Midwestbeast's Thyroid Labs (chart included)

MidwestBeast

MidwestBeast

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My apologies on the placement of this thread; I wasn't too sure where it should be placed, as you'd most likely see things similar to this in the male anti-aging forum, but I'm only 25 and this is unrelated to test/estro. So, I figured I'd place this here to give others who may share similar backgrounds as myself to see this and hopefully learn from it.

For those of you who don't know my story, I won't divulge into it here, but you can search for "The Official Hypothyroidism Thread" and find it summed up pretty well, there. Since the end of January I've been battling with this and with the help of MakaveliThaDon and others on here, as well, I'd narrowed down my problem to thinking it was an issue with Reverse T3 (see the other thread for info regarding this -- lots of helpful links on a condition not many know about). This most recent set of labs (after being on 50mcg of T4 for ~3 months, followed by 2 months of 112mcg of T4) confirms it.

Now for some reason, they told me to continue my dose of 112mcg of T4/day (which, I actually stopped taking on Saturday in the assumption that these would be the results I'd find out), despite the fact that when one encounters the issue of Reverse T3, additional T4 is simply converted into MORE Reverse T3. That being said, I'm going to try dropping into a different endocrinologist's office tomorrow (the only one in town, not the one I've been seeing in the city, 45 minutes away) and see if they'll give me all of 5 minutes to look at my labs in hand and prescribe me the T3 that I need to resolve this issue.

Feel free to turn this into a discussion. Labs are posted below:

Thyroid labs2.jpg
 

MakaveliThaDon

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PM'd bro. Also I think your iron is a bit low...

I believe you need a saturation percentage of 38 to qualify for a blood donation.
 
MidwestBeast

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PM'd bro. Also I think your iron is a bit low...

I believe you need a saturation percentage of 38 to qualify for a blood donation.
Got your PM. Thanks, bro. I'll hit you back up in a bit.

To be honest, I haven't looked at many of the numbers yet aside from the RT3. I'm just trying to see what I can do to get into someone to get prescribed the T3 ASAP because at this point, if I started tomorrow, I'd still be going through the 12-week removal process of T4 until the start of October. I've officially lost an entire Summer. I'm trying my best to stay positive and I'm a firm believer that God has a plan and this just a part of His, but spinning my wheels just sucks.
 
Onlychevy6

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Thank you for posting up your test results. You now have me curious about getting myself tested and see what is says. I never really thought much about blood testing to help solve weigh issues.
 
MidwestBeast

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Thank you for posting up your test results. You now have me curious about getting myself tested and see what is says. I never really thought much about blood testing to help solve weigh issues.
It's certainly not a first resort. And I never thought about it for 10 or so years, either. I always told myself I wasn't eating right -- so I'd fix it. Then I'd say I wasn't doing enough cardio -- so I'd do tons more. It was always just like pulling teeth, but I could make progress albeit slower than normal. If you looked at the effort I put in and the time I did it, you'd think I should be further along, too. But then it just got to a point where trying super hard wouldn't even help. So, after I felt like I'd done everything, including ranging cals from the normal 2700ish all the way down to 500 (I'm fully aware of how unhealthy this is and was always an advocate against it, but when you've tried everything, you reach). At that point I went in and got my bloodwork done (full hormonal panel) and TSH was off the charts.

I had always complained about having a slow metabolism, but I had never researched the endocrine system well enough to understand HPTA, how it worked and its importance. I thought metabolisms were just sort of unique, which they are, but didn't realize that they could be adjusted if they were screwed up.
 

MakaveliThaDon

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It's certainly not a first resort. And I never thought about it for 10 or so years, either. I always told myself I wasn't eating right -- so I'd fix it. Then I'd say I wasn't doing enough cardio -- so I'd do tons more. It was always just like pulling teeth, but I could make progress albeit slower than normal. If you looked at the effort I put in and the time I did it, you'd think I should be further along, too. But then it just got to a point where trying super hard wouldn't even help. So, after I felt like I'd done everything, including ranging cals from the normal 2700ish all the way down to 500 (I'm fully aware of how unhealthy this is and was always an advocate against it, but when you've tried everything, you reach). At that point I went in and got my bloodwork done (full hormonal panel) and TSH was off the charts.

I had always complained about having a slow metabolism, but I had never researched the endocrine system well enough to understand HPTA, how it worked and its importance. I thought metabolisms were just sort of unique, which they are, but didn't realize that they could be adjusted if they were screwed up.
it always tells me i i need to spread the wealth when I try and rep you, lol. But yes, what beast said...word for word. Certainly everyones metabolism is different, the term would be bio individuality, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to accept having less than optimal hormone levels, be them thyroid or whatever else have you that prevent you from feeling healthy and living an enjoyable life.
 
MidwestBeast

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it always tells me i i need to spread the wealth when I try and rep you, lol. But yes, what beast said...word for word. Certainly everyones metabolism is different, the term would be bio individuality, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to accept having less than optimal hormone levels, be them thyroid or whatever else have you that prevent you from feeling healthy and living an enjoyable life.
Hmm...I seem to get that same message :thinking:

Stop being so darn helpful!

:rofl:
 
MAxximal

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
Benjamin Franklin[/FONT]
 

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Wow bro thats an intense story, I wish you the best.. Im not the one to add extras on this but ill pray for ya dog!
 
