Supplements to help thyroid

[Jelley93]

Hello I was just wondering whether what is the best supplements to have with thyroid. Below is what I take now

ABC+ Multivitamin from holland and barret

Vitamin B complex with B12 holland and barret

Magnesium 250mg at night.

I heard selenium might help thyroid out too. Is this correct?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Jelley93

First of all, H&B own brand are far from the best quality supplements to take, they are cheap for a reason and often it's because they use the cheapest and wrong form of active ingredients.

Multivitamins aren't recommended here, they contain too little of anything to help low levels or deficiencies, tend to contain the cheapest and wrong form of active ingredients, and they very often contain things we should test for first and only supplement if found to be deficient, eg iodine, calcium, iron, Vit D. If they contain iron then this affects the absorption of everything else, iron needs to be taken 2 hours away from other supplements.

ABC+ Multivitamin from holland and barret

Just some reasons why you shouldn't take this:

Magnesium Oxide - cheap and very poorly absorbed, usually used as a laxative.

Ferrous Fumarate - iron shouldn't be included as it affects absorption of everything else.

Zinc Oxide - wrong form, cheap and used in nappy rash cream.

Copper Sulphate -zinc and copper should be balanced, we Hypos tend to have one high and the other low, therefore it's best to find out if we need them before supplementing.

Vitamin K (as Phytomenadione) - this is Vit K1, the blood clotting form of Vit K (babies get an injection of this at birth). We need Vit K2 as a cofactor of Vit D.

Folic Acid - methylfolate is the recommended version.

Potassium Iodide - iodine which should never be supplemented unless tested and found to be deficient, iodine solution used to be used to treat hypERthyroidism. This supplement contains the full recommended daily amount which in the UK is easily obtainable from food such as milk, yogurt, cod, haddock, etc.

Vitamin B12 (as Cyanocobalamin) - the recommended form of B12 is methylcobalamin.

Calcium - needs to be tested first and only supplemented if deficient.

Add the extremely long list of excipients included in this supplement, the best place for it is the dustbin (or, more sensibly, take it to the pharmacy to ensure safe disposal).

Vitamin B complex with B12 holland and barret

Not the full spectrum B Complex and contains B12 as cyanocobalamin. It should join the multivitamin supplement.

Magnesium

Did you check to see which form of magnesium is suitable for you?

naturalnews.com/046401_magn...

drjockers.com/best-magnesiu...

Selenium can help with conversion of T4 to T3 but the best form is either selenium l-selenomethionine or a yeast bound selenium, avoid selenite and selenate versions.

For supplements the best thing to do is test the core vitamins:

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

and supplement where necessary at the appropriate dose.

You can put your results, including reference ranges plus units of measurement for Vit D and B12, on the forum and members will comment and recommend good quality, decent supplements and dose where necessary.

[Jelley93 in reply to SeasideSusie]

amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-B12-10...

I have these in my possession. Are they any good

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Jelley93]

Jelley93

The methylcobalamin is the correct form of B12.

It contains calcium carbonate, I'd want to know how much and is it enough to affect calicum level.

It says "tablets" and not "sublingual", sublingual is the usual advised form as it is absorbed via the mucous membranes in the oral cavity rather than in the gut as tablets are.

B12 high strength is usually advised when B12 level is very low, otherwise a B Complex would be suggested. What is your level?

When taking B12 we need to also take a B Complex to keep all the B vitamins in balance.

It is very, very cheap for a B12 supplement which possibly isn't a good sign.