I am new to posting but have been surfing on here for months gleaming as much info as i can as it was all mind boggling since being diagnosed with hypothyroidism & having strong positve TPO antibodies.
Like many others my symptoms were ignored by GP as NHS tests were ‘normal’.
Having sought help from a private endo & more bloods, i was finally offered Levo 75mg back early june. I cant say i felt that great & was on Teva brand, so hearing other people on here saying it can make some people not feel well i got it changed.
fast forward to early august i got my first set of results, which my endo thought were ‘ideal’, still wasnt feeling good so i tested my vit D privately & started taking vit B complex.
He never once mentioned diet, vitamin or minerals so thats been a bit trial & error making sure i was eating the right food, avoiding gluten & taking supplements.
I wonder if anyone could advise whether my levo dose is too low and also where my B12 & iron levels should be to optimise the levo. Also how can you tell if im converting T4 to T3 adequately?
TSH 1.33 (0.27-4.20)
T4 15.1 (12.0-22.0)
T3 4.0 (3.1-6.8)
Serum ferritin 71.7 (11.00-307.00)
B12 415 (145.00-914.00)
Folate 14.18 (3.00-20.00)
Thank you … and for all the advise you give for beginners like me😀
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Honeybee66
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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.
Your TSH is possibly a little high but your FT4 and FT3 are too low, FT4 just 31% through range and FT3 is 24.32% through range. Conversion of T4 to T3 isn't too bad, good conversion takes place when the T4:T3 ratio is 4:1 or less and yours is
15.1 divided by 4 = 3.77
You certainly could benefit from an increase in your dose of Levo, 25mcg now and rtest in 6-8 weeks, you will probably feel better if your FT4 is up to around 70% and this would probably give FT3 around 60-70% as well; however, it's all trial and error finding our sweet spot.
Serum ferritin 71.7 (11.00-307.00)
Ferritin doesn't look too bad although it's recommended to be half way through range but some experts say the optimal ferritin level for thyroid function is 790-110ug/L.
You can help raise your level by eating liver regularly, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, also liver pate, black pudding, and including lots of iron rich foods in your diet
You shouldn't take iron supplements unless a full iron panel is done (serum iron, total iron binding capacity, saturation percentage plus ferritin) because if your serum iron and saturation is already good then taking iron will take them too high and could lead to toxicity, too much iron is as bad as too little.
B12 415 (145.00-914.00)
Presumably the unit of measurement here is pg/ml or ng/L, in which case this is rather low. 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."
Which B Complex are you taking and how much Vit B12 does it contain. Do not take Vit C at the same time as B12, it needs to be taken 2 hours away as it affects the body's ability to absorb the B12.
Folate 14.18 (3.00-20.00)
Folate is recommended to be at least half way through range so yours is pretty good and the B Complex should help maintain your level.
What was your Vit D level when tested, how much D3 are you now taking and are you also taking D3's important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-MK7?
In that case your B12 could do with a boost. It would be worth considering using one bottle of sublingual B12 methylcobalamin (along with the B Complex) which should take your B12 over 500 and then the B Complex alone should be enough.
Suggestions for B12 supplements which include two forms of bioactive B12 - methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin which you might want to check out:
Note that the Nature Provides supplement contains a much higher dose than the Cytoplan one.
400iu D3 is a child's dose, not even an adult maintenance dose. If I were you I'd try and find the result for your most recent Vit D test or do a new one with vitamindtest.org.uk/ which is an NHS lab who offer an easy dried bloodspot fingerprick test to the general public (postal test) for £29. Once you have the result I can point you in the direction of how to work out the dose of D3 that you need.
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