Most recent test results, comments welcome please

[Coachv]

Results from 16.07.2016

TSH below 0.010

Free T4 16 (Range 9-21)

Total T3 1.6 (Range 0.9-2.4)

Ferritin 111 (Range 20-300)

Serum folate 4.8 (range 2.8-20)

Vit B 12 561 (range 180-2000)

Need to ask for Free T3 test next time. As I was taking 110 mg Levo and 10 mg T3 assume the total T3 is not really accurate as it is dependent on when you took the tablet? I did not take any tabs on the morning of the test.

Folate seems a bit low. What is this and how to I remedy it?

thanks!

[greygoose]

FT3 is dependant on when you take the tablet, too. It is advisable to leave 12 hours between the last dose and the blood draw.

The problem with TT3 is that it measures both the Free T3 and the bound T3, without telling you how much of each. As the body cannot use the bound T3, there's not much point in measuring it.

Do these results date from the time you had problems with your heart? The TSH is suppressed, but that is totally irrelevant. It doesn't matter how low it goes, it doesn't have any effect on your heart, as Clutter pointed out in your last post - did you read the link she gave you? When you are taking a decent dose of T3 then your TSH is going to be suppressed. That's a scientific fact, but doctors just don't seem to know that.

You were hardly over-medicated with an FT4 just over mid-range. And the TT3 is not quite mid-range, so it's rather doubtful that the FT3 would be over-range. So, there doesn't seem much chance that the T3 caused your AF, does it?

Folate is a B vitamin. You could take 400 mcg methylfolate to bring it up, but better still, a B complex with 400 mcg methyfolate, and methylcobalamin (B12). It won't hurt your B12 to come up a bit, either.

[Coachv in reply to greygoose]

HI Thanks a lot for your comments. These results were from before, the AF arrived on 9 December. Thanks for the suggestions. I posted a couple of articles on the last post in response to Clutter's comments, that suggest there is a link between subclinical hyperthyroidism and Atrial fibrillation. It does depend on how the hyperthyroidism is defined of course - they define it as TSH suppressed I think.

Will try to get free T3 and 4 in my next test it I can.

[greygoose in reply to Coachv]

But, we're not talking about hyperthyroidism, we're talking about suppressed TSH. Hyperthyroidism, with over-range FT3, is not the same as suppressed TSH due to taking moderate doses of T3.

I don't know if it was in the same study, but somewhere I read that over-medication from taking T3 does not have the same effect on the body as over-production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland.