Thyroid result

[anne1483]

TSH 2.3

Free T3 4.66

Free thyroxine 14.400

What sort of result is preferable, please?

Thankd

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Hi Anne

We need reference ranges to be able to interpret your results, and need to know if you are on thyroid meds before members can comment.

However presumably these are the results from the Medichecks test you posted in your last thread. I missed your post then and have now looked at it and you have some problems in your results that weren't commented on so I will put them here.

Vit D insufficiency - 29.8 nmol/L (range 50 - 175)

You should really show this result to your GP because technically it is Vit D deficiency and you should be prescribed loading doses, but you could deal with this yourself.

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)."

Each Health Authority has their own guidelines but they will be very similar. Go and see your GP and ask that he treats you according to the local guidelines or this summary and prescribes the loading doses. Once these have been completed you will need a reduced amount so you should make sure that you are retested after you have finished the loading doses so that you know how much you should then take going forward. Most doctors, if they continue prescribing, only give 800iu daily which isn't enough. If GP wont retest then do this privately (link below) and post your new result at the time for members to suggest a new dose to bring your level up to what's recommended by the Vit D Council/the Vit D Society - which is 100-150nmol/L - and then you'll need a maintenance dose to keep it there, which may be 2000iu daily, maybe more or less, maybe less in summer than winter, it's trial and error so it's recommended to retest once or twice a year to keep within the recommended range. You can do this with a private fingerprick blood spot test with an NHS lab which offers this test to the general public:

vitamindtest.org.uk/

If you want to deal with this yourself then follow the guidance above. Do your own loading doses, you could do 5,000iu daily for 8 weeks then retest and continue as suggested above.

Your GP won't know, because they're not taught much about nutrients, but there are important cofactors needed when taking D3 as recommended by the Vit D Council -

vitamindcouncil.org/about-v...

D3 aids absorption of calcium from food and K2-MK7 directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissues where it can be deposited and cause problems such as hardening of the arteries, kidney stones, etc.

D3 and K2 are fat soluble so should be taken with the fattiest meal of the day, D3 four hours away from thyroid meds if taking tablets/capsules/softgels, no necessity if using an oral spray

Magnesium helps D3 to work. We need Magnesium so that the body utilises D3, it's required to convert Vit D into it's active form. So it's important we ensure we take magnesium when supplementing with D3.

Magnesium comes in different forms, check to see which would suit you best and as it's calming it's best taken in the evening, four hours away from thyroid meds if taking tablets/capsules, no necessity if using topical forms of magnesium.

naturalnews.com/046401_magn...

Check out the other cofactors too (some of which can be obtained from food).

B12 - Active - 96.400 pmol/L (range 37.5 - 188)

Serum folate - 6.38 ug/L (range greater than 3.89) (taking supplement)

Both could do with improving, taking a good B Complex containing methylfolate and methylcobalamin will help. Consider Thorne Basic B or Igennus Super B. Don't buy a supplement containing folic acid and/or cyanocobalamin.

Ferritin - 46.9 ug/L (range 13 - 150) - you wrongly put the range as 13-15 which is why it was mentioned that your ferritin was over range, it isn't.

This could be part of your problem. It's said that for thyroid hormone to work properly (that's our own as well as replacement hormone) ferritin needs to be at least 70, preferably half way through range. You can help raise your level by eating liver regularly, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, also liver pate, black pudding, and including lots of iron rich foods in your diet

apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/in...

Symptoms of low ferritin are listed in this article

restartmed.com/low-ferritin/

As for your thyroid results:

TSH - 2.35 mlU/L (range .027 - 4.2)

Free T3 - 4.66 pmol/L (range 3.1 - 6.8)

Free thyroxine - 14.400pmol/L (range 12 - 22)

In a normal healthy person one might expect to see TSH no more than 2-ish and FT4 possibly half way through range. Your TSH is slightly higher than that (but did you do your test early morning, no later than 9am, after an overnight fast and drinking water only - no breakfast, tea, coffee, milk, etc, until after the test, this would all affect the TSH level) and your FT4 is on the lowish side. This may be due to your nutrient deficiencies though, nutrient levels need to be optimal for any thyroid hormone to work so it's worth working on improving these and retest in, say, 4 months' time to see how all your levels lie then.

[MaisieGray in reply to SeasideSusie]

SeasideSusie Can you clarify something regarding Vit D deficiency please? In your quote above, it states that the CKS/NICE guidelines set an upper limit of 30 nmol/L for diagnosing Vit D deficiency, but I can't find that anywhere within the guidelines you link to. What it currently states (unless I'm missing another reference) is "Diagnose vitamin D deficiency if serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels are less than 25 nmol/L." I notice the guidelines were edited in Sept 2018, so is it possible that 30 nmol/L has been adjusted down in that edit from the previous version, or am I missing something?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to MaisieGray]

It's quite possible Maisie, I have that information saved and just copy/paste into replies, and I saved it quite some time ago. I'll check back at the guidelines and update if necessary. I wonder why they changed it?? Could be money of course, trimming a bit off the budget where they can.

[Mary-intussuception in reply to SeasideSusie]

Revised September 2018.

(Possibly money, I think - & maybe NHS doesn't like patients getting informed then asking for correct treatment. Strange - it was an NHS website that led me to Health Unlocked . . . . . . )

[anne1483 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

GP should prescribe vitamin D ? Did they?

You need to supplement to get all these vitamins optimal and then redo thyroid tests in 2-3 months

Vitamin D improve to at least 80nmol and around 100nmol may be better

B12 and Folate towards top of range

Ferritin at least half way in range

Make sure to do all Thyroid tests as early as possible in morning and fasting

Vitamin D

GP will only prescribe to bring vitamin D up to 50nmol. Aiming to improve by self supplementing to at least 80nmol and around 100nmol may be better .







Once you Improve level, very likely you will need on going maintenance dose to keep it there.




Retesting twice yearly via vitamindtest.org.uk




Vitamin D mouth spray by Better You is good as avoids poor gut function.




It's trial and error what dose each person needs. Frequently with Hashimoto's we need higher dose than average

Local CCG guidelines

clinox.info/clinical-suppor...

Government recommends everyone supplement October to April

gov.uk/government/news/phe-...




Also read up on importance of magnesium and vitamin K2 Mk7 supplements when taking vitamin D

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

articles.mercola.com/sites/...

healthy-holistic-living.com...

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

articles.mercola.com/sites/...


betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

This article explains should discuss with specialists before taking any vitamin K if you take any blood thinning medication

drsinatra.com/vitamin-k2-su...

B12 and folate. Supplementing a good quality daily vitamin B complex, one with folate in not folic acid may be beneficial.

chriskresser.com/folate-vs-...

B vitamins best taken in the morning after breakfast

Recommended brands on here are Igennus Super B complex. (Often only need one tablet per day, not two. Certainly only start with one tablet per day after breakfast. Retesting levels in 6-8 weeks ).

Or Jarrow B-right is popular choice, but is large capsule

If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 7 days before any blood tests, as biotin can falsely affect test results

endo.confex.com/endo/2016en...

endocrinenews.endocrine.org...

Ferritin

Eating liver or liver pate once a week, plus other iron rich foods like black pudding, prawns, spinach, pumpkin seeds and dark chocolate, plus daily vitamin C can help improve iron absorption