TSH: 4.99mlU/L ( 0.24 - 4.2) was 2.72 mlU/L in October 2020 ( I have been supplementing with Iodine for the last 12 weeks plus Zinc, Selenium, Vit E and NAC ) Have read to expect TSH to rise for a period of iodine supplementation, and then it will settle. A bit anxious about this.
What's the reason for supplementing with iodine? Did you do a non-loading iodine urine test first to see if you were deficient?
Iodine solution used to be used to treat overactive thyroid before the current radioactive iodine treatment so can make hypothyroidism worse and it's particularly not recommended when Hashi's is present.
Hi Seaside Susie I follow the writing of Dr Weston Childs where iodine supplementation is recommended to replenish. I have been working with a Functional Medical doctor in the USA who prescribed the supplements. I have not done the test. Thank your reply
If you haven't tested how do you know yiu are deficient and need to supplement?In the UK it's uncommon to be iodine deficient, a normal healthy diet provides iodine in milk, yogurt, cod, haddock, scampi, etc.
Taking levothyroxine provides us with iodine, approx 62mcg iodine, not as an added ingredient but by deiodinisation of T4 to T3 then to T2 etc. The daily requirement for an adult is 150mcg iodine. As you take 150mcg iodine you get approx 93mcg iodine from that then more from your diet.
How much iodine is in your supplement?
As mentioned, supplementing iodine when not deficient can make hypothyroidism worse and it's especially not recommended when Hashi's is present.
What has been said about your high Ferritin and high transferrin saturation %? Do you also have a resukt for serum iron? Are you supplementing iron?
Has zinc been tested? Zinc needs to be balanced with copper. We Hypos tend to have one high and the other low so both zinc and copper should be tested before supplementing.
Apart from the 4pm result all your cortisol levels are high. How is this being addressed?
Your cholesterol is very likely high because you are hypothyroid, your TSH is telling us that and your FT4 is only 40% through range.
Hi there, I also take iodine and I don't believe this forum would be the right place for the advice you are after. I would suggest joining Lynne Farrows iodine group on Facebook, they are very helpful with advice for this, ie when people get issues with iodine supplementation. From my own experience iodine can cause stress to the adrenals if the detox pathways are not working correctly. TSH can go up to 30 or over for several months with iodine supplementation but should then drop once saturation is reached.
TSH so high for several moths does sound a bit scary , what effect is expected on the fT4 and fT3 results while this is happening ? and is the TSH then ignored for the purposes of adjusting dose during this time .
Dr David Brownstein and many other iodine literate practitioners believe that all thyroid disease initially starts with iodine deficiency. There is a formal iodine protocol which has to be followed if one decided to go down this route. It is too involved to discuss here - however in general the TSH would rise because the thyroid would be absorbing large amounts of iodine until it had reached storage capacity, then would drop back to the reference range. And you are correct, Measuring the TSH, FT3/FT4 would not be relevant during the first few months.
Listen to Dr Alan Christianson an American naturopathic endocrinologist specialising in thyroid issues on why supplementing with iodine is A BAD IDEA. Seaside Susie is right.
I can respect that and definitely don't want to enter a debate but I think it is worth looking at everything and being open to changing one's opinion. Remember the earth was once considered flat 😜I will definitely look at the FB group you mentioned.
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