Hello, I have been having symptoms of constipation, bloating, leg pain, pain in my feet,tingling in feet at night and my big toes hurt, ankle and tendon issues, bloating, dry skin, tired and more. I am diagnosed with Hashimoto’s hypothyroid and take 120mg or NP Thyroid a day (60 mg in the morning and 60 mg at 2pm). I am also diagnosed with Primary adrenal insufficiency and take hydrocortisone. Can you please help me understand my Thyroid results from this labtest? What do I need to do to make them optimal? I also had a cholesterol test which came back high. Is this causing my leg and foot issues? Any recommendations and thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you, Michelle
Thyroid tests
TSH .14 L mIU/L (.27-4.20)
FT4 10.6L pmol/L (12.0-22.0)
FT3 3.9 pmol/L (3.9-6.8)
Cholesterol 7.5H (Range <5.0)
HDL 3.87 (Range >1.0)
LDL 3.3 (Range <3.4)
Triglycerides .9 (Range <2.9)
CRP 1mg/L (Range <5)
HBA1c 36 (Range <41)
Serum Iron 23 umol/L (Range 10-30)
Ferritin 30 (20-380) - NOT optimal and is affecting my Thyroid health, right?
Transferrin sat .30 (.15-.5)
Transferrin 3.0 g/L (1.7-3.4)
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Well, you look to be under-medicated. Both your FT4 and your FT3 are too low. But, your TSH doesn't correspond to those low levels. So, how do you take your NDT? Do you take it on an empty stomach waiting at least an hour before eating or drinking anything other than water? And at least two hours away from other medication/supplements?
And how did you do the test? Was it early morning and fasting, leaving an 8 to 12 hour gap between your last dose and the blood draw?
I also had a cholesterol test which came back high. Is this causing my leg and foot issues?
No, cholesterol doesn't cause symptoms either when it's too high or too low. In fact, it doesn't cause any problems at all, despite what your doctor might tell you. Do you know what cholesterol is and what it does? Bet your doctor doesn't!
Ferritin 30 (20-380) - NOT optimal and is affecting my Thyroid health, right?
Your ferritin is much, much too low and could be causing all sorts of problems. But the health of your thyroid is not one of them. On two grains of NDT, your thyroid is completely out of the link, now. It's not doing anything. But, you do need optimal ferritin - and all other nutrients - for you body to be able to use the hormone you're giving it.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I can see that my thyroid medication is not working correctly. I usually take 1 grain in the morning approximately 45 minutes before coffee, any other medication. I usually do not eat breakfast. I take another grain around 2pm and try to do this away from food or any other medication or vitamins. I haven’t been totally consistent with my 2nd dose relating to other medication or food. What do you recommend? This is the hard part since I have to take medication and vitamins throughout the day due to having Addison’s disease.
I took these labtests holding my thyroid medication for 10 to 12 hours prior, fasting at 7:30am.
I lightly understand how cholesterol works so I am confused by your statement that hypothyroidism and high cholesterol would not give you any symptoms. Both of these diseases have their own unique symptoms even if they are not connected. Per pubmed, the two can be connected. Hypothyroidism is closely associated with increased serum total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG). The thyroid gland plays an important role in this process because thyroid hormones (THs) modulate cholesterol production, transformation and clearance. I have also read that high cholesterol can give you PAD- artery disease which in turn can have symptoms of leg, arm and foot pain. I haven’t been diagnosed with PAD. This is just something I read after receiving these bloodtest results. All of this is confusing to say the least. Just trying to find out what I need to do to raise my thyroid levels, raise my ferritin level and lower my cholesterol so I can feel better. I truly appreciate your help. Thank you!
If you are already constipated and bloated, go easy on the supplements or take the one from the U.S. recommended here. Whose name I forget! Three arrows?
I made myself very ill taking conventional iron supplements to restore iron levels, and destroyed my gut health … so am projecting my experience onto you, in the hope you don’t have to go there!
I can see that my thyroid medication is not working correctly
It's not your thyroid 'medication' that isn't working correctly, it's your body. You're just not absorbing it as well as you should. So, if you're doing all you can to assist absorption, then you need an increase dose. That will raise your thyroid hormone levels. I don't see any other way.
And raising your FT3 will reduce your cholesterol level. But that in itself won't make you feel better. It will be the higher T3.
I lightly understand how cholesterol works so I am confused by your statement that hypothyroidism and high cholesterol would not give you any symptoms.
If you believe that high cholesterol causes symptoms then you don't understand how it works. Your doctors want you to believe it's a problem so that they can prescribe as many statins as possible, and you're going to read all sorts of scary things on that subject. But most of it is due to misunderstands and some of it down-right lies.
