Understanding blood work

Diagnostic testing

To diagnose primary hypothyroidism, many doctors simply measure the amount of Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)** range .4 -5.5** being produced by the pituitary gland. High levels of TSH indicate that the thyroid is not producing sufficient levels of Thyroid hormone (mainly as thyroxine (T4) and smaller amounts of triiodothyronine (T3)). However, measuring just TSH fails to diagnose secondary and tertiary forms of hypothyroidism, thus leading to the following suggested blood testing if the TSH is normal and hypothyroidism is still suspected:

free triiodothyronine (fT3)

free levothyroxine (fT4)

total T3

total T4

Additionally, the following measurements may be needed:

24 hour urine free T3 [10]

antithyroid antibodies - for evidence of autoimmune diseases that may be damaging the thyroid gland

serum cholesterol - which may be elevated in hypothyroidism

prolactin - as a widely available test of pituitary function

testing for anemia, including ferritin

Dragonfly

My Dr. likes my TSH between .2 and 2.00.

malaluka

My last TSH was 2.08. that was before my surgery. I can hardly wait tell my next blood work so I can see what it is now.

I still dont know what the T3 and T4 should be.

dragonfly

Pathogenesis: At this stage, we have circumstantial and indirect evidence that Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease.

source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutisions

dragonfly

dragonfly

What about your platelets?

My cholesterol was high, as well as platelets. My ND says the high cholesterol is a direct result of adrenal fatigue. Thyroidism may not be the only thing hurting you.....I'll leave a link to check out adrenal fatigue symptoms.

My platelts and cholesterol high, I am a stroke waiting to happen.....actually think I had one a couple years ago, in the middle of the night. I thought I had dreamed it, now I am not so sure.

http://www.drlam.com/a3r_brief_in_doc_format/ adrenal_fatigue.cfm

I did have a small heart attack in sept,07. And my lovely GP would not ok the ER to admit me.

dragonfly

Then I went for pre-op work up and it showed up that I had had a mild heart attack. I have very bad tachycardia. Right now my pulse is 120.I have a throbbing headache.

dragonfly

Mine showed a drop once I stood. This is also classic example of adrenal fatigue. Adrenals control the other hormones. I am hypoglycemic, hypothyroidism, B12 deficient. I am in the middle of other hormone testing, female panel. Here in Ny, it has to be a saliva test, cannot do blood tests for estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. ??No idea why. But I have to fill up a tube with spit on day 5, 12, 17, 20 and 26 of my mentral cycle. I just did the 12th day, so I have a while to go. Then mail off to California, so I might know by 2009! lol

They say these things can take as long as 2 years to heal. But it's true, reg docs just don't take this seriously. They have no experience or knowledge and thats just dumb. Hormones are more important than blood, pretty much.

That book, ageless, explains about hormone replacement and the advantages. Mind you, they are against the synthetic ones. They use bioidentical hormones. And they believe, giving a 50 year old woman hormones to reflect levels of a 50 yr old woman is not adequate. It needs to be the hormones of a 28 yr old woman. It makes sense, cause when our hormones are gone.....we're dead. They are the aging process. I could go on and on, but I won't bore you.

You can tell I am above frustrated, as we all are. We have been dooped into trusting doctors and FDA and that was a mistake.

Tho thing again with soy is they work in your body like MSG. They have natural glutamate (is that the word?) which will ravage the thyroid. It will also speed spreading of cancer, precancer and I guess any other problem.

My sister in law loves those edamame things. When her baby was born it developed a huge goiter and then ravaged her hearing. She's deaf.

Soooo many things we eat has this soy in it now, cause it's cheap. Even supplements we think are helping.

It sounds to me, Mydragonfly, with your pulse like that, they are just gonna wait for you to implode and then treat that. How cruel.

I think you need to find a ND and let them fix you, they don't just treat symptoms, they get to the bottom of it. Whatstate are you? I can look up a good ND in your area from the book.