It may take several weeks, as the peak effect of levothyroxine can take 4-6 weeks to achieve (DailyMed, 2019). How long it takes for you to feel better after starting a thyroid medication depends on things like dosage, timing, other medical conditions, your overall health, and more.
“In most situations, symptoms will not change for 2 to 3 weeks,” says King. “That's important to know, because you might not feel much different for a while,” he says. If you notice rapid improvement within 1 week, it's possible that you've been prescribed too high of a dose.
You and your doctor should set up a plan to test and measure thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) every few weeks after beginning medication. This is the best way to know whether it is working.
Levothyroxine is generally well-tolerated, but it still has the potential to cause side effects. Heat intolerance, sweating, and diarrhea have been reported, especially when you're first starting the medication or changing doses.
Typically, people feel some improvement by one week and much improved by two weeks. Once the TSH level stops rising, this means the thyroid hormone is working. For most people with mild elevations in TSH (i.e. not higher than 20), it typically takes four to eight weeks for the TSH to come down to a normal range.
Circulating TSH shows a normal circadian rhythm with a peak between 11 pm and 5 am and a nadir between 5 pm and 8 pm. [1] Secretory pulses occur every 2–3 h and are interspersed with periods of tonic nonpulsatile TSH secretion.
Some people start to feel better soon after beginning treatment, while others do not notice an improvement in their symptoms for several months. Once you're taking the correct dose, you'll usually have a blood test once a year to monitor your hormone levels.
According to the American Thyroid Association, when this medication is started, you may lose up to 10% of your weight.
Levothyroxine is used to treat hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Levothyroxine is also used to help decrease the size of enlarged thyroid glands (also called a goiter) and to treat thyroid cancer.
This can cause your T4 hormone levels to drop or fluctuate. To avoid this, levothyroxine should be taken on an empty stomach, and you should wait an hour before eating anything or drinking a caffeinated beverage.
If you feel exhausted, tired, and exhausted on Levothyroxine, this could be because the medicine isn't suitable for your body. You may wish to increase the dosage or speak with your doctor about adjusting it. It may be that you're feeling more tired than usual because of an increased thyroxine level in your body.
Official answer. Most foods are considered fine to eat for breakfast as long as they are eaten 30 to 60 minutes after taking levothyroxine. Levothyroxine should be taken once a day on an empty stomach in the morning. Taking the medication on an empty stomach is recommended because it increases absorption of the drug.
Occasionally, the condition may resolve without treatment. Follow-up appointments are important to monitor hypothyroidism over time, however. If hypothyroidism doesn't go away on its own within several months, then treatment is necessary. If left untreated, this condition eventually may lead to serious health problems.
Thyroid medication should be taken on an empty stomach, around the same time each day. Afterwards, we recommend avoiding eating or drinking for 30-60 minutes. Most of our patients take thyroid hormone in the morning upon waking. Breakfast, including any coffee or milk, can be eaten 30-60 minutes later.
Thyrox 25 Tablet is a medicine used to treat an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). It replaces the hormone which is not being produced by your thyroid gland in sufficient quantity and helps regulate your body's energy and metabolism.
Potential Side Effects of Starting Thyroid Medication
Heat sensitivity. Sweating. Anxiety and/or nervousness. Shaking.
Levothyroxine therapy is also used as adjunctive therapy to antidepressants in the management of depression, and it is known to improve the symptoms of depression rapidly when compared to antidepressants alone.
The usual treatment for clinical hypothyroidism is levothyroxine sodium monotherapy [22]. Its use has shown an evident reduction in symptomatology, including depression [23,24]. It also makes it possible to normalize the levels of thyroid hormones and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) serum [25,26].
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that thyroid hormones should not be used for weight loss or for treating obesity.
When you start taking thyroid medication like levothyroxine, don't expect instant weight loss. The first barrier is getting the right dose of thyroid medication. Once you have reached your ideal dose, you may notice some weight loss after around three to six months of continuous use.
“I advise my patients with hypothyroidism not to exercise for a few weeks until their condition is well controlled with medications,” says Dr. Nasr. Once a person with a thyroid disorder returns to normal thyroid function with the use of medications, a return to exercise is safe and can help improve remaining symptoms.
Over time the thyroid usually returns to its normal state. Because the stored thyroid hormone has been released, patients may become hypothyroid (where their thyroid gland produces too little thyroid hormone) for a period of time until the thyroid gland can build up new stores of thyroid hormone.
Ideally, if you are on the proper dose of thyroid hormone replacement medication, you should feel back to “normal” with no residual symptoms in a couple of month, Dr. Nadeem says. But there are certain steps you can try on top of taking your medication to help relieve hypothyroidism symptoms.
Mild: Low but detectable TSH level — usually 0.1 to 0.4 mIU/L. This applies to 65% to 75% of people with subclinical hyperthyroidism. Severe: TSH level is less than 0.1 mIU/L.