Briefly, your body is made of cholesterol: your brain, cell walls, sex hormones, etc. So, your body needs cholesterol to carry out maintainance on your body. For example, if you have damaged arteris - due to inflammation or whatever - cholesterol will come along and cover the damage while it heals (which is why people who die of heart attacks are found to have cholesterol clinging to the artery walls). And when the damage is healed, the cholesterol is absorbed into the cell walls. Artificially reduce the cholesterol with statins and that damage goes unhealed causing a heart attack. And much of the repair and reparation that goes on in your body on a daily basis will also fail to happen. And your sex hormone levels will drop. But, attack the 'problem' at the root cause, raise your FT3 level and all will be well.
Both of these diseases have their own unique symptoms even if they are not connected.
High cholesterol is not a disease, it is a symptom. It is made in the liver, and the liver controls levels to keep them stable. So, when you consume more cholesterol, it makes less, and vice versa. However, when T3 is low, the body cannot process cholesterol correctly, so it tends to build up in the body. That is to say, the protein carriers - HDL and LDL - tend to build up in the arteries, not the cholesterol they claim bungs up arteries, clinging to the artery walls and narrowing them. That's not what they test when the do a blood test for cholesterol: they test the number of carriers: HDL and LDL. Not the same thing at all.
I think you really should read the works of Dr Malcolm Kendrick - blogs and books. He explains it all really well.
As to the leg and foot pain, they are hypo symptoms.
Thank you for your knowledge and thoughts. I truly appreciate it and I understand better.
I believe I know what I have been doing incorrectly which has affected my thyroid medication absorption. I had had stomach issues and have taken antacids, I also eat a lot of cheese, and last but not least, I drink a lot of coffee and in the morning. I only wait about a half an hour after taking my thyroid medication to have my morning coffee( which is at least 3 cups with dairy creamer). All of this would affect my thyroid medication absorption, right?
I have changed this routine after I read your post and others in this group. I am now taking my thyroid medication 2 hours before coffee. I am working on stoping all antacids and eating a healthy which consists of no dairy, gluten, grains or nightshade vegetables, Drinking a lot of water, etc. I still crave cheese but I am working on eliminating this. Do you or others have any suggestions? I started taking heme iron but make sure this is 4 hours from any thyroid medication. What about other vitamins or medications? What is the rule? Thanks again for your expertise and help. I truly need it.
Good news- With the few new changes currently my leg and foot pain/ tingling has lessened , my fatigue is less and I am less depressed. I am starting to feel better. With time and the correct medication routine I hope to feel good once again. Thank you.
I am working on stoping all antacids and eating a healthy which consists of no dairy, gluten, grains or nightshade vegetables
You only need to eliminate the things you react badly to. Do you have adverse reactions to all those things? Not every body does, so there's no reason for them to cut them out.
Trying a gluten-free diet is a good idea, for at least 3 months. But don't cut everything out at once or you won't know what is helping and what you didn't need to cut out. No point in restricting your diet unnecessarily.
What about other vitamins or medications? What is the rule?
The rule is all other medications/supplements at least two hours away from thyroid hormones, but four hours for iron, vit D, magnesium, calcium and estrogen.
I take it all at the same time now, at around 4am and find that’s working well for me. It means that it’s well away from any foods or supplements that can block uptake.
It does look like you need a dose increase. Your ft4 and ft3 are very low. I need my ft3 around 6.5 [3.1-6.8] to feel well.
High cholesterol is a symptom of low thyroid hormones. In itself it doesn’t cause symptoms, but obviously low thyroid hormones cause a lot of other symptoms too.
High cholesterol doesn’t cause the problems that they blame on it. But the pharmaceutical companies are trying to make money by getting everyone on statins. GPs will push us to take them at every opportunity.
They seem to be oblivious to the fact that the NHS doesn’t recommend statins for thyroid patients:
Hi Maggie, Thanks so much. You are correct, I need a higher dose and I am now taking 2.5 grains a day. I have also changed when I take it so it absorbs well.
I am currently taking my morning dose 2 hours before coffee and food and my afternoon dose, the same. My doctor wants me to change the afternoon dose to bedtime. . What do you think? I am also taking heme iron twice a day but 4 hrs away from my thyroid medication. I have had stomach issues and take antacids but I am stopping this and working on sticking to a strict healthy diet. I love cheese also but I plan on quiting dairy since this is a big problem with thyroid medications Do you have any suggestions, vitamins, food, medication, schedule, etc?
The new changes have already started to alleviate some of my hypothyroid symptoms. I hope this continues and I feel better soon. Thanks again.
If it’s just because dairy is a problem with thyroid meds, and not because you have a sensitivity to it, you don’t need to cut it out, just make sure there’s a 4 hour gap from your thyroid meds. That would probably be easier to manage if you take your second dose at bedtime.
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