I have searched for an independent lab in my area for vitamin/mineral testing and the cheapest one that I found was $399, seems a bit pricey to me!!! It only tests for:
B1
B6
B12
Folate
C
D25-Hydroxy
Ferritin
Iron
No selenium
If I got those tested how accurate and worthwhile is the test, don’t your vitamins/minerals fluctuate? And how often do people get tested for them because it seems to me that if we’re supplementing because we were low on them and then we get them in range, that we could be over supplementing at that point, I mean can’t you get overmedicated on them or is it that Hashi’s people are continuously low on them if you stop taking them? I guess I’m just trying to justify the price and I err on the side of caution taking anything.
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DebTex
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We are low on them because we have a thyroid issue and it's that which makes us lose the vitamins. We shall always have a thyroid problem so if we need to supplement its generally for life.
Thank you, I’m trying to make some sense out of all of it, I’ve been hypothyroid for along time, and just recently tested for Hashimoto’s because of reading about it on here, I am so thankful that I did so that I can try to improve my situation, and I’m so thankful that there is a forum like this one with people with so much knowledge about the thyroid and the great advice they give about it.
Thank you, but when I was looking for a thyroid forum, I didn’t see any that compared to this one, this is a great one and I’ve learned so much on here in a very short time and I have seen other people on here from the US so I thought it was open to anyone.
It is open to anyone ,you are welcome and there are some other US contributors, but as you were asking about the price of blood testing I thought you were more likely to get responses on a US site.
I've read a number of times in different fora, where US members report what seems a higher cost for independent blood testing (for the routine basics at least) than here in the UK. There are a few US members in this forum who might advise, otherwise you may have to raise that issue in a predominantly US group. Yes the tests are generally accurate and worthwhile, (although the supplementation of biotin can skew some results for instance, and therefore it should not be taken in the 4 or 5 days before the blood draw) although their interpretation may not always be straightforward. So for instance, low levels may mean simply that you are not getting enough of a nutrient in your diet; or that your absorption of it is poor; or that you are excreting too much of it; and may be due to anyone of a diverse range of causes such as poor nutrition generally, GI tract disorders, the long-term use of other drugs such as diuretics, proton pump inhibitors ..... So the results are the start point not the solution; but it very much is a case of knowledge is power, because in general terms, it doesn't make sense to try and get well treating say, hypothyroidism, if nutrition is poor; but more specifically, there are particular nutrition needs for thyroid functioning; and conversely, low reported levels can help with the perennial question "is my X/Y/Z symptom due to my thyroid or something else?" Re. over-supplementing, some supplemented nutrients are water soluble so excess can generally be excreted in urine whereas others are fat soluble and excesses can build up.
Thank you so much MaisieGray for explaining all of that, it is all so complicated, I had just found out recently that I had Hashi’s even though I’ve been hypothyroid for a long time so I’m just trying to make some sense out of it all. It just boggles mind about how knowledgeable the people are on this forum. Also, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be complaining about the cost of labs on here.
Hashi's patients will always be low on certain vitamins and minerals so it is a losing battle - also as someone who has their vits and mins checked regularly when you taken one thing it can deplete you in another - so you have to be careful you don't cause disarray in the body because of this. Certain items need to be taken as a whole not just on their own.
Hi Deb, the usual suspects are B12, Ferritin - Selenium (without enough of this you cannot convert T4 to T3 the actual enzyme needed for the thyroid has the word selenum within) - Vitamin C for low stomach acid - Vitamin B complex for adrenal support if needed - magnesium and zinc can also be skewed. In fact most if not all of the symptoms with thyroid illness is due to the deficiency of a vitamin or mineral (I know by experience !) Be careful with D - if you dont need it dont take it - issues are coming to the fore that it is causing heart issues due to drawing in too much calcium into the blood vessels.
