Blood test results help please!

Hi I have posted on here a few times in the past weeks as I have been feeling so rubbish - fatigue/depression/achey joints/fuzzy head to name a few. Three doctors had insisted I take antidepressants but thanks to people on here, I have resisted as I know this isn't just depression (I was feeling at my wits end with being so exhausted and it makes you feel really depressed when you can't get the energy to get out of bed!) Anyway, I am still having to wait until August for the next TSH test (this was 4.2 back in April), but have finally got other results. Again, thanks to the good advice I felt more able to push for having these tested.

Ferritin 17

Vit B12 541

Folate 14.3

FSH normal (so presumably not menopausal)

I'm not sure what to make of these, but have been told these are normal.

I took it upon myself after this blood test to take Vitabiotics Ferraglobin to see if it helped (desperate to try anything!) Now I'm not sure what this means, but with 7 days taking, I feel great - today for the first time in months, I can think straight again. I feel like I have my brain power back, and although I am tired, I feel OK, not totally stuck to the sofa. I've been laughing at things too. My friend commented today that I seem happier than recently - I hadn't realised, but I haven't 'enjoyed' things for a long time. Even my little boy has said that it was nice today as he felt mummy was less shouty (major guilt there then!)

I'm a bit puzzled as why could just some vitamins make me feel so much better and does this mean it's not an underactive thyroid?!? All I do know is that I am SO glad not to have taken the antidepressants, as I don't think their side-effects would have helped me at all....

[ivy77]

Never take antidepressants!! Even if your life depends on it, its huge freakin mistake, i know, have seen person destroyed by it! Depressioin is a sign of inflamations in the body and as you noticed lack of energy! So root cause must be treated and thats mainly vitamin mineral deficiency coupled with bad metabolism, coming from underactive thyroid ...so yes supplements canmake you feel good

[Clutter in reply to ivy77]

Ivy, antidepressants have their place in treatment regimes, but not, I agree, instead of treating hypothyroid symptoms with thyroid hormone replacement.

[ivy77 in reply to Clutter]

Tja that is even less understood subject then thyroid, and i have read many docs who say evry such state can be treated effectively with thyroid hormones, so i say no to it, i ve seen a person ending up in such a state taking antidepressive meds is for terminal phase patients if you ask me ....but sure i should not say such a firm statement lol some psychiatrists would freak out lol, and there is even greater mess in treatment then thyroid .......thyroid treatment was one of the best medicine sucesses in 19th century...if you just go by logic.....and you see how misstreated it is now..what makes you believe that psychiatry that uses no lab test for anything, no brain scan for any single disease is more to the point? Just use logic. Not to mention big pharma!

[hose1975 in reply to ivy77]

Oh, how I want to bang my head against the desk every time someone says 'big pharma'! Still, to each their own. Most of today's anti-d's are generic and have been for some time. Not much money to be made there. Other areas of pharmacology? Maybe. But I don't believe it's all an evil conspiracy by the drugs companies to medicate us to within an inch of our lives; all of these products are unbelievably beneficial if given to those who actually need them. (As opposed to being handed out like smarties.)

[hose1975 in reply to ivy77]

I think it's a bit of an overstatement to say 'never take antidepressants'. I have to take them, and lithium, to function normally EVEN WITH my TSH and fT4 at optimum levels. Sometimes they are very necessary and in some situations they can, quite literally, be a lifesaver.

[ivy77 in reply to hose1975]

but you did not check your ft3?....some antidepressants taken over the years can casue some serious hyponatremia! so they come at good price....

there are many studies done on the use of t3 in treating all sorts of pshysomatic conditions....

[Clutter]

Rich, low vits can make you feel rubbish. B12 and folate look good but your ferritin is very low. Take each dose of iron with 500mg-1,000mg vitamin C to aid absorption. It will take several months to build your ferritin to 70-90. Ask for vitamin D to be tested when you have your next thyroid bloods which should be early in the morning when TSH is highest.

[Marz]

I would like to mention that although the result for B12 looks adequate - you have to consider that only 20% of the blood test result is available to eventually reach the cells where it is needed....hence why it needs to be at the TOP of the range.... The range in Japan starts at 500 and goes to 1300.

b12deficiency.info/signs-an...

Please take the time to read the above link to see how important B12 is. Mal-absorption seems to affect so many people today as we have seen such huge changes in our diets over the last 50 years....liver and onions anyone ?

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Thanks so much to everyone on here - you have all been an enormous help, and have stopped me from going insane! I never realised that Drs could know so little (and yet claim to know so much!)

Keep up the support - it is keeping me going and hopefully will help me get the right diagnosis eventually! It is just so nice to feel a little bit more normal again!

Regards