I’d be super grateful if anybody could let me know their thoughts on these results, as my GP had no idea and said that antibodies should only be tested if thyroid cancer is suspected.
According to medichecks, the only one outside of range is the thyroglobuln antibodies, but not sure what is meant to be optimal. The medichecks doctor suggested I avoid eating certain vegetables like swede... but didn’t offer any other helpful information
I’m 28 and female. I experience a lot of fatigue, plus coldness, depression. hair loss, weight gain and severe constipation. Looking to rule out thyroid issues before pursuing a colonoscopy etc.
Here are my results:
THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE
1.97 mIU/L
FREE T3
4.02 pmol/L
FREE THYROXINE
13.2 pmol/L
THYROGLOBULIN ANTIBODY
244 kU/L
THYROID PEROXIDASE ANTIBODIES
<9 kIU/L
I would welcome any thoughts you have on the above. Thanks
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Thanks. Uploaded the ranges (see image). I’ll look at getting the tests you suggested. When I had these tested a couple of years ago I was told to take vitamin d and folic acid supplements, haven’t been taking them lately so will be interesting to see.
I was going to ask the same question! I cannot imagine why they said that. I know what I've got against it: it tastes disgusting and reminds me of awful school dinners. But, I don't see what it's got to do with thyroid. It's just amazing what some of these doctors come out with!
Apparently they said vegetables 'like' swede. Well, there's nothing quite like swede - even the name makes my stomach curl - nothing quite so awful as swede!
But, yes, I suppose the fact that it's a brassica would explain what they meant - false, and I'm surprised a doctor said such a thing for quite a few reasons.
But, I didn't know people still ate swede these days. It was a war-time veggie, when there wasn't much choice. I thought it was just cattle feed, these days. Nobody actually eats it, do they?
Tom O'Bryan is strongly pro-swede (although rutabaga sounds more inviting!) as it is excellent prebiotic fibre for feeding the microbiome. I thought I'd get some and I rather like it so eat it reasonably often!!
Yes! We do. I love it - either sliced boiled, or boiled and mashed with butter, can add a bit of nutmeg. Gave it to our children all the time when I was cooking as they grew up.
Goodness! All these swede lovers! I'm amazed! But, I was completely traumatised by school dinners, and usually refused to eat them, causing many rows.
The crunch came when we had mincemeat tart for dessert, one day. In my slice, there was a bit of apple core, and for some reason, I found that unbelievably disgusting - strange considering all the other horrors I'd found on my plate! So, I refused to eat it, and they made me sit in front of that plate all afternoon! I never did eat it. Then they wrote a letter to my mum saying I was banned from the canteen and had to go home for lunch. I was only about 7! A criminal, marked for life, at 7 years old. lol
However, back to the swede… Yes, it is a goitrogen, but the amazing thing is, a doctor has actually heard about goitrogens! He obviously doesn't know much about them, but I count that as progress. In about 20 years time, they might actually find out that a bit of swede - or a Brussels sprout or a walnut - is really nothing to worry about and will not destroy your thyroid or affect your levo. Onwards and upwards, I say!
You were lucky you just had to sit in front of it. We were forcibly fed anything we refused to eat - but we were allowed a small helping of one course or "custard only" if we didn't like the dessert.
I hated custard, too! lol No, but that's barbaric! Force-feeding children? That's child abuse. Still, in those days, anything went. But it was being banned form the canteen that hurt. That meant a long walk home and back, in only one hour. Didn't leave much time for eating. But, at least that way, my mother couldn't make me sit all afternoon in front of a plate of hers that I refused to eat! Food was so horrible in those days.
Only thing I can think is that because it is from below ground it is starchy and can raise blood sugar - but so do parsnips, potatoes etc - why pick on the poor swede I wonder.
I thought swede was more popular in Scotland - I always called it turnip or some people call them needs but down here in England I’ve discovered that turnips are the small white ones and the big orangey yellow ‘turnips’ are called swedes. Husband has it with his haggis, I’m not overkeen on them, I put them in vegetable soup.
I get confused about swede and turnip. I spent most of my childhood calling the big orange things turnips and the small white things swedes. Now I've changed country (within the UK) I have to remember to reverse that.
Ha, ha. I spent most of my life calling the big orange things turnips and I don’t think I’d even seen a little white turnip until I moved down south. Have to say, peeling the big orange ones was hard work.
Me too! I grew up in Scotland, we always had a supply of neeps because a neighbouring farm grew them to feed their sheep. Now I’m in England and the supermarket ones never taste the same 😥
They eat them a fair bit in Norfolk where my grandmither was from. Here in spain they are sold with a veggie mix for soups but they sell them really small so have to buy 3 packs to get decent portion LOL
It's a neep or a yellow turnip. If someone just says turnip, they usually mean swede and say white turnip when they mean turnip. Confused? You will be...
You were very unlucky. When Ihave used Medichecks they have come back with comments relating to medical facts rather than old wives tales. I doubt I would have used them a second time if Ithought I was subsiding income ofsineone who spouted such nonsense.