Thank you, I know that some vitamins are water soluble and some aren’t, that’s what concerns me, I don’t want to take the ones that aren’t if I don’t need them, so I guess I would have to figure out which is which, or get them tested.
That was a quick read but informative, I knew Vitamin C was water soluble but I didn’t know that the B-Complex group was also and I learned that Vitamin A, D, E & K are all fat soluble, they dissolve in fats, and the excess ones stored in the liver for future use, and because they aren’t readily excreted they can accumulate to toxic levels if taken in excess, that’s what concerns me so I am going to be doing a lot of reading up on the subject, thanks so much, you guys are all so helpful on here.
I came across a good reference for: Which vitamins are stored in your body? on vitacost.com but I don’t know how to make a link to click on it like you did😂
I’m also in Us and I see a Functional medicine doctor that checks all of my micronutrients. Here is a link for you to use to see if one is close to you:
Some of them are covered by insurance and some like mine will run what they can through your insurance and rest would be out of pocket.
My doctor is an ARNP and she is catching my thyroid issues before a any of my other doctors see issues when they have checked my thyroid they say it’s all in normal limits.
Functional medicine side says it’s WHACKED OUT!! 🤷🏼♀️
Hi there, good to hear from you, I am so excited, I found 5 Drs. on that link that are in my area, 2 of them are fairly close, within 30 miles! Thank you so much! I will look at their websites tomorrow as it is getting fairly late? Even though I’m a bit of a night owl. I hear you about your Dr. saying your labs are all on normal limits, on my last labs my Dr. said everything was perfect and the people on here said they were all too low, so I have been looking for a new one. It would be so wonderful to find someone that actually knew about the thyroid. Glad you found a good one, thanks again!
I found this forum as I was looking for information on a rare autoimmune disease that I suspected I may have and my Retina specialist told me to look into.
I have meet so many wonderful people in here!!
Here’s a few other Functional Medicine Doctors I get useful information from...
Dr. Axe, Dr. Jockers, Dr.William Cole,
Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr, Gundry
Dr. Amy Myers (She’s covers all Thyroid)
Ben Lynch (Dirty Genes)
Also I have done the 23&me Heath and Ancestry (cyber Monday its $99.00 = 1/2 off!!) i then had my genetic pathway broken down.
Also have had tests here, Ig food sensitivities, toxicity (check for candida, plastics, environmental toxins, Organic Acids test (Oats).
She arranged for me to do these through this company.
Frustrated2, thank you for the names of the online Functional Medicine Drs. and for the Lab links. One of the 5 names that I got off the Find a Practictioner link sounds familiar, I think I called her a long time ago, I use to live in the same town as her practice, anyway she didn’t take any insurance, I’m afraid most of them may be that way, and my insurance won’t pay for anything out of network either, but I will check them all out just in case. My Daughter used that 23&Me Health and Ancestry, I adopted her when she was 2 months old, I couldn’t have any children, my appendix had ruptured when I was very young and made adhesions all over my Fallopian tubes and overies, anyway, she’s 22 now and she found out on there that she is a Cystic Fibrosis carrier , so I guess if and when the time comes that she wants to have children she will have to do some genetic counseling and find out for sure. Thanks so much for everything, wishing you well also.
Thank you for your kind words, I didn’t know after my appendectomy that it had left me infertile, I went to a fertility clinic they put me on that horrid infertility drug clomid and I was super witch on it, I took it many times they eventually did exploratory laparoscopy and found the adhesions and tried to remove what they could, long story short, it didn’t work so next came adoption. My Daughter’s birth family doesn’t know who or where we are, I do have their names so if my Daughter is interested one day she can try to look them up. That is why she wanted to find out about her health and ancestry. My Daughter’s birth Mom did drugs and alcohol while pregnant with her so we had to watch her for the first 2 years for fetal alcohol syndrome. Thankfully we saw no ill affects from it and she is graduating from college this coming Saturday and we couldn’t love her or be anymore proud of her had she been our biological child. So your son is adopted?
