Worried about my husband.... full blood test results attached.

[dizzy1979]

Hi all, I use this site a lot and and everyone is always so helpful, I wonder if you could shed some light on my husbands blood results? He has extreme fatigue, always cold ( despite excessive night sweats) he has had a constant cold/sore throat for about 6 months, he does have ibs, but hat has been for many years, and takes nothing for it. I bagged him enough to finally make him contact his drs who tested lots of things. They have now said that everything is normal ( famous words ) except his cholesterol which needs to be lowered. Any one able to have a look at his results and advise if there is anything else he should be doing to help feel better? He is only 43 and in generally good shape.

[greygoose]

Your photo is a bit difficult to read, but as far as I can gather, his ferritin is somewhat on the low side, which could account for his fatigue.

As for his thyroid results, the TSH is euthyroid, which wouldn't interest a GP, but that doesn't tell us much. His FT4 is rather low - only 17.52% through the range. Which is really not euthyroid - should be more like 50%. Unfortunately, of course, they didn't test the FT3, which would have given us more information. And, having antibodies tested, and vit D, would be a good idea also. So, maybe getting private testing would be the way to go. To get the full story and find out why his FT4 is so low.

Details of private testing here:

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

[dizzy1979 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply, sorry for the rubbish photo I was trying to get everything in. I will arrange a private test for antibodies and full thyroid.

[greygoose in reply to dizzy1979]

You're welcome.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

dizzy1979

They're not easy to read except for those near the bottom but it looks like none of them are marked "!" except for what looks like two near the top which must be cholesterol, so all the rest must be in range.

From what I can make out it looks like Folate is at the top limit of the range and does B12 begin with a 5 or a 3? According to an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:

"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".

"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."

and pg/ml is the same as ng/L which is the unit used in your husband's test.

Ferritin is only two figures, is it 67? Ferritin is recommended to be half way through it's range. He can help raise his level by eating liver regularly, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, also liver pate, black pudding, and including lots of iron rich foods in his diet

apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/in...

As for his thyroid function test, a normal healthy person would have a TSH of no more than 2 with FT4 mid-range-ish, although we don't know where our normal levels are as we tend not to be tested for a baseline when well. His TSH is less than 2 but his FT4 is very low in range. I can't work out the percentage because I can't clearly see the top limit of the range, I can see the 22 but not sure what comes after the decimal point.

It would be a good idea to try and raise ferritin. He doesn't have anaemia according to his full blood count but that doesn't rule out iron deficiency, he'd need a complete iron panel for that. It's not a good idea to take iron supplements without first doing an iron panel. You can have low ferritin but not iron deficiency.

Also, maybe consider doing a full thyroid panel to include TSH, FT4, FT3 and thyroid antibodies, which he'd most likely have to do with one of our private labs, maybe Blue Horizon or Medichecks.

[dizzy1979 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much for your reply, and sorry for the rubbish photo. His b12 is 576, ferritin 67, and ft4 22.70.

I will arrange to get a medicheck test done for full thyroid, and convince him to eat liver and pate. In regards to his cholesterol, they have given him an eat healthy sheet ( pointless but if paper ) he does tend to eat relatively healthy, bar a few lock down treats like biscuits with his afternoon / evening tea, and the odd sweet treat. He could definitely cut out white bread ( which I am always advising ) but other then that he is well within as they would recommend. The fact they haven’t recommended meds I’m assuming it’s not serious?

Thank you again for your reply

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to dizzy1979]

dizzy1979

The fact they haven’t recommended meds I’m assuming it’s not serious?

Do you mean for cholesterol? I would assume they're not too worried, I'm sure they'd be only to happy to offer statins but that would need an awful lot of research before considering taking them anyway.

[dizzy1979 in reply to SeasideSusie]

I’d defiantly get him to try to lower before ever taking statins. I’m going to get him to take a private test for the thyroid and vitamins, it may have to wait a couple of weeks as he has a minor op next week for an old broken arm issue. Thank you again really appreciate your help

[magsyh in reply to dizzy1979]

There is actually nothing wrong with his cholesterol levels apart from his HDL being TOO LOW. This is why his ratio is a bit off. Needs to eat more good fats such as nuts, seeds, avocados and olive oil.

[dizzy1979 in reply to magsyh]

Thank you that’s really helpful.

[penny in reply to dizzy1979]

‘High’ cholesterol is an arbitrary figure according to Dr Kendrick. We need cholesterol and having low cholesterol is not good for us. Studies show that those with higher cholesterol levels live longer.

[dizzy1979 in reply to penny]

Interesting, thank you.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Also need vitamin D tested

Perhaps testing testosterone too

Ft4 is low

[dizzy1979 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you

[humanbean]

Just a tip for the future...

If you have results on two pages, post a picture of the page with the most information and then type in the rest in the text. You can then make the actual picture far more readable because it will be bigger.