Hi everyone, my daughter in law was told her thyroid was underactive after the birth of her second child 3 years ago although she had symptoms after the birth of her first child 8 years ago, she’s been on 75mcg levo until recently and then increased to 100 mcg. She’s now worse than ever with swollen, painful hands, painful feet, hair loss, muscle weakness,tiredness, weight gain and today at 25 deg sunshine she’s cold. She’s just got the results of her blood test and told it’s all normal and her GP has basically sent her packing. What can she do now - could it be something else and she needs to come ofF thyroxine. She’s so upset and ill
?
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Essexlil
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Can you post the results of her tests with their reference ranges, so that we can give meaningful comments.
If she has online access to results she will find results with ranges there. If not she should ask the receptionist (not the doctor) for a print out and the ranges should be beside the results.
I dare say she's only had TSH tested, or TSH plus FT4. Ideally she needs
TSH
FT4
FT3
Thyroid antibodies
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
If she hasn't had all these done it would be worth her doing a private test with one of our recommended labs.
Some years ago I went to a nutritional doctor. One of the things he told me was that when a woman is pregnant the foetus takes whatever nutrition it needs, which may leave the mother deficient. You can then get a build up with further pregnancies. I had had 3 babies.
Can I suggest that your daughter in law finds a nutritionist who may be able to help her improve her vitamins and minerals, look for deficiencies and maybe also pick up on any food intolerances.
Go to the website for BANT, the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine , at bant.org.uk
and select 'Find a Practitioner' to find a nutritionist near your Postcode.
Unfortunately most doctors have very little training / understanding of nutrition. They wouldn't recognise a deficiency if it was staring them in the face.
The other thing I was told was that if you get your nutrition better, then any medical problem will present itself more clearly.
Please add results and ranges (figures in brackets after each result)
For full Thyroid evaluation she needs 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 with autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto’s or Ord’s thyroiditis)
What vitamin supplements is she currently taking
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 .
Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Is this how she does her tests?
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins
If TPO or TG thyroid antibodies are high this is usually due to Hashimoto’s (commonly known in UK as autoimmune thyroid disease).
About 90% of all primary hypothyroidism in Uk is due to Hashimoto’s. Low vitamin levels are particularly common with Hashimoto’s. Gluten intolerance is often a hidden issue to.
Which Hairburst product was she using? The multi-vitamin? That contains biotin, so she should have stopped it a week before the blood test, because biotin can sometimes skew results.
If that is what she's taking, she really didn't ought to! We don't recommend any multi-vits on here for a multitude of reasons. But, if we look at that particular one, it doesn't contain the best forms of B vits - folic acid rather than methyl folate; cyanocobalamin rather than methylcobalamin - zinc oxide, which has its place on a baby's bottom, but not in our stomachs. It also contains copper and calcium, things that she probably doesn't need, but should be tested before supplementing to avoid dangerous over-dose.
It's really not very impressive, considering the price! Money down the drain.
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