I’ve always felt that God lead me through even though I may have suffered I have always received beautiful things out of it.
No my son is not adoptive but his biological father was not a good man I was young and dumb. 🤦🏼♀️ I don’t have any regrets as I have an amazing kid out of it. Hard times can lead to beautiful destinations I’ve always attempted to find good in even the tough times.
I’m just not sure if my son wants to have his father know anything about him, or attempt to get in touch. He was very abusive to me and in that I mean every way a person can be abused he did to myself. But it’s what he did to a step daughter of one of his wives after me, he did more pertaining to a child. That is something we don’t want around if and when my son has a wife and kids.
Thank you, I am so sorry that you had to suffer through abuse, I love what you said, that hard times can lead to beautiful destinations, you sound like a very positive person in spite of what you’ve been through, and you have your Son, that’s the greatest thing. No one can blame any of you for not wanting his biological Dad around.
Well honestly I would go through it again to get my kiddo THE REWARDS AND JOY HE’S BROUGHT ME HAVE BEEN ALL WORTH IT!!
I try to be positive and I feel that God has entrusted me with this pain and seems to think that can go through things. I know he has a plan for me and I just have to let him guide me. Through all of this over the last 18+/- months I’ve had a real peace about it that I need to let it all be and Let God take control of it that he’s guiding me to the right people and I have truly been lead to the people I need down to doctor and this forum!!
I did the 23&Me genetic testing and too am a CF carrier. Luckily it worked out for me as hubby isn’t a carrier but we didn’t know that at the time. When my kids are 18 I’ll get them tested and hope I haven’t passed it down 😩
I’m sorry to hear that you tested positive for being a carrier for CF too, I haven’t read up on it very much yet, my Daughter was just tested recently. So if your Husband doesn’t test positive for it does it decrease the chances of passing it on to your kids? I am hoping it doesn’t pass down to your kids too!
My mother’s cousin has 2 granddaughters with CF but I don’t know them and my mum wouldn’t have know about the genetics.
I really don’t worry about it. Yes it could be passed on - that’s anyone’s guess as to what is selected at the time of conception. But my kids will be in a better position than most because they and future partners can be tested. There’s a 1in4 chance of CF IF both mum and Dad are carriers, the odds of partnering up with someone who is also a carrier is low and even if kids are unlucky that way, we’ll there’s selection. I’m just glad we found out because CF is very life limiting 😢
Thanks, for telling me that, I decided to read up on it some last night and read the same thing that you just said, so I texted it to my Daughter, I don’t think she has dug any further on the subject, she is just graduating from college this week so having kids aren’t on her mind right now, she does have a long term boyfriend though. I wish you and your family the best of health.
I tried calling those 5 functional Dr’s but I was busy earlier so I only got ahold of one this afternoon, the thyroid test would be covered by my insurance but no functional medicine tests like for adrenals or stool testing, the reviews on her site were mainly for gynecology, there a couple for thyroid, but they were all good reviews. They were all talking about the supplements they got from the Dr. I’m not sure how I feel about that, it makes me feel like she is in the business of making money off of people selling their supplements, maybe that’s the wrong way to think about it. Do you get supplements from your functional Dr?
Yes I use supplements. I have found with functional medicine that the doctor will give you only what your body is lacking. I have been some short term, some longer and some I will not be able to get off. That should all be explained to you when you meet with them.
Ok, thanks! I’ll have to think some more about the Functional Doctoring, I guess I’m used to doing my own thing with things like supplements, I’m still wanting to see if I need the ones that are to help with the thyroid, I will probably see which ones are definitely water soluble and start on them. Thanks so much for your help.
