Medicheck Results.. comments appreciated!

[Dave10001]

Morning, just received my results.. background, 38 year old male, symptoms, constantly exhausted, muscles ache, gained weight/can’t lose even with exercise & good diet. All the results(except vit D) within range, but seem low. Any advice would be most helpful.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Dave

There's no information in your profile and you haven't said in your post - are you diagnosed with a thyroid condition and if so what thyroid meds are you taking?

[Dave10001 in reply to SeasideSusie]

No, not been diagnosed, medicheck came back saying, all within range (except vit d) all seem low in the range though.. any thoughts would be helpful. Taking no meds, t4 seemed very low, should I self medicate??

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Dave10001]

Dave

Your results are normal (euthyroid) and because we are never normally tested when we are fit and well, none of us know where our levels should be for us to feel well. One would expect a TSH of 1-2 in a fit and healthy person, but free T levels would probably differ with the individual.

Your Total T4 of 73 (59-154) shows that you don't produce much natural thyroxine, reflected in your rather low FT4, but your FT3 at 5.9 (3.1-6.8) is actually very good. Your body at the moment is doing a good job converting what natural thyroxine you have into the active hormone every cell in our bodies need.

I would say at the moment that you don't need to self medicate, but I would be repeating the test in 3-6 months to see if levels have changed.

In the meantime there are a couple of other things you should address as they will bring their own symptoms.

Ferritin: 124 (30-400)

Ferritin is recommended to be half way through it's range, but I have seen it said that for males 150 is fine. If you don't already do so then I would start eating liver regularly to improve your level. Maximum 200g per week, and you wont need that amount anyway. I found that 120-140g raised my ferritin very well. Also include other iron rich foods in your diet

apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/in...

Active B12: 67 (25.1-165)

According to this article viapath.co.uk/our-tests/act... an Active B12 level below 70 warrants MMA testing. You could discss this with your GP who may or may not agree.

You can check for signs of B12 deficiency here b12deficiency.info/signs-an... and if you don't have any you could supplement with sublingual methylcobalamin lozenges 1000mg daily to raise your level.

When taking B12 we need a good B Complex to balance all the B vitamins. Look at Thorne Basic B or Igennus Super B (you can take a lower dose of that one by just taking 1 tablet).

Vit D: 33nmol/L

This is your biggest problem and needs addressing. If it was less than 30 you would be receiving loading doses from your GP, I think it is low enough for you discuss with your GP and see if he will prescribe anything but chances are you may only get a very low maintenance dose of 800iu daily which wont help at all.

My preference would be to treat myself (Vit D is cheap) with the equivalent of what the NHS would do according to NICE treatment summary for Vit D deficiency:

cks.nice.org.uk/vitamin-d-d...

"Treat for Vitamin D deficiency if serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels are less than 30 nmol/L.

For the treatment of vitamin D deficiency, the recommended treatment is based on fixed loading doses of vitamin D (up to a total of about 300,000 international units [IU] given either as weekly or daily split doses, followed by lifelong maintenace treatment of about 800 IU a day. Higher doses of up to 2000IU a day, occasionally up to 4000 IU a day, may be used for certain groups of people, for example those with malabsorption disorders. Several treatment regims are available, including 50,000 IU once a week for 6 weeks (300,000 IU in total), 20,000 IU twice a week for 7 weeks (280,000 IU in total), or 4000 IU daily for 10 weeks (280,000 IU in total)."

If you want to do it yourself then I would suggest you buy some D3 softgels like these bodykind.com/product/2463-b... and take 10,000iu daily for 2 weeks (140,000iu) then reduce to 5000iu daily for 4 weeks (140,000iu) totalling 280,000iu over 6 weeks (similar to loading doses above). Then reduce to 5000iu alternate days for another 4 weeks then retest. If you only want to test Vit D then City Assays (an NHS lab) do a home fingerprick blood spot test for the public

vitamindtest.org.uk/

When you've reached the level recommended by the Vit D Council - which is 100-150nmol/L - and then you'll need a maintenance dose which may be 2000iu daily, maybe more or less, maybe more in winter than summer, it's trial and error so it's recommended to retest once or twice a year to keep within the recommended range.

There are important cofactors needed when taking D3

vitamindcouncil.org/about-v...

D3 aids absorption of calcium from food and K2-MK7 directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissues where it can be deposited and cause problems.

D3 and K2 are fat soluble so should be taken with the fattiest meal of the day, D3 four hours away from thyroid meds.

Magnesium helps D3 to work and comes in different forms, check to see which would suit you best and as it's calming it's best taken in the evening, four hours away from thyroid meds

naturalnews.com/046401_magn...

Check out the other cofactors too.

A good K2-MK7 is Healthy Origins bigvits.co.uk/product.php?p... (they do a 60 count bottle but that one is the best value).

I would work on your vitamins and minerals for 6 months then maybe do the Ultravit test again.

Please note I am not medically trained and my reply is based on my own experience, reading and research.

[Hellonwheels in reply to SeasideSusie]

I am no expert, or doctor either, but I agree with SeasideSusie 100%, based on research and my own history.

[Dave10001 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for the in depth reply, much appreciated