4 weeks on 50mg Levo new blood results ,any advise welcomed .

[curlymom]

Previous results before levo in brackets .

Tsh - 3.2 mU/L. (7.63) range 0.50- 4.4

FT4 -14.3(14.3) pmol/L. Range 10-20

Ferritin- 25 ng/ml Range 6.9- 282.5

Vit B -875 pg/ml Range 200-1100

Serum folate -20ng/mol range 3-14

Total 25 OH-vit D - 128nmol/L range 50-125

Along with the Levo I took 25,000units/2.5ml once monthly of Vit D .

Also 3000mg of evening primrose oil (omega 6)and 2400mg of Omega 3

I also take a supplement of revive active daily .

So I’m happy things are going in the right direction ,doctor was going to leave me on 50mg but I asked for the 75mg and he was ok with that for now . I did ask for fT3 to be tested but they didn’t do that .I cut back on Gluten I’d say 90% in last 2/3 weeks before testing .

Any advise going forward ?

[humanbean]

Ferritin- 25 ng/ml Range 6.9- 282.5

I've never seen such a low level for bottom of the range for ferritin. It suggests that lots of people in the population are very low in iron and they have managed to end up in the reference range.

I think the reference range for ferritin and other iron-related measures are population reference ranges. This means that they include all the results from everyone they test, then remove the bottom 2.5% and the top 2.5%. Hey presto! A reference range!

It suggests of course that the medical profession only accepts that 2.5% of people have too little iron and 2.5% of people have too much iron. I bet there is no evidence anywhere suggesting that there are only 2.5% of the population with iron deficiency.

The other possibility is that only healthy people are included in the reference range. This is extremely unlikely, in my opinion. Labs get the majority of their samples from people that doctors think are sick enough to test for something. So where do they find healthy people to test? I suspect they use staff and family members, without any proper screening to see if they really are healthy. And I wouldn't be surprised if the sample sizes are very small.

[humanbean in reply to humanbean]

I forgot to say... Your ferritin level is about 6.5% of the way through the reference range. Most of us feel at our best when ferritin is 50% of the way through the range or a smidgen higher.

It isn't a good idea to start supplementing iron just on the basis of a ferritin level. People can have low ferritin and high serum iron. In those cases taking iron supplements may increase serum iron while having little effect on ferritin and this is not a good result at all. If you do supplement iron make sure that you test iron/ferritin fairly frequently.

If you live in the UK you might find the following links helpful :

medichecks.com/iron-tests/i...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

[Luna1390 in reply to humanbean]

My ferritin is always low. I started taking iron supplements per the dr. and this exact scenario is happening to me. All my other iron labs (% sat, TIBC, serum) are getting too high, but ferritin has not budged. You are the first person I have seen that mentions this. Do you know what the solution is? Or what the cause is?

[humanbean in reply to Luna1390]

This link may be helpful :

stopthethyroidmadness.com/h...

Ignore reason 1 - with low in range ferritin you do not have haemochromatosis.

Look at "high iron reason two". It's very common.

If it doesn't fit then look into the other possibilities listed on that link.

If you have an MTHFR mutation then your methylation cycle may not be working properly. It can be started up again with the right supplements. If you can get that working you ought to see the difference in your iron results - serum iron and % saturation will reduce and ferritin will increase.

Re-starting the methylation cycle may be quite easy under certain circumstances - supplement with methylcobalamin (a form of vitamin B12 available without prescription) and methylfolate (a safer way of increasing folate levels than using folic acid). See this link :

chriskresser.com/folate-vs-...

But your B12 and folate levels are already fine, so that isn't useful advice for you.

I've reached the limit of my very meagre knowledge on MTHFR, but I can pass on some links that might help you :

chrismasterjohnphd.com/blog...

drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/CFS_-_T...

stopthethyroidmadness.com/m...

[NWA6]

Hey curlymom. It’s a shame your doc won’t do FT3 as it would be more accurate account if Thyriod function. But no matter you’re still undermedicated so well done for pushy for an increase 😀

With regards to gluten. It’s really a case of 100% gluten free initially. If you don’t feel much difference or none at all you can introduce some gluten again. I truly believe that there’s a huge difference between coeliacs at an intolerance. Me personally I have a slight intolerance and I know where my limit is with gluten and what products I will react to.

[curlymom]

Thanks all ,I think I’ll wait and get a full iron panel on my next bloods in 4 weeks and take it from there then .