PDA

View Full Version : Lithium, hypothyroidism and hair loss



auntdaisy
October 7th, 2009, 01:25 PM
Anyone had an issue with lithium and/or hypothyroidism and hair loss? Just wondering if your hair returned after getting thyroid under control or stopping lithium. My hair is disappearing by the moment. Looking for answers before I lose it all.

Stacie

rags
October 7th, 2009, 02:16 PM
Mine has never returned to what it was before I developed hypothryoid, even though mine is under control. It has remained thinner, duller, and much more brittle. That said, I did recover a great deal of what I shed before diagnosis (just not all). Oh, and if it matters, I was diagnosed twenty-some years ago.

embee
October 7th, 2009, 05:28 PM
I was hyperthyroid and treated with radioactive iodine so am now hypothyroid and on synthroid for life. (all this started in about 1991) My hair is thinner than it was when I was younger, but it was always thin so I'm not sure it's really much worse. I used to be able to do that false-crown braid that is in my profile pic and I can't really do it any longer, but I'm not sure if it's my hair or my hands/skill that are the problem.

Luzee
October 7th, 2009, 07:25 PM
I used to have pretty thick hair, but it started thinning around 2001. I think this is when my hypothyroidism started; I was finally diagnosed and began meds in 2003. Unfortunately, I never regained any thickness. I will say that my hair (and pretty much all the rest of me) started looking and feeling healthier after I started the meds though.

misstwist
October 7th, 2009, 08:50 PM
I don't remember Lithium messing around with my hair. Just my brain. I hope it works better for you than it did for me. :D

MsBubbles
October 7th, 2009, 09:04 PM
I went about four years in my early 20s with untreated hypothyroidism. I never noticed a difference in my hair from not treating the disease, to taking the daily pills. I don't notice any extra thinness, brittleness or dryness (a total greaseball, actually).

Good luck with your treatment!

ravenreed
October 7th, 2009, 11:44 PM
Lithium started me on the road to hypothyroidism... My doctors didn't believe me even though I was tested repeatedly and it was always negative, and then a few months after starting the lithium my thyroid went screwy. That was ten years ago. Recently, my new psychdoc convinced me to try it again, and my thyroid level plummeted AGAIN and I had to get my levothyroxine increased. GAH!

I do remember losing hair about that time, but don't know if it was from lithium or not. It came back fine, and I don't notice any more brittleness than before my thyroid was damaged.

embee
October 8th, 2009, 06:39 AM
Thyroid is a black box in medicine, seems to me. They don't quite understand how it all works and why symptoms may show before bloodwork shows any troubles and so forth.

I have Graves disease, and guess I will always have it, although now I'm hypothyroid and Graves is hyperthyroid. Just because my thyroid is burned out didn't eliminate Graves disease... at least that's what I'm understanding from my latest browsing online. Gah.

Oh well, look at the bright side, embee, it could have been a tumor.... which is what I thought it was, when one eyeball started to protrude... arrrgh...

akurah
October 8th, 2009, 08:56 AM
I already shed small animals, but lithium made me shed so much I actually lost thickness (as measured by ponytail circumference). On the bright side my hair didn't necessarily look worse for being thinner.

Hair recovered when I went off it. I have no advice or feedback though, just that's what happened to me.

HotRag
October 8th, 2009, 10:45 AM
I have read about natural thyroid medicine taking away symptomes that levotyroxin did not.
Also many other hypo symptomes disappeared.
TSH and T4 can be fine in tests, but getting into the active T3 AND into the cells can be not so good.

By natural thyroid medicines, I mean Armour thyroid, Nature throid and such.

Look for example at this site: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

Anje
October 8th, 2009, 12:30 PM
No personal experience with either, but a bipolar friend once mentioned to me that she feels much better on lithium citrate than lithium carbonate. Might be worth looking into and educating yourself on. No idea what effects it has with hair.