Previously I've had fantastic help from people on this site and now I’d be very grateful if someone could help me with the results from my first Medichecks test please. I’ve been on T3 only for approximately 12 years and take two 25µg tablets a day, one early morning and the other early in the afternoon. The blood was taken at around 1pm, which was deliberate because I had the test purely for my own information and don’t intend to show the results to my GP. I feel ok and have never had any problems taking T3. Although I expected the TSH and T4 to be low I am a little surprised at how quite how low they’ve gone. The doctor’s comments from Medichecks said I have Hashimoto’s, which is news to me as a couple of years ago my GP told me I didn’t. Perhaps it’s developed since then?
Antibodies fluctuate, so it could be that last time they were tested, they were low, and your doctor thought you didn't have it. Now, they're high, showing you do have it.
On that dose of T3, your TSH would be suppressed. And, if you're not taking any T4, and your thyroid no-longer works, then your FT4 would be that low.
NHS usually only tests thyroid peroxidase which is negative. It's your thyroglobulin antibodies which are positive for Hashimoto's. There is no cure for Hashimoto's which causes 90% of hypothyroidism. Treatment is for the low thyroid levels it causes. Many people have found that 100% gluten-free diet is helpful in reducing Hashi flares, symptoms and eventually antibodies.
VitD 83.74 is in the replete 75-200 range. This time of year you should be able to get enough vitD naturally but you will need to supplement 2,500iu daily Oct-April to maintain levels.
Thanks Clutter, that explains why my doctor told me I hadn't got it. I'm a bit worried that as time goes on and my thyroid gives up completely the T3 only won't work as well for me as it has all these years. I don't convert T4 very well. I've never tried gluten free bread etc. but I'll definitely give it a go.
You won't get any benefit if you don't go 100% gluten-free. There is gluten added to many processed foods so you either need to read packets or cook from scratch.
Why would T3 stop working if your thyroid jacks in? I have no thyroid but T3 worked fine for me and more recently T4+T3 works fine for me too.
Hi Clutter. The reason I thought it might not work so well in the future is because if some of my thyroid is working presumably it would still be producing T1, T2 and calcitonin and although I don't know what they're there for - apart from calcitonin which, if it protects bones, is very important - I imagine that all these things are needed by the body, otherwise why are they there? If the calcitonin disappears does that open the door to osteoporosis? At this point NDT comes to mind but as you know in England that's not easily available and with a conversion problem I don't even know if it would be suitable.
You'll have to protect bones in other ways. Salmon calcitonin was available for a while but shown to produce cancer so was withdrawn. The T3 in Liothyronine or NDT will compensate for poor conversion.
Hi there. In case it's useful for future, I've been on T3 only for over 10 years years too and never had a problem with it but have had difficulty in the past couple of years since my thyroid packed in completely and stopped producing T4 so have had to add a little back in. I was having problems mostly with my brain - memory, decision making, emotional numbing, or just felt like lack of communication going on in there anyway lol etc. I was struggling with hyper symptoms after taking T3 and felt like nothing to control it and felt strangely like different parts of my body needed different amounts but taking enough for one part would make another part hyper and taking lower amounts to stop the hyper body parts would be too low for others - if that makes any sense at all lol! Also strangely no matter how high my T3 level was (even up to 8/9, my tsh continued to be raised to 4/5 suggesting it wasn't getting something it wanted. I also had issues with my pupils not dilating and hair growth. Thought I'd mention as might be useful later if you start having similar symptoms. These symptoms seem to be clearing up now but it's too early to state 100% although I'm pretty convinced already lol!
However, your tsh is not raised so you may not have a similar issue and you may still be producing T4 but maybe because you had the test during the day after dose and therefore maybe tsh too suppressed, maybe no T4 at that time. Maybe, if you did not take T3 that morning, some may have been produced or when needed? I tested mine by allowing my allowing my tsh to go very high and still didn't produce any T4 so dead as a dodo it appears lol
Thanks Saggy that's interesting. I recognise emotional numbing and lack of brain power because it's how I've been feeling lately but I didn't know if it was because of the thyroid or just life. Next time I have a test I'll miss out one or two doses of T3 and see what the result is. I didn't think of this happening because I thought I was one of the lucky ones without Hashimoto's and planned to stay on T3 only forever. I admire you for allowing your TSH to go high in order to check your T4 levels, it must have made you feel very poorly. Not sure if I could bring myself to do that though.
It really wasn't that bad or that much choice in it to be honest - I've had it go as high as 30-50 when doing gluten trials as needed a diagnosis for my daughter so was a necessity and couldn't be helped and then I've had to run my thyroid low for the last six months with a tsh of 11/12 simply because it was better than the hyper symptoms (nausea, shakes, etc) I mentioned having on a slightly higher dose as was unable to work out that lack of T4 was possible cause until just recently. So truly nothing to admire lol!
If I hadn't have resolved the majority of my health issues I previously had and felt so well just before this started happening and in such a good place, I think I may have put it down to just life or possibly even mental issues/depression to be honest. I've been through far far worse than what my life is at the moment without this emotional numbing and I didn't feel depressed at all, just didn't feel emotional, it really didn't make sense.
It was almost too gradual to notice at first and It was little things that didn't sit right like suddenly, my daughter said why do I never put the radio on anymore and then I listened to all the songs that have always made me sad or happy and I had no emotional response to them at all - diddly squat and realised nothing makes me sad anymore, just not happy either. Bit by bit, the more important things stopped evoking an emotional response such as my daughter. It felt like I was not able to communicate with parts of my brain like I always had and I stopped thinking/pondering the world completely, which had always been my life long hobby lol and seemed to became more automated - It's really hard to explain so apologies
Maybe other people would not notice so much, maybe some people prefer to be emotionally numb but I honestly can't think of anything worse and it scared me too think that was what the rest of my life would be.
I thought taking the T4 probably wont change these issues really and never mentioned but the difference in just a month since starting the T4 lead me to think it must be the cause. I think it will take a while but feels like my brain is waking up bit by bit
Plus my memory has hugely improved already and I started dreaming again
I was actually going to look into calcitonin a little later in the year also as I believe it's there to help protect against high levels of calcium and counteracts parathyroid hormone???
As much as my calcium levels seemed okay a little while ago, and it doesn't appear an issue, it has become apparent that since my thyroid packed in, my want for calcium has reduced quite a lot. Only just noticed this but have cheese a lot less and no longer have a glass a milk each night and stopped eating small fish like whitebait and these are things I've drank/eaten all my life so don't know whether I've naturally stemmed my intake because of this???
Like I mentioned, this is for another time lol!!
I'm still looking at the research for what other things T4 does other than being converted into T3, which at first glance, seem to correlate somewhat with my newer symptoms.
From what I understand, T1 and T2 can be formed from T3 so not an issue maybe but Rt3 is formed only from T4 so might explain the issue where different parts of my body were unable to cope with differing levels of T3???
Sorry didn't mean to write an essay but you seemed to be questioning the same things I have been recently so thought you might appreciate my experiences lol
Thank you, I very much appreciate your reply. I've read that calcitonin protects against high levels of calcium in the blood but I also want to know if, when the calcitonin is no more, my bones will crumble and is there anything that can be done to stop it. Do people live long healthy lives without calcitonin? (I don't expect an answer to that). Thanks again.
Well my dexa scan came back with much better results last year so short term seems okay, Long term may be different story? I am thinking once stable to take NDT to be honest. That has high ratio of T3 to T4 so may work well with non converters like ourselves lol
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