It's fine to post anything you like - obviously within the guidelines
Doctors are badly trained in that they believe once on levothyroxine (which is the only one to be prescribed in the UK by NHS) anywhere in the range is fine and many stop increasing. Wrong - the aim for the patient is to have a TSH of 1 or lower and a FT4 and FT3 towards the higher end of the range - rarely are these tested.
Levothyroxine is T4 only. It's job is to convert to T3. T4 is levothyroxine (thyroxine) and T3 is liothyronine. T3 is the only Active hormone which is needed in the billions of our receptor cells, the brain contains the most and heart depends on it to function normally. Sometimes too low a dose and we feel our heart acting up a bit. Too much and it will be too fast and we'll feel hyper.
I don't think height or weight can be used for 'optimum' as some people need quite low doses and others need higher ones, particularly if someone is Thyroid Hormone Resistant. I think that once diagnosed we don't really need many blood tests as it is how the 'dose' affects us and once raised high enough to eliminate symptoms, that's our optimum and we feel well.
And we should all be tested when well to find our healthy golden number, that is different for everyone, so that if we succumb to thyroid problems then meds can be prescribed until that magic number is reached. I really, really mean this. It would save the NHS and worldwide personal cost traipsing backwards and forwards to surgeries feeling ill and coming up against so much grief. Not to mention the knock on illnesses thyroid problems cause that then need to be treated. Of course the human cost in lives half lived and the effect on families is more important.
"The local cost of a standard TSH test is Β£1.67 (to which must be added the costs of phlebotomy, transport, and clinic time). Nationally, 10 million thyroid function tests are requested each year, at a cost of over Β£30 million to the NHS."
North East Lincolnshire Β£1.68 for TSH plus FT4 if required.
North Devon Β£0.97 for TSH plus FT4 if required (cost in 2015/16)
Then I stopped looking.
No real financial reason not to bring in some kind of routine baseline testing when compared to the cost of some other services offered.
Poor training and lack of understanding. Unfortunately many doctors think anywhere within range, no matter how low or high, is good and don't consider individual requirements within those ranges. My optimal FT3 is >4.5 in a range 3.5 - 6.5 but others would feel very symptomatic and require FT3 6.0 - 6.5 to feel well so our optimal is very different.
That made me laugh Gcart Random thoughts can be very funny. I'm picturing my late aunt and uncle, he was 6'2" and she was 4'10". His shoe size was 14, hers was 2. Thank you for bringing back some lovely memories for me today, it's my birthday and I'm on my own except for the dog and some Ferrero Rocher (present ).
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