I've always believed there is a major connection between low thyroid and FM pains. When I went to an endo back in 1999 for my thyroid which I believed was sluggish for 10 yrs, he said your thyroid is fine but you have FM....I never believed that.

Then finally in 2001 I got on Armour and worked up to 90 mg. I never had all the PAIN so many on the FM board claim to have. I had moderate pain that I could handle with otc pain stuff.

Now after 5+ yrs on 90 mg of Armour, I've worked up my dose to 4 grains of Armour....thanks to all the good folks on: realthyroidhelp.com

I have aches and pains from OA but not the overall body pain so many talk about. I absolutely feel it's THYROID.....

I wrote a major reply to the naysayers on your similar post on the FM board. But it disappeared into who knows where, doesn't seem to have gotten posted.

I'm not sure that everyone with an FM dx has low thyroid, however -- I do believe that MANY of us DO.

Studies show that most docs reach a dx within 17 seconds of meeting a patient. Yet ideally, an accurate dx of fibro requires LOTS of testing to exclude other things. Primary among the other things to rule out is any sort of hypothyroidism. Very few of us have ideal medical care.

Bottom line -- if your doc says fibro, you deserve to have complete thyroid testing done: including free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibodies. Get hard copies of the lab results if you are in the bottom quartile on the free thyroid hormone tests, or if you have thyroid antibodies even somewhat elevated, you may benefit from a trial of thyroid hormone. And esp. if low free T3 is an issue, you may need a med with both T3 & T4, like Armour or NatureThroid, rather than Synthroid.

Best wishes.

i am now on 4 grains of Armour after being on 1.5 grains for 5+ years. The folks on: realthyroidhelp.com claim one needs to be optimized with thyroid and most pain issues will disappear ?????

Many over on that board are on 5 grains and claim to be pain free.

TSH is suppressed..meaning at about zero.

I've had so much thyroid labs and "believe" so many over on that board I mention above. I have all my labs as I ask for them on all my visits.

I truly believe so much FM is thyroid connected.

And I do have the antiobodies (Hashis) and working to lower that issue. Selenium and less less gluten products.

What do you think about what I say about the suppressed TSH? jam

Hi Jam,

Wow, from 1.5 to 4 grains! That's a jump. But if you need it, you need it. I hope your fibro pain is lessening significantly.

On the technical side, I think I've mentioned before the relationship between free T3 and a chemical called Substance P. fT3 suppresses SP. That's important, because SP is like a pain megaphone to the brain. So when thyroid hormone levels, and particularly free T3 levels are low, pain signals are being screamed to the brain for processing. Not the normal situation. When fT3 is "topped up" with replacement hormone, it can once again squash SP, thus reducing pain.

I've read that T3 meds (or meds with T3, like Armour) usually do suppress TSH. I spent about 18 mos. with an extremely suppressed TSH, like 0.03. The TSH suppression was very helpful in getting over a bout of thyroid-related hives (urticaria). At that time I was using slow-release Cytomel plus Levoxyl.

T3 is very helpful to pain reduction in fibro, IME. However what I was able tolerate of T3 improved my pain some but frankly I've made more progress with LDN. We are all unique -- I have multiple autoimmune related components to my pain, beyond the Hashi's.

I've found it hard to even get my free T3 up to the bottom of the normal range without side-effects. But most people handle T3 & Armour pretty well. I have trouble tolerating T3 meds (anemia & adrenal issues) & eventually had to bag the T3 for a while after a scary bout of atrial fibrillation.

I've learned to home-compound a T3 with Cortef, and take small amt. sublingually a few times per day. For me this works better than the pro-compounded slow-release T3, which while somewhat effective was verrrrrry slow release for me & I was running hyper (very fast heart rate) in the middle of the night. Weird.

IMO, free T3 levels are more telling to retest than TSH. TSH is made in the pituitary gland in the brain & is at best a very indirect measure of thyroid function.

So many MDs get panicky when TSH is suppressed. Not entirely sure why. One of the biggest risks, IME, of having a highly suppressed TSH is if your doc gets worried & yanks all of your T supps. But you obviously have a doc who is well-versed in Armour use so the low TSH shouldn't throw him for a loop.


When taking a med with T3, IMO you don't usually want the free T3 to go too high. High T3 usually means a high rate of metabolism of nutrients, high bone turnover & risk of 0steoporosis. There may be some exceptions -- people with "thyroid hormone resistance," for example. I'm still trying to understand that one -- I suspect some of those folks may have high cortisol levels.

Take care.