Please could someone help me interpret my latest results? At the beginning of the year my GP reduced my Levo from 150 to 125 as she said I was over medicated. I did as I was told for 3 and a half months and at the end of that period was pretty unwell with fatigue, aching limbs, hair thinning, my fingernails and toenails had split and flaked off and worst of all I had terrible, really terrible constipation. I take selenium and oral B12 plus other vitamins and minerals. I’m not gluten free.
So I put myself back on 150 on 3 days a week, 125 on 4 days, have been doing that for last 9 weeks. I feel a lot better and things are getting back to normal but I know my GP won’t be happy at my next review. My Medicheck results this week are below.
TSH 0.174 (0.27- 4.20)
T4 17.5 (12 - 22)
T3 3.44 (3.10 - 6.80)
TPA 346 (0 - 34)
Thyroglobulin AB 111(0- 115)
In February results were:
TSH 0.10
T4 19.4
T3 3.6
TPAB 339
I’m not sure if this regime is right for me,. I intend to go gluten free from today!
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Kizzygirl
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I take it these were the results that prompted your GP to lower your dose? Do you have the reference ranges for them? I'm guessing your GP id dosing by TSh only and it's below range. And I'm guessing your FT4 and FT3 are within range and that means you weren't over medicated and didn't need the reduction in dose.
TSH 0.174 (0.27- 4.20)
T4 17.5 (12 - 22)
T3 3.44 (3.10 - 6.80)
These are better but you're still undermedicated. The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their respective reference ranges when on Levo if that is where you feel well. Your FT4 is only 55% through range, your FT3 is a touch less than 1% through it's range. You are a poor converter and would benefit from adding T3 to Levo.
Unfortunately, I don't know how we can educate our ignorant doctors.
Good luck with going gluten free, it helps many members here so I hope it helps you too.
Thank you for replying Susie. The Feb result ranges were the same as the the latest ones. The Medichecks doctor has commented that this TSH puts me at risk of osteoporosis and to seek a GP opinion, I’m trying to avoid that as I suspect she will insist on reducing my dose again because she prescribes on the basis of TSH only unfortunately.
If I am refused a prescription for the dose that I need then life will become very difficult especially as I live very rurally and don’t have much choice of local doctors! I may need to try to access a doctor who can prescribe T3. My T4 and T3 are even lower now than at the beginning of the year despite me taking it upon myself to put my dose of Levo back up 3 days a week for the last couple of months. Oh dear!
Medichecks usually write something like “Having very low levels of thyroid stimulating hormone for several years has been associated with the development of osteoporosis”—is that what’s written on yours? The thing is, that’s misleading because what causes osteoporosis in those circumstances is high T3 (which would indeed cause a very low TSH). But your T3 is NOT high, so to drop your dose on the basis of very low TSH only (without taking your FT3 result into account) was very wrong. You’re still undermedicated according to those results. It might be worth pointing out that your FT3 isn’t high if your doctor tries to say you’re overmedicated - and to ask her to explain how you could be overmedicated if your FT3 isn’t high. She won’t be able to, but it might make her think...
I would be interested to know your source of information linking osteoporosis and high T3 levels. Do you refer to over range T3 when you state 'high' T3?
I am not sure at all about 'high T3' causing osteoporosis. As Dr Lowe himself took 150mcg daily and also his Thyroid Hormone Resistant Patients also had to take high doses to relieve themselves of their clinical symptoms.
He certainly would not have put his patients in danger, as thousands of endocrinologists world-wide are doing by going along with Big Pharma's guidelines. If we recover our health, they don't make as many profits.
T3 is the only Active Thyroid Hormone and is needed in our millions of T3 receptor cells. If we took too much we'd have unpleasant symptoms and we'd reduce it. T4 is inactive and has to convert to T3.
