Hi, Following my last post, I have visited my GP due to ongoing palpitations. She was very sympathetic and did me a full run of blood tests. All came back ‘normal’ my TSH even slightly down to my last test. Bloods were taken at 9.15am as advised. I am not prescribed any thyroid medication and take 3000 vitamin D. What does everyone else think? Still experiencing other symptoms- tiredness, hair loss, dry skin, inner tremble, cold hands and feet etc.
Serum Folate 6.2 (3.8-26.8)
TSH 5.10 (0.3-5.5)
B12 673 (197-771)
Total vit D 83 (197-771)
Magnesium .85 (0.7-1.0)
Serum Ferritin 28 (15-150)
Thanks for your time.
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Johannab89
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Your TSH may be down 'a bit' - it is subject to fluctuations - but it's still much too high: you are hypo.
B12 is good.
Folate is too low, it should be at least over mid-range.
Wrong vit D test, should be D3.
No point in testing magnesium because results are unreliable.
Ferritin is dire. That result should have triggered a full iron panel to see what's going on.
So, no. Your results may be within the stupid ranges - just - but they are far from 'normal'. Not surprising you have a heap of symptoms. And your doctor's sympathy is all very well, but what you need is action!
Serum ferritin level is the biochemical test, which most reliably correlates with relative total body iron stores. In all people, a serum ferritin level of less than 30 micrograms/L confirms the diagnosis of iron deficiency.
Never supplement iron without doing full iron panel test for anaemia first and retest 3-4 times a year if self supplementing.
It’s possible to have low ferritin but high iron
Test early morning, only water to drink between waking and test. Avoid high iron rich dinner night before test
Eating iron rich foods like liver or liver pate once a week plus other red meat, pumpkin seeds and dark chocolate, plus daily orange juice or other vitamin C rich drink can help improve iron absorption
This is interesting because I have noticed that many patients with Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, start to feel worse when their ferritin drops below 80 and usually there is hair loss when it drops below 50.
Thank you for your incredible patience while you have been awaiting the outcome of our ferritin reference range review. We conducted this with Inuvi lab, which has now changed the reference ranges to the following:
Females 18 ≤ age < 40. 30 to 180
Females 40 ≤ age < 50. 30 to 207
Females 50 ≤ age < 60. 30 to 264l
Females Age ≥ 60. 30 to 332
Males 18 ≤ age < 40 30 to 442
Males Age ≥ 40 30 to 518
The lower limits of 30 are by the NICE threshold of <30 for iron deficiency. Our review of Medichecks data has determined the upper limits. This retrospective study used a large dataset of blood test results from 25,425 healthy participants aged 18 to 97 over seven years. This is the most extensive study on ferritin reference ranges, and we hope to achieve journal publication so that these ranges can be applied more widely.
This is all great reading, I’ll take some time later to read through it all and put a plan together with diet and supplements. Hopefully the palpitations will reduce then. I feel like there’s no constructive help from GPs so I’m going to have to help myself as much as I can. I’m hoping once the symptoms lessen the anxiety feelings will too as I’m sure that the anxiety is just a by product of the symptoms? I only take Vitamin D 3000 at the moment, no other medication at all. I have always experienced heavy long (7days) periods but they are a bit scatty now (I’m 52) so unsure whether this is due to thyroid or perimenopause?
Here’s link for how to request Thyroid U.K.list of private Doctors emailed to you, but within the email a link to download list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologists
Ideally choose an endocrinologist to see privately initially and who also does NHS consultations
As already mentioned, it's important to take blood tests in the morning, preferably by 9am. Only water before the test. No food or meds.
You can't compare tests taken at different times of day as TSH varies during the day. Most doctors and nurses don't know this so you have to be insistent.
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Elderly mum's blood test results back
Further blood results - advice please
Blood results
