1/ My question: having blood tests done privately, and food intolerance tests privately, will the knowledge of the results be beneficial to know, and are the results reliable?
2/ My question: blood taken from the finger tips by myself for the analysis, are they as reliable as analysis using blood from a full draw from the arm?
3/ My question: do the Administrators have details of what they have found to be reliable companies who offer blood analysis and food intolerance testing by post?
NB: or I can travel to a physical North West UK location for in-person testing
LOCATION
North-West England, G.B.
Female
BACKGROUND
NHS G.P. is unable to remit bloods for any check other than TSH, full blood count, liver and kidney, cholesterol. All normal.
LEVO DOSAGE
Dec. 2021: Levo dosage 150 micr g
Reduction January 2022 by NHS G.P. to 100 micro g due to TSH result
SYMPTOMS OF NOTE
COLD: Since Autumn 2021, suffered abnormal basal cold with temperatures using digitial under the tongue of 34.5 degrees C to 36.0 degrees C
HAIRLOSS: Visual assessment, hair now at about 45% of original great form. Reduction in health of remaining hair. Condition deteriorating over a number of years. Latterly, re-commenced falling out in small chunks
COLLAGEN: Visible loss of collagen in all muscle areas; body showing negative external physical changes; look and feel unwell
FOOD INTOLERANCE: For 12 mths, extreme intolerances to most food
Oct. 2021: introduced:-
Gluten-free diet
Elimination of cow's milk
Changed from almost life-long vegetarian diet to one with simple foods and some animal protein
G.P. recommended the FODMAP plan
DIGESTIVE TRACT: positive response to the change in diet; limited, but safe foods.
MENOPAUSE
Believed to have been through the menopause. No medical assistance or offer of help or HRT
Thank you
Written by
Thefells
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1/ My question: having blood tests done privately, and food intolerance tests privately, will the knowledge of the results be beneficial to know, and are the results reliable?
If all your GP can request for thyroid tests is TSH then this does not show your thyroid status because TSH is a pituitary hormone not a thyroid hormone. So a private test which includes FT4 and FT3 is far more valuable to assess thyroid status. Dose changes should not be made purely on TSH level.
2/ My question: blood taken from the finger tips by myself for the analysis, are they as reliable as analysis using blood from a full draw from the arm?
In my experience of many fingerprick tests over the years, some done the same morning as an NHS with blood drawn by a nurse, the results are almost identical when you work out percentage through range if the reference ranges are different.
3/ My question: do the Administrators have details of what they have found to be reliable companies who offer blood analysis and food intolerance testing by post?
Monitor My Health does a basic thyroid test - TSH, FT4 and FT3. This company has the advantage of being an NHS lab based at Exeter hospital which offers this test to the general public and is more likely to be acceptable by a GP than a private, non-NHS lab.
I've also used Blue Horizon and Medichecks who generally use the same lab to process the tests (Eurofins County Pathology which is accredited the same as any NHS lab).
I cannot give any useful comment about food intolerance tests as both my late husband and I did one many years ago and the results were pretty much nonsensical. I believe the only way to find out if you are intolerant to any foods is to go on a very basic diet and reintroduce foods one at a time to see if you react. I don't know of a reliable food intolerance test.
List of private recommended labs on ThyroidUK's website here, click on the name for details and any discount available:
Dr. Chris Steele who used to appear regularly on the This Morning tv programme at the time when Richard and Judy were hosts, did the York Test. It flagged him up as a coeliac sufferer, a few years before he realised he had a problem. It was a few years later that the NHS tested him and he is indeed a coeliac sufferer.
My sister and I both did a private food intolerance test in August 2017. I had wanted to do it for about 16 years, but it was about £300 then and I didn't know if it would be accurate or just a waste of money.My sister lost bowel control at age 30, intermittently and has intermittent diarrhoea.
I have no bowel control, and can't make it to the toilet in time a lot. I rush to the loo multiple times daily until it settles around 2p.m. I was about 38 when investigated and fobbed off with a diagnosis of IBS. Everything I ate seemed to be a problem, especially gluten free food.
We used York Laboratories Lab for the food intolerance test and it was money well spent. I think the test is about £149 or £99 now.
My sister and I still have problems, but lots of things made perfect sense after doing it..
The test has an extensive list of foods and wines (grape types) that they will test you for. Get a hold of a copy before you test if you consider doing the test, as it will only flag up an intolerance to something on the list if you have ingested it in the 6 weeks before the test.
It works by testing proteins. Therefore, if cow's milk is flagged up it means you are intolerant to casein, the protein in the milk. It cannot tell you if you are lactose intolerant as this is a sugar. It will tell you if you are gluten (gliadin) intolerant as long as you have eaten it in the last 6 weeks.
In order of severity, I am intolerant to egg white, yeast, salmon/trout and egg yolk.
I am borderline for brazil nuts, buckwheat and cow's milk.
