Thyoid Question page

[Rebekah]

I got my lab results back for my thyroid, and I was wondering if someone could look them over to see if they're okay. My doctor didn't seem to think I had a thyroid issue. I'm a little unconvinced; I feel like I have a lot of the symptoms of hypothyroidism (consistently low energy, inability to lose weight, low body temp [97.4], lack of ovulation, mental health issues, etc.), but I'm not sure how to interpret the lab work.

T3 Uptake - 31.2% [REF: 22.5 - 37.0]
TSH - 1.043 uIU/mL [REF: 0.350 - 5.500]
T4 (Total) - 6.6 uh/dL [REF: 4.7 - 11.4]
Free T4 - 0.88 ng/dL [REF: 0.89 - 1.76]
Free T3 - 2.21 pg/mL [REF: 2.3 - 4.20]

What do you think? Any advice would be appreciated!

[Beauty]

You have low FT4 and low FT3. These could be the cause of your symptoms. I'm just learning about this myself, but I've been directed to a really good website where I suggest you ask the forum there about your results too:

http://www.realthyroidhelp.com/

Also this is an Excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-.../dp/1600376703

Good luck on this journey. It seems to be quite complicated, but being primal is definitely a step in the right direction!

[DeadRockstar]

I'm afraid I know nothing about thyroid specifics, but all the symptoms you're describing could also be indicative of overtraining, lack of sleep or being in a deficit for too long.

You say you've stopped losing weight, so I assume you've been in a deficit for a while. Have you tried doing a refeed and then measuring body temp next morning?

[Eklecktika]

You should look into hypopituitary. You have below range frees, with low TSH.

There ought to be bells going off everywhere!

T3 uptake is a useless test, and Total T4 doesn't mean anything either without a thyroglobulin level. (But why waste $$$ on those when you can do a Free T4, which is what Total and thyroglobulin allow you to calculate?)

Ideally, you want your T4 AND T4 at the top end of your range-the Free T3 range used to go up to 6.5, but as people have gotten more and more hypo, the range has slowly dropped. AGain, it's nothing but a statistical figure. Nothing at all to do with optimal function.

If you have hypo symptoms, you have hypo symptoms, regardless of your blood tests. Have you checked Ferritin? Iodine saturation? B12? Vitamin D? Selenium? Vitamin A? RBC Magnesium?

stopthethyroidmadness dot com is a good website as well as RTH; I'm over at RTH too. :-) Different name though.

You would probably be wise to see if you could get an AM cortisol level + serum ACTH checked too. Have you any history of mononucleosis, concussion (or a blow to the head enough to make you see stars?), other causes:falling down the stairs while a little kid (it doesn't have to be adult onset), whiplash, hemorrhage or whiplash while pregnant or nursing, "idiopathic source", and I sure there are others that are not identified.

There are pituitary autoantibodies as well, sort of the equivalent of type one diabetes, only with the pit. Your body destroys the gland. But there are no clinical tests for that, only for research.

[Eklecktika]

You have low FT4 and low FT3. These could be the cause of your symptoms. I'm just learning about this myself, but I've been directed to a really good website where I suggest you ask the forum there about your results too:

http://www.realthyroidhelp.com/

Also this is an Excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-.../dp/1600376703

Good luck on this journey. It seems to be quite complicated, but being primal is definitely a step in the right direction!

The Free T3 and Free T4 are measures of the exact hormone level that is available to use; When the levels are low, that means you just don't have enough. T3 is the active hormone, T4 is the storage version. You have to be able to make deiodinase aka thyroid peroxidase to remove the molecule of iodine FROM T4 to make it T3. (All thyroid hormones are one molecule of tyrosine (T) + 1, 2, 3, or 4 molecules of iodine.) Some folks just don't convert well; they do the worst on synthetics T4, and the best on dessicated porcine, or synthetic T3 only. Some people have adrenals that can power through anything and convert very well, and they do well on synthetic T4.

Some people have autoimmunity to T3 as well, and have antibodies blocking the T3 recptors, and as such, need to take much more than your average bear, to find symptom resolution, even though on paper, they look hyper.

Hyper is as hyper does, though, and if you don't feel bad, it won't hurt you. HypO, on the other hand, is a bitch.