I recently posted on here because I feel my doctor doesn't really take an interest in my hpothyroidism. And so I've recently taken some private bloods to check my doses are OK.
I finally have all my tests back now. Can you help me interpret them please? I'm on 50mg of Levothyroxene.
TSH level: Your result is 2.39 mu/L (normal range 0.27 - 4.2 mU/L)
FT3 level: Your result is 4.8 pmol/L (normal range 3.1 - 6.8 pmol/L)
FT4 level: Your result is 19.4 pmol/L (normal range 12 - 22 pmol/L)
Haemoglobin: Your result is 144 g/L
Ferritin: Your result is 135 ug/L
TSAT: Your result is 44 %
Active B12: Your result is >300 pmol/L
Folate: Your result is >300 pmol/L
Vitamin D: Your result is 51 nmol/L
All cholesterol tests were also OK.
Everything has green light and it says all is in normal range. So looks like nothing is way out of line. Is that right?
Thanks in advance!
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mids_thyman
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So your thyroid results were dealt with on a previous post. Did you get a dose increase yet?
Are you taking any supplements, if so which ones and dose?
Ferritin is good but can be raised falsly by inflammation.
Do you have the ranges for the vitamins? Look at numbers top and bottom of green area.
Folate looks very high.
Vit D3 should aim for 100 as a good level for thyroid hormone use by the body. Use this calculator to work out how much you need to take to get your number there. grassrootshealth.net/projec...
Just being in the 'green range' isn't good enough. Your numbers need to be in the top part of the green range.
You could put a screenshot of your other results as you don't have any ranges here.
Haemoglobin: Your result is 144 g/L
I believe that will be in range.
Ferritin: Your result is 135 ug/L
It's often recommended that ferritin should be half way through range, however that is a pretty good level for a male providing it is not falsely raised due to inflammation. You'd need CRP tested to see if there's any inflammation.
Saturation: optimal is 35 to 45%, higher end for men - so 44% is good.
Active B12: Your result is >300 pmol/L
Are you supplementing? If so you should stop as you're wasting your money. If you're not supplementing and your level is naturally high you should discuss with your GP as some medical conditions can cause high B12.
Folate: Your result is >300 pmol/L
We really need to see the range for this or to see how far into the green band you are. This seems very high as folate ranges generally tend to be 3.89-19.45 or 8.83-60.8.
If one of the quoted ranges is this level naturally high or are you supplementing?
Vitamin D: Your result is 51 nmol/L = 20.4ng/L
This is low. You might want to check out a recent post that I wrote about Vit D and supplementing:
The Vit D Council, the Vit D Society and Grassroots Health all recommend a level of 100-150nmol/L (40-60ng/ml), with a recent blog post on Grassroots Health mentioning a study which recommends over 125nmol/L (50ng/ml).
Thanks for all your replies. It looks like there are a few common questions I'll try to answer:
I haven't seen a doctor yet since my last post as the results were incomplete. The lab lost the anaemia/vitamin tests and so have re-done them. That now gives me a complete set of resuslts, which I've posted here.
For folate, I think I cut and pasted the wrong value. My actual result was 12.3 ug/L - see below.
I have been taking vitamin B and B12 supplements over the last few weeks as I have tingling in my feet (hasn't made a dofference though). I did have a B12 test seperately at the doctors a few weeks ago, before I started to supplement and that come in as a normal range. I've read that anything over 900 pg/mL is an indicator of other conditions, which equates to 3303 pmol/L. Mine was 300 pmol/L, so hopefully high but OK. Do I have that right? I think you're correct though, may be time to lay off the B12 supplements!
I've also been supplementing with Vit D, but that clearly hasn't done the job.
The latest tests don't have ranges like the Thyroid ones. But guessing them from the results graphs:
Haemoglobin - anything over 130 is considered normal (mt result was 144 g/L).
Ferritin - normal range is 10-410 (my result was 135 ug/L).
TSAT - normal range is 16-51 (my result was 44%).
Active B12 - anything over 40 is considered normal (my result was >300 pmol/L).
Folate - anything over 3 is normal (my result was 12.3 ug/L).
Vit D - 36-62 is adequate, 63-102 is 'replete' (my result was adequate at 51 nmol/L).
The original question was - do I need to up my Levothyroxine dose? Again, all help interpreting these appreciated!
Have added some links re. dose increase to my previous reply on your other thread mids_thyman, i forgot to add them at the time , sorry . healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
I did have a B12 test seperately at the doctors a few weeks ago, before I started to supplement and that come in as a normal range.
What was result? "Normal" just means that it is somewhere within the range.
The test at the doctors would be a Total B12 test which has a very wide range, something like 180-900 pg/ml.
To convert pg/ml to pmol/L you divide by 1.355 so 900pg/ml = 664.2pmol/L. However
Active B12: Your result is >300 pmol/LYou cannot compare Active B12 test with Total B12 test, they are two different tests. The Total B12 test measures the total amount of B12 both bound and free (active) and the Active B12 test measures only active b12 which is what is available to the cells. Your Active B12 way too high and you should stop supplementing as you are just wasting your money.
Folate is OK.
If you check out the Vit D Council website linked to you can work out how much D3 you should be taking. It wouldn't hurt to take 4,000iu - 5,000iu daily for 3 months then retest to check your level and adjust if necessary.
When taking D3 we need it's important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-mk7.
Thanks. And noted re: supplementation. I'll try and find out the levels from the doctors test, or maybe test again in a few weeks after I've stopped supplementing B12.
Quick question. I was concerned at forst about low B12 being a cause of my tingling. Does having such a high Active B12 level rule out pernicious anaemia?
Does having such a high Active B12 level rule out pernicious anaemia?
One would assume so. However, the test can only show what's in the blood and available for the cells to use, it does not confirm that the cells are actually using the B12.
HOWEVER, you mention that your GP did a Total B12 test which showed a level of 300pmol/L and I expect the range was similar to my GP's range, ie 145-569pmol/L. 300pmol/L = 406.5pg/ml and 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."
I think that you would have a much lower B12 level (both total and Active) if there was to be any suggestion of Pernicious Anaemia, PA is an autoimmune condition which prevents you from absorbing B12 and the levels you report do not suggest this.
The Active B12 test is said to be the better test but I'm wondering if your Active B12 test result is accurate. There is such disparity between the Total and Active B12 results, I would not have expected to see such an extremely high Active B12 with your Total B12 level. This begs the question of whether one of them is inaccurate and, if so, which one?
I may have confused everyone. I only have the result of one blood test - the Active B12 from Monitor My Health which was >300 pmol/L. All I know about the doctor's test is that 'B12' was tested (I'm not sure if it was B12 or Active B12), and the results were 'normal'.
Hi again SeasideSusie. A quick question, do you think there’s any harm in having high B12 levels? Would supplementing cause damage if it wasn’t needed, or would the body just get rid of the excess?
If the B12 is naturally high (without supplements) then it should be investigated.
If the B12 is high and you're taking supplements then I would suggest leaving off the B12 supplement for 4 months and retesting. This then measures what your body is holding on to. Continuing to take B12 when your level is high is just wasting money.
hi, when I first became unwell with thryroid type symptoms, all usual blood tests came back ‘within range’ so my GP then asked the lab to look further and my ANTI TPO antibodies were found to be hugely out of range! That is when my journey back to better health finally began 🙏
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