NDT blood results help

[Jenna5]

Hi,

I've been on NDT fully for about 4 weeks, currently take 2 grains a day, I got bloods done as I haven't been feeling to good, they seem ok but can anyone who knows more have a look;

TSH - 0.58 (0.34-5.60)

T4 - 9 (6.50-17)

T3 - 6.70 (4.2-6.70)

The doc is ringing me later regarding my B12, so there must be an issue.

Thanks

Jenna

[humanbean]

Jenna, in a post you wrote about 2 months ago you posted a picture of some blood test results.

I am concerned about the iron results :

Serum iron : 32 umol/L (5 - 30.4)

TIBC : 62.9 umol/L (44 - 80)

Percentage iron saturation : 51% (14 - 51)

Ferritin : 32 ng/mL (11 - 307)

In an ideal world and under normal circumstances :

Your ferritin (iron stores) would be higher - the usual advice on here is it should be mid-range or a little bit higher i.e. somewhere around 160 or a little bit more. Taking iron supplements would first raise your serum iron if it was low, and then once the serum iron was high enough your body would automatically start putting the iron into your iron stores i.e. your ferritin would start to rise. The balance between iron in serum iron and ferritin is normally handled without any problems, even when supplementing, and the body puts iron into ferritin and takes it out of ferritin as and when necessary.

Unusual problems with your results :

If you look at this link : rt3-adrenals.org/Iron_test_...

you can see the suggested optimal results for iron testing.

Serum iron is recommended to be about 55% - 70% of the way through the range with men being at the higher end of the range, and yet yours is already over the top of the range.

You'll notice that the saturation is recommended to be about 35% - 45% with men being at the higher end of the range. But your iron saturation is already top of the range.

Often a high serum iron and a high iron saturation would be associated with haemochromatosis - a genetic problem where people store far more iron than they need. But in those cases the ferritin would also be sky high and the TIBC (Total Iron Binding Capacity) would be low, but this doesn't apply to your results. So I would think it is unlikely that you have haemochromatosis.

There are other conditions where a high serum iron and high iron saturation would be found - see this link for a summary :

irondisorders.org/Websites/...

I don't have enough information (or enough knowledge) to say if you might have any other conditions - although your pattern of results doesn't seem to fit with any of the conditions in that link.

*** If you are supplementing iron, please stop immediately. ***

I am concerned that your body might be poor at moving serum iron into ferritin, and so your serum iron may be getting higher and higher, while your ferritin is hardly changing.

I have come across this situation once before, and I think it was on the Pernicious Anaemia Society forum on HealthUnlocked :

healthunlocked.com/pasoc

My reading on the kind of results you have suggests your most likely problem is a genetic one with a gene called the MTHFR gene which affects methylation (although there are other possibilities). Have I baffled you? I probably have. I've baffled myself too. I don't understand methylation problems at all. However, to get you started, you should read these links - but there are loads more available if you search for "methylation cycle" :

stopthethyroidmadness.com/h...

stopthethyroidmadness.com/m...

drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/CFS_-_T...

If you treat yourself appropriately your body will be able to start using your iron, and will reduce your iron saturation and serum iron level. When you've got to that stage, and your levels of these have dropped, then you can start supplementing iron to raise your ferritin. But it could be months.

Some useful links :

For testing iron privately with a finger-prick test :

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

Another thing to be aware of is that methylation problems affect the way that the body uses vitamin B12 and folate/folic acid as well. You might discover that you only get good results on methylfolate rather than folic acid (or the other way around). You might need a particular form of vitamin B12 supplementation. There are four kinds of B12 - cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. The first one is the one that causes problems for many people - it's cheap and appears in many supplements, but for some it is the only thing they can tolerate. The second form of B12 is the one that people get in injections and it works for a lot of people. And for some they may need the 3rd and/or 4th kinds of B12 in tablet or injection form. For more info on methylation problems, Vitamin B12, and folate, assuming you have low B12 and/or low folate, you would benefit from joining the PA Society forum and talking to them about methylation and anaemia. They may be able to help, I don't know.

healthunlocked.com/pasoc

Edit : I forgot to say - I have no medical training of any kind. Pay attention to what I say at your own risk. Please do your own research.

Edit 2 : I may have gone off in completely the wrong direction with my post, and perhaps supplementing iron may have raised your ferritin satisfactorily, without raising your serum iron and iron saturation. I simply don't know. The only way to know is to do a test. The link I gave above to a finger-prick test would be worth doing if you can afford it. Remember that iron testing of any kind should be done first thing in the morning having fasted overnight (apart from water), and breakfast/coffee/tea etc should be delayed until after the blood draw. Also, it is always a good idea to give up all iron supplementing for 5 - 7 days before testing anything to do with iron. Always return blood samples to the testing company on the day they are taken and make sure to post them on a Monday - Thursday. You don't want samples sitting in a post box or in a sorting office over the weekend, and you want people to be in the lab when it arrives.

[Jenna5]

Thank you for info, I had my Iron tested again last week and the results are:

Serum Iron: 24.2 (5-30.4)

Total Iron: 71.1 (44.00-80)

Saturation: 34% (14-51%)

Feratin: 37 (11-300)

[humanbean in reply to Jenna5]

Oh, good! The serum iron and saturation are a lot better. Total Iron... Do you mean Total Iron Binding Capacity?

It suggests to me that your response to supplementing iron (assuming you've been doing it) is non-standard. So I'll butt out.