Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency Testing Plus Thyroid Function

[GardenerSue]

Having now completed my six week loading dose of Vitamin D3 I am planning to test both that also my thyroid function on new reduced dose of T4. If I’m doing all this I wonder if there’s a specific vitamin/mineral test that I ought to invest in to see if I have any other deficiencies?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Yes we ALWAYS recommend getting full Thyroid and vitamin testing

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested.

Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if Thyroid antibodies are raised

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random

medichecks.com/thyroid-func...

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Always do test as early as possible in morning and fasting on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Post off Immediately after blood test

Results are emailed to you 2-3 days later

[GardenerSue in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes I used Medichecks last time and have contacted them to see if they offer the same test with rT3 as I’ve never had that tested. I wondered if there were any other vitamins and minerals that I should test for other than those mentioned? I am taking D3 and also selenium, what else should I possibly take and how much?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to GardenerSue]

Previous post with full results

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

This does show high FT4

Have you reduced dose since then?

It may be worth doing Reverse FT3 as your FT4 was high

[GardenerSue in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes dose of T4 was reduced the day I took the last blood test. They do offer rT3 so will do the whole lot.

[humanbean in reply to GardenerSue]

It used to be believed that reverse T3 "parked itself" in the same receptors on or in cells that were used by T3. In other words people thought they competed for the same receptors. With that logic it was useful to know both reverse T3 and normal T3.

But in recent years it has been discovered that reverse T3 and normal T3 do NOT compete for the same receptors, they each have their own receptors. Reverse T3 testing is expensive. For any test, before you pay, consider what you will do with the result. If your reverse T3 came back high what would you do to reduce it? Who would you ask about it? If you don't know, and you don't know anyone reliable who knows, then the test is pointless and you should save your money.

I have tested my reverse T3 three times (about 5 or 6 years ago) and it was either over the range or (twice) quite high in range. I reduced the over the range one by reducing my thyroid medication, but that was clearly too high based on the standard three TFT results (i.e. TSH, Free T4, and Free T3), I didn't need reverse T3 to tell me I was over-medicated. The high in range ones I had no clue what to do with. So I haven't tested it again. If new science comes out that suggests it is worth doing then I might test again - but I'm definitely not in a hurry to do so because I still don't know what I would do with the result.

[GardenerSue in reply to humanbean]

I will have my rT3 tested this time. I’m quite sure there are enough people on this forum and that of TPAUK to offer advice. I appreciate that the test is more expensive. Having reduced my Levothyroxine it will be interesting to see what’s now going on as far as levels are concerned.