Am I optimal?

[Diane17884]

I got my levo increased to 100mg and got bloods taken six weeks after. I got my results back yesterday, I got them from the receptionist and haven't spoken to my doctor yet. She did however mark them as no action required so I'm guessing she has no plans for an increase.

TSH - 0.96 (0.2-4.5)

T4 17 (9-21)

Would you say this is optimal? I am feeling miles better than I was but still suffer from some symptoms. Fatigue, muscle aches, coldness, brain fog all milder than before but still there. And devoloped a new symptom of horrendous hair loss. Its coming out so bad I'm finding it all over the house.

Thank you

Diane 💕

P.s All my results previously are on my profile.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Diane

No-one can tell you if you are optimally medicated. Only you know how you feel. What we always say here is that 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.

With those results, a doctor would not consider increasing dose unless, maybe, if the patient presented as still symptomatic and could persuade the doctor to trial an increase.

If you are still symptomatic, maybe your FT3 isn't high enough because of poor conversion, but you need to have FT4 and FT3 tested at the same time to know that and it's unlikely to be done by your GP and this is why so many of us test privately.

I haven't read through all your posts, but looking at your profile, if those vitamin and mineral results are your current ones then they are nowhere near optimal and this could be causing symptoms and it could mean that your thyroid hormone isn't working properly and maybe not converting T4 to T3 properly.

This in particular is very concerning:

Vitamin D - 22.7mnol/L *Deficient*

Taking 3000iu better you oral spray daily for 14 weeks then will retest.

Anything below 30nmol/L should be treated by your GP with loading doses totalling 300,000iu over a few weeks. It's not really up to the patient to be sorting deficient Vit D themselves. See 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)."

And are you really only taking "500mcg sublingual daily" (copied from your profile) for your low B12?

What are you doing about your low ferritin?

Optimising nutrient levels is key and the symptoms you've listed above suggest that your vitamin and mineral levels are possibly causing them.

[Diane17884 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi seasidesusie, thank you very much for your reply, as always very informative and helpful.

I am planning to test ft4 and ft3 privately via medichecks in the coming weeks.

My vitamins and minerals haven't been retested so that was my initial results. I did manage to persuade my doctor to retest b12, ferritin and folate (awaiting results) But will also have these done again along with vitamin D with the thyroid medichecks package. The vitamin D result on my profile was also the initial first test. I have been taking 3000iu daily for 14 weeks and now moved onto a maintenance dose of 1000iu. So hoping that my vit D will come back good when I do my medichecks. As I've completed the 300,000 loading dose. I'm taking 500mg sublingual b12 plus igennus b complex for folate and extra b12.

I guess I will wait and see how all these results come back and go from there. It's a little scary for me that I've came to the end of the road with my doctor and levo as altho I'm feeling miles better Im still not feeling 100%

Thank you again x

[Hidden]

You should be taking K2 with your vitamin D these work together to direct your calcium into your bones rather than Vitamin D on it's own which will direct the calcium to your soft tissue.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Excuse butting in. I'm about to get a medichecks test for Vit D, as the doctor won't do it, and have bought some 25mcg tablets ready to supplement anyway, as it seems unlikely to be high this time of year. I was told that you don't need K2 if taking that amount. Is that true?

[Hidden]

I was told it was on this site some time ago, on the K2 box it specifies one to be taken with 1000iu of Vitamin D. I usually take 1000 and 2000 of Vit D on alternate days but always take them with the fattiest meal of the day. Mine has risen from very low 25 to over 80 now.