Test results

[Ty-phoon]

I'm currently going round in circles trying to find out what's wrong. Symptoms include:

Fatigue (sleep about 10hrs a day once I can get to sleep)

Struggling breathing (tightness/ heavy chest, not wheezing)

Palpitations

Dizzyness

Brain fog/lack of concentration/ mixing up words

Numbness in left hand

Pins and needles in legs

Headaches

IBS

Stomach pains - ranging from feeling like it's being twisted to 10/10 and I will black out whilst led down (currently managed by eating 1 meal per day)

Eczema

Extreme irritability - worse with loud noises or multiple people talking at once

Allergies to environmental (dust/pollen/mould/grass/etc)

Blood tests came back negative for coeliac and intrinsic factor (pernicious anaemia), taken 11 July.

Other blood results taken on 27 June 2017

Serum TSH 2.257 mU/L (0.34-5.60)

Serum free T4 10.2 pmol/L ( 8-18)

Gp won't do T3 test as said there's no point.

Serum creating kinase 181 iU/L (35-160)

Serum b12 165 ng/L (>140) [was 147 on 19 June, I started supplementing end of may, so results are possibly higher due to this]

Serum folate 5.4 ug/L (>4)

Serum ferritin 41 ug/L (11-200)

Serum Potassium 3.8 mmol/L (3.5-5.3) [was 3.4 in may]

Serum creatine 73 umol/L (45-84) [was 86 in may]

Any ideas or suggestions a gratefully appreciated. I have a follow up appointment with doctor next week.

[greygoose]

Your doctor should be testing your for autoimmune disease : Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (also calle Autoimmune Thyroiditis) and Pernicious Anemia.

Your TSH is high, so your thyroid is struggling, but it's not high enough for a doctor to take notice of. They refuse to believe that that level is high enough to cause symptoms, but we know it is - especially if you have antibodies. But, a lot of your symptoms are down to that low B12.

Your ferritin is also too low, and that will cause symptoms. But, once again, it's in range, so doctors are going to ignore it.

You should also ask for your vit D to be tested.

[Ty-phoon in reply to greygoose]

Pernicious anaemia intrinsic factor test has come back negative, although I know this can be false negative 40% of the time. GP also thinks that my b12 isn't low enough to warrant any kind of treatment and same with ferritin.

[greygoose in reply to Ty-phoon]

Yes, I thought he might. But, he's wrong!

[humanbean]

Serum creating kinase 181 iU/L (35-160)

What you got tested is called creatine kinase, not creating kinase.

Do you take statins? Do you do lots of exercise, pushing yourself hard in the process? Have you recently had an injury to your muscles? Are you bed bound or very immobile?

In serious disease and damage creatine kinase can be as high as 100 times the normal level, so your result which is slightly over range is not an indication of very severe damage, but in your shoes I would try and find out what may have caused it.

labtestsonline.org.uk/under...

The link above is a good place to start.

[Ty-phoon in reply to humanbean]

Good old autocorrect, trying to be helpful!

I don't take statins

Exercise is nowhere near the levels that I use to do since a ruptured my ACL 5 years ago. I have a horse which I compete in dressage but am struggling to that with lack of energy and breathing/dizzyness, 2 chest infections and Scarlett fever last winter (which wiped me out for a month).

GP didn't acknowledge it as anything to look at when I got the results.

[humanbean in reply to Ty-phoon]

The GP would probably only be interested if your level was very, very high indeed. But from a personal point of view, I would suggest researching to see if there is something you can do about it. It may be a hangover from when you had serious infections and illnesses and it may fix itself given time.

Your B12 and your folate look suspiciously low to me. And the fact that several weeks of supplementing has hardly changed your B12 is also suspicious. What dose of B12 have you supplemented with?

It would be a good idea to post your B12 and folate results on the Pernicious Anaemia forum here on HealthUnlocked. You'll find them here :

healthunlocked.com/pasoc

[Ty-phoon in reply to humanbean]

It was with a b vitamin complex

B6 100mg (7 143% NRV)

B12 100ug (4 000% NRV)

[humanbean in reply to Ty-phoon]

100 ug of B12 will make little difference. Most of us who need to raise our B12 take 1000 ug - 5000 ug of B12 per day.

But on the subject of supplementing B12 please post on the PA forum. They are the experts.

I would suggest that a dose of 100mg B6 per day is too high a dose. I'm guessing that you bought a product which contains 100 mcg or mg of every B vitamin? They are biologically of no value. The body doesn't like things in 100s, it is just a marketing gimmick.

Deficiency of B6 often leads to peripheral neuropathy. Taking B6 will fix it. But vitamin B6 is the only B vitamin that also has toxicity symptoms. And they may present as peripheral neuropathy as well.

Anecdote : I had peripheral neuropathy, took a 100 of everything B Complex for a few months. The neuropathy went away then after a few more months it came back again. Luckily I researched and found out the likely cause of my problem before it became permanent.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitam...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitam...

[humanbean]

Serum Potassium 3.8 mmol/L (3.5-5.3) [was 3.4 in may]

From personal experience I can say that low potassium makes people feel dreadful. Your first option is to find a list of potassium-rich foods on the web (you'll be spoiled for choice) and start including plenty of them in your diet.

Alternatively, (a poor alternative) is to buy potassium supplements. I will admit that I take potassium supplements because I'm too lazy to change my diet. They are often sold as 99mg tablets. The ones I buy suggest a maximum of 4 tablets a day, but I only take 2 at bedtime. They help with keeping spasm, cramp, and painful muscles at bay.

[humanbean]

You can buy iron supplements of the kind that doctors prescribe without a prescription. Do a search on the forum for the word "ferrous" or the word "fumarate". The search function on this site is truly appalling but you will find a lot of posts on the subject. Stick to reading posts from the last year, rather than going back years. The advice on the forum does change slowly over time as people learn more.

SeasideSusie writes lots of excellent posts on the subject of supplementing nutrients, including iron.

You do need to test iron and ferritin regularly if you supplement because iron is poisonous in overdose. The same is true of vitamin D, which I notice you haven't had tested, but you really should - low vitamin D causes lots of unpleasant symptoms. Some useful links :

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

medichecks.com/tests/iron-s...

vitamindtest.org.uk/

You might find one of these helpful too, since you also have low B12 and folate which, along with low ferritin, can cause anaemia :

medichecks.com/haematology-...

[Rapid1]

You might have sleep apnea. That makes people very sleepy during the day. This is not usually looked at unless you ask. There is a questionaire you can do using one of the online calculators.