High cholesterol & levothyroxine

[Will_blue]

Hi

I have just had blood tests done @ GP to check thyroid/cholesterol. I do not have results but have a telephone appt. to discuss on Thursday this week - which normally means something is wrong. In the last six months my TSH has been 0.12-0.16 in a range beginning 0.3 & upwards. Doctor has been fine with this but I have tried to minimally bring levo down (from 700 to 650 a week) to see if TSH comes into range & cholesterol magically improves. I feel OK at the slightly reduced dose.

I have a horrible feeling GP will tell me cholesterol is high & that I may need statins. I have read here that these do not sit all that well with levo treatment.

I have also read that if levo dose is right then cholesterol should be OK. My diet is good, I exercise regularly & have no family history of high cholesterol.

My questions is this: if hypothyroidism & subsequent levo treatment leads to high cholesterol - is that likely to be because of too much or too little thyroxine?

Not sure if I should be arguing for higher or lower dose!!

Thyroid hormones at last Medichecks test done in September

T4 19 (range 12-22)

T3 4.3 (3.1-6.8)

I plan to repeat these & vitamin checks in next month or so.

Thanks for any advice on the cholesterol front.

Your vitamin supplementation advice has been spot on so far & made me feel much better so many thanks.

[greygoose]

High cholesterol is linked to low T3. Your T3 is low because you don't convert very well. It's nothing to do with the TSH, and nothing to do with the levo. It's your body that - for whatever reason - does not convert T4 to T3 as it should, meaning that your body cannot process and eliminate cholesterol correctly, so it builds up in the blood.

What you need is some T3 added to your dose of levo, not statins. Statins would probably make things worse. Refuses them catagorically. Increasing your levo could just make your conversion worse, so that's not the solution.

[Traveldreamer in reply to greygoose]

Thank you Greygoose. I am in the same situation, where the practice rang me at 8pm to tell me I need to have a 'lipids check' with the practice nurse. They've been trying to get me on stations for years. I've had an incredibly stressful 6 weeks and my thyroid has suffered as a result. I ordered blood tests including for vitamins and everything and anything.My blood sugar is raised and my lipids are high. I need information like this so I can go in fighting. They probably won't prescribe it. My friend got a private prescription, which is nice if you can i suppose.

Thanks anyway.

[greygoose in reply to Traveldreamer]

You're welcome.