just had blood test results would appreciate yo... - Thyroid UK
just had blood test results would appreciate your comments.TSH 0.11 (0.27-4.20) T4 21.3 (11.0-25.0) regards brenda
Brenda,
With those results you might be fine - or you might not!
Do you feel good? I guess not because people tend not to post here when they are taking the tablets and doing well.
Let us know a bit more, please.
no i feel as bad as ever. had a blinding headache today, burning feet . sore throat no balance and light headed. slept all afternoon b12 225 (191-663) regards brenda
99
Your B12 is only 34 above the bottom of the range. No doubt your GP is quite happy with this, though should not be. Please check out my reply tonight to kellymmdavis where the British National Formulary treatment is set out for macrocytic anaemia which you might well have, though it is increasingly being recognised that before macrocytic anaemia shows other damage can be beginning.
Not to worry if GP stares at you blankly when you express your concerns, you can help yourself, just bear in mind that in Sweden in 2001 70% of B12 treatments were oral or sublingual. The two are different.
Any other results connected to B12? Ferritin? Folate? FBC?
I'll continue tomorrow, tell you how to help yourself if the GP won't. A familiar tale.
please tell me how to help myself nosto. dont have any confidence that my gp will agree tooral sublingual treatment again thank so much for caring regards brenda
Hello, yes, I certainly will, have to go out today, but will get going tonight and tell you all that I did, the successful outcome and all other things you have to know.
Meantime you can go on Amazon and buy some sub-lingual B12, either Swanson's 5000mcg tablets or Jarrow's 5000mcg tabs; Swanson's cheaper, I used Swanson's as it is a firm featuring in Dr Lowe's nutritional advice.
Did that GP actually check your B12 in isolation? Here they check ferritin, folate, FBC.
thanks again nosto he did b12 same time as thyroid function test.does that make difference. will contact swansons as soon as i finish this post. again thanks for caring. you urge me on to get well again. regards brenda
What? Surely he must have done the ferritin, folate, FNBC and B12? Brenda, you do know that your are entitled to have a printed out copy of all blood tests, it is the law, just ask, or better still, write and ask for the copies you want, say you understand there could be a charge for this (max of £10, but probably free) and say you are enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for the copies and the invoice. This establishes that you know what is what, makes it easier subsequently just to ask for any others done at a subsequent appointment. Amazon, it is in the Health and Beauty section, it is methylcobalamin you need, as it is body-ready B12, the name means that it is already methylated so goes straight to work.
I am going to work on the post for you, long one so you know what you are doing and why.
wish i could think of something else to say to you nosto. other than how about living next door to me. you have encouraged me so much regards brenda
Thanks for that, brenda. I have overcome neglected hypothyroidism and also below range B12 levels ignored by GP and now having tussle with seeming arthritic aches/pains, suspect need more hypo treatment, anyway, courage, sister, you can do it too.
Testing your B12 simultaneously with the Thyroid would not make any difference, except that doctor seems to have omitted ferritin, folate and FBC.
I was unable to post the promised post re B12 but you can get started with the gist of what I did to raise my B12 from below range to out of sight of range (B12 is non-toxic) as I have about 10? posts on the subject on this link:
pasoc.healthunlocked.com/bl...
Be in touch tomorrow. So sorry you feel down, once you get B12 levels up I think you will feel much better. I know those burning feet. the light headedness.
FBC, (Full Blood Count) not FNBC.
yes had full blood count tests yesterday ragards brenda
OK,, brenda, here goes with what has worked for me, please remember that I am not a doctor just a desperate person who realised that she was grinding to a final halt owing to B12 level 167(180-800) GP described as mild and would do nothing to help me. Your GP thinks that B12 is a one size fits all application despite your B12 being only 34 above lower range limit, it is not, it is documented in research that serious symptoms can occur at 300, though most GPs would think that fine.
You can fix things the way I did. Distinctions necessary:
First, sublingual absorption is via membrane under tongue.
Second, oral is swallowing tablet whole and depending on absorption via stomach/intestines.
Sublingual absorption method avoids all complications of possible inefficient absorption that might occur in the stomach, rest of intestines, so absorption will occur regardless of low hydrochloride acid production, lack of intrinsic factor, anti-parietal cell antibodies, etc.
But you absolutely must make sure the tablet is kept under the tongue as long as possible so the maximum B12 gets absorbed via the subl membrane. Do not crunch it either, subl does not work like that, so resist this temptation to speed things up!
Buy either Jarrows subl methylcobalamin 60 tabs x 5000mcg, or Swansons methylcobalamin 60 tabs x 5000mcg. Methylcobalamin is a form of cobalamin (B12) which is already methylated and is "body-ready" so gets to work ASAP without the hassle of methylation by folate. The B12 you buy must be methylcobalamin, not cyanocobalamin, a commonly sold form of cobalamin but a disaster for many people and anyway does little for neurological symptoms. You have burning feet and exhaustion, these are neurological symptoms, but such symptoms can also be indicative of lack of T4 to T3 conversion which you might well have also, an FT3 test would answer this question, and an rT3 test would show whether in fact your high FT4 is being converted to rT3 and so depriving your body of T3 at the cell level.
