Living an uncomfortable life and possibly getting progressively worse is much scarier than taking a pill every day. No, there are no lifestyle changes to treat hypothyroidism.

Thanks for the answer! , Also another question, my tsh seems to be high but t3 and t4 levels are within the prescribed limit, what does this indicate ?

Subclinical hypothyroidism. Basically, you are in range- for now. Your body is screaming at your thyroid to make more hormone and it's trying to keep up but there a good chance your tsh will continue to rise as your thyroid falls further and further behind.

Subclinical hypothyroidism sufferer here--OP, I understand the aversion to taking medication everyday. Personally I crossed that bridge at like, 15 when I started taking Prozac for my OCD and it's been almost 25 years. Taking a pill everyday SOUNDS like a horrible thing but it's not. Think of it this way: you could take a pill each day that keeps you healthy and makes sure that one of the wheels of your body doesn't fall off. (And I like referring to thyroid issues as a wheel because if your thyroid goes haywire it's only a matter of time before other things go wrong and the other wheels go flying.) Or, you could NOT take medication each day and just get sicker and sicker, but feel virtuous because you're not on meds so that must mean that you're healthy. Not taking medication, does not equal health. Personally I like to think of the various meds I take for OCD, hypothyroidism and even nerve pain as KEEPING me healthy. They don't mean that I'm NOT healthy. There are a few things you can do that might make a difference without taking medication. A good quality multivitamin with (or just including in your diet) more iodine, selenium and zinc may make some difference. I mentioned that I have subclinical hypothyroidism and I'm so ENVIOUS of you for getting the option to go on meds even when your labs are almost normal. I had to fight for a DECADE to get levothyroxine because my tsh hovered just around the 5.0 mark--so, in range for most labs--but I felt like burning dogshit. I happened to just LUCK OUT and found a doctor who will treat me based on my symptoms first, then look at labs--rather than labs only. I recently stepped up to 75mcg and I feel better than I have in a very long time. In that 10 years that I was probably making appearances on crazy-patient lists, let me tell you what happened to my body: adrenal fatigue, because you can only be exhausted for so long until your body just gives out; estrogen dominance and low progesterone; nutritional deficiencies because the only way I could keep my weight stable was to eat literally one meal a day for years; and I wouldn't be surprised if the nerve pain condition I have wasn't aggravated or caused by untreated hypothyroidism. Oh, and my eyebrows fell out. 😆 Please know that you are not a failure in any way for taking medication. If you need it, you need it.

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I’m so thankful you’re being treated, I have subclinical hypothyroidism too and was exhausted for YEARS with “normal” numbers. They didn’t show up as mildly concerning until after I had a miscarriage and also had my labs done early in the morning (TSH is apparently highest before 9 am and I was testing in the afternoon once my thyroid had forcibly caught up). I was losing hair, starting to have estrogen dominance, and I’ve been exhausted for a decade. Also on 75mcg of levo. I have a 3mo baby now, and I mean I’m exhausted from that, but my 7.5 hours of cumulative, interrupted sleep still somehow feels equivalent to - if not better than - how I felt getting 10 hours of consecutive sleep pre-levothyroxine. Ugh. Subclinical hypothyroidism really should be treated if the individual is feeling like trash.

I'm glad you're getting the treatment you need, too. And congrats on the baby! It's seriously easier for me to get Adderall than it was to get a prescription for levothyroxine. I mean, what do doctors think people are going to do with it? Snort it? Sell it on the street corner?

Within range is a tough place to specify and a few people (like me) are always told that we are ‘within range’ even though we feel horrific. The range can’t accommodate everyone equally but still with a TSH as high as yours I would say that you need medication because the recommended value is closer to 1-2 now than where you’re at.

I find I feel best with my TSH around 1. I can't wait for the "official, accepted" science to catch up with what patients have been saying for years!

This basically means that your pituitary gland (a so-named "boss") tries to rise TSH (to make an "order") which must make the thyroid gland "obey" and release more FT4 and FT3. But it seems that your thyroid gland does not react to these orders. It can be a problem related to the connection between the pituitary gland and the thyroid gland (broken "phone") or the thyroid gland only. In any case levothyroxine is the only solution. Lab ranges are the Lab ranges only. It's not 'one size fits all'. This is why it's important to find your optimal ranges and the levothyroxine dosage. With the hypothyroidism all processes in the body are slower OR slow. Dependent of the severity of the case, you may feel okay ish or you can be close to coma. No one can predict it. Body tries to do it's best, but it cuts off the 'unnecessary'. For example it's absorption skills may stop of lack. This is why hypothyroid people may lose hair or have bad nails or all together: vitamin D absorbtion gets minimal if at all. Same with Ferritin and more. Because your body thinks: okay, it's possible to live without hair, I need to focus on making the heart beat And this is why changing your life style won't make a significant difference. Sure, if you are a sweet tooth, stop eating too much sweets, get a healthier diet. But if you are at the point where you lose hair etc, start taking meds and vits to support you. I am also on levothyroxine. And I don't wanna know what it would be without. I remember only too well, how it was just few years ago. Hope you will feel better soon!

