Blood Test & Vitamins re: 11 year and counting

[DavidMF]

To: Slowdragon

Below blood tests: attached jpeg

Vitamins currently taken

Vit.B Complex High Strength x 2 Totals

B3 16mg 32md daily

B5 6mg Daily

B6 1.4mg Daily

B1 1.1mg 2.2mg Daily

B2 1.4mg 2.8mg Daily

B12 2.4mcq Daily

Folic Acid 200mcq Daily

Biotin 50mcq Daily

Other ingredients: Dicalcium Phosphate, Microcrystaline, Magnesium Sterate

OMEGA 3 1000mg

Super Combination

Calcium 500mg

Vitamin D3 200iu

Super strength

Vitamin D3 5000iu

Multivitamins A, B, C, D, & E 100% NR

Vitamin C 120mg

B3 16mg

E 12mg

B2 1.4mg

B1 1.1mg

A 800ug

D3 5ug

You did ask, I'll no go back to your notes on what we shouldn't be taking.

DavidMF

[SlowDragon Administrator]

So

We never recommend multivitamins

Vitamin B complex - ideally look at one that contains folate, not folic acid

Any supplements that contain biotin need to be stopped a week BEFORE ALL BLOOD TESTS

Obviously you need to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Just testing TSH is completely inadequate

Most people when adequately treated will have Ft3 at least 60% through range and Ft4 roughly similar. TSH likely to be very low...typically 0.4 or less ...it’s irrelevant

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

Recommend Thriva or Blue Horizon if doing via DIY finger prick test

Medichecks test including folate is private blood draw only

All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning before eating or drinking anything other than water and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

[SlowDragon Administrator]

What’s the range on Ft4 and Ft3 results?

[DavidMF in reply to SlowDragon]

Lucky to get T4, the rest are not tested/reported. NHS restricted

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to DavidMF]

Oct 2019 shows Ft4 and Ft3

Were these private test results

[DavidMF in reply to SlowDragon]

I think it was Dr request after seeing TSH at 0.4 Below normal in the eyes of NHS guidance. I've tried asking, but just get turned down, or Dr thinks it's not the cause and wants more antidepressants !!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to DavidMF]

So do you have the ranges on those results? (Figures in brackets after each result)

[DavidMF in reply to SlowDragon]

TSH 0.35 - 4.78

T4 10 - 20

T3 3.5 - 6.5

Hope that helps. David

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to DavidMF]

So when Ft4 was significantly over range at 28.8 her Ft3 was only 46% through range

Helpful calculator for working out percentage through range

chorobytarczycy.eu/kalkulator

So very poor conversion

Getting all vitamins optimal, trying strictly gluten free diet and tweaking levothyroxine dose so Ft4 as high as tolerated are first steps

But very likely to need addition of small dose of T3 alongside levothyroxine

Email Dionne at Thyroid UK for list of recommend thyroid specialist endocrinologists who will prescribe T3

[e-mail]

Come back with new post once you get vitamin results

[DavidMF in reply to SlowDragon]

Thanks for the calculator, I've written twice to Dionne for details on Dr Toft and to request a list of specialists.

Many thanks for the fantastic responses since last Thursday. I've pulled together the main details and will be working on it over the next few weeks. Time for action is now I hope I can keep my Dr on board during this next phase.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to DavidMF]

Obviously if testing wasn’t done early morning, before eating and essential that last dose levothyroxine is approx 24 hours before testing

Also ESSENTIAL to stop any supplements that contain biotin a week before ALL BLOOD testing

So first step is to get FULL Thyroid and vitamin testing done correctly.....likely to need to do so privately as NHS refuses to test Ft3

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to DavidMF]

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 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

[e-mail]

[DavidMF]

Long term illness is a problem for those not inflicted. I've had Polymyalgia for the last 6 years (NHS guide is 2 years) In the main I've had to fight my own corner, Doctors don't understand and just want you to stop the steroids, that way you'll be alright. My wife does get a bit bored with it, but is sympathetic, so she keeps quite, that also means she doesn't tell me when I notice things are going wrong, until it gets worse.

What's worse is you want to trust the Doctor, when they give you conflicting advice (maybe they're right) and give it a try.

Currently I'm in a better place with PMR and have got the energy to get something realistic done. For some time my wife has been convinced it's nothing to do with the thyroid, does glaze over if I try and prove she's missing the facts, showing her printouts of the info I've collected over 11 years. It was only a couple of weeks ago we we're having coffee with the neighbours, one who was a nurse and she very nicely pointed out how much support I was giving her and she should take more notice from somebody who wasn't feeling so ill and able to see things as they are, rather than from a point of anxiety, nausea and generally feeling awful.

Since then she has relaxed and gone with my diagnosis and wants to try new methods.

Hopefully we can get connected to a specialist that can support her and get onto an even keel. There's alway HOPE. But time for us is running out, unless we can get some of Major Tom's genes.