Same Meds - Feeling Crap

[Fmljkl]

HI, I pulled my lab results from the past year. In December 2018, I felt great and now I am fat. My meds have been the same and if anything, I've increased workouts. What gives?

[Lalatoot]

Sorry but we need the ranges to make sense of the results.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Difficult to read your results all bunched up like that, perhaps you can separate them and add the ranges so we can interpret them, also please clarify if Total T4/T3 or Free T4/F3, eg

Sept 2018

TSH: 0.484 (xx - yy)

FT4: 1.24 (xx-yy)

FT3: 2.8 (xx-yy)

December 2018

TSH

FT4

FT3

etc

Were all tests done under the same conditions? When doing thyroid tests, we advise:

* Book the first appointment of the morning, or with private tests at home no later than 9am. This is because TSH is highest early morning and lowers throughout the day. If we are looking for a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, or looking for an increase in dose or to avoid a reduction then we need TSH to be as high as possible.

* Fast overnight - have your evening meal/supper as normal the night before but delay breakfast on the day of the test and drink water only until after the blood draw. Eating may lower TSH, caffeine containing drinks affect TSH.

* If taking thyroid hormone replacement, last dose of Levo should be 24 hours before blood draw, if taking NDT or T3 then last dose should be 8-12 hours before blood draw. Adjust timing the day before if necessary. This avoids measuring hormone levels at their peak after ingestion of hormone replacement. Take your thyroid meds after the blood draw. Taking your dose too close to the blood draw will give false high results, leaving any longer gap will give false low results.

* If you take Biotin or a B Complex containing Biotin (B7), leave this off for 7 days before any blood test. This is because if Biotin is used in the testing procedure it will give false results (Medichecks definitely use Biotin, they have confirmed this and the amount of time to leave the supplement off).

These are patient to patient tips which we don't discuss with doctors or phlebotomists.

Apparently you have Hashimoto's, this brings fluctuations of symptoms and test results and you can swing from hypo to hyper and back again. Are you addressing the Hashi's? Have you tried a gluten free diet and are you supplementing with selenium which can apparently help reduce the antibodies?

Hlashi's can cause low nutrient levels or deficiencies. What are your current levels of Vit D, B12, Folate and Ferritin?