Hello to all here. I would be very grateful for any advice about my situation, and thankyou in advance.
A few months ago I did an insulin resistance test with Medichecks and was found to be severly resistant:
Fasting glucose 6.5....ref range 3.9 - 5.8
Fasting insulin 24.9....ref 0 - 10
Fasting insulin resistance index 6.5....ref 0 - 2
I decided to take action and drastically reduce my carbohydrate intake to try and resolve this. I eat no bread, rice or anything of that nature....VERY little fruit ( only very few berries )....what I do eat is organic pasture raised meat, eggs, dairy and organic vegetables...mainly green leafy kind and so far have been feeling MUCH better...and managing to keep my blood gucose down.
I have been taking levothyroxine for many years and have always maintained a TSH level under 1 and have felt ok. Just last week I started getting the most alarming heart palpitations and my blood pressure shot up to between 150 over 85 - 176 over 90.....so much so, that I rang my gp yesterday and he insisted that I go straight to hospital to get this checked out. When they did my blood tests they found my TSH was at 3.44 munit/L
Free t4 was 17.5 pmol
I am worried that it is the high TSH that is causing me these problems.....would anyone here agree that this could be the culprit and advise me on how I aproach my gp about this.
Once again thankyou for any help with this
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candi1
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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
Do you have Hashimoto’s
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)
Is this how you do your tests?
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins
Thankyou very much for your in depth reply.....I am looking through all the options that you suggested ie costs and so forth and will report back.....I am still wondering about the possible connections to my change in diet and reduction in blood sugars possibly having an effect on my thyroid function.
Yes....it is VERY low carb.....only very high quality meats , healthy fats and organic veg. I must say that (apart from the recent thyroid issues ) I have been feeling amazingly good with this way of eating....and it has sorted out a host of other issues ie. all my allergies have cleared up, skin issues cleared up, digestive issues cleared up etc etc
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And how long have you been on 100? It’s not unusual for us to need more as time goes by and either the thyriod deteriorates or the Levo ‘interferes’ with our natural production.
I think I need a raise every 6-12mths in the early years. What was the range of that FT4 result?
Results in....did the thyroid ultravit plus folate with Medichecks, results as follows
TSH 3.93 ref 0.27 - 4.2
Free T3 3.4 ref 3.1 - 6.8
Free Thyroxine 16.9 rdef 12 - 22
Thyroglobulin ab 10.1 ref 0 - 115
Thyroid Peroxidase ab 25.8 ref 0 - 34
Folate 4.8 ref > 2.9
Vit B12 active 120 ref 25.1 - 165
Vitamin D 146 ref 50 - 200
Ferritin 142 ref 13 - 150
CRP HS 4.1 ref 0 - 5
I am waiting for results to update status with fasting insulin levels, see if my insulin resistance has improved at all . And also waiting for results of iron deficiency...I know that my ferritin looks ok but that doesn't indicate serum iron....so will update on those two as soon as I get them.
Any insights most appreciated with these results.....As expected doctors lab notes telling me all is just perfect...........LOL
Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine,
"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)."
(That’s Ft3 at 58% minimum through range)
You can obtain a copy of the articles from Thyroid UK email print it and highlight question 6 to show your doctor please email Dionne at
Thankyou so much ....I emailed Dionne straght away.....My Gp thinks that I am a neurotic busy body and has not even seen fit to refer me to an endocrinologist yet and I have been on levo for years with my medication going up and down
Hello ....I did as you suggested.....printed out articles that Dionne kindly sent to me. Armed with all these and my blood results....my GP said "all in normal range" and "No endocrinologist would be interested in seeing you"....!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So, am I to believe that most of us have to pay to go private.....I am way beyond being absolutely furious......is this just MY GP who is beind an A...... or is it all of them ?????
I also have high CRP HS 4.8.....still got high fasting insulin 16.2 although I have managed to drop it down from 24.9 in three months with diet....I am on low income at the moment due to covid and have no clue how to afford a private consult .......even then , it would appear that it can be a bit hit and miss ???
I'm in London....I had a look at the list and many or most are well away from me but I will travel if that is what it takes......you mentioned messaging me with name of doc you had luck with.....near London ??
Didn’t someone on here point out that a low carb diet can be detrimental to conversion? I mostly follow a low carb diet, it’s one of the best ways for me to stop those peaks and troughs so for you I’d say carry on but you may need an increase in Levo but really you need an FT3 test to show how your conversion is.
Thankyou....yes I am definately going to stick with the low carb diet. I think that staving off diabetes and inflamation as much as possible is SO important.....then working out how to keep thyroid hormones under control.
All this is just so difficult when you have no support from your GP, I hardly dare even mention the diet because the GP instantly assumes that one is some kind of nutcase ie we should all be eating 'healthy grains, beans....less red meat and healthy fats' !!! etc etc.........if they just checked insulin levels instead of blood glucose they could wipe out more than half of latent diabetes right now.....instead of waiting till the diabetes diagnoses is made and it's too late to do anything about it. It is SO frustrating.
I am looking at all my options for getting testing done
Yes I really agree with you, I started off about 12yrs ago with Zoe Harcombe and then evolved into this low carb way of life. It fits with gluten free aswell but yes people think I’m mad or ‘on a diet’ 😩 For instanced yesterday for me was garlic kings prawns and half a bag of mixed veg and my work colllegues thought it was just the strangest thing, asked me what’s wrong with a ham sandwich! Lol
Later at tea I had a mushroom omelette and then later still i was hungry so I had some pork belly. I also have a stash of dark chocolate in the freezer for cravings and I just can’t give up my 1/3 of a teaspoon in my decafe coffee, which I top up with double cream 😊
But anyway I’m getting sidetracked. Yes I think it down regulates conversion but mine was f**ked anyway so no big loss for me. The benefits our way the negatives and that’s all we can live by.
Hello candi1, lots of good advice here that should help you in the immediate. If you haven’t already done so, I’d like to recommend you read “The Paleo Approach” by Sarah Ballantyne. She’s a scientist and as such, her book is firmly grounded in science. You’ll find a lot of knowledge and details about how diet and lifestyle play into various diseases, especially autoimmune diseases. She has several sections where she talks about blood sugar issues and various hormone imbalances. I can’t stress this enough as I believe it will help you in the long-run. I was recently diagnosed with Graves’ Disease and the guidance her book provides has helped me a great deal. Sending you my very best wishes x
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