Hello everyone. I just joined this group today as I am at my wits end trying to find a thyroid specialist who can help me with my blood work results and help me in troubleshooting my symptoms and lab report. I prefer the holistic approach with a doctor who looks at nutrition/lifestyle rather than offering medication as the first option. My blood test shows that I have extremely high both thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies( way above the range) whilst my TSH is also high out of range(18.1 uIU/ml) with low ish T3(2.52pg/ml) and T4(0.939ng/dl). My blood pressure is low ish normal ( as long as I can remember) 104/64. My energy level is pretty good, I do weights and cardio and my body fat is low ( below 20%). I also sleep well ant night. What baffles me is if not for my blood work, I wouldn’t know if there was something wrong with me. My blood work and the fact that I’ve been shedding hair for months and my under eyes are puffy.
I understand you can’t recommend publicly on this forum but I would really appreciate if anyone know of a thyroid specialist who will be able to help diagnose me as I’m tired of experimenting and just want to figure out what is wrong. I am based in Surrey outside London but happy to take zoom consultants if face to face is not possible. Hope someone can help. I am also post menopausal 😔
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Twodogas
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Low blood pressure suggests adrenals are working too hard to try to compensate for lack of thyroid hormones
Adrenal levels should be tested
High thyroid antibodies confirms cause of your hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto’s
low vitamin levels highly likely when hypothyroid due to low stomach acid
What vitamin supplements are you taking
When were vitamin D, folate , ferritin and B12 last tested
Hair loss suggests low iron/ferritin
Here’s link for how to request Thyroid U.K.list of private Doctors emailed to you, and within the email there’s a link to download list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologists
Your antibodies are high this is Hashimoto's, (also known by medics here in UK more commonly as autoimmune thyroid disease).
Hashimoto's affects the gut and leads to low stomach acid and then low vitamin levels
Low vitamin levels affect Thyroid hormone working
Poor gut function can lead leaky gut (literally holes in gut wall) this can cause food intolerances.
Most common by far is gluten.
Dairy is second most common.
A trial of strictly gluten free diet is always worth doing
Only 5% of Hashimoto’s patients test positive for coeliac but a further 81% of Hashimoto’s patients who try gluten free diet find noticeable or significant improvement or find it’s essential
A strictly gluten free diet helps or is essential due to gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)
Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and may slowly lower TPO antibodies
While still eating high gluten diet ask GP for coeliac blood test first as per NICE Guidelines
The predominance of Hashimoto thyroiditis represents an interesting finding, since it has been indirectly confirmed by an Italian study, showing that autoimmune thyroid disease is a risk factor for the evolution towards NCGS in a group of patients with minimal duodenal inflammation. On these bases, an autoimmune stigma in NCGS is strongly supported
In summary, whereas it is not yet clear whether a gluten free diet can prevent autoimmune diseases, it is worth mentioning that HT patients with or without CD benefit from a diet low in gluten as far as the progression and the potential disease complications are concerned
Despite the fact that 5-10% of patients have Celiac disease, in my experience and in the experience of many other physicians, at least 80% + of patients with Hashimoto's who go gluten-free notice a reduction in their symptoms almost immediately.
Similarly few months later consider trying dairy free too. Approx 50-60% find dairy free beneficial
With loads of vegan dairy alternatives these days it’s not as difficult as in the past
Your response is so much appreciated! I wasn’t expecting any response today, let alone your comprehensive and structured reply. A bit more on my diet, I have been gluten free since March this year as I went low carb… which means I have stopped gluten as well. I believe I have had this thyroid issue long before this and thought I will try low carb and go gluten free as I’ve heard it may help. However, my august blood results still shows very elevated TSH which means I may have to cut out dairy too. I also invariably found out I was gluten intolerant month ago after trying to bake with vital wheat gluten thinking it was low carb. But lo behold, after consuming the bread with the gluten, my skin became very dry and started flaking. All these years, I never realised I was gluten intolerant until I cut out carbs. Thank you for the link for the private gp, I will have a look at it now. Thank you so much again. I’m sure I’ll have more questions again!
Hi, I also like the natural approach but I've learned with thyroid that we generally need medication whether that's natural options(NDT) or synthetic ones (Levothyroxine & liothyronin). As well as this we need to get our iron, folate, vit D, b12, selenium, zinc optimal levels. I just started seeing a private thyroid specialist who has recovered from Hashimotos herself. You're welcome to direct message me for info. Hormones may also help you as well. I'm currently on projestorone, I found testosterone really good especially for my eyes but have stopped it as it was affecting my thyroid medication and I became ill. This also happened with oestrogen. I plan to try them again once my thyroid is more stable. I recommend Paul Robinsons blog or book to learn more about it and to take your waking temperature daily. Good luck
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