Depressed and Anxious

[beany6]

Hi,

Despite trying my hardest to understand what these results actually mean I am at a loss! Could somebody please help?

I am hypothyroid and take 100mcg Levothyroxine daily. My blood results as follows-:

TSH 1.46 mIU/L (Range 0.27 - 4.20)

Free Thyroxine 27.21 pmo1/L (Range 12.00 - 22.00)

Total Thyroxine (T4) 134.7 nmo1/L (Range 59.00 - 154.00

Free T3 3.91 pmo1/L (Range 3.10 - 6.80)

Thyroglobulin Antibody >4000.000 IU/mL (Range 0.00 - 115.00)

Thyroid peroxidase Antibodies 8.73 IU/mL (Range 0.00 - 34.00)

CRP High Sensitivity 0.14 mgL1 (Range 0.00 - 5.00)

Ferritin 149.1 ug/L (Range 13.00 - 150.00)

Vitamin B12 410 pmo1/L (Range 140.00 - 724.00)

Folate (Serum) 16.5 ug/L (Range 2.91 - 50.00)

My cortisol levels are way too high, especially first thing in the morning. Could my depression and anxiety be to do with my adrenals or my thyroid or both??

I`d be grateful for any suggestions as I just can`t work it out.

Thank you.

[TJc64]

Hi , I can't help much with the results of your test though it looks like you are low on T3 . Others will be able to help with that . I do know about the anxiety and depression. I had a cortisol test and my adrenal glands were hardly producing any cortisol. This is a common symptom of adrenal problems. Mornings are the absolute worst . I think I can stand any of the other symptoms but the anxiety and depression are by far the worst .

[Heloise in reply to TJc64]

Look at the same page as Beany. stopthethyroidmadness.com/a...

[TJc64 in reply to Heloise]

Thank you.

[Heloise]

Hi Beany, yes, high cortisol means lot of stress and high ferritin means lots of inflammation. have you tried going gluten free? This page from STTM shows how the adrenals are affected and some hints on what you can do for high cortisol. stopthethyroidmadness.com/a...

[TJc64]

Thank you .

[greygoose]

Your FT4 is much too high, whilst your FT3 is rock bottom. Your low T3 will be causing a lot of symptoms.

You have a conversion problem - possibly caused by high cortisol - and probably high rT3, because there's too much unconverted T4 floating around in your system. Your conversion might improve if you manage to lower your cortisol. Then again, your cortisol might improve if you increase your T3. Opinions differ. In the meantime, you really do need to lower your dose of T4, and add in some T3. Perhaps you can persuade your doctor to prescribe it, given these results, but it depends how much s/he knows about thyroid.

And you have Hashi's. Did you know that? Are you gluten-free? If not, might be worth a try. Lots of people find it helps. Also, with Hashi's, you need your TSH at zero. Yours is too high, because of the low T3.

Your B12 is a bit on the low side. Should be at least over 500. If I were you, I would take 1000 mg sublingual methylcobalamin daily, and a B complex to keep the Bs balanced.

So, with a combination of low T3, high cortisol, high antibodies and low B12, it's really not surprising you're depressed and anxious!

[beany6 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you, Greygoose. At least I understand what my results mean now. I will take your advice about B12. Also trying to reduce cortisol levels. My GP won`t prescribe T3 but should I push him to reduce my T4 do you think?

I`ve floated along for years on 100 mcg levothyroxine - quite happily. Then I was over-medicated and all hell broke loose! I haven`t felt right since.

[greygoose in reply to beany6]

If your T4 is reduced, your T3 will reduce. And, it's low enough already. That will make you ill and won't do anything for your cortisol. You really, really need T3. You could either press him to refer you to an endo known to prescribe T3, or buy it yourself. It would probably be easier to buy it yourself.

[beany6 in reply to greygoose]

Where can I get T3 from? From what I read on here, it seems almost impossible and I can`t afford to lose any money on orders that just don`t arrive!

[greygoose in reply to beany6]

That's just the Greek T3 sellers that are causing problems. There's also Turkish T3 and Mexican T3.

Post a new question asking people to PM you their trusted sources of T3.

[humanbean]

Greygoose has already mentioned that you have Hashi's. I wrote a long post describing what Hashi's actually does and how it affects test results on a reply to a thread this morning. If you're interested you can find it here :

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[humanbean]

From personal experience I can definitely agree that high cortisol causes anxiety. If you can reduce the high cortisol your anxiety will lessen or disappear. Do you know what has caused your high cortisol? And have you tried to treat it in any way?

[beany6 in reply to humanbean]

Thank you for the link, humanbean, I`ve just read your post and found it very helpful.

I have tried to reduce cortisol by controlling my sugar intake and trying to meditate. Also tried CBT and mindfulness to no avail. I have had a LOT of stress in the last couple of years and was also over-medicated on Levothyroxine which was hell. I think that probably started cortisol levels to shoot up.

I am going to try Phosphatidyl Serine as this is reported to help lower cortisol. It`s worth a try!

[humanbean in reply to beany6]

Things I have found that reduce my anxiety and depression are :

1) Optimising nutrients.

2) Optimising thyroid treatment (if the doctor will allow it, otherwise we have to either find private doctors, who may or may not be any good, or we self-treat).

3) Optimising cortisol.

I've never tried Phosphatidyl Serine (PS). A few years ago I tried Seriphos which is Phosphorylated Serine, but I was very ill with non-thyroidal illness at the time and it didn't go very well.

interplexus.com/data-sheets...

Another type of treatment is adaptogens :

draxe.com/7-adaptogen-herbs...

I've tried several. I benefited from Rhodiola Rosea for a while, but in the end it made me very jittery and I had to stop. The one that is currently working for me is Holy Basil. I take this one :

healthmonthly.co.uk/swanson...

I had to take more than the recommended dose to get an effect to begin with, but finally I felt as though my cortisol was reducing. Eventually I reduced to the dose on the bottle and then half that. When I ran out I hoped it would maintain itself, but it didn't. So now I'm back on it, and this time I intend to stay on it.