Lab Results making sense of it all

[Gre3nVine]

I've got the results for over the past couple of years for my labs concerning possible thyroid related issues.

A couple of months ago

T4 Free [0.75-1.54 ng/dL]1.16 ng/dL

TSH [0.47-4.68 mIU/L] 1.55 mIU/L

Hgb A1c [4.0-5.9 %] 5.1 %

WBC [4.8-10.8 x10(3)/mcL]4.5 x10(3)/mcL

RBC [4.70-6.10 x10(6)/mcL 5.22 x10(6)/mcL

Neutro Auto [50.0-75.0 %] 48.3 %

Mono Auto [3.0-10.0 %]11.5 %

ADH<1.0 pg/mL 1

T3 Total [76-181 ng/dL]81 ng/dL 2

Earlier read outs for TSH

1.54 mIU/L

1.90 mIU/L

1.76 mIU/L

The reason for all of this is that about a few years ago, I started noticing that my skin, face body was drying out. My skin gets so dry sometimes that it stings and I am in pain when I have to shave my face, or get a hair cut. I will wake up in the morning with healthy hairs on my pillow and eventually everywhere in my bedroom all over my dresser, sheets, etc. My pubic hair and armpit hair has been following the same pattern. It made me nervous because I knew something was wrong.

I haven't been able to go back any farther than what I have posted concerning TSH, since this health system has only recently started an online health portal. Point is that the common thread that I'm seeing here is that my Vit D has been low. Earlier this year, I went on a 50,000 unit prescription dosage of Vit D. A week after the first dosage, I felt great. I was fine up till the 4th out of 8 dosages I was supposed to take weekly. I started to have trouble sleeping, I would get really warm in the middle of the night and wake up with sweats. Even after stopping the tablets altogether, for about two weeks, I had trouble sleeping. Eventually it subsided. When I asked why that was happening, my doc couldn't even give me an answer, she just sidestepped my question. All she told me was that my Vit D levels were too low and to take the 2500 Unit over the counter version.

In the meantime though, I've been prone to severe cases of constipation things like, if I eat food that is too heavy in carbs or sugars (pasta, pizza, even enchilladas) I will dehydrate immensely after eating and feel like I want to fall asleep. Even after just a single portion. If I have something like orange juice, one of my hands will get scaly between my fingers and start to peel. Drinking water really doesn't help at all.

I was then given a Glucose Tolerance test, which apparently startled my doctor.

My blood was drawn 4 times over the course of three hours. Here are the results.

Glu 1/2 Hr [65.0-140.0 mg/dL]153.0 mg/dL

Glu 1 Hr [65.0-140.0 mg/dL]117.0 mg/dL

Glu 2 Hr [65-140 mg/dL] 79 mg/dL

Glu 3 Hr [65-140 mg/dL] 34 mg/dL 1

Not sure what to make of all of this. I've heard that you can't just suddenly be hypoglycemic, but that there would have to be a direct cause. Is this true? Is there a connection between your body's glycose levels and a potential endocrine/hormone issue?

[Clutter]

Gre3nVine, TSH 1.55 and FT4 1.16 which is over half way through range, are quite normal for someone not taking thyroid replacement and don't indicate a thyroid problem.

Although some hypothyroid patients have low/deficient vitamin D, being vitD deficient doesn't mean you have low thyroid. If you are not comfortable with vitD tablets, you might try D3 capsules, drops or spray.

I suggest you ask for a coeliac screen to see whether you are gluten intolerant as this may be why you have discomfort after eating pasta and pizza etc. If the screen is negative you may have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity and may benefit from trying a 3 month 100% gluten-free trial. Eradicating gluten if it is an irritant will improve your digestion and possibly your dry skin problems too.

I hope someone will be able to advise re the glucose results and hypoglycaemia.

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I am not a medical professional and this information is not intended to be a substitute for medical guidance from your own doctor. Please check with your personal physician before applying any of these suggestions.

[gabkad]

Gre3nVine, when you had the 3 hour GTT done, at the end of it, you must have been feeling quite ill. Shakey? Nausea? Anything like that? Afterwards when you left the lab what did you do? Eat or drink something?

Even though it's even more sickmaking, a 5 hr GTT may be a good idea. Why? Because for some reason your stomach absorbs glucose but your beta cells in the pancreas are not triggered prior to the glucose going into the blood to produce insulin. Usually a small peptide molecule is produced by the stomach to tell the beta cells "glucose coming" so insulin begins to be secreted even before any significant amount of glucose enters the blood stream.

Then your beta cells overshot the amount of insulin secreted and your blood glucose plummeted. This is a pre-diabetic situation and you'll need to modify your diet, lose some weight possibly. Even though your HbA1c is totally normal, this only indicates that most of the time you are not experiencing high blood glucose levels.

It would be interesting to have a 5 hour GTT because your liver needs to kick in producing glucose from glycogen when blood glucose levels go low. Does it? We don't know.

What you could do is get your own glucosemeter and test your blood glucose responses to various foods and meal types.

[Gre3nVine in reply to gabkad]

The thing is im not overweight,at all. I eat pretty healthy and ive even lost wieght all things considered. I do not have a history of diabeetes in my family either.

[gabkad in reply to Gre3nVine]

Something's not right. Your blood sugar shouldn't go that high or that low. Use a glucosemeter to learn about what is going on in your body. Modify your diet according to data you obtain.