St John's Wort

[Lollipops45]

Can I take st John's wort whist taking 100mg of levothyroxine ?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

No, you can’t take St. John’s wort on Levothyroxine

medicines.org.uk/emc/produc...

If feeling depressed that’s a common hypothyroid symptom

Suggest you get FULL Thyroid and vitamin testing

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

Ask GP to test vitamin levels

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

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

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Is this how you do your tests?

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin

medichecks.com/products/thy...

Medichecks often have special offers, if order on Thursdays

Thriva Thyroid plus vitamins

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Add recent results and ranges if you have any

Or come back with new post once you get results

[Lollipops45 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you, I've been tested 4 months ago and was prescribed vitamin D at a high dose for 8 weeks, I'm not taking any now as its summer, perhaps I should be, GP said they don't usually re test.

I'll look into a private test, many thanks for your reply.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Lollipops45]

Do you know how low vitamin D was before starting loading dose vitamin D?

GP should have retested at the end of loading dose....but rarely seems to happen these days

Vitamin D

GP will often only prescribe to bring levels to 50nmol.

Some areas will prescribe to bring levels to 75nmol

leedsformulary.nhs.uk/docs/...

GP should advise on self supplementing if over 50nmol, but under 75nmol (but they rarely do)

mm.wirral.nhs.uk/document_u...

NHS Guidelines on dose vitamin D required

ouh.nhs.uk/osteoporosis/use...

But with Hashimoto’s, improving to around 80nmol or 100nmol by self supplementing may be better

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/218...

vitamindsociety.org/pdf/Vit...

Once you Improve level, very likely you will need on going maintenance dose to keep it there.

Test twice yearly via vitamindtest.org.uk

Vitamin D mouth spray by Better You is very effective as it avoids poor gut function. There’s a version made that also contains vitamin K2 Mk7

It’s trial and error what dose we need, with hashimoto’s we frequently need higher dose than average

Government recommends everyone supplement October to April

gov.uk/government/news/phe-...

Also read up on importance of magnesium and vitamin K2 Mk7 supplements when taking vitamin D

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

livescience.com/61866-magne...

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

Vitamin K2 mk7

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

healthline.com/nutrition/vi...

Importance of vitamin D for fighting Covid

moxafrica.org/post/the-vita...

We need optimal vitamin levels when on levothyroxine

Low vitamin D and low B vitamins may be linked as explained here

drgominak.com/sleep/vitamin...

In YouTube video when Dr Gominak talks about vitamin D levels ...vitamin D at 40ng/ml (USA units) is equal to 100nmol (UK units)

youtu.be/74F22bjBmqE(Not working as expected?)

[Lollipops45 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you, lots to read there, I'm going to go back on the vitamin D to see if I improve, I can't remember the exact numbers, sorry, I have the mouth spray already 🙂

Thank you for your advice.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Lollipops45]

Come back with new post once you get full thyroid and vitamin results