Antibodies changes help understanding

[plokmijnuby]

Morning. I've just had some had my bloods tested again 6 months after determining I had autoimmune thyroidtis / hashimotos.

My antibodies in December were originally 540 (>35) having been on the levothyroxine for 2 months.

Now my antibodies are 84!!!

Question 1) is this fall due to being on levothyroxine, or might it have been helped/caused by having been strictly gluten free for 6 months? (Since hashimotos diagnosis following advice from this forum)

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

this link indicates antibody levels may diminish as treatment is given.

Question 2) is it important to lower antibodies? I want to do what I can to keep my body healthy in the long term but my doctor implied antibodies only show if it's autoimmune or not.

Really appreciate all your advice past and future.

Thanks.

A

[puncturedbicycle]

Could be either levo or gf diet.

Depends on who you ask re antibodies. Most doctors don't think it's especially important in the case of thyroid ABs, though they don't much like chronically raised antibodies that indicate rheumatoid arthritis or coeliac disease to give two examples. It does indicate inflammation, and I think most people would agree chronic inflammation is best kept at a minimum. In theory if you reduce ABs it means you may be able to maintain a more productive thyroid for longer, though in practice if your thyroid is active but unpredictable it can mean changing your levo dose a lot.

I think it's a kind of qualified yes from me, good to keep ABs down if possible.

[Saggyuk]

Hi there

I would imagine it's a mixture of both GF and being medicated. They have a tendency to fluctuate anyway and you can have flares with high amounts.

Each of those Antibodies has been designed to go and attack your thyroid so the less of them, the less attack and damage your thyroid will suffer. Any attack will also cause inflammation and the lower this is the better too.

I went GF too late and had already lost too much thyroid function by the time I did it as had been over twenty years already. Now many might say well it doesn't matter about antibodies if you're going to be on thyroid replacement for the rest of your life anyway and who cares about what happens to your thyroid (docs in general) but from my own experience, I would definitely say it is worth it. The difference since I lost the remaining function had made a significant difference. I imagine all the years I still had some function, it was still doing bits and pieces in the background and helping keep the hormones in control to some degree plus prob making some other stuff. Since function has ceased, it has been much harder and I'm now completely reliant on getting the right dose which will never be as good as my own body and never seemingly quite right lol. The first year I had gluten free and still tiny bit of thyroid function left, I felt amazing. I then had to do four gluten trials for testing and my thyroid finally seems to have died because of these and has been far more unstable ever since. So for me, I think it's good to keep it alive as long as possible.

This is just my own personal opinion from my experience mind you lol.