Do Thyroid Disorders Cause Forgetfulness and Brain Fog?

Understand that synthroid dosing adjustment and/or continued treatment may reduce feelings of irritability. However, if you know that you need to take synthroid, but the irritability is difficult to tolerate, discuss a potential concomitant psychiatric agent (e.g. an anxiolytic) to offset this side effect. If you’re experiencing insomnia, you may derive benefit from sedative/hypnotic supplements and/or Z-drugs (pharmaceutical sleeping pills).

Participant-Reported Lifestyle and Thyroid Hormone Factors That Modified the Symptoms of Brain Fog

Mice with the Thr92Ala polymorphism show decreased physical activity, sleep more, and take more time to memorize objects, a measure of short-term memory. T3-responsive genes in brain areas show decreased T3 effects in these mice, and the behavioral deficits are improved more with LT4/LT3 than LT4 monotherapy (16,57). Furthermore, it is necessary to consider that hot flashes may occur due to the fact that your body hasn’t fully adjusted to the drug. Also consider that if you experience recurrent hot flashes for a span of months after taking synthroid, it could be a sign that your body is unable to tolerate an exogenously-administered, synthetic hormone.

• That possibility is entirely unexplored but would not explain brain fog symptoms in non-autoimmune hypothyroidism.
• Deficits in cognitive function may be caused by too high of a synthroid dosage, leading to anxiety and inability to focus.
• In the first question, participants reported any factors (eg, behaviors and medications) that made brain fog symptoms better or worse.
• If you think you have brain fog from medication (taken for a thyroid issue or other health issue), talk to your doctor about alternatives.

What Is Hypothyroidism?

• The average age was about 50 years-old, almost all were women and about half had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis as the cause of their hypothyroidism.
• The complaint of brain fog in patients with hypothyroidism may signify a state of persistent hypothyroidism despite treatment.
• Co-existing medical problems such as obesity, iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, and sleep and mood disorders, which are common in the general population and hypothyroid people, should be diagnosed and treated.

In that case, it would not be surprising that symptoms do not abate when hypothyroidism is treated. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis focused on cognitive function in long-term patients with thyroid cancer treated for hypothyroidism following cancer therapy (47). Patients had worse cognitive function in the areas of attention and concentration, processing speed, and language. Survivors of thyroid cancer are a distinct subgroup of treated hypothyroid people, since they have a history of cancer in addition to hypothyroidism, and are often treated with higher doses of LT4 than hypothyroid people with benign conditions. These issues make it difficult to generalize the results to people with benign causes of hypothyroidism, so should be studied separately.

Assuming you absolutely need synthroid to treat hypothyroidism (no other options work), but are experiencing disconcerting mood swings, you may need to consider an adjuvant psychiatric medication to manage these negative emotions. Since the thyroid and ovaries are interconnected with the endocrine system, it makes sense that altering thyroid hormone has menstrual implications. Women may also notice that it takes days (or in some cases) weeks longer to have their period. This is an underreported side effect, but one that female synthroid users are likely to notice. A loss of hair can take a toll on self-esteem, lead synthroid users to feel embarrassed about their appearance, and ultimately cause depression. Fortunately, hair loss is considered a transient side effect and should eventually subside by the fourth or fifth month of treatment.

What Is “Brain Fog”?

This form of active thyroid hormone has synthroid antidote replaced desiccated thyroid extract (DTE) in clinical practice. T4 is converted to T3 by the body’s peripheral tissues, and most people do not need to take T3 thyroid hormone (liothyronine). These disappointing clinical trials indicate that the debate of whether or how tissue hypothyroidism in the brain contributes to cognitive dysfunction in humans is not resolved. Finally, when patients were queried regarding treatment preference in these trials, 43% preferred combined therapy, 23% preferred monotherapy, and 30% had no preference (16), suggesting that we may not be measuring everything that patients experience. For these reasons, future trials should incorporate treatment preference as an outcome, and further clinical research efforts should incorporate methods to assess tissue hypothyroidism in the central nervous system, perhaps utilizing functional imaging. For those that have experienced side effects from synthroid, share any strategies you’ve found beneficial for reducing them (e.g. using another medication).

Additional Factors Related to Patient-Reported Brain Fog Symptoms in Treated Hypothyroidism

On the other hand, some side effects that may have been nonexistent over a short-term, may only emerge after an extended, long-term of synthroid treatment. Always realize that co-ingested substances can either cause contraindications (interactions), as well as potentiate or mitigate various neurophysiological responses to synthroid. Be sure to review the dosages of the co-administered substances as well as times of administration with a medical doctor to minimize likelihood of interaction-based side effects. Prior to taking another drug and/or supplement with synthroid, discuss potential contraindications with a medical professional.

Medical documentation indicates that synthroid is to be administered as a single dose, once daily. This dose is suggested to be administered in the morning, at least minutes prior to eating breakfast. Additionally, synthroid is recommended to be taken at least 4 hours prior to any other drugs or supplements, especially those that are known to interfere with its absorption. Achy muscles may interfere with your ability to exercise regularly, which in turn may further compromise your overall health – and especially the health of your muscles. Muscle aches may be one of many possible reactions generated by the body as a signal that the exogenous substance is difficult to tolerate. An easy way to test this is to go off of synthroid or try another medication and reassess the pain.

It blocks a key enzyme to this process (Na-K-ATPase) and activates acetylcholinesterase, which breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. In a small trial on 19 people with hypothyroidism, over 50% had delayed brain signal transmission 16, 17. The main effect of low thyroid hormone and high TSH levels on the brain is a size reduction in the region that controls memory and learning (hippocampus). Hypothyroidism prevents the birth and branching of brain cells, and their ability to form and strengthen connections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

However, with continued administration and dosage calibration, a user’s neurophysiology adapts to the presence of synthroid and side effects (e.g. hair loss) subside after several months. Deficits in cognitive function may be caused by too high of a synthroid dosage, leading to anxiety and inability to focus. If you struggle with attention, critical thinking, planning, and problem solving after taking synthroid – there’s a good chance it’s from the medication. To confirm that cognitive dysfunction is being caused by synthroid, it may be useful to employ cognitive assessments prior to treatment and reassess cognition during treatment. If you experience a worsening of brain fog from synthroid, you’ll want to work with your doctor to adjust the dosage, consider alternative medications, and/or adjunctive treatments.

That possibility is entirely unexplored but would not explain brain fog symptoms in non-autoimmune hypothyroidism. The term brain fog is broadly used to describe what individuals experience when their cognitive functioning is not as sharp as usual, but there is no standard definition nor diagnostic criteria. The term is applied to a symptom complex that has been described in various ways in the literature but always involves some level of cognitive dysfunction. Cognitive dysfunction can be assessed through patient report (e.g., symptom questionnaire) or objective performance-based tests. These two approaches are complimentary, as they measure overlapping but nonidentical variables.