Hashimoto’s?

[Lisilooloo]

hi, I wonder if you have any thoughts please, I recently did a private thyroid blood test as was feeling quite rubbish with a long list of issues, ( have previously had parathyroid issue with high PTH and calcium leading to parathyroidectomy over 2 years ago) my thyroid results were normal except for anti -TPO, does this mean I have hashimoto’s ? My gp says not but the info I have read on line says yes…. I’m confused 🫤

[SlowDragon Administrator]

yes

TSH is on high side

Retest thyroid again in another 2-3 months

Meanwhile

Next step test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Plus coeliac blood test

What vitamin supplements are you taking

When were vitamin levels last tested

Low vitamin levels are extremely common when hypothyroid, especially with autoimmune thyroid disease

About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease, usually diagnosed by high TPO and/or high TG thyroid antibodies

Autoimmune thyroid disease with goitre is Hashimoto’s

Autoimmune thyroid disease without goitre is Ord’s thyroiditis.

Both are autoimmune and generally called Hashimoto’s.

In U.K. medics hardly ever refer to autoimmune thyroid disease as Hashimoto’s (or Ord’s thyroiditis)

Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins

Post all about what time of day to test

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Testing options and includes money off codes for private testing

thyroiduk.org/testing/

Medichecks Thyroid plus BOTH TPO and TG antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes BOTH TPO and TG antibodies, cortisol and vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Medichecks and BH also offer private blood draw at clinic near you, or private nurse to your own home…..for an extra fee

Monitor My Health (NHS private test service) offer thyroid and vitamin testing, plus cholesterol and HBA1C for £65

(Doesn’t include thyroid antibodies)

monitormyhealth.org.uk/full...

10% off code here

thyroiduk.org/testing/priva...

[Lisilooloo in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you, I had hair strand test this year which showed deficiencies (attached) I’m assuming that’s accurate. I’m not taking any vitamins but ordered some recommended yesterday (attached) my vitamin D was tested last week it’s 66nmol/L. Dr prescribed vit D, Ferritin used to be very low 5, since hysterectomy it’s 41 at last test last year.

Vits

[Tina_Maria in reply to Lisilooloo]

Hair testing is generally used for testing drugs or alcohol, or also minerals such as zinc and copper. What was your test used for?

I have noticed that you are using a multivitamin supplement. We do not recommend their use, as most multivitamin preparations use very cheap ingredients such as magnesium oxide and folic acid, which have a low bioavailability and cannot be absorbed efficiently. Your supplement also contains iodine, which is not recommended for thyroid patients as well as iron, which will prevent the absorption of any other vitamins or minerals, as iron should always be taken separately (and only if needed!).

You should ideally test your nutrients and vitamins such as ferritin, folate, Vit B12, iron and Vitamin D. Most people with Hashimoto's have deficiencies and you can supplement the ones that are deficient specifically. We also recommend a good magnesium supplement (Mg-citrate, -glycinate, -maleate, -taurate), as many people cannot get enough magnesium through the diet and magnesium will help with the absorption of B-vitamins as well as Vitamin D3.

[Lisilooloo in reply to Tina_Maria]

thank you, I did the hair test to look at food intolerance, included were the other bits such as vitamin imbalances. Re the multivitamins… I haven’t taken them yet only ordered yesterday, so will re look into that thanks 🙏🏻

[Tina_Maria in reply to Lisilooloo]

Hair food intolerance tests, as well as most other food intolerance tests, are very unreliable, as they are based on IgG levels to indicate an intolerance.

However, IgG levels rise naturally when you ingest food, which is a normal reaction from your body and has nothing to do with an intolerances. There is no scientific evidence that IgG testing can reliably identify an intolerance, therefore this method is not suitable to detect them and you may end up restricting items that you can actually tolerate. In fact, allergy doctors have found that these tests are more likely to tell you you have an intolerance to a food you eat regularly, not one you're actually intolerant to.

bda.uk.com/resource/food-al...

