Advice on bloods

[Nataliefahey]

Advice on results from endo, tsh 1.74, ft4 16.4, ft3 4.7, been on levothyroxine at 100mcg since may 17 diagnosed on my birthday 🎂, I was severe undiagnosed for two years with lots on doctors appointments, when they did do the thyroid blood test again my tsh was 100, ft4 unmeasurable, I still feel unwell, muscle aches, heavy tired. Breathing difficulties, the only thing that has changed is my weight I've gone from 10 stone to 8 and half, also another big symptom I have is my memory, anxious, social anxiety, I'm a different person from over two years ago, I was able to walk into a party full of people and be super confident not even thinking about it, now I'm nervous, paranoid can hold a proper conversation, uneasy with eye contact, I just want to be a little bit like who I was before the illness, should I be patient with the levothyroxine or should I look into different possible causes for my ongoing symptoms, my vits are all good, I take magnesium, calcium, selenium. B12 complex, probiotic, malic acid for pain. Thanks Natalie

[greygoose]

Do you have ranges for those results? The numbers mean nothing without the ranges.

Did you have your vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested? What were the results? People often say their vits are good, but when we look at the numbers, they turn out to be not so good at all.

Which type of magnesium are you taking? Did you get tested for B12 and folate before starting the B complex - seems strange to just take a B complex. Why are you taking calcium??? That's not a good thing to take.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Nataliefahey You said in your previous thread that you are Hashimoto's. Have you looked into that and are you addressing it?

Most Hashi's patients have found that going 100% gluten free (absolutely no cheating whatsoever) helps enormously. Gluten contains gliadin which is a protein that triggers the autoimmune attacks.

Also, some people need to be dairy free. Supplementing with selenium and keeping TSH low also help reduce the attacks.

As doctors don't seem to know much about thyroid disease, and virtually nothing about Hashi's, then we have to educate ourselves if we have any hope of feeling better. Check out the following

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

stopthethyroidmadness.com/h...

stopthethyroidmadness.com/h...

[radd]

Natalie,

Doctors think replacing the missing thyroid hormone will just make us better but when low thyroid hormone has been experienced long term, it can affect other hormones drastically & these can hinder the thyroid hormone replacement from working well.

If I was you (with weight loss & feeling anxious, nervous and unable to sit still) I would be looking at adrenal health as when our adrenal glands are constantly required to sustain high cortisol levels (to compensate for low thyroid hormone), they eventually become stuck on producing this high level (until levels are depleted). Any long term stress to the body, whether it is physical, emotional, psychological, environmental or illness can impact both the adrenal and thyroid hormone pathway, affecting the biochemical pathway that ultimately produces healthy levels of T3.

Constant high levels of cortisol can eventually result in the wrong response to our short-term stress but can also impair our adrenals’ ability to produce and balance other hormones which are just as important to our well-being ( DHEA, oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, etc).

Anxiety and unable to keep still are classic symptoms are high cortisol levels. These can measured using the Genova Stress Test - link below.

A doctor usually offers a 9am blood test to measure cortisol but this will not distinguish between the TOTAL & FREE amount available for biological use.

Do you have ranges for thyroid test results above ?

Have you had Vit B12, Vit D, folate & ferritin tested. Optimal results are required for thyroid hormone replacement meds to work well in many.

Good advice from SeasideSusie above, re autoimmune disease management.

.

Saliva Stress Test (test ref END01)

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Four saliva tests that measure the available "active" cortisol (& DHEA) secreted at set times over a 24 hours period. The results will allow you to see any imbalances in the daily circadian pattern so enabling use of correcting supplements to aid your adrenal health. Unfortunately this test is not generally used or recognised by GP's.

The cost is £77.00 which is a discounted price for THyroidUK when code A42AQ is used.

gdx.net/uk/product/27