Help interpreting bloods please

[lauriegraham]

Hello

First time poster. Asking for thoughts.

I am 63 yrs old, 5 ft 8 ‘ish, about 145 pounds

, reasonably fit

High ldl, doc wanted me on statins, usual story

Mainly lchf-light but not as lc nor hf as many ..

Other health issues.. poor circulation (raynaulds?), wondering about thyroid

General blood results in UK measures below

Total ldl 8.1 mmol/l

Trigs 1mmol

HDL 2.5

LDL 5.1

cholestorol/hdl 3.2

Haemoglobin A1C 5.4% .. 35 mmol

Thyroid stimulating hormone 1.9 miU/L

Free t4 12.3 pmol/L (Low???)

Creatine kinase 185 (I take some every day if that makes a difference?)

Glucose 5.9 mmol/L (but bloods taken soon after eating)

Liver .. Bilirubin 6umol/L

Alkaline phosphatase 67 IU/L

Alanine transaminase 20 IU/L

Albumin 47 g/L

Renal profile

Sodium 137 mmol/L

Potassium 4.5 mmol/L

Creatinine 114 umol/L

Estimated GFR 58.

Lipoprotein (a) <7 nmol?L

Apolipoprpotein A1 1.99 g?l

Apolipoproptein b100 1.38 g?l

any help gratefully received, much of the above is beyond my understanding

thanks

[Midori]

Hello,

I'm really sorry, but we are not medically qualified, so I very much doubt we can help you with this. We are just a group of people who are looking to lose weight and improve our fitness.

Your GP is the best person to ask.

Cheers, Midori

[moreless]

Hi and welcome, grahammus

I'm no expert, but I'm sure TheAwfulToad will be able to help. Here are a few things for you to check out in the meantime:

zoeharcombe.com/2015/03/wor...

diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_car...

It is possible for an underactive thyroid to give raised blood sugar and cholesterol levels and the people to ask about those results are here healthunlocked.com/thyroiduk

Wishing you all the best

[lauriegraham in reply to moreless]

really helpful thanks .. defiitely need to explore thyroid and free t4 is low it seems. appreciate your input

[Subtle_badger]

Rather than asking us to analyse everything, I'm going to suggest you do what I did with mine. Google each test, and find a reliable explanation of what each value means. I analysed mine over several months.

A good example in my case is hba1c. First I found out what it means. It's the amount of sugar that is clinging to your haemoglobin. As haemoglobin lasts about 3 months, it's basically and average of your blood sugar over the last 3 months. It's a much more reliable measure than a single blood glucose, especially non-fasting. Mine was 38 mmol, which is well below the NHS threshold for pre-diabetes, but I found on googling that it was only one point below the threshold for pre-diabetes at the mayo clinic. I realised that it was 3 points higher than it had been 3 years earlier, so maybe I would be pre-diabetic by either measure next time. Further research showed me that the line graphing a1c to CVD is straight. That is, going from 35 to 38 increasing my risk by the same amount as going from say 39 to 42,but the latter will give a diagnosis of pre-diabetes. Pre-diabetes and diabetes diagnosis are arbitrary; they just pick too arbitrary points on a graph and give them names. There is nothing special about those points, and different countries pick different points. Blood glucose is like oxygen; any amount of oxygen causes oxidation, so you want to get enough oxygen, but if possible not much more. Similarly any amount of blood glucose causes glycation, so you want enough to not be hypoglycaemic but no more.

My GP would never raise any of this with me. It didn't trigger their alarm thresholds, so if I hadn't found the leisure to google, we would have both sat back and waited until it reached 42 in a year or 2, diagnose me with pre-diabetes and presumably prescribe metformin. I am pretty sure looking at my risk factors, that this amount of glucose caused me irreparable harm, even though it was "satisfactory"

Well, all that is actually pretty irrelevant to you! Your a1c looks pretty good, and a long way below either threshold. If it's not increasing, I would think you should be fine. And the blood glucose I think is good for post prandial.

[lauriegraham in reply to Subtle_badger]

that is very helpful, good advice, and thanks for taking the time

[Hidden]

Hi, come over to the thyroid forum and show them your results. The only thing, you would need to add ranges as every lab is different.

You’d be very welcome. Di

[lauriegraham]

thanks Hylda, i think i am on my way over (!) but assume i need a fuller thyroid panel first?

[Hidden in reply to lauriegraham]

If you’re in the U.K. your doctor won’t give you one. Di

[lauriegraham]

yes, getting my wallet ready to be emptied!