Hi Debtex, I clicked through to look at your results from the talk about insomnia. I think the only results you've posted are these from a few months ago:
T4 Free: 0.83 ng/dL (0.82–1.77)
TSH: 1.700 ulU/mL (0.450 — 4.500)
T3: 84 ng/dL (71—180)
TPO: 211 IU/mL —Limits-0.34
TG thyroid antibodies was 15.6 IU/mL
Taking: 56mcg Synthroid and 7.5 cytomel for 2 months
Then recently you've changed to 1 grain (60mg) of NDT.
I'd say that on the T4/T3 you were undermedicated. Is this T3 result freeT3? If it is it shows the T3 you've got available to you is right at the bottom of the range. If it's total T3 it doesn't tell us as much. All we can really look at in that case is the TSH. Most people will have a very low TSH, bottom of the range or lower once they're on T3. Yours is still fairly high. Even tho TSH doesn't tell us much, a high one tends to show undermedication.
Switching to 1 grain is a slight dose decrease for you. Especially once you had increased to 10 mcg of T3 per day. The NDT contains 9mcg of T3 and 38mcg of T4, so you can see it's lower than your old dose.
Hopefully you've had an increase of NDT by now, but if not, you can adjust by a quarter grain, and see how you feel. Going by symptoms you can then continue increasing every 3 weeks or so if you like.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to go over my last blood, no the T3 wasn’t Free T3 even though I had asked to have it checked the last 3 times. He supposedly was going to check it on my labs last week. I was looking for a new Dr. but the one I wanted to go to didn’t except any insurance, and I may be moving out of this area soon so I haven’t looked for another one. I’m now back on my old dose of 88mcg T4 only, my Dr. took me off of the T4/T3 combo and then the Armour because on both of those I was having too many palpitations and racing, so this present lab is on 88 mcg, I have taken 100mcg in the past but I had the same problem with palpitates and racing. I have Dr. Blanchard’s book where he treated patients with T4 and a small amount of NDT, I’m thinking about digging that book out and trying that because I have some Armour left that I can cut up and I have some 50’s and 112’s mcg Synthroid left from previous trials, if I can figure out when I get my labs back what dose I would to do that and that’s a big IF!!! I would have to have help in that area unfortunately. Thank you so much for your help, I’ve been seeing your advice on here to many people and you are very helpful and you know what you are talking about!
88mcg of Synthroid is roughly the same dose as the 56mcg Synthroid and 7.5 Cytomel you were on in the past. You've been chopped and changed a lot the past few months, so whatever you do it would be good to stay on the same dose at least 6-8 weeks to give your body a bit of a break.
If your blood tests say you're undermedicated, but raising the dose makes your heart race that can be adrenals. One option is to increase the dose super slowly, cut or grind tablets into tiny pieces and have a tiny crumb increase at a time, holding for a few weeks and then increase another crumb.
At the same time treat vitamins and make sure they are optimal. And look into treating adrenals. Research the 24hr saliva cortisol test. There are also lots of lifestyle changes that can help. Rest more, reduce stress, eat and sleep well, learn to meditate, cut out strenuous exercise and add in gentle exercise like walking or Tai chi.
It can be a long road to get adrenals in good shape. Unfortunately it's just one more thing long term hypothyroid takes a toll on.
Thank you for telling me about the adrenals could be making my heart race, I’ve real a little about them but I guess it didn’t dawn on me that it could be my problem. You are right, I have been on a lot of different thyroid meds and doses this year. I have been on the 88mcg for the last 2 months so hopefully it will give an accurate picture of what’s going on, hopefully my Dr. added the Free T3 this time like he said he would, I should get the results back sometime this week. I’m not planning on trying to do any med changes anytime soon but my sleeping problems have been a lot worse lately so I’m going to do as you suggested for the adrenals, there’s a lab that I’ve used before that could check my cortisol level, and I could definitely benefit from meditation if I can just make myself sit still long enough to try to do it. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge on here. How did you become so knowledgeable on thyroid issues? It looks like you may be a bit of a night owl too, I can’t go to sleep early and I function on way too little sleep and I know it is unhealthy for me. Take good care
Yes, I am very much a night owl! Last night was particularly naughty, going on the internet when I should have been in bed already!! I'm always struggling to keep my good night time routines and get to bed at the same time. I think part of being hypothyroid makes that worse - not getting sleepy at the right time, but also after about 8pm I seem to move and think in slow motion and it takes forever to get my teeth brushed, pyjamas on, etc!