Shaws I do appreciate your reply as I have been confronted by 2 Endos about the connection between suppressed TSH, high T3 and the development or worsening of bone loss disease. I have asked these Endos to give research references to support their claims and neither has managed to do so. I have read some pieces of research myself but studies appear to be flawed in some way. Although I do appreciate that postings on this forum serve to support others, I feel strongly that we all have a responsibility to be cautious with our wording and claims when no substantive research or evidence can be produced. Many of the issues discussed here are highly personal and sensitive.
Yes your February results, assuming same ranges as most recent Medichecks results, were better, but neither are good enough in terms of the active FT3 your cells /receptors actually need. It looks like you are not converting T4 to T3 adequately( should be in the ratio between 4 :1 and 3:1). So you could think about adding T3 to T4/ levothyroxin or trying NDT. Do you take your Vit/ mins at high enough levels to keep your folate, ferritin, B12 and Vit D at optimum levels, at top of ranges? Hashimoto's is characterised by poor gut absorption, due to low acid in stomachs,resulting in low levels of nutrients from food, drink and supplements- worth checking with blood tests as low levels of these can cause some of your symptoms too.
My vit levels weren’t too bad when last checked but I do have a lot of gut issues which are relatively new. I had a positive faecal blood test this year which resulted in having a colonoscopy but that showed absolutely nothing abnormal and I was told that I didn’t need to be seen again. I also have vitiligo now, that’s new as well! I’ll look into the best way of improving my T3, thank you.
Most, if hypothyroid, can get 'stomach problems'. It is usually due to having low stomach acid. As symptoms of low and high acid are so similar doctors are apt to prescribe meds to 'lower' acid. However we need acid in our stomachs to dissolve food. Most supplemet with Betaine with Pepsin tablet at meals. Or sip apple cider vinegar mixed with water.
As you have Hashimoto's your are extremely likely to have low vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Have you had these tested at all? Or recently? If so add results and ranges
Both results in Feb and recently show you have very low FT3. The last thing you needed was dose decrease.
Strictly gluten free diet helps many with Hashimoto's, but it's also likely you need to supplement to improve vitamin levels too. Getting vitamins optimal is first step. This is likely to raise TSH as thyroid hormones are better utilised
With Hashimoto's we should avoid iodine (present in most multivitamins)
In February I did a Blue Horizon test which showed
Folate 6.5 (<2.9)
Ferritin 123 (13-150)
CReactive Protein 0.7 (<5.0)
25 OH Vitamin D 108 (50-200)
I’ve started selenium and a good quality B12, vit D with K2 and omega oils. My dodgy guts have not really improved though the dreadful constipation has eased up since I increased my Levo again.
Beware of doctors who adjust doses by the TSH alone and not our clinical symptoms.
Refuse to reduce your dose and give GP a copy of the following.
The TSH is from the pituitary gland, it rises when thyroid gland is not putting out sufficient thyroid hormones and lowers as hormones are increased. The aim is a TSH of 1 or lower.
Give copies of the following to your GP. Say it's your health and you don't want to source your own thyroid hormones so that you can be well.
Read Dr. Lindner's submission to theScottish Parliament for a brief summary of the failures of conventional endocrinology, their causes, and the legal reforms necessary to assure that the population has access to effective endocrine care.
"Because it still clings to the old disease-based Reference Range Endocrinology, and because of pharmaceutical corporation and FDA corruption, endocrinology is an ineffective, moribund specialty, dominated by hormone myths. Indeed all of medical practice is now essentially a pharmaceutical disease-drug scheme. Medicine requires an entirely different
conceptual foundation: it should first and foremost try to find the biomolecular causes of all symptoms and disorders, and should
attempt to fix the problems by addressing the causes. In many cases all that is needed is to optimize the amounts and balance of important natural molecules--among them hormones and vitanutrients. I call the new endocrine paradigm "Restorative Endocrinology".
Thanks Shaws, very interesting. Having done a lot of reading on this forum, I would think that it’s highly unlikely that I will be able to obtain T3 on prescription and so I wonder what will happen if I just increase Levo? Presumably my poor converting and quite high Reverse T3 levels will mean that I won’t get any benefit from that at all and that my low T3 will remain low. Does anyone have any thoughts?
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