Hi everyone, I've just had some bloods taken through medichecks as I've been feeling awful (exhausted, foggy, very weak) and wanted to have as much information as possible before deciding whether to change my medication, and/or make any other changes.p (e.g. Diet)
I'm 34, diagnosed with M.E./CFS and hypothyroidism for 7 years. Currently taking 100mg levothyroxine. I tested positive for antibodies on diagnosis, but this recent result looks 'normal', so do I have hashimotos or not? Confusing!
The other thing that stands out is T3, and rT3. Am I right in thinking I could have a conversion problem (T4-T3)? If so, what's the best course of action? Presumably simply increasing my dose of levothyroxine isn't going to be the answer.
Feeling a bit lost and in need of some expert advice, which doctors seem unwilling to provide so hoping some of you lovely lot will be able to help.
I know there are loads of request for help with blood results on this forum and I'm sure you get sick of responding, but I'd be ever so grateful if you could. Thank you x
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laelow
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Can't see your results laelow? Maybe type them with your ranges? I don't know much newly diagnosed but I'm sure you'll be asked to type your results with ranges?
Your Tsh looks good and your T4 is high. Your Rt3 is over range and Rt3 is made when you have too much T4 and your body doesn't want so much T4 running around. However, your T3 is on the low end meaning you are not converting T4 into T3 efficiently enough and would cause your symptoms and you would be better adding T3 to your meds and possibly reducing your T4 (unless you didn't take your meds for quite a while before testing?). By the looks of it, taking more T4 will just increase the Rt3 and not the T3 which is what you want. The problem is, you're unlikely to get T3 from docs at the mo so you might have to source this yourself. If you add a new post requesting details of where to buy it from, people will respond via personal message.
Antibodies can go up and down and your inflammation seems low at the moment. I stopped producing antibodies when my thyroid gave up the ghost as there is nothing to attack anymore possibly lol!
You are Vit D deficient and this will make you feel awful as well. You will need treatment for this, again others here will give you a better idea as to how much.
Your Vit B12 needs to be much higher too.
In regards to diet, as often suggested here, gluten free would be a good place to start. I was also diagnosed with many things like CFS etc etc but it went after going gluten free
TSH is low-normal and FT4 is almost top of the range but FT3 is low in range which does indicate poor conversion. rT3 is just over range so I don't think you will need to switch to T3 only but it may be helpful to reduce Levothyroxine dose by 25mcg and add 12.5mcg T3. Many GPs are unable to prescribe T3 without recommendation from an NHS endocrinologist and some CCGs and health authorities have banned prescribing of T3 due to the price gouging of Concordia who own Mercury Pharma T3. Turkish, Greek and Mexican T3 is affordable and available without prescription online if you want to self medicate.
If thyroid antibodies were previously positive you have autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto's). Antibodies fluctuate and often subside to low levels in between Hashi flares. There is no cure for Hashimoto's which causes 90% of hypothyroidism but it often burns out after the thyroid has been destroyed. 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 36.78 is insufficient. I would supplement 10,000iu D3 for 6 weeks and then reduce to 5,000iu daily and retest in 3-4 months. Take vitD with the fattiest meal of the day to aid absorption and make sure to take it 4 hours away from Levothyroxine.
Ferritin is optimal halfway through range to 100 so you may want to supplement iron to raise ferritin. Take each tablet with 1,000mg vitamin C to aid absorption and minimise constipation and take iron 4 hours away from Levothyroxine.
CRP is an infammation marker so very low CRP is excellent.
You are all awesome, thank you so much Clutter and Saggyuk! I will definitely start taking more vitamin D (I thought taking it in a multivitamin would be enough but looks as though it's not!), iron and B12.
I'm quite tempted to go down the self-medication route but daunted by the risk of getting it wrong.
(See 'treating excess reverse t3 with synthetic t3 supplementation is tricky'). I'd be really interested to hear of other people's experiences of self medicating and whether they've had any adverse effects. Do you think I should start a new thread for this?
You can always ask for advice on here but I don't think you'd have any problems with the small dose changes mentioned by clutter. This might be all you need to get more optimal t3 levels so not much of a change and you can see how you feel and go from there
I've been on T3 only for over ten years although have added a little T4 recently but I haven't had to self medicate like most as still get it prescribed. To be totally honest, the people on here and myself included have a lot more understanding than any GP and even some endos so I'm not sure you're losing much. However, it might be good for you to read as much as you can so you understand it a little better and feel more comfortable deciding what to do
Thanks Saggyuk. This forum is such a good resource. There's so much information online it's a lot easier to be your own doctor these days, but the tricky part is knowing which information to trust. I often read conflicting advice and it's difficult to know which to follow!
You can only go with your instinct although maybe skip any website trying to sell you something at the same time lol. At least on this site, you know that pretty much everyone here is here because they've been through the exact same issues as you. Also what works for some may not work for others so it's just a case or try and see if improves or rule out as an issue for you although we often have very similar issues.
If it helps, I have spent a number of months over medicated and many times under medicated and I'm still here so no real long-term impact. It is normally easy to know when you're really over medicated but you will know when you feel "good" or as good as can be so I wouldn't be overly worried as long as you read as much as you can to make an educated decision and the longer you do it, the easier it becomes to distinguish what is being caused by what.
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