Help with my friend lab results...

[Cavalli13]

Hi everyone

A friend of mine is taking 75mcg of levo since 2 months ago, at first she didnt notice any negative or positive effects but she was fine. She has tsh of 6 and she started from 25 mcg to 75 mcg in aprox 2 months and a half..

2 weeks ago she had a problem at work and when she came home she call me saying that she was not feeling great, she had terrible dizziness, headhaches, palpitations, so we went to the hospital she was scared..

She had high blood pressure and the doctor said that she had vertigo...

We explained that she was taking levo that maybe she was hyper or something but they refused to test her...

Finally her gp did the test and the results are

Tsh <0.01 (0.4-4.5)

Free T4 1.73 (0.85-1.8)

Free T3 4.2 (2.5-4.4)

Is she hyper??? She is considering to stop the medication completly and I am trying to not let her to do it, she will feel better at first bu then will be worst..

Many thanks for your great help

[Marz]

Does she have Hashimotos ? Could be a hyper phase .....

Levels of Ferritin - Folate - B12 - VitD - Iron ? - how are they ?

What did her GP say ?

[Cavalli13 in reply to Marz]

She has hashimotos but when she started the treatment They didnt test her antibodies,now she has >1500 so we cant know if is a reaction or if she had it as high as now before.

Her ferritin is low and iron too but she is taking floravital twice a day with 1000mcg vitamin c , she is taking vitamin d and b12 too with a b complex thorne , she is gluten free since two months ago...I dont know how to help her..

[Cavalli13 in reply to Marz]

Her gp said that the results are ok so it could be another issue. She is really worried about the dizzines she cant stay up or do anything up more than ten minutes... She cant focus on anything because she get the dizziness really hard... They will do a brain scan and the gp said that they will check her heart too because it could be the reason..

[Marz in reply to Cavalli13]

I wonder how much B12 she is taking ? - also how much VitD ?

I too have Hashimotos and the anti-bodies back in 2005 were way over a 1000. This year is the first year they have reduced considerably and I have been Gluten Free for 3 years. Everything takes time - especially healing the gut.

If her Ferritin and Iron are low then that could well be the cause of the headches - dizziness - palpitations and so on. Iron is transported around the body in the red blood cells. Oxygen is transported around the body to ALL cells - heart - brain - lungs and so on - by sticking to the iron in the red blood cells so ......

Low iron = Low Oxygen so when the body /brain/heart etc receive reduced levels of oxygen then the symptoms you have mentioned can happen.

Iron is often discussed on this forum and I am not an expert - so type Iron Supplements into the Search Thyroid UK - at the top of the page - Press Enter - and loads of earlier posts will appear.

Of course it is good she is having further checks - but do not forget the basics ....

[bluebug in reply to Cavalli13]

Exactly how low are her iron, ferritin and B12?

Low levels of all of them individually are linked to dizziness.

If she has iron deficiency anaemia than the iron supplements she is taking is inadequate to raise her blood levels quickly.

[Olsbird]

She absolutely should not just stop taking it. I'd discuss with the dr but if it were me id drop the dosage down by 25 mcg\day and see how I felt then. It's easy to think it's the levo which is why I'd a!so discuss with the doc as she may have something else causing these issues.

I have many issues with side effects - 😥- and I'd say where I've felt unwell and dropped the dosage I've started to feel improvement in 24 hours although it has taken a couple of weeks for all issues to go away completely.

Also check if her brand changed shortly before she felt unwell. People can react to different brands because of the fillers or generally just feel less well on certain brands.

[Cavalli13]

Many thanks for all your replies, I will visit her today and I will explained all this issues.

She is taking 1000mcg B12 sublingual solgar with thorne b complex, but maybe the iron in floravital is not enough for her...

I think her ferritin was 14 (12-150ng/ml) too low, so I will suggest her to drop 25mcg her dose and change her iron brand as soon as possible...

Probably this is the main problem..

Many thanks for all your help

[greygoose in reply to Cavalli13]

That might not be enough B12. How low was her result? She could try upping it to 5000 for a while, to see if she improves. You can't over-dose on B12 because it's water-soluble.

[Cavalli13 in reply to greygoose]

Her B12 was 200, but I will suggest her to try to up her dose of B12 too. Today she is better she has dropped her dose to 25 mcg and she has upped iron.

Many thanks for your help and ypur quick replies!

[greygoose in reply to Cavalli13]

Oh, yes! That's very low! 1000 is not nearly enough to take. To start with, I would take a couple of 5000 mcgs a day, to get it up quickly. It's dangerous that low.