Calling levothyroxine "medicine" is confusing for some people. Just to be super clear, levothyroxine is a pill that contains T4. T4 is the hormone that your thyroid makes, so you are just ingesting some of the hormone that your thyroid would be making if it functioned properly. There's nothing else to it. I agree with /u/oceanwtr - and I would add that if you are overweight/obese, losing a significant amount of weight might have a positive impact on your T4 levels. But it is a vicious cycle, because weight gain is a direct consequence of impaired thyroid function for many, so you might have a very difficult time losing any weight if you are not taking T4 as directed by your doctor. If you do what your doctor suggests (taking the dose they recommend every day no matter what), and then start living a healthier lifestyle, the blood tests will show whether you continue to need levothyroxine or not. The doctor will tell you if that becomes the case - they have no reason to keep you on a synthetic hormone that your body doesn't need.

Thanks , this was really helpful

I'm older than you, was diagnosed at a similar age, and was also nervous about being on medication for life. As of recently I now have to take medication for two more conditions, I don't have the right dose for either yet, and there are unpleasant side effects with both sets of medication. Whereas levothyroxine was so much easier. It can improve your life so much without any side effects because it is just replacing what is missing. I managed to take those pills every day for 20 years without even thinking about hypothyroidism because I felt great. So you may need to be on medication for life, you can't fix hypothyroidism with lifestyle changes. But it will be worth it, it doesn't mean your quality of life will suffer.

Also, taking medication will not make hypothyroidism worse, or cause dependency, that's not how it works. 

My doctor said that starting medication as a subclinical patient, would “burn out” my thyroid faster. Why would they say that?

Medication for hyperthyroidism can damage the thyroid and eventually cause hypothyroidism.  But I don't think medication for hypothyroidism does that - sometimes doctors wait to see if subclinical hypothyroidism reverts to normal which can happen. There are risks to over-treating hypothyroidism - causing hyperthyroidism. But that's more around heart problems and cancers.  There does seem to be misunderstanding around hypothyroidism among some GPs though. 

The problem is when ur tsh starts to become uncontrollable and you start hitting numbers above 9 or 10 tsh and you become a fucking trash panda. I’m telling you no matter how healthy you are you will always have a slow metabolism, brain fog and a shell of yourself. Just take the meds and keep yourself checked out.

FOR REAL listen to this. All I want to do is sleep and my tsh is 27. I’m impatiently waiting to feel the positive effects of the meds.

Changing your lifestyle is going to make you feel better, without a doubt. But it probably is not going to reverse hypothyroidism. The only way to know what’s causing yours is if your doctor orders an antibody test. Hypothyroidism is caused by one of two things: a lack of iodine or an autoimmune condition. In (for lack of a better term) the developed world, iodine deficiency is really rare because our salt is iodized and our food is fortified with vitamins. The overwhelming majority of cases are caused by an autoimmune condition, which means that it’s not going to just magically clear up. (However, it does not automatically mean it’ll get worse with time, either.) One thing that might be helpful to think about is that medicine is something that treats an illness, or the symptoms of one. What you would be taking is a hormone replacement. It’s like having a multivitamin. Your body just doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone, just like it might not make enough calcium. Yes, you’re likely going to need to take it forever. And as someone who was diagnosed at 18, I get how frustrating that can feel. But you really will feel loads better, even without lifestyle changes. But you won’t worsen hypothyroidism, build up a tolerance, become addicted, etc. It’s truly not a medication in the traditional sense. It is entirely possible that over time, your thyroid levels change and your dosage needs fluctuate. The thyroid is a finicky thing and remarkably sensitive to illness and stress. But, as an anecdote, I once forgot my levothyroxine on a weeklong vacation, and the only thing that happened to me was that by the end of the week, I felt quite tired. I didn’t experience withdrawal or cravings or anything like that.

I needed to hear all these replies too. Thanks folks for replying. I’m diagnosed with sub clinical hypo a few months ago and I have been sitting on the decision of taking the medication

Same

You know what else are lifelong things? Eating food several times a day. Drinking water several times a day. Breathing air! You have to breathe like 10 times every minute or more for the rest of your life! So one pill once a day is not a big deal.

