I am new to this forum with little understanding of thyroid , so any help and ideas gratefully received. I am male, 63 years old, about 5'8, 150 lbs, relatively fit, lowish carb, lean, but have dips in energy
I have been worried about possible thyroid issues for a while, due to symptoms like raynauds/cold extremities, very little eyebrows/hair on my legs (pretty sure I used to) and other things that feel auto-immune-y, eg runny nose whenever there is some cold
Also other things like lipids, eg high ldl, doctor wanted me on statins and sent for bloods so lipid etc results also below
Just had following thyroid results, i do not know how to interpret, notable might be low ts3 and 4 but also tsh? and also low ferritin,
TOTAL THYROXINE(T4) 69 nmol/L 59 - 154
THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE 2.06 mIU/L 0.27 - 4.2
FREE THYROXINE 14.9 pmol/l 12.0 - 22.0
FREE T3 3.6 pmol/L 3.1 - 6.8
THYROID ANTIBODIES .
Thyroglobulin Antibody 11.1 IU/mL 0-115
Method used for Anti-Tg: Roche Modular
Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies <9.0 IU/mL 0 - 34
Method used for Anti-TPO: Roche Modular
Vitamin B12 * 1098 pg/ml 197 - 771
Folate (serum) 14.7 ug/L > 2.9
If no change in dietary habits,a normal serum
folate makes folate deficiency unlikely.
FERRITIN 47 ug/L 30 - 400
C Reactive protein <0.6 mg/L <5.0
25 OH Vitamin D * 248 nmol/L 50 - 200
Interpretation of results:
Deficient <25 nmol/L
Insufficient 25 - 49 nmol/L
Normal Range 50 - 200 nmol/L
Consider reducing dose >200 nmol/L
other results from lipids recently, sorry if this is too much info, , again hard for me to interpret
Total ldl 8.1 mmol/l
Trigs 1mmol
HDL 2.5
LDL 5.1
cholestorol/hdl 3.2
Haemoglobin A1C 5.4% .. 35 mmol
Thyroid stimulating hormone 1.9 miU/L
Free t4 12.3 pmol/L (Low???)
Creatine kinase 185 (I take some every day if that makes a difference?)
Glucose 5.9 mmol/L (but bloods taken soon after eating)
Liver .. Bilirubin 6umol/L
Alkaline phosphatase 67 IU/L
Alanine transaminase 20 IU/L
Albumin 47 g/L
Renal profile
Sodium 137 mmol/L
Potassium 4.5 mmol/L
Creatinine 114 umol/L
Estimated GFR 58.
Lipoprotein (a) <7 nmol?L
Apolipoprpotein A1 1.99 g?l
Apolipoproptein b100 1.38 g?l
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lauriegraham
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What vitamin supplements are you currently taking?
Your vitamin D is very high
Maybe causing issues
Recommend level vitamin D is 100-150nmol max
Ferritin is rather low
Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Eating iron rich foods like liver or liver pate once a week plus other red meat, pumpkin seeds and dark chocolate, plus daily orange juice or other vitamin C rich drink can help improve iron absorption
This is interesting because I have noticed that many patients with Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, start to feel worse when their ferritin drops below 80 and usually there is hair loss when it drops below 50.
B12 very high
Are you supplementing?
Might be better taking vitamin B complex
Have you had testosterone levels tested?
Yes Ft4 and Ft3 low
TSH is not reacting to low results
Perhaps retest in 2-3 months after working on improving low vitamin levels
These numbers taken as a whole suggest hypothyroidism. Usually as fT4 falls TSH rises considerably and fT3 is maintained around mid-interval untill fT4 falls quite low. In your case both fT3 and fT4 are falling but TSH is not responding. This indicates the pituitary is not responding normally, a mild form of 'central hypothyroidism' or subnormal TSH secretion.
Unfortunately, most doctors don't recognise this condition, they look at each hormone separately rather than the overall picture. Try to get a doctor to prescribe levothyroxine, more than 25 mcg. I suspect you will need some liothyronine in the longer term but it is very difficult to get this prescribed.
This sort of pituitary problem can be caused by head trauma, a period of thyrotoxicosis, severe illness, very strict dieting or depression. It is not an autoimmune condtion, your thyroid is probably healthy but is not being stimulated enough. The problem is your TSH is too low given your combined low normal fT3 and fT4.
hi. I am going to follow your advice and get cortisol, dhea, is there anything else you advise? someone mentioned testosterone?Blue Horizons do a full adrenal blood test but i assume i need a saliva cortisol swab?
Possibly, but I suspect stress will make you feel better in the sense you become more alert. More likely is that hypothyroidism reduces clearance of stress hormones and lowers intracellular magnesium. These actions will make you more susceptible to stess. I think hypothyroidism is more likely to lead to stress rather than vice versa.
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