Would t3 benefit me? Latest bloods

[HiRach]

hi, I have hashinotos and take 125mcg of thyroxine. I don’t feel great. I’ve just started a gluten free diet and take iron and folate as both were low. I’ve been taking them for 8 weeks and have just had the levels tested so can share all those results when I have them.

I wondered if t3 may help me feel better? I’m working on getting optimum levels of other vitamins. Here are my lates thyroid results:

T4 18 range ( 10.8-22.5)

Tsh 0.78 range ( 0.27-4.2)

T3 4.3 (3.1-6.8)

I did the bloods at 9am fasted.

My antibodies were previously tested and over 600.

Sorry if I’ve missed anything!

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Free T4 (fT4) 18 pmol/L (10.8 - 22.5) 61.5%

Free T3 (fT3) 4.3 pmol/L (3.1 - 6.8) 32.4%

You're not the best converter but your FT4 isn't in the upper quarter yet. I would expect that to be in the 90's.

What were your vitamin results and what are you now taking?

Did you also have a result for B12 & D3?

It's essential that ALL vitamins are optimal for your thyroid hormone to work well.

Do you always get the same brand Levo at every prescription? Many find that brands are not interchangeable.

[HiRach in reply to Jaydee1507]

thank you so much for your message. My ferratin is taking its time to come up but was 32 on the last blood test (still not great) and I believe my folate was 2.2 from memory. This was around 6 weeks ago and I’ve just had bloods repeated after supplementing. So I’m supplementing both of them. I take 1000iu vitamin d and that’s at 83 and the b12 was in range.

How would I get my t4 into the 90s?

Would t3 help as I’m not a great converter or is there something else I can do to help. I wondered what your thoughts are on supplementing zinc?

I have a young family so need all the help I can get to have some energy!

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to HiRach]

Vitamin numbers 'in the range' means nothing as we need OPTIMAL results for our thyroid hormone to work well and for best conversion of T4 to T3.

So what was the B12 result with range? Low B12 (even in range) can lower TSH. The B12 range is very wide so what looks like an OK result may not be.

1000iu of vit D is a fairly low amount. You should also be taking vit K2 or buy a supplement that combines the two for simplicity. K2 helps D3 go to your bones where it is needed.

Ferritin is notoriously slow to raise and unless you have had a full iron panel its not recommended to supplement with iron. Ferritin can be low yet iron itself fairly high and supplementing iron will make that higher, so isnt a good thing.

To raise ferritin safely its usually recommended to increase iron rich foods in your diet such as chicken livers or pate, red meat etc several times a week.

How much folate and what type are you taking? With deficient folate your GP would usually retest and precribe 5mg folic acid.

To raise your T4 you need a Levo increase.

To improve conversion you need to be sure your vitamins are optimal. Posting results here for recommendations helps.

Its not possible to say if T3 would help as your vitamins arent optimal and you're not on an optimal Levo dose either.

[HiRach in reply to Jaydee1507]

thanks so much for your detailed reply. I’m taking both folic acid and iron which were both prescribed from by my nhs gp.

I suppose the reason I’m asking about t3 now is because I’m seeing an endocrinolist at the moment and will likely be discharged back to my gp soon so I wanted to make sure I’d seen if this was an option ahead of being discharged.

Thank you for your thoughts.

[HiRach]

once I have the results for the vitamins I can post them here too. Sorry I don’t have them to share yet.

[Hidden]

Suggest you test for the DIO2 genetic mutation through Regenerus Labs. The mutation means that T4 is not fully converted to T3, as I understand it particularly in the brain and heart. I was on T4 only for years then the hypo symptoms returned. I take T3 also now and feel much better. I have the mutation which informs my doctor and myself about my use of T3. I monitor the levels through Monitor My Health.

[HiRach in reply to Hidden]

thank you so much for your message. I’ve never heard of this gene test. That’s really interesting.

[SarahJane1471]

just my thoughts but if those were my results I would try a small 12.5 mcg increase in Levo before going down the T3 option

[HiRach in reply to SarahJane1471]

thanks so much SarahJane.

[HiRach in reply to HiRach]

do you take levo or t3 or both? Thanks so much for your message!

[SarahJane1471 in reply to HiRach]

I took Levo only for 18 months ( gradually titrate to 125mcgs). Could not tolerate more so now have added T3. However if Levo alone had worked I would have been happy with that. It’s free and a lot less hassle than taking T3 3X a day. You have a little room to add a little Levo so try that for 3 months before trying to source T3

[shaws Administrator in reply to SarahJane1471]

I take T3 once daily when I awake with one glass of water and I am well and symptom-free.

I follow the method advised by a scientist/doctor/research - expert on the use of T3. Dr John Lowe (deceased through an accident) who was also an Adviser to Thyroiduk)

[Quasarlis]

Hello HiRach. Once you have the results that JayDee has advised you to get and you feel that you want to try T3 BUT your GP and endo lie through their teeth about it let me know and we can discuss some options ok.