Following my earlier thread where I discussed having hypothyroidism symptoms but my NHS blood test gave a TSH of 2.53, 'normal' here are my private blood test (from Blue Horizon, who impressed me with their kit and response time):
My take on this is that my thyroid is within the accepted limits (a shame, I would have been delighted to find something that can be cured) and that I have an issue with low B12 that I need to see my GP about.
Again, thank you to everyone who has helped me on this.
StillStriving Yes, you're correct. Your thyroid results are within acceptable limits but they're not brilliant. Unfortunately nothing will be done for you by your GP because they are within range. Your TSH is a bit too high, your FT4 and FT3 too low.
As for your vitamins and minerals, there are some problems there and getting them all into optimal levels may help a bit.
B12 is way too low at 209. The Pernicious Anaemia Society recommends 1000. You can supplement with Solgar or Jarrows sublingual methylcobalamin lozenges 5000mcg daily for 2-3 months to get that level to top of range then reduce to 1000mcg daily as a maintenance dose.
When taking B12 we need a B Complex to balance the B vits. Thorne Basic B or Jarrows B Right are both good ones.
Your Vit D is also too low at 51. Recommended is 100-150. You can supplement with D3. I would take 5000iu daily for a couple of months then reduce to 5000iu alternate days as a maintenance dose. If you want to just retest your Vit D then City Assays do a fingerprick blood spot test for £28 vitamindtest.org.uk/vitamin... They recommend testing a couple of times a year when supplementing.
When taking D3 we also need K2-MK7. Vit D aids absorption of calcium from food and K2 directs it to bones and teeth rather than arteries and soft tissues. Magnesium is also a cofactor when taking D3 so we should take that as well. This should help in choosing a magnesium supplement naturalnews.com/046401_magn...
Also, your ferritin is is a bit low and should be half way through range. I think I have read that males should be higher in range than females so I would aim for a minimum of 200. Ferrous Fumarate or Ferrous Sulphate are fine if they don't upset your stomach or cause constipation, if they do then you should look for Iron Bisglycinate such as Solgar Gentle Iron. Take 1000mg Vit C with each iron tablet to aid absorption and help prevent constipation.
Hopefully supplementing will help but give it time as it's rarely a quick fix.
You potentially have a conversion problem because my understanding is that losing the outer third of the eyebrow/s suggests long-term hypothyroidism. You don't have Hashimoto's (as the majority of Hypo's do, but your T3 could be higher in the range (this would lower your TSH) and your T4 is low and should be in the upper quarter of the range.
Have a look at my profile which is similar to yours. I have had to resort to self-medicating on a combination of T4/T3 after a great deal of research and soul-searching.
Low B12 is turning out to be another painful and confusing dead-end as my GP's blood test gave a more normal result (305) , possibly because I'd not left enough time after stopping my self-supplementing.
I did a lot of research on hypothyroidism with 'normal' blood results to see if I were a 1-in-a-1000 patient - I have the symptoms of hypothyroidism, including low body temperature and the outer 1/3 of my eyebrows just teenagers' bum-fluff, and there is a possible family link as my brother had part of his thyroid removed - but only ended up confused and feeling dead-in-the-water. Leads went nowhere, into quackery or self-interest rather than objectivity.
I won't get anywhere with the NHS. I'd rather sell my TV to pay for a private endocrinologist than suffer on not knowing, if there is any chance that will work. Am I grasping at straws, likely to waste people's time, or is there still a chance that I have a thyroid issue that persistence will reveal? If the latter, are there any specialists in this issue?
Hi StillStriving Sorry, I didn't see your reply, I didn't get any notification. Just a tip, if you want the member to know you're replying to them, you need to do it within their message box and that sends them a notification. Another way is to put @ in front of their user name (but no space between) and again they get notification that they have been mentioned
When supplementing with B12 then retesting is pretty useless. You'd need to be off the supplement for five months to get a true result. But even 305 should have alerted your GP to the fact that it is low but it just proves they know nothing about nutrition. Anything under 500 can cause neurological problems so just continue with supplementing the 5000mcg sublingual methylcobalamin lozenges daily for the next 2-3 months then reduce to 1000mcg as maintenance.
You have a couple of choices.
1) Find a private doctor/endocrinologist who will help. Any endo who also works within the NHS will most likely follow the normal guidelines. You could email louise.roberts@thyroiduk.org.uk and ask for the list of thyroid friendly doctors, see if there are any you can travel to and ask on the forum for feedback. You will probably need a referral from your GP.
2) See someone like Dr Peatfield who doesn't prescribe but 'advises'. He has a lifetime of experience treating the thyroid, is hypothyroid himself, but gave up his licence years ago after being hounded by the NHS. Unfortunately he doesn't enjoy the best of health at the moment so I don't know whether it's possible to get an appointment with him. I think he has now stopped his outreach clinics and operates from his base in Crawley, happy to be corrected.
3) Find a functional doctor. I think I've seen some posts recently so it may be worth starting a new thread about how you can go forward with your results.
4) Self medicate with self sourced thyroid hormone - natural or synthetic. You'd need to continue with self testing. Many members self medicate as a last resort and can help.
By the way, I don't agree with Musicmonkey that you have a conversion problem. Good conversion takes place when the FT4:FT3 ratio is 4:1 or less. Your ratio is 3.33 : 1 (14.83÷4.44). Also, even though your FT3 is low, so is your FT4 but you can see that some conversion is taking place. Your FT4 is 28.2% through it's range and FT3 is 36.2% through it's range. FT3 is higher in it's range than FT4 is in it's range. If conversion wasn't taking place then FT3 would be lower than FT4.
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Blood test results - please advise.
Results with T3 and 50mg T4
Blood test results (again)
