Arrhythmia and Thyroid

Thyroid disease

by Gemita - 2021-02-12 06:30:28

CMH22567,

Thank you for your helpful post.  Thyroid disease is a known risk factor for heart rhythm disturbances and most good doctors will always frequently check thyroid function which can change quite rapidly sometimes due to other illnesses.  My husband suffers from hyperthyroidism (over active thyroid) and when it is not under control it causes many unwanted symptoms, including heart rhythm problems, hyper ventilation, hyperactivity, insomnia, blood pressure changes and all the rest . . .

I am so glad you are feeling better and your ectopics are diminishing.  Make sure your doctors (and you) keep a firm check on your thyroid levels until they are stable and then continue to ask for periodic blood checks to make sure they stay in range.  My husband is under a consultant endocrinologist who closely monitors his condition (as well as his diabetes).

I hope for the very best for you and thank you for pointing out the important role of the thyroid gland and how it can affect the function of the heart.

Thyroid

by AgentX86 - 2021-02-12 13:50:49

Certainly the thyrioid can cause all sorts of nasty things to happen to your body.  Either too much or too little is very bad.  The pituitary gland is the master of the body and it's strongly linked to the thyroid.  One goes out of whack and the other follows.  It's sometimes difficult to figure out which one is causing the havoc.

152,000 in 12 months is just one every four minutes.  If they aren't in long strings. they'll probably go unnoticed and are unimportant.  Everyone gets ectopic beats of one sort or another.  If they did feel them, most just shrug it off as their imagination. One every four minutes is a lot, though.  In longer strings, they can be awful.

My thyroid was damaged by ameoderone and I had similar issues and even bone loss. Fortunately, after I got my pacemaker and wasn't a serial antiarrhythmic user, my thyroid recovered as well as everything else thyroid related.

Hypothyroidism

by Graham M - 2021-02-13 18:23:29

About 11 years ago I was feeling as you described - fatigued, breathless and lightheaded plus a lot of other unpleasant symptoms, and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's).  As soon as I started treatment, I felt immensely better.  I started on a very low dose of thyroxine and it was gradually increased over a 2 year period, and I just felt better and better,  Everything was good until about 2 or 3 years ago when I started feeling fatigued, breathless and lightheaded again.  My annual thyroid ] function tests were normal, but I still blamed my symptoms on my thyroid and did not get any medical advice.

Eventually 18 months ago, I had an episode of syncope when loading up the car with some heavy shopping, and ended up in hospital where they discovered I had heart block, and fitted me with a pacemaker.  At that time, I was told it was a Mobitz type II, but since then, it seems to have progressed to complete heart block.  At my last PM check, the EP told me I had started with intermittent complete heart block but that it had progressed.  I also get occasional episodes of AF and have frequent ectopics, but am told it is nothing to worry about.  Looking back, (now that I know what they are), I have been having ectopics for several years.

Hypothyroidism is an awful illness that often seems to be overlooked or misdiagnosed by the medical profession, especially in men, but once diagnosed, it is easily treatable, thank Goodness.

I am not sure whether my hypothyrpoidism or my life style (lots of smoking and drinking) caused my heart block, but am glad that both my heart and thyroid are being treated.  Life is good as long as I remember to take just two tiny pills every motning.

Best wishes

Graham

Thank you

by CMH22567 - 2021-02-13 23:08:31

Dear  Graham,  Agent X86 and Gemita, 

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my post. I really appreciate reading your comments and appreciate your understanding, thank you again. 

thyroid

by Selwyn - 2021-02-15 11:18:30

I really don't understand how you can be told your " heart is fine" when you have all "the classic symptoms of heart failure ". How can your heart be fine having all those ectopics?

Every medical student knows to check thyroid function if someone is having ectopics to any degree (though one or two, especially with stress, exercise, etc., are normal). There is a range of normality for thyroid function, sometimes borderline cases are treated according to symptoms, or not, as the case may be. This is the art of medicine as opposed to the science. Even a small dose of thyroid treatment can make people feel a lot better. 

You are right to remind people of the importance of the thyroid gland in heart disease.  It is something your doctors should be aware of.