What is optimal ferritin?

[Jamima]

I going battle trying to tolerate thyroid hormone and I wondered if this might be part of the picture. My last test was August 2023 - Ferritin108 (39-332). Should it be higher?

[GlowCoach Administrator]

Firstly, thats a pretty old test and I would suggest getting a full iron panel if you have concerns about your level.

Back 18 months ago a level of 108 for ferritin was good then. That said, its always possible to have good ferritin and poor iron whichis why I suggest the iron panel as a good thing to check.

Ferritin should be around 90 - 100 for best use of thyroid hormone.

When testing iron or ferritin you also need to check inflammation as raised inflammation can falsley raise ferritin.

[Jamima in reply to GlowCoach]

Many thanks Jaydee - my head is absolute mince today, it was actually August last year but I’m going to test again in around 4 weeks.

[GlowCoach Administrator in reply to Jamima]

Go for a full iron panel.

[Jamima in reply to GlowCoach]

I will, thank you.

[SlowDragon Ambassador in reply to Jamima]

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 3-5 days before testing

Medichecks iron panel test

medichecks.com/products/iro...

[Jamima in reply to SlowDragon]

Many thanks.

[Ruthi]

Can we go back to the beginning? What do you mean about tolerating thyroid hormone?

[Jamima in reply to Ruthi]

Sure, but how long have you got? 5 years ago I noticed odd symptoms like grinding fatigue, loss of outer brows, nails splitting vertically, unresolvable brain fog, weird adrenaline burst at 5pm and 11pm, inability to focus until 2pm and then something lifted, what felt like broken glass in knee joints and shoulders etc etc. I’ve spent rather a lot on a variety of ‘experts’, amongst the responses: ‘it’s in your head’, it’s meno, it’s CFS, it’s me, it’s excited blood’. One of those experts put me on 2 grains of NDT. no titration. I crashed at about week 3. I have low cortisol all day which rises at night, under range DHEA and testosterone, just scraping in range frees and tsh which has gone from 1 something to 2.8 since 2020. I’ve tried every combo of every type of thyroid hormone and I always crash at about week 5-6 if I move it any higher than a starting dose. Currently back on a well known adrenal and thyroid glandular which seems ok, time will tell.

[Apollo1 in reply to Jamima]

could i ask what glandulars you are taking? I used to use Nurti Adrenal and Thyroid but they were discontinued

[Jamima in reply to Apollo1]

Hi Apollo1 - yes, I’m using adrenavive II and Metavive II.

[Sharoosz in reply to Jamima]

Got a bunch of those too - fatigue, loss of eyebrows (castor oil seems to help but it takes a long time for results - 4 months), nails splitting vertically - putting castor oil and DMSO on them and joints now, will see what happens, adrenaline burst at 11pm - I go to bed, sometimes read till I'm almost asleep - putting the light out and turning over are enough to spark that burst and I can lay there for ages. Hope things clear up for you!

[Jamima in reply to Sharoosz]

Thank you Sharooz - it’s just hellish with the adrenaline swings. I’m at 6 weeks on metavive and they seem to be reducing a bit, tongue is less swollen and teeth grinding stopped so hopefully I can keep going and increase to see more improvement. Good luck to you too.