Levothyroxine replacement and Ramadan fasting

Abstract

Primary hypothyroidism is a common endocrine diseases and in recent times with increased awareness of thyroid diseases among internists, gynecologists and primary care physicians the number of patients with thyroid dysfunction seems increasing. During Ramadan, often patients find it difficult to administer levothyroxine on empty stomach since they may not wake up so early, so in this article suggestion has been given to take it at bed time. We conducted a prospective observational study during this year's holy month of Ramadan on patients enrolled from our thyroid clinic who had hypothyroidism and decided to undertake fasting. Our aim was to study the impact of bed time levothyroxine on TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels.