Good morning all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please can I have advice on my recent blood test as to whether the levels are ok or whether there is room for further improvement. I am current taking 100 mcg, having increased from 75 just over a year ago and although I do feel a bit better on this, I still don’t feel 100%. I am waiting for B12, folate and ferritin to come back but I’m reluctant to stop supplementing again for a couple of weeks as symptoms of deficiency set in after a week. I usually use vit D spray but have been a bit slack with this lately which could account for the lower level (managed to get up to 100).
TPO - 13 -(0-34)
TSH - .22- (0.27-4.2)
FT4 - 18.9 - (12-22) (69%)
FT3 - 5.1 - (3.1-6.8) (54%)
Vit D - 86
Thank you in advance.
Written by
SpringerMom
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I'm not aware that you need to stop folate and iron supplements for a couple of weeks.
My iron document quotes a reference of needing to avoid iron supplements for 24 hours.
helvella - Iron Document
This is a summary of what I have read up and found out about iron supplements over the past few years. I am not in any way medically trained. You are strongly encouraged to check every detail before making any decisions for yourself.
If your conversion is impaired by low ferritin, low folate, low B12, then the obvious thing to do is supplement them. Which you are doing.
Why would you want to prejudice your conversion by not supplementation for a couple of weeks?
And would you want to know what your T4/T3 and conversion are like with the supplementation stopped for a couple of weeks? Rather than where they are right now? Just pausing enough to avoid direct effects (the most discussed being biotin these days ) - if there are any. Maybe a couple of days.
Obviously you would return to taking them after the blood draw and indefinitely into the future (depending on specific test results for those three substances). So you would appear to be creating a somewhat false trough.
I'm aware that it is possible to look at this and come to different conclusions. We would all be happier if the answers were clear and accessible. And if tests were so cheap you could do them with and without pauses to see what effect the pauses have.
Thank you Helvella. Oh dear, I seem to have got into a brain fog muddle haven’t I, thinking I was doing the right thing🙄. Stopping the supplements to get an idea of what my baseline would be doesn’t seem to have been the best idea 🙄. A year ago I initially thought that debilitating fatigue, brain fog, peripheral neuropathy and muscle weakness were related to low B12 and folate but now thinking that these could be caused, at least in part by being under medicated for thyroid. Struggling now to get my head round it all.
It could be that just a little tweak could be the answer perhaps trial adding an extra 12.5mcg on alternate days for 8 weeks and retest to see how this effects your levels and go from there, small changes are best to sneak up on your optimal dose 😏 if will be interesting to see your other levels
Thank you TiggerMe. I was thinking along those lines but unsure. I currently only have 100mcg and I am I’m reluctant to refer to my GP as I haven’t found them very helpful so would have to cut them. Would an increase to 125 mcg on alternate days be to big an increase? By the other levels, do you mean B12 etc? If so, then these were my previous from June.
So vits and mins looked good with an understandable slip in Vit D which you are tackling, this could be key to your lowered conversion rate
Vencamil is easily split in two with just a thumb press and quite soft so quarters are doable, a cheap pill cutter makes life easier, it rather depends how sensitive you are to alternating doses but you could trial an extra 25mcg twice a week and see how that goes, some choose to take extra at weekends to keep it simple
I wouldn't suggest adding more than that as raising fT4 too high will more likely worsen conversion to fT3 so counter productive
You ought to have enough wiggle room to not have to tackle you GP, they only seem capable of making larger dose changes which so often miss the sweet spot!
Thank you once again. I have tried to request Vencamil and this was written on the prescription. Although I did manage to get it a couple of times, just seem to get Accord and now accept this for continuity. I will try the increase and see how get on and retest in a couple of months.
At some point you could request your prescription is made up of 2x50 or even 4x25. I’ve successfully changed to both these in the past.
To get the 50s I said I wanted to trial splitting the dose to morning and evening. This was also a suggestion to dissuade GP from lowering my prescription.
To get the 25s I said I wanted to stick with Wockhardt. In reality I wanted flexibility to tweak my doses.
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