The trouble is, in NHS language you are not hypothyroid! While there may be other causes of some or all of your symptoms you may be clinically hypothyroid and your high level of antibodies makes Hashimoto’s a suspect. You could try obtaining some desiccated thyroid extract privately and taking a small supplement for a month and see how that affects your symptoms and your blood test results. Once again the caveat that everybody is different and has a unique thyroid profile at the point of wellness applies. And everyone should be cautious with t3. Having said that, your blood levels are what I have experienced for many years when I have been sub optimally treating my Hashimoto’s. In other words they are by no means the worst I have been and not quite the best either. In particular your free T3 and your free T4 could be said to be a little on the low side. If you do take some desiccated thyroid extract I would caution not to take enough to depress your TSH much below one, at least in the first instance. Again, if it were me, looking at those results and with those symptoms I would try the equivalent of 12 µg of T4 and no more than 3 µg of T3 or as near as you can get in the desiccated compound ratios. If you could get levothyroxine on a trial basis 25 mcg may be a better test of your body’s response.... try to persuade a GP to trial it with you, unfortunately you just don’t fit their numbers not patients driven protocols. Ironically the levothyroxine trial may, how your symptoms respond, may reveal more than the blood test imho
Thanks so much for your reply. How does one go about obtaining some levothyroxine or desiccated thyroid extract? I just managed to make a GP appointment for Friday, I expect I’m going to be fobbed off as inventing illnesses to seek prescriptions for.
They're not bitter, but I don't like them, either. They are an essential ingredient of cous-cous, here. I put them on my daughter's plate and she puts her carrots on mine. lol We're a fussy lot!
International pharmacies are online I used one in the USA and with shipping etc a months supply was about £30 and took 2 weeks to arrive. Hence levothyroxine being the easier option if you can persuade the GP. Try to be absolutely resolute in linking symptoms to hypothyroidism and explain that normal healthy range is 15-17 t4 5-6 T3 and 1.0 TSH and that labranges are just that, not necessarily your range! There are plenty of published papers explaining this! Levothyroxine is cheap and will show an effect in 2-4 weeks so a trial basis is about collecting evidence not a solution to an invented illness. They cannot say you are or are not hypothyroid without further evidence and why should you suffer. Good god they give antidepressants to anyone for anything and they are far more of an issue! Another caveat here, I had all sorts of difficulties with the levothyroxine but not everybody experiences this and I know now that the positive effects of it can be seen quite quickly it certainly doesn’t take the 6 to 8 weeks that everybody seems subservient to. As I said it would be a trial......
Lol yup, been on 150mg sertraline for 3 years. Do you have any links to the papers you recommend? Think I’m going to need to be very prepared for this appointment!
That's crazy your doctor said that testing antibodies was only for thyroid cancer!!!
Instead of getting a huge amount of varying responses I think you should go and see a worthy functional medical practitioner. Helen Williams thefunctionalnutritionclini...
Helen is a fantastic lady who has trained with Isabella Wentz (who has her Hashimotos in remission) and has the knowledge to be able to help you. It is an investment but our health is the most important thing we have. I saw Helen last year after being fobbed off by my doctors for 9 years, I have now changed medication and am feeling WAY better. My TSH was 150 and my antibodies were over 400. All my levels are great now, but that is because I learnt about thyroid health, my Hashimotos triggers and found the right guidance.
If you feel bad now don't let it get worse, become you're own health warrior. You are the only person who knows you and how you feel.
Your GP is the usual type of idiot and is, I think, confusing thyroglobulin with thyroglobulin (TG) antibodies. High antibodies mean autoimmune thyroid disease (hashimotos). Most people have high TPO, some have high TPO and TG, and some just high TG. Generally, antibodies are high when you are recovering from an autouimmune attack, so you might also have high TPO antibodies at another time. Regardless of that, your free T4 is much too low in range and doesn't match up with your TSH, so you really need to try for an endo referral for central or secondary hypothyroidism. Or if you are on levo, you need an increase
A swede might be goitrogenic, and perhaps that's why they're mentioning it. Which means it blocks iodine uptake into the thyroid for formation of t4. Lots of foods are goitrogenic but it seem to be the total amount you ingest.
I think it's tough to say. tsh fluctuates and is a pituitary marker, not a thyroid marker. T4 production is thought to be ~60% genetic, so you don't really know what total output you can get from any given tsh stimulation, unless you test it. I don't think the free numbers reveal this personally.
Some can have a tsh of 2 and get a 5 t4 while others can have a 1 and get a 9 t4. Then much has to occur to make sure the t4 gets to the cells as t3.
Your Free T3 is 18.6% of the way through the range.
Your Free T4 is 12% of the way through the range.
Most people who are treated for hypothyroidism feel best with both those results in the top half of the reference range i.e. over 50% of the way through the range. Some people need them to be 60% or 70% or more of the way through the range.
Neither of your results are good, but unfortunately the NHS doesn't diagnose thyroid problems on anything other than TSH, although it is possible they might take account of your thyroid antibodies once your TSH goes over the range. If they refuse to take account of the thyroid antibodies then they may insist that your TSH must go up to 10 before treatment.
The UK has the most sadistic rules for treating hypothyroidism that I've ever read about.
If you want to see an endo you should do your homework first to see if you can find a good one. You might find it difficult to get your GP to refer you. And bear in mind, with the financial squeeze on the NHS anyone who has previously been a "good" endo may have changed the way they practice to save the NHS money.
For the list of "good" Private Doctors and Practitioners (many of whom will also work for the NHS), please email Dionne on tukadmin@thyroiduk.org
In the meantime you really need to find out about some of the basic vitamins and minerals and optimise them. Working on improving gut health (if you have a problem) is always worth it. Many of us find going gluten free helps too. If it doesn't help then you can always go back to eating it.
A good website, well worth browsing, is this one :
I once insisted that my step son at least try one Brussels' sprout. He gagged. I gave up ever insisting that anyone eat something they say they dislike.
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