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Lisilooloo]

Hair strand test not recommended on here

Test folate, ferritin and B12 at least annually

Ideally…..Test vitamin D twice year when supplementing

my vitamin D was tested last week it’s 66nmol/L.

GP will often only prescribe to bring vitamin D levels to 50nmol.

Some areas will prescribe to bring levels to 75nmol or even 80nmol

leedsformulary.nhs.uk/docs/...

GP should advise on self supplementing if over 50nmol, but under 75nmol (but they rarely do)

mm.wirral.nhs.uk/document_u...

But improving to around 100nmol by self supplementing may be better

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/218...

vitamindsociety.org/pdf/Vit...

Once you Improve level, very likely you will need on going maintenance dose to keep it there.

Test twice yearly when supplementing

Can test via NHS private testing service

vitamindtest.org.uk

Vitamin D mouth spray by Better You is very effective as it avoids poor gut function.

There’s a version made that also contains vitamin K2 Mk7.

One spray = 1000iu

amazon.co.uk/BetterYou-Dlux...

It’s trial and error what dose we need, with thyroid issues we frequently need higher dose than average

Vitamin D may prevent Autoimmune disease

newscientist.com/article/23...

Web links about taking important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-MK7

Magnesium best taken in the afternoon or evening, but must be four hours away from levothyroxine

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

livescience.com/61866-magne...

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

Recipe ideas

bbc.co.uk/food/articles/mag...

Interesting article by Dr Malcolm Kendrick on magnesium

drmalcolmkendrick.org/categ...

Vitamin K2 mk7

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

healthline.com/nutrition/vi...

[Lisilooloo in reply to SlowDragon]

these are hair results

Results

[Hedgeree]

Hi Lisilooloo,

Welcome to the forum! 🙂

Your high anti-TPO does indicate hashimotos not sure why your GP says otherwise? But if you read the forum regularly you'll see how misunderstood thyroid issues are by GP's; their knowledge is rather limited.

There are many experienced and informed members on this forum so hopefully they will reply to your post.

[Lisilooloo]

thank you, I felt very silly yesterday when I said it to my gp, I have another gp appointment today as have a rash + pain in lymph node areas (arm pits, neck and groin) plus blood in urine, can t see it (microhematuria) so will try again as it’s a different GP!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Lisilooloo]

Many GP haven’t even heard of hashimoto’s

They might recognise autoimmune thyroid disease as a possibility…..but only if TSH is high

With TSH over 5 you should get retested on NHS

Starting levothyroxine - flow chart

gps.northcentrallondonccg.n...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Ferritin used to be very low 5, since hysterectomy it’s 41 at last test last year.

Are you vegetarian or vegan?

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/anae...

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

If taking any iron supplements stop 5-7 days before testing

Medichecks iron panel test

medichecks.com/products/iro...

Look at increasing iron rich foods in diet

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

List of iron rich foods

dailyiron.net

Links about iron and ferritin

irondisorders.org/too-littl...

davidg170.sg-host.com/wp-co...

Great in-depth article on low ferritin

oatext.com/iron-deficiency-...

drhedberg.com/ferritin-hypo...

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.

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Posts discussing Three Arrows as very effective supplement

Great replies from @FallingInReverse

re ferritin and Three arrows

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu......

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Great reply by @fallinginreverse

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Ferrodyn supplement

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Iron patches

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Thyroid disease is as much about optimising vitamins as thyroid hormones

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

restartmed.com/hypothyroidi...

Post discussing just how long it can take to raise low ferritin

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Iron and thyroid link

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Posts discussing why important to do full iron panel test

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Good iron but low ferritin

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Chicken livers if iron is good, but ferritin low

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Shellfish and Mussels are excellent source of iron

healthline.com/nutrition/he...

Iron deficiency without anaemia

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Ferritin over 100 to alleviate symptoms

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Great research article discussing similar…..ferritin over 100 often necessary

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Low Iron implicated in hypothyroidism

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Updated reference ranges for top of ferritin range depending upon age

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

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.

[Lisilooloo in reply to SlowDragon]

I’m not vegetarian or vegan