19 replies to this topic

[adambryant]

Do routine blood tests implicate if thyroid is high or low?

[burdee]

Depends on what your doctor considers 'routine'. Specifically ask your doc for a thyroid panel including free t4, free t3, TPOab (thyroid peroxidase antibodies which indicate Hashimoto's which is highly correlated with gluten intolerance) and TSH. Most docs will only test TSH, which is not even a thyroid hormone, but a pituitary hormone which can indirectly suggest thyroid problems. However the other 3 tests are more useful in detecting specific thyroid problems and specific supplementary treatments.

[nvsmom]

.... What Burdee said.

TSH is the thyroid stimulating hormone. It's numbers go up as your thyroid function goes down. The problem is that the numbers in the normal range often include those with symptoms of problems so doctors ignore the symptoms and go with the lab numbers. Plus people can have a pituitary that's not working great and a poor functioning adrenal can affect that test too.

TSH lab are somewhere between 0.2-6.0; most are closer to 0.5-3.5 in range. When I was feeling hypo (underactive thyroid) my TSH has ranged from a mid 2 to 6 to in the teens. My doctors ignored it when it was below a 7 even though I had many symptoms.

Nicole: How are you doing now? If your thyroid supplement didn't resolve all your hypo symptoms (including 'cold, tired and low pulse'), you may not have a large enough dose or maybe you need a different brand or even different kind of thyroid supplement (i.e., combination t4/t3 or even t3 only, rather than t4 only). Most docs start with a t4 supplement like Synthroid or Levoxyl and just assume that your body easily converts t4 to t3. Some people don't (I'm one) and need more t3 or only t3 to resolve their symptoms. I spent a year trying different doses of t4 and t3 before I realized that I did better on t3 only. Few traditional docs consider t3 only, but many people do better on just t3. (See "Recovering with T3" by Paul Robinson.)

Thanks Burdee. I'm only 3 months into treatment and not near a good dose (synthroid) yet. I'll get there... eventually...and hopefully sooner than a year! Yikes! That must have been "fun".

[adambryant]

Ahhh ok cheers. I think its just celiac to be honest(fingers crossed ) as things are improving!

[mushroom]

Ahhh ok cheers. I think its just celiac to be honest(fingers crossed ) as things are improving!

The one thing celiac will teach you is patience... just wait a while and see what happens.....