Addisons disease

[Jirachi]

Hello everyone. Still not much better, struggling walking due to weakness now. Going to get blood tests done next week for Addison’s disease. I have done blood tests for other auto immune diseases which came back negative but i with antibodies, is this normal?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Thyroid problems often upset adrenals

Which antibodies are positive?

As per previous posts

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

Ask GP to test vitamin levels

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

List of private testing options

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

Medichecks Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Thriva Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins By DIY fingerpick test

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Thriva also offer just vitamin testing

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins by DIY fingerprick test

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off down to £26.10 if go on thyroid uk for code

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

monitormyhealth.org.uk/

NHS easy postal kit vitamin D test £29 via

vitamindtest.org.uk

[Hidden]

I'm assuming that you are having an early morning blood test or are you having a short synacthen test? If they do the short synacthen test then ask them to do an ACTH blood test at the start, this will show if the pituitary is working or not. The blood needs to go on ice straight away. There are two sorts of adrenal insufficiency, Addison's which is classed as primary & is due to the adrenal glands not producing cortisol. There is also secondary which is when the pituitary gland is not working well so isn't producing ACTH to stimulate the adrenal glands to produce cortisol. Good luck! Hope you get some answers soon.

[marvalrus]

Are you taking thyroid medication? If you are and you have an adrenal insufficiency, the thyroid medication will only worsen your problem. All thyroid meds are contraindicated for those w/adrenal insufficiency. Even if your cortisol a.m. serum comes back in the normal range, you also need to know what your ACTH is. TSH to thyroid is like ACTH to adrenal cortisol. You need an a.m. Cortisol & ACTH taken simultaneously. You mention antibodies, but to what? There is an antibody test for Addison's. Is that what you're talking about? If so, there's no question you have Addisons. And if that's the case, are you taking Hydrocortisone?

[marvalrus in reply to marvalrus]

Sorry, re-read your post, you're having the Addison's antibody test next week. Can you not just walk into a lab and get it done, or do you need an appt. Adrenal insufficiency is serious and needs to be addressed quickly.

[humanbean]

A couple of links that may be helpful...

For any tests carried out by an endocrinology department in a hospital this document, known as the endocrine bible, is really useful :

imperialendo.co.uk/Bible201...

For info on the Short Synacthen Test read pages 68 - 70 in the above document.

And, another link which has a simple explanation of the different types of adrenal insufficiency, see this link :

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adren...

Apparently, a lot of people find it hard to get the ACTH test done, so you should check beforehand (before the day of the test) that the hospital are going to include the ACTH test.

Without a test of ACTH you won't be able to get a diagnosis of secondary or tertiary adrenal insufficiency (if one of them applies). It seems that once Addison's Disease is eliminated as a possibility doctors just forget about the other types on the basis that they are "very rare".