Hello again you lovely people,
I apologise in advance for this post being full of numbers, but I was hoping people could have a wee look with what I'm doing supplement wise, and if I need to be doing more.
I have hypothyroidism and have been thinking about vitamin supplements. In particular Selenium, Zinc, B6, and Folic Acid.
This page on Thyroid UK gives some advice on vitamin levels:
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...
It advises these levels of supplements daily:
Selenium: 50 - 100mcg (the daily recommended dose is 50mcg)
Zinc: 12 - 20mg (the daily recommended dose from the NHS is 7mg)
B6: 25 - 50mg (the daily recommended dose is 1.2mg so this seems a lot)
Folic Acid: 400 - 600mcg (daily recommended dose is 200mg)
I take a Tesco A-z Multivitamins and Minerals which has:
Selenium: 55 mcg
Zinc: 10 mcg
B6: 1.4 mg
Folic Acid: 200 mcg
So, it looks to me that:
I'm taking enough selenium (I don't want to take too much of this as I know too much is not good)
I could maybe do with more zinc, although I am getting over the daily recommended dose - so I was thinking of taking a 15mcg supplement (taking me to 25mcg, which keeps me under the upper tolerable level of 40mcg).
I could do with more B6 although I am getting over the recommended daily amount (the lowest supplement I can find is 50mg but that should be fine as long as it's kept under 200mg a day)
I could do with more folic acid but the lowest supplement I can find is 400mcg, which means I'd be taking 600mcg - 3 times the recommended daily intake.
I'd rather not take more vitamins if I don't have to but what do you guys think, do I need to supplement with more of anything or is the multivitamin covering it?
I also take
500mg of Calcium (Calcium Carbonate), along with 200mg in the mutivit,
250mg of Magnesium, along with 100mg in multivit
10mcg of Vit D along with 10mcg in the mutivit
200mg of Vit C along with 80mg in the mutivit
1000mcg of Vit B12 (Solgar sublingual)
I haven't had my vitamin levels tested in 2 years and I was a lot more unwell then but then this is what they were:
Serum Ferritin 76 (Range 15-200)
Serum Folate 15.1 (Range 3.1-20.)
Serum Vit B12 237 (Range 200-900)
Vit D 79 (Not sure of range but it says '>50 adequate')
So, Vit B12 was low, so I supplement that. My Vit D was fine ( I think) but I live in Scotland so figured I should supplement that anyway. Supplement with Vit C just to give my immune system a boost as I was getting lots of colds for a while there. And supplement with extra Calcium and Magnesium as Multivit does not provide enough.
Haven't had Selenium, B6, Zinc, or Folic acid checked, as Dr's get humpty about testing and I can't afford private testing.
So, sorry for all these numbers and this rather boring post, but I was hoping people could have a look and advise me if I need to be taking more of anything or doing anything differently.
Thank you