I would be so grateful if someone could help me make sense of my blood results and give me some guidance as to what to do next ...
A quick recap:
I have Hashimoto's and have recently been diagnosed with celiac. I have undergone surgery for my frozen shoulder, so had to keep my TSH within NHS range for the surgery to go ahead. (I was on 50 mgs of levo + 20mgs T3). I didn't feel good on this dose. I was very up & down.
My shoulder is healing well, but I was like a baby bird the minute the surgery was done and went straight onto Nature Thyriod and initially felt better, but I couldn't tolerate 1.5 grains - so I dropped it down to 1 and a quarter and still felt anxious and irritable. When I drop it to 1 grain, I'm so calm - but then begin not to function, as in, I cant spell my own name.
I am now 6 weeks on NDT and my hair loss is very distressing (I would say I've lost 45% of it). My hair was also falling out on levo and T3 - but not to this extent.
Past bloods results show that my Iron/folic was very low, so I have been working on this - however I am very confused about my results and what to do next.
I can see my T4 is way too low - but my T3 looks ok, given that I left it 24 hours before bloods.
My question is - I am unable to raise, so do I add some levo to the NDT? Is it my Iron causing the hair loss as well as being underdosed?
Vit B12 625 range (210.0 - 910) I supplement this.
Serum Folate >20.0 range (5.4 - 24.0) I am on folic acid as this was very low 6 weeks ago.
Serum Ferritin 61 range (10.0 - 307.0) I have been taking Solgar gentle 25mgs Iron for 6 weeks with vit C but allowed 5 days off prior to test to see what I was holding on to.
Serum Iron level 11 Range 7.0 - 27.0
Vit D 102.8 Again, I supplement - but will now take alternate days.
I am a vegetarian so can't eat liver - I have a clean diet.
Thank you in advance and I am forever grateful for this site.
Written by
furcoatnoknickers
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I have found with NDT it's better to hit the gas and ride the lightening. Bloods can be misleading , and so can symptoms . you ain't anywhere near hyper on those bloods so the up and downs are all hypo.
The problem I have when I up the dose, I cant sleep, gain weight on my tummy bowels won't work and I want to punch everyone. However, I do like your suggestion to ride the storm.
How long ago were you diagnosed with coeliac? If not long, your body will be going through a massive adjustment. After 4-6 months of GF, I had to decrease my thyroid meds by nearly half as I could absorb more of them so was a little all over the place for a couple of months.
Are you always taking you iron/vits away from your thyroid meds? Are your vit blood tests all recent and since you had surgery? As you start to absorb more, you might find they are too much so need to test especially for things like iron.
Also you say you eat a clean diet? Did you have to go back on gluten to get the coeliacs diagnosis or were you gluten free before. When I've been on a gluten trial, my thyroid levels also take three months to get back to normal so you might just be a bit unstable at the mo with everything going on?
I am nodding my head as I understand what you are saying. I had to consume a lot of Gluten recently for the test, which was 3 weeks ago.
I have never shown any classic celiac symptoms other than unable to stabilise my meds. I go up and down like a yoyo but I had always presumed that was the Hashimoto's doing this, but I now understand this could be inflammation after what you have written.
I always take vits away from meds.
It's the hair loss that I am soooo upset about. However, I have also recently started LDN.
Do you think I am under medicated with the blood results? They were done 2nd June.
I guess I just need advise on two other things - should I up my dose of NDT & should I up my Iron? I do feel exhausted.
I would say your test results suggest you should increase but just be wary you might start to absorb more so would definitely retest in another three months to see where you are with everything. The problem is sometimes it's hard to go by symptoms as my symptoms are pretty much the same when I'm a little hyper or hypo and it only becomes easier to differentiate between the two when they are far more pronounced.
I would add more thyroid and go back down if you get any hyper symptoms in the next three months and then retest once everything has had time to settle down.
In regards to iron, I'm not so sure about how effective solgar is as I'm only used to the prescribed ones but I would say for now that it seems to be doing okay - you're not majorly deficient considering what you've been through and you don't want to overload on iron so I would stick to that and retest with the thyroid in a few months as you'll likely absorb more soon anyway. Maybe add some liver to your diet instead? However, you know your body best
As a silent coeliac, you need to be extra careful with the cross contamination issues as you wont realise so make sure you read up on these - change your toaster
And I would also add that many wheat products are fortified with iron and a few other bits so with being a veggie, you might need a little closer look at your diet to ensure getting enough of these now that you wont be having the fortified products also
Again, very informative, thank you. I think I need to be patient by the sounds of things regarding changing my diet to GF. I will keep an eye on all foods
Surgery can cause hair loss, specially if you had a general anaesthetic and it usually hits around 1-2 months after the op so that could also be a factor in your hair loss...
lowish ferritin, low or high thyroid hormones, low free t3, high cortisol from stress causes hair loss, also high or low vitamin a or high selenium, dht or high testosterone and any out of balance hormones low or high....
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