Help with blood results please!

[aliwt]

Blood tests help please!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Related posts:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

aliwt

It is very confusing putting results over multiple posts, people have to go from one post to another to see your results and some may not realise all the posts are connected.

It would be better if you add your other pictures in replies in this thread (or type them in). You can add pictures by clicking on the rectangle at the end of the row of icons below the Reply box, you can add one picture in each reply.

Also, reminding us of what your problem is, what dose of Levo you take, etc, helps people to comment.

Assuming that you followed our advice of how to do thyroid tests, ie:

Always advised here, when having thyroid tests:

* Blood draw no later than 9am. This is because TSH is highest early morning and lowers throughout the day. If looking for a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, an increase in dose of Levo or to avoid a reduction then we need the highest possible TSH

* Nothing to eat or drink except water before the blood draw. This is because eating can lower TSH and coffee can affect TSH.

* Last dose of Levo should be 24 hours before blood draw.

* If you take Biotin or a B Complex containing Biotin (B7), leave this off for 7 days before any blood test. This is because if Biotin is used in the testing procedure it can give false results (most labs use biotin).

From your results we can see that your TSH is too high and your FT4 and FT3 are too low for someone on thyroid hormone replacement. The aim of a treated Hypo patient on Levo only, generally, is for TSH to be 1 or below with FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of their reference ranges, if that is where you feel well. So your results in this picture show that you would benefit from an increase in your Levo - 25mcg now and retest in 6-8 weeks, possibly further increase(s) may be necessary.

Your antibodies are within range so those results do not suggest autoimmune thyroid disease (known to patients as Hashimoto's). However, antibodies fluctuate and you may or may not have had them tested before and you may already know if you do have Hashi's.

Your CRP at 1.9 is within range. This is an inflammation marker so the lower the better.

Your ferritin is very high at 247 (13-150) and as your CRP is not raised then it's doubtful that your ferritin is raised due to inflammation. Are you taking iron supplements?

Folate at 2.2ug/L indicates folate deficiency and you should discuss this with your GP who should prescribe folic acid.

Your Active B12 at 114 is good.

Your Vit D at 76.3nmol/L isn't dire but the Vit D Society and Grassroots Health recommend a level of 100-150nmol/L, with a recent blog post on Grassroots Health mentioning a study which recommends over 125nmol/L.

If you want to improve your level then supplementing with about 3,000iu D3 daily should raise your level. Retest in 3 months to check how it's going.

Once you reach the recommended level then a maintenance dose will be needed 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. This can be done with a private fingerprick blood spot test with an NHS lab which offers this test to the general public:

vitamindtest.org.uk/

Doctors don't know, because they're not taught much about nutrients, but there are important cofactors needed when taking D3. You will have to buy these yourself.

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.

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.

For D3 I like Doctor's Best D3 softgels, they are an oil based very small softgel which contains just two ingredients - D3 and extra virgin olive oil, a good quality, nice clean supplement which is budget friendly. Some people like BetterYou oral spray but this contains a lot of excipients and works out more expensive.

For Vit K2-MK7 I like Vitabay or Vegavero brands which contain the correct form of K2-MK7 - the "All Trans" form rather than the "Cis" form. The All Trans form is the bioactive form, a bit like methylfolate is the bioactive form of folic acid.

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, and large doses of D3 can induce depletion of magnesium. 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.

naturalnews.com/046401_magn...

drjockers.com/best-magnesiu...

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.

[aliwt in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for your reply.I’m sorry that I posted my results separately but I couldn’t work out how to send three pictures at once!😱

I’m on 75 Thyroxine and it hasn’t changed for years.

I am not taking any iron supplements or other vitamins so don’t know why my ferritin is so high?

I will follow your guidance and get my vitamins sorted.

Do these results mean that I don’t need the T3 natural pig hormones?

Also, if I get the Thyroxine sorted, does that mean that my symptoms, weight gain, brain fog, palpitations, aches, dry flaking skin and feeling the cold will all go away?

I have just been accepting them for all these years.🙂

Thank you for your help

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to aliwt]

aliwt

Do these results mean that I don’t need the T3 natural pig hormones?

T3 is not natural pig hormones (natural desiccated thyroid or NDT). T3 is synthetic. NDT is made from pigs' thyroid.

You can't know if you need T3 until you can see how well you convert T4 to T3 and you can't know that until your TSH is down to 1 or below which gives the highest possible FT4 and then look at your FT3. If FT4 is high and FT3 is low that suggests poor conversion. But you also need optimal nutrient levels before considering T3.

Also, if I get the Thyroxine sorted, does that mean that my symptoms, weight gain, brain fog, palpitations, aches, dry flaking skin and feeling the cold will all go away?

Maybe, but the aim is to be optimally medicated with optimal nutrient levels and then symptoms should abate. Those are all symptoms of being undermedicated.

[aliwt in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you

[humanbean]

For future reference...

I'd just like to point out that Medichecks includes the option to download a "Printable Results Report" near the top of the page you got your graphs from. If you click on that you can copy it into a post and you can get far more results on a single page.

Please make sure to only copy results. Don't copy your personal info into any post on the forum i.e. name, date of birth or anything else that can identify you.

[aliwt in reply to humanbean]

Thank you. I didn’t see that!🙄