)hahah

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my wife is precribed levothyroxin 50MCG, what is this dosage. also the tablet is labeled IP253, is this the correct dosage as I found nothing on a chart showing this pill with these numbers.

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I had exactly the same symptoms on 25mcg of Levothyroxine and my doctor was also surprised. I am currently taking 12.5 mcg a day but am still experiencing occasional problems where I cannot go to sleep at night or wake up feeling very anxious. I guess I will go to 12.5 every other day and see how that goes.

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Your not alone!!! I know that feeling. I'm 29 diagnosed with Hashimoto too. We have to leave with this the rest of our life. Right now I'm with Lavothyroxine 75 MCG. Still not feeling good. Panic attatcs, anxiety, depression, fatigue, etc. Some of the symptoms that I have to fight every day.

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I have had similar thing happen with my heart rate. Taking a hot shower triggers me to have a pounding fast heart rate. What helps me sometimes is drinking a lot of water. Have you noticed if that helps bring your heart closer to normal ?

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Re: Yaili (# 6)

I have Hashimoto's also just found out my tsh was at 0 to low my medicine was to high now I take 75 Monday - Friday and none on the weekend to bring it back up I so sleepy and everything hurts

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