Doctors reducing my throxine says it's bad for my heart

[Gilly-spud]

Hello can any help I was in 150 throxine and the doctor says it's to high and lowered it to 125 I feeling tired but I also have b12 trouble and on b12 injection s every 12 weeks. Doctor said to stay on to high throxine is bad for your heart. I also have low platelets

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Your doctor, unfortunately, has been brainwashed into thinking that hypothyroidism is treated by looking at the TSH only. Wrong!

Look at your actual thyroid hormone levels - FT4 and FT3 (TSH is not a thyroid hormone).

FT4: 17 (10-20) = 70% through range

FT3: 4.5 (3.5-6.5) = 33% through range

You are not overmedicated. The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their reference ranges, if that is where you feel well.

Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine (the magazine for doctors):

"The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l. In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l. Most patients will feel well in that circumstance. But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l. This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l).*"

*He recently confirmed, during a public meeting, that this applies to Free T3 as well as Total T3.

You can obtain a copy of the article by emailing Dionne at

[e-mail]

print it and it's question 6 that this quote is from.

Your results actually show poor conversion of T4 to T3.

Good conversion needs optimal levels of vitamins, it's important to test

Vit D

Folate

Ferritin

Do you have these results? If not ask your GP to test them.

We know you have B12 injections, was your folate tested? Do you take a good B Complex which is necessary when supplementing with B12 in any way as it's needed to balance all of the B vitamins.

[Biddy51]

See another GP and ask for a referral to an endocrinologist.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

If dose of Levothyroxine is reduced your FT3 is likely to drop below range

Essential to test vitamin D, folate and ferritin

Likely some or all of these are low

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).

Email Dionne at Thyroid Uk for list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologists

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/About_...

New NHS England Liothyronine guidelines July 2019 clearly state on page 13 that TSH should be between 0.4-1.5 when treated with just Levothyroxine

Note that it says test should be in morning BEFORE taking Levo thyroxine

Also to test vitamin D, folate, B12 and ferritin

sps.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploa...

[greygoose]

What is bad for your heart is low T3!

[Gilly-spud]

Thanks for all your help I'm on it