My Healthy Husband's thyroid result

[Sneedle]

Hello All,

As if posting my and my daughter's results isn't enough, here are my husband's Thyroid GP results. Sorry no T3.

I'm asking because I'm curious: my husband is not unwell, he is generally very healthy, active, eats a good diet etc. Has none of my problems!

TSH 2.82 ( 0.55-4.78 mU/L)

FT4 14.9 (11.50-22.70 pmol/L)

Is it normal for his TSH to be above 1? I thought all non-thyroid illness people have a TSH around 1 Or is that not correct?

For good measure:

B12 313 (180-900)

Folate 7.9 >3.00ug/L useless no range, but for what it's worth, my daughter's was 14 on same GP blood test.

Ferritin and Vit D not included!

The only other thing of note:

Bilirubin 30 <21 umol/L

He has supplemented B vits and D over the last few months, but not consistently.

He has been tired a lot this last year but we have put it down to other issues such as work stress, which has been significant.

He will have a comprehensive health check through work in September so he won;t be doing any testing till we see what that gives.

If anyone has a view on these results, please let me know.

Thank you!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Sneedle

Is it normal for his TSH to be above 1? I thought all non-thyroid illness people have a TSH around 1 Or is that not correct?

I've attached an image of TSH in normal healthy people with no thyroid problems. You can see most people are around 1 and not often above 2, so you can see where y your husband's TSH lies in relation to those.

His FT4 is 30.36% through range which is below where most healthy people with no thyroid condition would have theirs, ie around mid-range. However, these could well be his normal levels, as none of us are tested in health for a baseline we just don't know what's normal for us.

B12 313 (180-900)

I assume the unit of measurement is pg/ml which makes this result 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."

Folate 7.9 >3.00ug/L

When there is no proper range with an upper as well as lower limit, we tend to say aim for double figures, even high teens or 20, so this is on the lowish side.

It might be worth him considering some B vitamins and taking them regularly. May be consider a sublingual B12 methylcobalamin to bump up his B12 level. One bottle may be enough, along with some B Complex. When his B12 has reached the 500s stop the B12 and just continue with the B Complex, remembering to always stop B Complex 3-7 days before any blood tests as it can give false results.

Maybe consider Cytoplan for B12, it contains 2 x active forms of B12:

cytoplan.co.uk/vitamin-b12-...

and for B Complex consider

Thorne Basic B

Vitablossom Liposomal B Complex

Yipmai Liposomal B Complex

Pink Tribe Liposomal B Complex

It might be worth testing Vit D as he's supplemented previously.

[Sneedle in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you SeasideSusie, that's a really helpful reply.

The B12 is ng/L - does that make a difference?

I'm glad to know that most healthy people are around 1, I thought I may have misunderstood.

As you say, we don't know what his healthy levels are.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Sneedle]

The B12 is ng/L - does that make a difference?

ng/L and pg/ml are both the same so it doesn't make any difference

[tattybogle]

it is 'most common' for healthy people to have TSH that sits around 1 ish ,( as you can se from the graph susie gave) but there are some healthy people whose TSH is a bit above that, and some who's TSH is a bit below that .

it becomes increasingly 'less common' to find anyone with TSH over about 3/ 3.5 who is feeling healthy.. but it's still not impossible.

Ranges are "95% population ranges" .....the way they get a range is this .. they look at samples from a bunch of (allegedly) healthy people.

They remove the highest 2.5% ... and the lowest 2.5%.... of results. This leaves the 95% population range.

Within the TSH range, most people will have TSH around 1 ish ~ (but remember there were 2.5% of (allegedly) healthy people who have TSH a bit below that range.... and another 2.5% of (allegedly) healthy people who have TSH above that range .. they have been removed because they are unusual , so therefore not a good basis for judging the general population against).

many (experienced) opinions would agree that anyone with a TSH over 3 is 'looking a bit suspect' .. epsecially if thye don't feel great.

[Sneedle]

Thank you tattybogle and SeasideSusie for your replies, and a very good explanation which even my statisically-challenged mind understands! I will be watching that TSH...😁

[SlowDragon Administrator]

How old is he

High bilirubin = Gilbert’s syndrome

Very common genetic issue - slightly sluggish liver

[Sneedle in reply to SlowDragon]

He's 55. I saw Gilbert's syndrome online but don't know anything about it. I remember a few years ago his bilirubin was also a bit high, but it's never been flagged as an issue.