Sleeping

[witch]

Hi my daughter has Downs Syndrome and had a total thyroidectomy when she was 8, due to Graves’ disease - extremely rare! She is now 20 and sleeps all the time and is very emotional. Just had bloods done and I got a print out of results yesterday:

TSH Level. 0.11mIU/L. (0.30 - 4.50)

Free T3 Level 4.8pmol/L. (3.1 - 6.8)

Free T4 Level 22.3pm/L (11.0 - 22.0)

She takes 150mcg Levothyroxine for five days and 175mcg Levothyroxine the remaining two days.

Results are within normal range but my daughter is absolutely exhausted all the time and can sleep the clock round as well as being very emotional! Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Witch

The problem is she is not converting T4 to T3 very well. T4 is a storage hormone, some of which converts to T3 which is the active hormone which every cell in our bodies need, low T3 gives symptoms.

Good conversion takes place when the FT4:FT3 ratio is around 3:1 - 4:1 and your daughter's ratio is 22.3/4.8 = 4.64 : 1

Another indicator of poor conversion is high FT4 and low FT3 which you can see her FT4 is slightly over range and FT3 rather low in range.

How are her vitamins and minerals?

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

All need to be optimal for thyroid hormone to work so if not tested I would get those done and put the results on the forum for comment.

Also, supplementing with selenium l-selenomethionine can help with conversion.

If all nutrient levels are optimal and supplementing with selenium, then if conversion is still poor adding T3 to a slightly reduced amount of Levo would be a good idea.

Dr Toft, leading endocrinologist and past president of the British Thyroid Association, has recently written a new article which says that T3 may be helpful for many patients

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

[greygoose in reply to SeasideSusie]

her FT4 is slightly over range and FT4 rather low in range.

Her FT3 is rather low in range.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to greygoose]

Ooops, thanks GG. Have edited

[greygoose in reply to SeasideSusie]