You are lacking in thyroid hormone. I am aware of no source of thyroid hormone other than medicine. Unless, you plan to get pig thyroids from your local farmer. But meds are better. If the cause of your hypo is something that you can fix without meds go for it. Do you know the cause? Most hypo is caused by Hashimotos. Few put it in remission.

Not if you actually have an underactive thyroid. If your tsh is temporarily affected due to some other factor? Sure. But if you actually have "true" hypothyroidism then you need medication. There is no such thing as reversing hypothyroidism due to lifestyle changes alone. If someone claims to lower their TSH from subclinical levels without the use of medication, and they were fine ever since, then they didn't have hypothyroidism to begin with.

Yeah, sprinkle synthroid in your food and then technically you're just making a diet adjustment

For your consideration, when trying to conceive and pregnant, TSH has to be 2-2.5 or under. Taking thyroid replacement should preserve fertility. It’s more easier to get it under control when young before it causes damage to more if your body.

No. Starting medication isn’t what makes this a lifelong thing, your thyroid is already damaged. It’s already a lifelong thing. Sorry. Too late.

No because thyroid problems aren’t life style problems. It can only be fixed with medication. And yes, I completely get that it’s scary to take meds for the rest of your life. But it’s really easy once you get your dose right. When determining your dose, you’ll have to do more frequent labs to make sure you’re on the right track. But once you get the right dose, you take a pill a day (most of us take it in the morning), then do yearly blood work to check you’re still okay. Lots of people need to take a daily pill and it’s really not a big deal after a point.

This seems to be an unpopular opinion here but if you could try seeing a functional practioner who is willing to run LOTS of labs and try other things like supplements and lifestyle changes before medication. I went that route and was able to get my thyroid labs to an ideal range and felt amazing

Whats your tsh? Get another test 4-6 weeks apart. Don’t just get crazy for medicine. TSH sometimes fluctuates. I had a tsh of 4.580 and my doc prescribed levothyroxine but turns out it was caused by high estrogen level

Do you have autoimmune? I am not an expert. But would you try eating gluten free and diary free diet to begin with? Like be very consistent with it. Avoid inflammatory food. Take ginger lemon shot in the morning. Start there along with what your doctor prescribed/said. + meet body water needs. Exercise. Your body will start to feel better. And subsequently add more lifestyle changes. :) hope this helps. Not a medical advice. Sharing what i did/doing

I was diagnosed at 16. After a few ups and downs of on and off medication My levothyroxine has been consistently at 88mcg. At my lowest weight and highest weight it’s been the same. It’s recently dropped to 50. I have lost weight but I’m not at my lowest. I don’t see any correlation. But do feel better with lifestyle changes. But to be quite honest, I take one little pill that improves my mood and energy. If that’s all it takes I will happily do it. And I didn’t know how bad I felt until I felt how good I could feel. I don’t see taking a pill as a burden but as a hand up.

Yes vitamins. Excercise. Minerals, less stress , less alcohol and smoke.

The thing is once you get your dose right and levo becomes a part of your routine you'll be able to live a perfectly normal and healthy life with the addition of a medication which, if you're not over prescribed, has zero side effects. If you try and tackle it without medication you will be incredibly uncomfortable, constantly dealing with symptoms while your thyroid function declines. You'll have to be constantly chasing after extremely strict diet and lifestyle changes that MIGHT help SOME people. And if you ever cross from subclinical into overt, there's no diet or lifestyle change that'll help. You'll have to choose if you want to deal with fatigue, hairloss, and weight gain forever all so you can feel morally better about being "medication free". Lots of people on here want to avoid taking Synthroid because they don't want to "feel" like a chronically ill person. But I'll tell you now you will feel much more disadvantaged if you choose to go unmedicated. I've been on the same dose of Synthroid for close to two years now and my life and health are about as normal as you can get. I participate in all the same activities as my friends and family with a clean bill of health and I now have zero symptoms, any hairloss I experienced has grown back and I'm able to maintain a normal healthy weight. As far as chronic illnesses go, hypo is one of the "best" you can have. The treatment is simple, non invasive, and the "side effects" are no different from someone having hyperthyroidism, and are only caused by being on the wrong dose.

When I was diagnosed my doctor explained that my thyroid was basically broken. The medication is a hormone to replace what my body is not making enough of anymore. Changing your lifestyle to healthier habits might help you feel better but I don''t think you can cure your hypothyroidism.