I think I’ve asked this before..but for some reason I’m really confused about this…
Because I am not scientifically minded at all ..and struggle to think straight anyway🙄 I want to put this question out there and hope I’ll get some agreement of answers ..please don’t talk about ranges to me !!! Not today!!
Could you give me an idea in just a number,,.
WHAT SHOULD FERRITIN BE AT MINIMUM? For us thyroid people ?
I have long thought I was told sometime somewhere that the absolute minimum should be 70…ideally 90-100….
Or have I made this up?
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Jollypolly
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please don’t talk about ranges to me !!! Not today!!
Well unfortunately we have to because the ranges vary and it's recommended to be half way through range, so if range is 13-150 you add the two together (163) then divide by 2, so 82 is half way through that range, and if the range is 15-200 then half way would be 108.
According to some experts, ferritin levels of at least 40 ng/ml are required to stop hair loss, while levels of at least 70 ng/ml are needed for hair regrowth and the optimal ferritin level for thyroid function is between 90-110 ng/ml.
Thanks for this…what I thought…so my 40 something result could be A reason why I don’t tolerate thyroid hormones I imagine..I take two lots of iron pills daily …presumably this ought to raise ferritin ?
I don't know if the 40 something ferritin level is why you don't "tolerate" thyroid hormones, but they wouldn't be performing at their best.
One would hope that two iron tablets daily would raise your ferritin level but when taking iron tablets we need to reguarly do an iron panel to check our serum iron and transferrin saturation level to see if they aren't too high. Too much iron is as bad as too little.
My understanding was that alternate day single dose iron supplementation was believed more effective so you might want to run that past your doctor. thelancet.com/journals/lanh...
Hi Susie, Can your 'halfway through range' formula above apply to other things, like thyroid hormones and vitamin levels? (I was prescribed NDT 10 years ago in US for 3 years, GP denied on return to UK so stopped for 3 years; self-medicated for couple of years and stopped a year ago pre-surgery blood-test to see how I got on.) Currently very tired so did BH complete iron, thryoid, D, B12, folate etc., and all in range, irons & B12 especially so, tho' folate & Vit D not spectacular so supplementing. But - as an UNmedicated individual - are there optimal thyroid levels? Using your formula TSH, TT4, FT4 & FT3 are all less than halfway, (always have been, even when taking NDT - though 90mg made me feel a heck of a lot better with nairy a hypo symptom) and wonder if I have to grind into old age feeling like this (I'm just this side of 70). Oh, fyi, antibodies below range, too. Thanks, SeasideSusie.
Can your 'halfway through range' formula above apply to other things, like thyroid hormones and vitamin levels?
No. There are optimal levels for each individual test done but that doesn't mean to say that you can't feel well if your levels are different.
For the nutrient tests, always advised here are:
Vit D - 100-150nmol/L (or 40-60ng/ml) according to the Vit D Society and Grassroots Health.
B12 - top of range for Total B12 or if Active B12 then at least 70, better 100+
According to an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:
"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".
"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."
Folate - at least half way through range
Ferritin - as mentioned above, half way through range although some experts say for thyroid function ferritin is recommended to be 90-110ug/L.
For thyroid, in a normal healthy person one would expect to see TSH no higher than 2, often around 1, with FT4 mid-range-ish.
For a hypothyroid patient on Levothyroxine only most patients feel best when TSH is 1 or below with FT4 and FT3 reasonably well balanced in the upper part of their ranges.
For a hypothyroid patient on combination thyroid replacement (T4 and T3) then TSH tends to be low or suppressed, FT4 can be low in range and FT3 is generally in the upper part of it's range.
Obviously everyone is an individual and nothing is set in stone.
I am not medically qualified I am commenting purely from my own exprience and reading.
For healthy people the WHO states a ferritin < 15 ug/L represents iron deficiency. This goes up to 70 ug/L for people with an infection. See the download of the 'executive summary' from this link who.int/publications/i/item... . (I've not read this document in detail).
This document researchgate.net/figure/Mea... shows typical population ferritin levels in terms of mean and standard deviation. This data includes people with anaemia so I would up the mean figures a little to compensate. You can link to the source document if you are interested in the details (I haven't).
The stuff about 70 ng/ml (ng/ml equals ug/L) comes from a cosmetic company that sells 'iron shampoo'. I would ignore this.
I've never seen any evidence that iron levels have a significant effect on thyroid status, other than one study on rats who were presumably very anaemic. From what I've seen thyroid status affects ferritin levels and not vice-versa. This study joe.bioscientifica.com/view... posted a few days ago by Diogenes has a short section on thyroid and ferritin.
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