One of UK's most commonly prescribed drugs (Levothyroxine)is linked to Osteoporosis

Discussion in 'Other health news and research' started by Sly Saint, Feb 3, 2025.

  1. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    One of UK's most commonly prescribed drugs is linked to bone disease
     
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  2. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    This seem pretty irresponsible reporting. Thyroxine will lower bone density. We have known that for forty years. (I assume T3 will as well.) If you take more thyroid hormone than you need then your bone density is likely to be lower than it needs be. If you are hypothyroid you need to have enough thyroxine - which is generally reflected in a normal TSH level. It may be that for some patients it is better to err on the side of a slightly higher normal TSH level.

    One sentence above suggests that they are targeting the use of thyroxine in older people when they do to need it. That will obviously be a source of osteoporosis. It may also cause atrial fibrillation and stroke. But we have known that all my medical life.

    The worry is that people may stop taking their thyroxine if they read this, for no good reason.
     
  3. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    They seem to prescribe horse-tablet sized doses of calcium for older people on thyroxine anyway. I don't know whether it does any good, but it seemed remarkably consistent across my parents' generation, who lived in different areas of the country.
     
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  4. PrairieLights

    PrairieLights Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I am aware that having your levels in the higher ranges (t4 & t3) can increase your risk.

    I am also aware that my vit D and calcium levels were bottom of the range BEFORE I was diagnosed as hypothyroid. So, I wonder if they also factor in absorption issues many hypothyroid patients face.
     
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  5. PrairieLights

    PrairieLights Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    And why are doctors giving thyroid medication to patients without thyroid issues??
     
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  6. Arnie Pye

    Arnie Pye Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    As someone who is hypothyroid and who struggled for many years to get treatment, I haven't heard that treatment of people without thyroid issues ever happens. Or if it does it must be very rare. In fact it appears that many sufferers find that doctors simply don't want to diagnose people with hypothyroidism at all if they think they can get away with it. (And they can get away with it very easily, I think.) In the UK the average TSH amongst the healthy is roughly 1.0 - 1.5. But most doctors won't treat until TSH is 10 or more. Some go further and won't treat until TSH is 10 or more and Free T4 is under range. If you have Central Hypothyroidism (as opposed to the more common Primary Hypothyroidism) the chances are quite high that you might never get diagnosed at all.

    I don't think the article quoted is suggesting that patients are getting treated without any thyroid issues. I got the impression that people who are hypothyroid and have been treated to the extent that their TSH is within the "normal" range are still developing osteoporosis despite their treatment being "right" according to doctors.
     
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  7. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The text implies that they are. I am pretty sure that in the USA older people quite often get given a 'little bit of thyroxine' to pep them up on the grounds that even if the TSH is normal they might benefit. It is not so different from the European practice of giving a bit more than the TSH suggests because the patient is still feeling symptoms.

    Thyroxine will probably statistically lower bone density whether or not it is too little too much or just right so I am not sure they are telling us anything unexpected. The risk is that people will become frightened of using thyroxine when they need it.
     
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  8. Arnie Pye

    Arnie Pye Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    That must be a difference in practice between the UK and the USA then. Lots of people complain that getting treatment in the UK is very, very difficult or even impossible. The main UK Thyroid forum has approx 143,000 members and although members come from all over the world, the largest group of members by country are from the UK.
     
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  9. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Everything is completely different over there. Medicine is a money-making business, full stop. Private physicians in the UK used to do the same but I suspect less keen on the litigation these days.
     
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