I recently got my thyroid levels checked. In the past 3years I have experienced hair loss/thinning, fatigue, significant facial weight loss ect. Also my metabolism seems WAY too fast, i eat a lot for a person of my weight/height but cannot gain weight. I already know my vitamin D levels are low and i take supplements for that. I'm hoping the thin gaunt appearance isnt genetic :(... From what i can see my results are completely normal, but i will be grateful if anyone can have another look.
Thanks
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e1296
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The only two other things I would recommend on these results is getting your vitamin B12 and folate up. Take a good B complex tablet if you aren't doing so.
Investigate, if possible, whether any other blood relation has similar problems regardless of their age as it may give you an idea of what other tests you should have.
Where I am you are classed as having severe vitamin D deficiency. This would explain your hair loss, fatigue and some of your other symptoms. However it doesn't explain your weight loss.
I hope you have been given a high Ioading dose or are on 10,000IU of vitamin D3 per day for 12 weeks. If not you need to change doctors.
Yes thats exactly what the GP prescribed, it has helped with the leg cramps and general weakness. But the weight issue remains a mystery. Anyway, thanks for your help.
Not being able to gain weight is unusual for someone who appears to be heading towards hypothyroidism.
Both your Free T4 and your Free T3 are well below mid-range suggesting you might be heading for being hypothyroid. Most of us feel best with Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper half of the range and possibly even the top third or quarter.
The only thing I can suggest - and can I stress this really is just speculation :
You don't have enough Free T4 and Free T3 for you to feel well. Symptoms of hypothyroidism can show up years before it shows up reliably in the blood.
When the thyroid starts to fail the body starts to compensate for the lack of thyroid hormone if it can. One of those ways is to boost cortisol and adrenaline. Perhaps your body has increased these for you and has over-compensated. Too much adrenaline would make it hard to gain weight, too much cortisol could suppress your pituitary and thus your TSH, lowering your thyroid output.
Another thing that can happen when your adrenaline and cortisol are high is that it has an impact on your sex hormone levels.
See this short video to see what happens when your body goes through chronic stress, either physical or mental. Note that epinephrine is the US name for adrenaline.
You would need to do some cortisol testing to find out if this has any relevance to you. Being low in essential vitamins and minerals could raise physiological stress. Poor sleep and a poor diet would do the same. Too much exercise would not be good either.
There are two types of cortisol testing available.
Blood test : The NHS do a single blood test, usually first thing in the morning. If you get this done, arrange for it to be done as early in the day as possible, don't eat before it, and only drink water.
Saliva test : There is a company called Genova Diagnostics UK who do saliva testing for cortisol.
Note that the blood and saliva tests are not measuring the same thing - cortisol is found in the body mainly bound up with carrier proteins (?), but some is unbound as well. The unbound cortisol is what is available to the body for use at any particular time. The blood test measures bound + unbound cortisol and doesn't differentiate between the two. In saliva only the unbound is found and measured.
Back to testing...
Saliva testing requires four saliva samples to be produced at set times throughout the day. The samples are frozen and sent back to the company through the post.
Saliva testing is not carried out by the NHS and they insist that only a single blood test is required to tell them everything they need to know about cortisol, unless they are testing for Cushing's Disease during the middle of the night when they use saliva testing because it is more convenient for them.
There is a circadian rhythm to cortisol production. You can have good levels when you wake up, high levels at lunch, normal levels at dinner time and low levels at bed time or any other combination you can think of. A single blood test won't tell you any of this.
For a blood cortisol test, ask your doctor. They might or might not agree.
For info on saliva testing and any possible discounts :
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