Son TSH of 1.48

[Joanneconnor]

Is this ok?

[Mary-intussuception]

It's better than mine.

Most on here say it should be 1 or lower though.

My Endo said target maximum 2.

Does he have any symptoms? Has he had any blood tests to check any nutrients & minerals levels? Eg Vitamin D;

[Joanneconnor]

He's only 12 yes he has out of range creatives, out of range eosinophils same as me I was diagnosed a year before he was born , it says he's in the (0.03-5) normal range

[Joanneconnor in reply to Joanneconnor]

Other bloods ok

[jimh111]

TSH 1.48 is perfect.

[TSH110 in reply to jimh111]

jimh111 TSH 1.48 was not perfect for me! Surely under 1 is what suits most people. Distribution is skewed too not a bell curve.

[jimh111 in reply to TSH110]

Patients who are diagnosed hypothyroid and on levothyroxine only treatment may need a lower TSH. I assume the TSH 1.0 is for someone who is not on hormone treatment.

The distribution is somewhat asymetrical (they should use lnTSH) with most people falling between 1.0 and 2.0.

So purely from a numbers point of view 1.48 is perfect. You can't ask for a better number. Some sujects, myself included, are hypothyroid with could hormone levels. In this case you need to diagnose on the basis of obvious signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism.

[TSH110 in reply to jimh111]

@jimh111 1.5 may be the mean but given it is a highly personal number that varies all day long and from week to week it can only be a rough guide not a one size fits all. Symptoms must be taken into consideration and FT3 would be a more useful indicator than TSH. I don’t feel well with anything above 0.3. I think at the end of the day we can’t really use tsh values in isolation to say anything meaningful for an individual except that they are not overtly hypothyroid.

Mind you what puzzles me is why if you are on thyroid hormone therapy you do better if it is under 1 but not if your thyroid is fully functioning - any suggestions?

[jimh111 in reply to TSH110]

As I noted I was commenting on the TSH result as it is the only information we have.

Patients who are on levothyroxine only therapy miss the T3 secreted by the thyroid. This can be made up (for most patients) by a little more levothyroxine but since the pituitary has excellent deiodinase capability the TSH will be lower. So, a person on levothyroxine only with the same fT3 as a healthy person will have a lower TSH than the healthy person. The extra levothyroxine works for many patients with simple primary hypothroidism but not for all.

[TSH110 in reply to jimh111]

jimh111 thanks for the explanation I had never thought of that.

[Muffy]

Do you know his Ft4 and Ft3 levels?

[Joanneconnor in reply to Muffy]

Doc didn’t do them

[jimh111]

Just answering the specific question. There are no details of any signs or symptoms. Just a couple of other assay results outside of their intervals which will happen 5% of the time, by definition.