I learned most of what I know about thyroid from reading the forum every day. At first I was too ill to understand most of it, but just kept looking at the blood tests people post, and the interpretations of knowledgeable members till it started to sink in. After a few months I started self medicating myself, and I turned out to have some kind of thyroid hormone resistance, so it's been a long road. I've been adjusting my dose for almost three years. Now I'm a bit better I also read the odd book and journal article that gets recommended, too. I'm still quite ill, so there is a long list of things I'd like to read that I haven't done, and things I should make notes on to get my thoughts together!
I know what you are talking about with so called good sleep hygiene, I know what I’m supposed to do but don’t always do it. You learning most of what you know about the thyroid from this forum is a great testimony to its helpfulness! I’ve learned quite a bit on the short time that I’ve been on this forum. I like to read and I read a lot and I’m hoping to learn enough on here to figure out what’s going on with my thyroid business, one of the big problems for me though is that I don’t retain what I read, I am a fast reader and I know the thyroid has a lot to do with our memory but I don’t know if it has to do with reading retention, and of course there are the brain fog days, I always thought that I would be fairly smart if I could remember everything that I read. You were talking about making notes, I make them for everything, it looks like a mad hatter lives around here😂 I’m sorry to hear that you have thyroid hormone retention, I will have to look that up to see what it is, but I hope that you get it straightened out. Take good care. Thanks for your reply.
Thank you Heloise, that was an eye opener! I wish that I had seen that before I let the Drs. remove my gallbladder several years ago, I have more problems now with it gone than I did feeling bad with it, I was told that it was diseased, low functioning and that it could rupture if I didn’t have it removed, I had my appendix rupture so telling me that put the fear in me. The guy said the lady that had her gallbladder removed that he was talking about, probably had a Liver or bile problem, well that rings a loud bell with me because on my recent labs my Liver was elevated so it could have been my liver causing me problems all along. Now I’m living with bile dripping into my intestine causing digestive and bowel issues. Also the adrenals and sleep rang a bell, I’ve had insomnia for a long time. And the next time my Dr. tells me that my cholesterol is too high and mentions statins again, I’m going to tell him that cholesterol does not clog arteries!!Are they trying to kill us?!
No wonder you were fearful. It seems to me that many entities use fear to achieve their way. We need knowledge so that we can face the fear. Dr. Bergman was so close to the mindset of Dr. Stoll and I knew he was on "our" side. Pretty darn smart, too. Check out his other videos, in fact, I think he had a woman on one talking about enzymes which was one of the earlier talks about them. The one on the nervous system is also wonderful. It's a shame we know so little about our bodies, isn't it? Aging means you have fewer enzymes, fewer stem cells and less growth hormone and they know all this and if you had decent insurance you could afford it.
You could try a liver cleanse. My daughter did the hard one where you drink apple juice and olive oil and also epsom salts which opens the ducts. People think they are getting rid of stones but not sure that is what is happening but they look like stones and there is a slower one with apple juice which you do daily. I might look that one up but fatty liver is pretty common for hypos. I think we can accomplish so much on our own if we pursue it.
I liked what Dr. Stoll had to say, I will check his other videos out too, thank you! I will also look into the slower apple juice liver cleanse, I have been thinking about doing one since my Liver results came back elevated.
I posted these five minute videos hundreds of times here because he has a list of 20 reasons why you may be hypothyroid. There are two about antibodies and since your TPO was high I chose #7 but the rest of them show how many body parts are affected and also we may be deficient in vitamin A.
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