Meantime, back to B12. It is necessary to take high doses of subl B12, which is not toxic at any dose, as a proportion is unfortunately lost. The aim is to take enough B12, as methylcobalamin, which gets into the blood stream via the subl membrane, to create a gradient of high B12 outside the cells where a low gradient exists inside them and so the external high gradient of B12 gets into the cells because "pressure" of such a gradient forces B12 into the cells. This is all explained in Kevin Byrne's paper entitled "The Enterohepatic Circulation of Vitamin B12", (Professional Version) downloadable from the Pernicious Anaemia Society by members only I think(recommend you join) here is link,even just reading the open forums will be interesting:
K Byrne also explains why subl is his preferred delivery method compared to the relative inefficiencies besetting oral (just swallowing whole tablet) delivery, that is why I went for this method, guaranteed absorption no matter what conditions existed in my innards, which GP had not investigated despite, I discovered six months later, lab notes on the blood test result telling him what tests he should run. Interesting that this was the only time I did not automatically ask for a copy of the test.
So I aimed at 30,000mcg methylcobalamin daily, by taking 5 or 6 tabs daily, each of 5000mcg.
These were spread out through the day, and occasionally augmented a couple of days a week by three or so sprays of a methylcobalamin spray delivering 500mcg per spray, also from Amazon, called Advantage B12, but such spraying was secondary in my mind to the subl tablets.
In addition to the methylcobalamin tablets it is advisable to keep your potassium levels up, this is done by diet, bananas and unsulphured blackstrap molasses will not only do this but help your general health greatly. Potassium is an electrolyte held in balance with sodium, but fortunately dietary means of obtaining potassium are better as the body can deal with such a means of potassium raising where taking potassium tablets, usually Sando-K, can deplete B12 oddly enough and anyway potassium levels raised this way should be monitored by a doctor, or so I understand.
See:
chiquitabananas.com/Worlds-...
and:
articles.herballegacy.com/t...
The unsulphured blackstrap molasses will also deliver folate/folic acid to balance the B12 you are taking. Folic acid is the manmade supplement which is taken to raise folate levels.
This FA supplementation can also be undertaken at a maximum of 800mcg of folic acid daily, by buying methylfolate tablet or capsules, again from Amazon, Jarrows is the cheaper option compared to Solgar version. Jarrows says one 400mcg dose daily, Solgar says 800mcg daily, most peolple go with the 800mcg daily. I would go with the 800mcg daily until you know where your folate levels are, you can get your B12 and folate levels checked initially at the start of your course, done privately, no GP referral needed, at:
for only £29.50 to have both serum B12 and folate tested at same time.
Worth it just to keep clear of an overbearing GP as mine was.
NHS labs usually measure B12 in ng/L but myrios measures in pmol/L. Just divide the myrios units for b12 measurement, pmol/L, by 0.738 to convert their pmol/L to ng/L, if the ng/L unit is more familiar to you.
Do not worry if you exceed the B12 range, after my 30000mcg daily for four months (face would not stop spontaneous, uncontrollable twitching until then, hid monster face in winter scarf) B12 was at >1500. B12 is non toxic remember, those on injections have very high levels after their injections, higher than mine were.
Myrios measure folate in nmol/L. but here to be at optimal level you should be at about the 3/4 mark in the range. Their folate range is 10.4-42.4, so the difference is 32. 3/4 of 32 is 24. just add the starting point of 10.4 to 24 = 34.4 so you should be looking, in a range expressed in nmol/L, for your optimal level to be 35 and above. I am above the folate range slightly, no doubt due to high intake of dietary folate.
I had about 28-30 symptoms according to the symptom lists on the b12d site: b12d.org and on the PA site. The first to go very soon was the nausea, then my appetite came back, next my colour began returning so I no longer had waxen face, then slowly, oh so slowly, in five weeks the dreadful pins and needles and shooting pains lessened so at least I could sleep through the night - before this, though exhausted and often sleeping in the day, when I got to bed at night the pains and tingling began. It is something to do with the lack of oxygen to recumbent muscles, sometimes this started in early hours waking me and the only cure is to get out of bed to stamp around the house to ease this dreadful painful tingling and shooting pains and burning feet and spontaneously twitching muscles, which started off feeling as though a bubble of air had just popped to the surface then gradually intensified through weeks before I rescued myself to spontaneously twitching muscles, mostly in legs but often elsewhere GPs just think you are making it up and arrogantly tell you you have "health anxiety" or they might test for diabetes as in my case (don't have it) but B12 lack never crosses their minds, even when like me the B12 does not even touch the bottom of the range and I pleaded for B12 treatment
If I think of anything else I will add it later. Any questions? Happy to answer!
Please look on the main site:
for private thyroid function tests, meantime I will put on here tips that worked for me re thyroid.
Hope this good news about B12 being easily raised cheers you up! Go to it! Nothing to lose but depression, pain and exhaustion, who needs those?
Keep in touch.
I just posted this elsewhere but finding out the importance of T3 and the fact they do not want to measure it calls into question whether this is happening to people whose TSH and T4 seem excellent as yours does. The article goes on to state that this isn't as rare as the medical world
would have us believe.
> Reverse T3 (RT3) is what is made when the "wrong"
> iodine atom is removed from T4, it's a "mirror
> image" molecule to T3 and is not bio-active. This
> in itself is not a problem, the problem is that in
> excess it "fits into the T3 receptors" and gets
> stuck there blocking the action of T3 on the body.
> This means that your body doesn't respond
> properly to T3 leading to hypothyroid symptoms
> despite a normal TSH and normal T3 and T4 levels
> in the body. This is what we refer to as "Tissue
> Resistance to Thyroid Hormone". Doctors will tell
> you this is very rare, this is because they don't
> look for it!!
>
