Hello, I had increased my levo to 100mg, and after 6 weeks done my bloods.
I have asked for T3 as well but I don’t see it in the list on my results.
I did start to feel better after the increase of levo, just thinking should I increase again or not. I don’t see the point to go back to my endo, so trying to self understand the bloods and get info elsewhere.
By the way I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto.
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charlee23
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Your ferritin is very low although your serum iron is high. I would ask your GP to do a full blood count to see if there is any anaemia.
Your B12 is very low, you could ask for further testing for B12 deficiency/pernicious anaemia, particularly if you have any signs of B12 deficiency listed here
I have read (but not researched so don't have links) that BCSH, UKNEQAS and NICE guidelines recommend:
"In the presence of discordance between test results and strong clinical features of deficiency, treatment should not be delayed to avoid neurological impairment."
And an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:
"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".
"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."
Hashi's can cause gut/absorption problems which can lead to poor nutrient levels, and we need optimal nutrient levels for thyroid hormone to work properly, so it would be an idea to address the Hashi's.
You can possibly help reduce the antibodies by adopting a strict gluten free diet which has helped many members here. Gluten contains gliadin (a protein) which is thought to trigger autoimmune attacks so eliminating gluten can help reduce these attacks. You don't need to be gluten sensitive or have Coeliac disease for a gluten free diet to help.
Impossible to say if your dose is appropriate without seeing FT3 result. Your FT4 is currently 61% through range, there is room for it to be higher. But if your FT3 is very low in range that will be the problem, you wont lose weight without enough T3. You need FT3 testing at the same time as FT4 to see how well you convert T4 to T3. If you don't convert well enough you may need to add T3 to your Levo, but you still need optimal nutrient levels for any thyroid hormone to work. And optimal nutrient levels help conversion, also selenium helps conversion. There's lots of pieces to the thyroid jigsaw.
Having such high levels of iron in your bloodstream is not good for you. In a healthy person serum iron is kept in range and iron not currently needed would have been stored in ferritin. If you were to start supplementing iron to raise your ferritin the likely outcome is that your serum iron would rise but your ferritin would stay low. So don't supplement iron until you've worked on your MTHFR problem and have reduced your serum iron back into the range.
The fact that your folic acid/folate is much higher in range than your B12 suggests to me that MTHFR issues are definitely an issue for you. (Vitamin B12 is 11% of the way through the range and your folic acid/folate is 41% of the way through the range.)
Do you take any B vitamin supplements in any form or take folic acid supplements or any iron supplements?
One of the simplest things to try is to improve vitamin B12 and folate. Your folate is surprisingly good compared to your B12 which makes me think that your body is not able to make use of it. In order to use B12 in the body you need folate.
For a discussion on folic acid and folate this is essential reading :
The main issue with an MTHFR problem is that your body can't convert inactive forms of folate and B12 to active forms, so you need to supplement with the active forms directly.
I agree with SeasideSusie - I would want testing for Pernicious Anaemia (PA) in your shoes. What the likelihood is of you getting it I don't know. The PA Society have a forum on Healthunlocked which you can find here :
I think you should post on the PA forum (you must "Follow" it first) with your results before you consider supplementing. Getting a diagnosis of PA (if you actually have it) is hard anyway, but having started to supplement B12 before the testing makes it almost impossible. But the PA Society should tell you whether you need to pursue this.
If you decide to go for supplementing I would suggest that you supplement specifically with methylcobalamin, perhaps 1000mcg (1 mg) per day, which is an active form of vitamin B12. A couple of weeks after you start supplementing methylcobalamin you should add in a folate supplement, specifically methylfolate, 400mcg per day.
A much more complicated (and expensive) protocol for dealing with an MTHFR problem is given on this link :
Thanks for reply, though looking at the most recent post not the old one I can see that simple supplements did increase b12, not very high now but looking better.
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