Might be best if you go to your results page and in the top right corner there is a Printable Results Report
But they don't look too bad, how are you feeling?
Free T4 (fT4) 19.1 pmol/L (12 - 22) 71.0%
Free T3 (fT3) 5.5 pmol/L (3.1 - 6.8) 64.9%
T4:T3 Ratio 3.473
You were saying your Dr wanted to reduce you to 60 something from 75mcg but your results show you are in a pretty good place and even have room for a slight increase if symptoms persist
Issues started late January. Legs swollen up to below the knee which caused a problem. late April early May woke up covered with a rash right up to my neck - large red raised patches, was tearing myself to pieces as I woke up. From there on backward and forward to health centre, never see the same dr. twice. No offer of investigating, I suggested auto immune playing up, not sure whether PA or thyroid, one GP agreed and had thyroid tested: TSH -T4-T3. Another dr checked them, no idea who and decided to reduce T4 relayed via receptionist - I made it clear he was not, under any cirsumstnaces, to alter my thyroid medication, results were saying increase if anything. Reduced T3 slightly and rash has begun to subdside slowly. Got a bra on to day for 1st time. The PA has joined in didn't want to miss out!
You asked how I was feeling, sort of used to working under par, bit difficult, very tiring. Iron is always a problem for me, usually diet with top up of liquid iron, surgical mess up when I was in my early 30s - messed my abdominal contents up well and truely so have learnt how to keep up to levels, all that went out the window as whole system out of zinc now. Hence asking for any advice, brain fog not helping. Thank for your reply, very thankful for it.
The rash sounds awful have they not suggested any anti histamine? I can't remember have you any food intolerances that might be kicking off? Which brands are you taking?
I've tried various zinc forms and think picolinate is my preference, I guess this being low means your immune system is weakened
Just looking back at your previous post and you mention you take zinc & copper which won't improve your low zinc as the copper will keep your zinc low, they work in balance so if zinc is low very likely copper is high
Thank you for all the suggestions. I will be going through them later today and try and give the answers to the queries. I am on anti histaminesday and night, helps quite a bit.
Will reply later, again my thanks, getting more help here than all the drs put together and I know it is a bit of a mess but there has to be a logical answer to at least explain what is going on.
Thank you Slow Dragon - will take that on board - have a supply of a liquid one ready, just trying to get things back on an even keel. appetite not too good but working on that also.
What brands are you taking islandlass , were there any changes in January?
What about gluten - I met someone recently who gets all over hives/blisters when they eat something with wheat in, have you checked all supplements or snacks?
I can't quite get to the true bottom of my tendon trouble all down my right side, ankle, knee and shoulder ... definitely improves when B12 is higher than even the top of range, so injecting regularly helps that. Plus if FT3 drops lower than 70% through range then I definitely stiffen up all over.
When up high like 83% through range for FT3 I was able to walk 30,000 steps in 30 degree heat, it was challenging but I could do it and still function the following day. I ached a bit but recovered quickly.
No changes in medication brand, no problems with gluten, SI every third day, upped this when all the bigger problems started to every 2nd day. My B12 needs to be over the 1000.0 - high I know but that is where I am stable. Did not know about zinc and copper, I use a combined pill, so will have to look into that. Slow Dragon pointed out that ferritan can be a false reading due to CRP, will try and get that up to a decent level. With the 2 conditions overlapping it is a case trial and error. I am slowly getting ease, pain in legs etc easing but still a way to go. One dr. asked what am I going to do with you - my reply, shoot me. Her response - a bit drastic, the way I felt it sounded quite reasonable. Thank you for all your help, just getting another perspective is a God send. I often wonder how many are given hope because they can come on here and get a listening ear - once was the perogative of the family doctor, so sad.
Ah a lot of similarities there then! Good luck, dodge the bullets!
Yep I was on a combination zinc/copper too, came off that and have zinc only now.
I use three arrows simply heme for ferritin, test first obvs but highly recommend that. It’s from US but comes quite quickly.
Oh and not 💯 certain but creatine was recommended here for muscle aches and it really seems to help. (I was having DOMS for 5 days after yoga). 1 scoop after a weights routine (I started with 1 round and body weight only once a fortnight and have graduated very slowly to 2 rounds with 2.5-7.5kg depending on the exercise, 3 times a week) Gabrielle Lyon Livestrong is the book inspo and iyengar yoga home practice 20 mins daily if I can, I’m no angel and fail to meet my own aims regularly but do manage to get back into it after a few days, I miss it now🌱
Can you tell me what brand of zinc you use and dosage, just repleneshed my usual lot, down the sink for them. I will look up the three arrows and see what it says. Thank you for reply, We have good weather for a change so trying to sort out outside before winter - slow progress but getting there, wil try and dodge as many bullets as I can!
This is the one I currently use, took 2 a day of previous similar for entire bottle GP advised, based on private under range result and subsequent NHS confirmation of under range result. GP tested again and only just in range, so I did same again 40-50mg a day for another bottle and then have dropped to 1 a day. GP won’t test now I’ve had 1 in range result. I choose to assume copper will take care of itself and my zinc is likely to always be lower.
As regards the right sided symptons, I definitely read something in the last week or two (possibly on the forum) and can't remember what was said could cause it exactly. I think it was possibly Blearyeyed who explained it and the explanation was to do with thyroid and B12 and the mechanism that leads to things like carpal tunnel syndrome. She seemed to have a good handle on it. I think it was from a post from Blackcat 122. I felt Blearyeyed was listing lots of my symptoms in her explanations, and others were making good contributions to the post.
