General hello

[Linuk]

Hello, everybody. I have joined today after speaking with friend who has had incredible problems caused by lack of correctly diagnosing and following her carefully after being diagnosed 11 year ago with an underactive thyroid. I have recently been diagnosed with the same following neck surgery, chemo / radio therapy. I have been prescribed 1 x 50 micrograms of Levothyroxine daily. I told my friend I had been suffering from fat retention - particularly round the mid-section of my body. She has told me to be sure I am being tightly monitored. e.g. check T3, certain vitamins etc. So now I wonder how I go about this. Any advice? Thank you, in advance.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Linuk

Welcome to the forum.

For a full picture of thyroid/vitamin status, the following tests are needed:

TSH

FT4

FT3

Thyroid antibodies

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

You could ask your GP for the tests, but they all wont be done. Some areas only test TSH, if that is in range they wont do FT4. Some areas will test TSH and FT4 and wont test FT3. Some areas will test FT3 if TSH is suppressed (mine does).

Some doctors will test Vit D, some say that everyone in the UK is low so there's no point testing.

The other vitamin tests, well if the GP thinks there's a good enough reason they may do them.

If you want to do them privately, you can get them all done in one test bundle with Medichecks or Blue Horizon:

Medichecks Thyroid Check ULTRAVIT medichecks.com/thyroid-func... You can use code TUK20 until the end of this month for 20% discount, thereafter code THYROIDUK for a 10% discount on any test not on special offer.

or

Blue Horizon Thyroid Check PLUS ELEVEN bluehorizonmedicals.co.uk/t...

Both tests include the full thyroid and vitamin panel and can be done by fingerprick or if preferred you can pay extra and arrange venous blood draw. They are basically the same test but with the following small differences:

For the fingerprick test, Blue Horizon requires 1 x microtainer of blood (0.8ml), Medichecks requires 2 x microtainers (total 1.6ml)

Blue Horizon includes Total T4 (can be useful but not essential). Medichecks doesn't include this test.

B12 - Blue Horizon does Serum B12. Medichecks does Active B12.

Serum B12 shows the total B12 in the blood. Active B12 shows what's available to be taken up by the cells. You can have a reasonable level of Serum B12 but a poor level of Active B12. (Personally, I would go for the Active B12 test.)

Some people do fingerprick tests easily, some people struggle. These are the tips I pass on for fingerprick test:

* Be well hydrated, drink plenty of water the day before, and before you do the test. * Some people take a shower before hand, some run up and down the stairs to get blood flowing. Personally, as I can't run up and down the stairs, I circle my arm round, windmill style. * Have a bowl full of hot water, dip hand in and out, swish around, hand needs to go red. If blood flow stops, you can always swish round in the hot water again. * Stand up to do the test. Make sure your arm is straight down when collecting the blood. Either use a small step stool to raise yourself well above the work surface, or put the collection tube on a lowish shelf. One member uses an ironing board so she can get the perfect height.

* Prick finger on the side, not the tip. I find that half way between the nail bed and tip is about right, or maybe slightly nearer the nail bed rather than the tip. I use my ring finger, but middle finger is next best for me. * Do not squeeze your finger to get the blood out, it can damage the blood and it may not be usable

I've recently done 2 tests. The first one there was very little blood coming out which was unusual for me so I used a second finger and between the two I gradually filled the tube. However, when I checked the prick site for the first finger the actual cut was very small and as I've had some of these lancets fail before I put it down to that. When I did the second test this week this is what I did * Prick my finger as usual, make a very slight twist with the lancet whilst blade is still in the finger. I'm not talking 90 degrees or anything, just a very slight twist to make the cut just slightly bigger, it doesn't hurt or cause a blood bath! This made a big difference, 11 generous drops of blood filled the tube in less 2 minutes.

youtube.com/watch?v=InHBLT-...(Not working as expected?)

For any test, however carried out, If you supplement with Biotin, or a B complex containing it (B7), Medichecks have confirmed that they because they use biotin in their assay it's recommended to leave it off for 7 days before doing any blood tests as it can give false results.

[Linuk]

Thank you SeasiseSusie. All the information provided is most useful and interesting. I will be sure to keep this in mind for blood tests.

LinUk