Lower ferritin and vit d but thyroid levels bettter?!

[owl87]

Hi everyone,

I am still having huge issues with ferritin and working out what on earth to do about my thyroid meds. I am currently on 75mcg levo and 6mcg t3. I have had low ferritin and fluctuating vit d for around 8 months. I still have hypo symptoms including constipation, acid reflux/low stomach acid, tiredness, tinnitus and a thrumming body with occasional palps and headaches. My thyoid levels keep flucutating every month depsite no major changes in dose for example in the last four months ft4 (10-20) have been 13.7, 14.9, 14.5, 16.1 and ft3 (3.5-6.5) 5.2, 4.7, 4.6, 5.1! Previously they never fluctuated and were always similar. I have huge toruble raising either levo or t3 because of an intense vibrating body, palpitations, anxiety, headaches and insmonia almost immediately on upping a dose even by omissione amounts. I cannot seem to raise my ferritin no matter what I do and now that my periods have returned after years without it its proving impossible. Today my period has come 2 weeks after the last heavyish one finished and I feel awful with bad symptoms I mentioned above and feeling dizzy.

I assume the ferritin is causing these issues with raising and symptoms but what is really confusing me is that my last blood test taken in december showed a t4 of 16.1 and a ft3 of 5.1 but my ferritin was the lowest its been at a level of 12 (15-250) and my vit d had also fallen to 68 after being in range (76-250). I thought low ferritin interfered with conversion and lowered ft4 and ft3 so how have my thyroid levels increased?!

The fluctuation in my thyroid levels is also making me struggle to know which to try and raise - levo or t3. as I like my t4 to be ideally around 16 but it keeps fluctuating! I have been trying for 8 months now to get out of this rut I'm in but I can't seem to find a way out and its frustrating not to mention uncomfortable putting up constantly with these symptoms! Any help would be hugely appreciated!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Your results suggest you are under medicated

Do you have Hashimoto’s?

How much vitamin D are you currently taking

You need to increase dose

Low Vitamin D and low Ft4 are linked

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/300...

The thyroid hormone status would play a role in the maintenance of vitamin D sufficiency, and its immunomodulatory role would influence the presence of autoimmune thyroid disease. The positive correlation between free T4 and vitamin D concentrations suggests that adequate levothyroxine replacement in HT would be an essential factor in maintaining vitamin D at sufficient levels.

Same is true of low ferritin and non responsive TSH

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

75mcg is low dose levothyroxine

Do you always get same brand levothyroxine

Have you tried splitting Levothyroxine into two doses to tolerate increase in dose

T3 dose extremely low.

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking

B12 and folate results?

[owl87 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for the reply! I am a strange case as I have secondary hypo presentation and no antibodies but strong family history and my endo believes theres a strong chance its autoimmune in nature. I am currently taking 4000ui vit d - I was taking 3000ui a day before. Do you think I should focus on upping levo first? The average dose calculation for my weight is 88mcg t4 so I am a fair bit under that. I always get the same brand as other's dont tend to agree with me and I want to have consistency. I have tried splitting - its a strange situation as the symptoms last all day and night and have little correlation to the time of dose and only stop once I lower the dose. I wonder if taking it alternate day might help instead?

Currently I take vitamin d, iron and sublingual b12. The doctors refused to test b12 and folate as every time I have had them tested both have been very good - I had b12 injections the year before last and because I am taking subllingual my b12 is always around 1000.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to owl87]

Have you ever had thyroid ultrasound scan? Can be helpful diagnostic tool

20% of Hashimoto's patients never have raised antibodies

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Paul Robson on atrophied thyroid - especially if no TPO antibodies

paulrobinsonthyroid.com/cou...

Ever done saliva cortisol and Dhea test?

regeneruslabs.com/products/...

Very low ferritin will be affecting TSH

What are you doing to improve low ferritin

Have you had full iron panel test for anaemia

Post discussing why important to do full iron panel test

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Never supplement iron without doing full iron panel test for anaemia first

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

List of iron rich foods

dailyiron.net

Links about iron and ferritin

irondisorders.org/too-littl...

davidg170.sg-host.com/wp-co...

Great in-depth article on low ferritin

oatext.com/iron-deficiency-...

drhedberg.com/ferritin-hypo...

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.

Thyroid disease is as much about optimising vitamins as thyroid hormones

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

restartmed.com/hypothyroidi...

Post discussing just how long it can take to raise low ferritin

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[owl87 in reply to SlowDragon]

I haven't had a scan - I hope to in the future when evertyhing has hopefully calmed down as I am very curious myself!

I have had saliva cortisol done before back in June last year and it was all in range with only the morning low in the range. I had an iron panel done last year too when my ferritin was a little higher than now - about 35 - but my iron reuslts were pretty good all mid range of where they need to be. As such I am reluctant to take iron pills so I tried other routes of raising ferritin. At the moment I have been taking sublingual iron 10mg a day but It seems to do little however. I eat a lot of iron rich foods and have tried eating liver weekly for months and it raised a bit slowly to 30 then suddenly dropped straight back down. The only time in my life I have had an adequate ferritin level was a year ago when my thyroid levels were better for a short time - around 75% through range for both FT3 and FT4 and my ferritin shot up to 90. It feels like my ferritin is intrinsiclally tied to my ft3 levels as it hasn't been that high again since my ft3 dropped and I feel it won't budge until they're good in the range.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to owl87]

Yes it’s a vicious circle