Hi I am new to this website. I had ultra sound to be told my Thyroid is small and pale in colour. I have been losing my hair, body constantly aches, depression, sleepless night, loss of libido. I am 54 yr, have gone through the menopause. My Dr sent me for bloods, normal no action except vit D min of 1000,
TSh level 2.25 mU/L - 0.10- 5.00mU/L
Ferritin 107 ng/mL 10.00-120.00ng/mL
I have been told by reception that my scan is normal no action .. with no explanation as to why my Thyroid is small. I am wondering whether to go for a private test... any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Berrybelle
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Berrybelle
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It will be in your best interest to ask for copies of your blood test results so that you can post them on here, with the ranges, and then have explained to you what it all means.
Generally speaking a full thyroid panel blood test would include a TSH, T3, T4 and antibodies blood test : once you have these to hand, from your surgery, which you are legally entitled to have, we can offer considered opinion on yoursituation.
Well I'm sorry but I can't even see this clearly - but take your word for it :
If you go into the Thyroid UK website who are the charity who support this amazing forum you will see private companies who run the full blood test if your doctor isn't able.
So, to put your mind at rest, this is an option, as with a full thyroid " bundle " to include
TSH,T3,T4 antibodies, inflammation, and ferritin, folate B12 and vitamin D - forum
members can read these results and ranges and explain everything and anything to you :
No I don't think it would so it might be worth asking for a second opinion by another doctor. I actually have a multinodular goiter which means my thyroid has multiple small nodules and is slightly enlarged. The person who did the ultrasound on mine was a Consultant and usually they can tell if you have Hashimoto's just by looking at your thyroid. Mine is caused by Graves' disease and does cause me symptoms.
A small thyroid sounds like Ord's disease. Ord's Disease is the same as Hashi's, but without the goitre. So, what you need are your antibodies tested: TPO antibodies and Tg antibodies. The NHS will only do TPOab at best - and not even those very often. So, private testing would be your best bet.
My Dr sent me for bloods, normal no action except vit D min of 1000,
Vit D: 28.3nmol/L
Oh dear, stupid doctor.
Some areas define Vit D deficiency as below 30, some define it as below 25. Whatever your area's limit I'm afraid there's no doubt this is Vit D deficiency and your doctor has told you to use a totally inadequate amount of D3. Is this being prescribed?
"Treat for vitamin D deficiency if serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels are less than 25 nmol/L.
For the treatment of vitamin D deficiency, the recommended treatment is based on fixed loading doses of vitamin D (up to a total of about 300,000 international units [IU]) given either as weekly or daily split doses, followed by lifelong maintenance treatment of about 800 IU a day. Higher doses of up to 2000 IU a day, occasionally up to 4000 IU a day, may be used for certain groups of people, for example those with malabsorption disorders.
* Several treatment regimens are available, including 50,000 IU once a week for 6 weeks (300,000 IU in total), 20,000 IU twice a week for 7 weeks (280,000 IU in total), or 4000 IU daily for 10 weeks (280,000 IU in total)."
If he wont, fair enough, just do it yourself. Buy some D3 softgels (I like Doctor's Best) and follow the guidance above. Retest when loading doses have finished.
Once you have reached the level recommended by the Vit D Society and Grassroots - which is 100-150nmol/L - then you'll need a maintenance dose to keep it there, which may be 2000iu daily, maybe more or less, maybe less in summer than winter, it's trial and error so it's recommended to retest once or twice a year to keep within the recommended range. You can do this with a private fingerprick blood spot test with an NHS lab which offers this test to the general public:
Doctors don't know, because they're not taught much about nutrients, but there are important cofactors needed when taking D3.
D3 aids absorption of calcium from food and Vit K2-MK7 directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissues where it can be deposited and cause problems such as hardening of the arteries, kidney stones, etc.
I like Vitabay or Vegavero K2-MK7 and to save a bit of money I buy the 200mcg dose tablets and take alternate days as 90-100mcg D3 is enough for up to 10,000iu D3.
D3 and K2 are fat soluble so should be taken with the fattiest meal of the day, D3 four hours away from thyroid meds if taking D3 as tablets/capsules/softgels, no necessity if using an oral spray.
Magnesium helps D3 to work. We need Magnesium so that the body utilises D3, it's required to convert Vit D into it's active form. So it's important we ensure we take magnesium when supplementing with D3.
Magnesium comes in different forms, check to see which would suit you best and as it's calming it's best taken in the evening, four hours away from thyroid meds if taking magnesium as tablets/capsules, no necessity if using topical forms of magnesium.
This is on the lowish side. 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."
A good quality B Complex such as Thorne Basic B or Igennus Super B will help raise your level. Remember to leave it off 7 days before any blood test (including thyroid) as it contains biotin and when biotin is used in the testing procedure (which most labs do) then it can give false results.
Don't start all supplements at once. Start with one, give it a week or two and if no adverse reaction then add the next one. Again, wait a week or two and if no adverse reaction add the next one. Continue like this. If you do have any adverse reaction then you will know what caused it.
Your TSH is very slightly higher than one might expect to see for a normal healthy person, one would expect it to be no more than 2 (often nearer 1) with FT4 around mid-range-ish. It would be helpful to get TSH, FT4, FT3 and thyroid antibodies all tested at the same time. Thyroid tests should be done no later than 9am (TSH is highest early morning and lowers throughout the day so you need it as high as possible when looking for a diagnosis of hypothyroidism), before having anything to eat or drink except water.
Everything else on your results sheet seems to be OK.
Suggest you work on improving low vitamin D levels for 2-3 months
Then look at getting FULL thyroid and vitamin testing done privately
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
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 .
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins
I had ultra sound to be told my Thyroid is small and pale in colour.this is a very odd report.... ultrsounds can't tell them what colour anything is unless i'm very much mistaken about how it works ?
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