At this point I had been ordering buckwheat products on the internet as supposedly really healthy, was drinking kefir (fermented milk) to try to improve IBS, and baking from scratch with super healthy buckwheat flour!
My sister tested very similar to me. I think she was egg white, yeast, egg yolk. I think she was borderline for wheat, strawberries , cow's milk and garlic.
My sister was most impressed and could tell then that eggs really were the absolute worst thing she could eat. No way would my sister cut out all processed foods which contain yeast, nor give up cheese , bread , bakeries etc. She still has problems, but she is glad she did the test.
I cut out all processed food and everything on my list and it made no difference to me at all. Uncontrollable diarrhoea every morning, and dashing to the toilet every morning, multiple times, often not making it on time. My sister couldn't believe I was no better.
I persevered and found that slowly, 2lbs at a time i was steadily losing weight. ( 3st 2lbs overweight at this point)
This carried on until I had lost 2 stones. All processed food seems to have carrageenan which I believe causes me problems. Supermarkets inject their chicken with carrageenan, and I think their meat too. I then switched to buying all chicken and meat from a butcher supplying grass fed, carrageenan free (butchers may use it too as a flavour enhancer and multiple other reasons), msg free( butchers sometimes use), chicken and meat. Slowly 2 pounds at time, I lost a further 1 stone 2lbs, taking me back to the weight I was when healthy in 1987 before falling ill. A total weight loss of 3 stones 2 lbs.
Cholesterol had been 6.1. After brutal dietary changes and weight loss cholesterol now 4.2.
When cutting out cow's milk, switched to cartons of nut milk, oat milk or coconut milk. A year into dietary changes, watched a tv programme which highlighted that cartons of shop bought almond milk only contain 2 per cent almonds. The penny dropped that the cartons of shop bought milk must be causing the daily diarrhea! They contain gut irritants like carrageenan, guar guar and xanthan gum. Daily diarhoea stopped.
The creamiest home made milk is achieved from brazil nuts. I now knew because of the intolerance test not to make home made milk from brazil nuts. I use cashew nuts soaked overnight in water, and liquidised in water now for milk. I don't actually know if I have an intolerance to cashew nuts or not, as I hadn't been eating them around the time of the test to find out.
Since a lot of gluten free food is made with buckwheat flour, it then made perfect sense why gluten free food gave me uncontrollable diarrhoea, and no warning.
At one point I ate a slice of toffee pecan pavlova which contains sugar ( I also went sugar free), egg white, and cream (casein). I didn't realise that when trying to reintroduce foods it should be a tiny amount of one at a time. I had a few days of projectile vomiting, even wakening me from sleep to be sick. I had uncontrollable diarrhoea for about 2 and a half weeks. York labs will give advice. e.g.buckwheat sometimes used as a filler in quinoa.
I still have problems. Genetically, I know now that I have a mild enzyme deficiency for glucose, lactose and I believe mannose. This required genetic testing.
I would definately recommend the York laboratory food intolerance test for the above reasons. You are still likely to have gut problems after doing it because other factors not tested for will be in play.
I have given such a full explanation as I think it will be helpful to some members on the forum. Hopefully this can be my contribution to try to help other forum members, whose expertise in thyroid matters I greatly appreciate, and will need to rely on heavily in the future.
Thank you so much. Your reply is full and corroborates some of my thoughts. It is interesting that you meantion your Sister and strawberries .... a question for you, if I may? The York Test is proteins only? I wasn't aware that strawberries contained a proteing chain? Also in terms of 'genetic' that you mention, do you know of a laboratory that would test for that? Many thanks and best wishes, Thefells, NW UK
Reply sent to Seaside Susie by mistake: Dr. Chris Steele who used to appear regularly on This Morning tv programme at the time when Richard and Judy were hosts did the York Test .It flagged him up as a coeliac sufferer a few years before he realised he had a problem. It was a few years later that the NHS tested him and he is indeed a coeliac sufferer.It seems that all foods, including carbohydrates must have protein in them. I don't understand it. Very confusing. They explained that when cow's milk is flagged up as an intolerance that the intolerance is to the protein , casein, rather than lactose.
You get an appointment with an advisor included in the price. When I did the test, wheat and gluten (gliadin) were both tested for separately. I don't know if the test has changed since 2017, and this is still the case or not. If you want to do the test, ask before you order it for the list of what will be tested for, as I think this will be particularly important to you.
When watching Jamie Oliver, the chef, one night he happened to mention that egg white is used in the fining process in a lot of wines produced. Egg white in wine!
Buckwheat and carrageenan are often used as part of the process of making beer!
These hidden manufacturing processes make it difficult to avoid things you wish to avoid as you have no idea that they are there, as not mentioned on the product.
The genetic lactose aspect you cannot test for. A medical professional did a "treatable neurometabolic disease panel" which I paid for, and had requested him to do for other reasons not connected to thyroid. Luckily, he agreed to do it and it was found that way.
You can't instigate it yourself.
Hope this helps, and makes sense. I think I'm replying to you!!??
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