Got it, I use diet for the iron with occassional top up, every 4 months a course, had iron panel done early in year with blue horizan 1st. There has to be a root cause for sudden onset of the latest event, no investigation or interest in finding out why, so a case of doing my own sleuthing and picking anyone's brain I can. Can you tell explain difference between ferritan and iron, there I am a bit muddled.
Hope you don't mind another request. When you mentioned iron a bell went off in ny head, eventually I remembered why. I did do test of thyroid back in February when this finally really got going. Brain fog was terrible so I forgot till you pinged the bell.
Below are the chemistry results- blue horizen.
IRON: 9.6: 5.8-34.5 umol/l
UIBC: 53.3: 24.2 - 70.1 umol/l
TIBC: 63: 45-81 umol/l
Transferrin saturation: L. 15.3. 20-50 %
ferriitan: 59.50. 13-150 ug/l
Antithyroidperoxidase abs were also high: 45.1. <34 iu/ml
Rest more or less the same as latest tests. Lower legs still a problem, contacting GP by post because there is infection there that needs treating. He checked liver etc, saw results and all indicate something not right, all included in explanation for abnormalities -bone - infection - thyroid. Hope not too much information. Any help with the above apprecaited. Have a liquid iron ready but wanted to see what you thought before starting it, It is a four week supply.
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.
islandlass I can definitely relate to your right sided complaints where right knee, hip, and shoulder wouldn't track. I'm hypermobile and can normally, easily do, the yoga tree of life pose, where you put one foot against the inner thigh of the opposite leg. I didn't think I would ever be able to do that again. The pose wasn't possible any longer. I also had right sided sacro iliac problems at the same time, and was hobbling to walk. Everything was clicking and clunking, including my clavicles .
It was caused by an experiment to bring TSH into rage when I had been under-range, with FT4 near top limit of the range and FT3 was dropping. I was on t4 only and dropped T4 from 75 mcg where I had been 99% through the range ,although I had dropped to 81% for no reason. Ft3 was dropping.TSH was under range. I reduced T4 dose to 63 mcg to see if Tsh came back into range. It did , at 0.31 (0.27-4.2), I had all these right sided symptoms. FT4 plummetted from 81 % ( previously 99%) to 50%. FT3 plummetted to 40.54% from 59.46% (previously 64.86%).
I think getting TSH in range caused the problem, and Ft4 and Ft3 really dropped. I think I need FT4 and Ft3 near the top of the range, and TSH not in range. But I have Central Hypothyroidism. T4 dose for me seems to be around 68 mcg. I think I need 5 or 7.5 mcg T3 dose.
My bloods on t4 68 mcg and T3 10 mcg, taken as one dose around 3 a.m. for 8 weeks were:
TSH 0.044 (0.35-5.5), FT4 19.5 (11.9-21.6), 78.35% FT3 6.42 (3.1-6.8), 89.73%. I also need my B12 , preferably over-range.
Once I raised my dose of T4 to 72 mcg the right sided problems disappeared. So, like you, I seem to need quite a high FT4 and FT3, and TSH is just under, or possibly on, bottom of the range.
I am out of zinc, the doctor willy nilly reducing my dosage with out even ringing me, that was well out of order. It took me a long time to get on a fairly even keel, seems I am back to self help again. I intend to keep the little they give until I see what is what. The thyroid is slowly shutting down so keeping it working for a long as I can is my aim, getting to grips with that fact and adjusting meds. accordingly is the puzzle which is why this site is invaluable. Thank you for your reply.
If it is any help I tested my zinc, copper and selenium , twice (only 1 copper result though). I found that the higher my selenium , the lower my zinc was. When my selenium reduced, my zinc increased. Zinc and copper have a see saw effect with each other, which I think you already know. It may be peculiar to me, but my selenium alters my zinc, and most probably my copper too. It is an expensive test at £107- Blue Horizon, Essential Trace Elements. It is a venous draw, rather than finger-prick. If you feel zinc is important to your situation, it might be important to see what levels zinc, copper and selenium are currently. Selenium is very important for conversion of T4 to T3.
Thank you, I only take zinc and copper twice a week, selenium every day. Will have to see how things work out, it is a slow business, once you go out of balance getting back to less choppy waters is something else again. Sort out PA and thyroid gets in on the act but I know vits are very important also. Thank you for the above it all helps this end,
I wonder whether taking selenium every second day might be an experiment worth doing. It MIGHT raise your zinc. I don't know how selenium affected my copper, but do know that when I had near toxic levels of selenium, my zinc was pretty low. I stopped supplementing selenium altogether as I have naturally occurring over range selenium. When I did this zinc increased on its own.
Many medics are in the camp of ….”you’re only a little bit hypo….so we will only give you a tiny bit of Levo “ …..which is ludicrous and against guidelines
They only give 75 daily, so not breaking the bank, have to sort myself out which suits them. NHS under demolitian gang now, public private partnership and guess who gets the lie lowing fruit and who gets the difficult to reach fruit. Sending a letter and laying out my requests with no option for negotiation, I do not need the stress. PA has joined the chorus now so double whammy, this has been ongoing since the start of February!! Thank you again, will try and sort out another blood test soon, funds allowing.
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