MidwestBeast

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Today I had a followup with my doctor. He explained that a likely culprit for my cortisol being high was the fact that my urine volume was 6 liters for the 24-hour span and the normal 2-2.5 liters and that's what the reference ranges are based on.

He recommended an 8 AM cortisol blood draw, which I plan on going in to have done on Monday morning (soonest I could get in). If that comes back high in any way, shape or form, we'll look at the pituitary as a possible root cause to all of this. He's also having my thyroid numbers checked again. The last time I'd had them done (after ~3 weeks off of T4 and on T3, exclusively) back in late July, my T4 was low out of range (obvious), T3 was good and rT3 was already low out of range.

It would be great if the process was as simple as just being hypothyroid and taking Synthroid to fix the problem, but knowing what I'm up against is certainly what I look forward to / enjoy the most.

I'll update after I get the results.
 
mattrag

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Thx for the updates!
Any idea on the root of the high cortisol issue?
 
MidwestBeast

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Thx for the updates!
Any idea on the root of the high cortisol issue?
Well, the 24-hour urine test for cortisol could be reading high simply because of the pure volume (2.5-3x the average amount of urine). That's why we're doing an 8 AM blood draw. If it shows high, even remotely, we're going to look at the pituitary as the possible root problem.

Hypothalmus -> Pituitary -> Thyroid

So since thyroid numbers are all in order, it could certainly be the pituitary where the issue is, which would also explain the high cortisol. There are a lot of "if's" in all of this. That's why I'm getting the next blood draw done as soon as I can so I can keep trucking forward on this.
 
mattrag

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Sounds good to me! I meant dietary, or lifestyle causes though. Like sleep, food, external/internal stressors.
But looks like you're getting all the labs done. So you will find the root of your problem soon!
 
RickRock13

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Thanks for sharing the info my bro. Hopefully you can find out what the real problem is soon and how to remedy it. ;)
 
MidwestBeast

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Sounds good to me! I meant dietary, or lifestyle causes though. Like sleep, food, external/internal stressors.
But looks like you're getting all the labs done. So you will find the root of your problem soon!
Ah, I gotcha. Well, my personal little take on things is that I went hypothyroid around age 10-12. Some changes were noticed then, but most was weight-gain, though minimal, and it was dismissed. I think that over all the years that I've been dieting (starving myself a lot of times) and all the excessive cardio along with the mental stress, my body just finally decided to junk out on me. So, perhaps it was classic hypothyroidism that was compounded into a pituitary problem from all the outside stress on the body. I don't know, though. That's just all speculation on my behalf.
 
mattrag

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Ah, I gotcha. Well, my personal little take on things is that I went hypothyroid around age 10-12. Some changes were noticed then, but most was weight-gain, though minimal, and it was dismissed. I think that over all the years that I've been dieting (starving myself a lot of times) and all the excessive cardio along with the mental stress, my body just finally decided to junk out on me. So, perhaps it was classic hypothyroidism that was compounded into a pituitary problem from all the outside stress on the body. I don't know, though. That's just all speculation on my behalf.
nah man I hear ya. Like I said... after my 2nd grade picture I was a fatty... I blame it on excessive Juice -> soda. Lack of nutrition information. Soy, and rice. I still eat rice (once or twice a week), but everything else is gone. Making my way back to a lean build. This November I plan on going on a full fledged lean bulk.
 
MidwestBeast

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Thanks for sharing the info my bro. Hopefully you can find out what the real problem is soon and how to remedy it. ;)
No doubt, bro. I just want to keep anyone who was following updated. Eventually, I'll either do it in here or start a new thread, but I'll archive all of my blood work / tests so anyone can see the whole time table and all the stages, so hopefully it can save someone some time in the future.

I know I'm on the horizon of things, now, though.
 

soontobbeast

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couple questions :

you mentioned you take synthroid, would that affect the blood results that you posted? are these the levels post synthroid or pre?

question number 2, i was curious after i read this thread, so i got my doc to test some thryroid values, ill post them and i'm wondering what you think


well, i just looked, all he tested for was free t4 and TSH, what a dummy!

free t4 is 0.96 in a 0.58-1.64 range
TSH is 0.690 in a range of 0.340-5.600.

i googled it and it said a lower TSH indicates an overactive/more active thyroid, which confuses me cause i am by no means an ecto lol.

i was taking forskolin..but i seriously doubt that confounded the results!
 
MidwestBeast

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couple questions :

you mentioned you take synthroid, would that affect the blood results that you posted? are these the levels post synthroid or pre?

question number 2, i was curious after i read this thread, so i got my doc to test some thryroid values, ill post them and i'm wondering what you think


well, i just looked, all he tested for was free t4 and TSH, what a dummy!

free t4 is 0.96 in a 0.58-1.64 range
TSH is 0.690 in a range of 0.340-5.600.

i googled it and it said a lower TSH indicates an overactive/more active thyroid, which confuses me cause i am by no means an ecto lol.

i was taking forskolin..but i seriously doubt that confounded the results!
Well, whether or not I was on Synthroid (or later just T3/Cytomel) depends on the dates of the blood tests.

My initial labs from January 21, 2011 were the ones that showed my TSH at 5.67 or whatever it was and I hadn't been on any type of medication.

My med history after finding out looks like this:

Feb 1 - Begin 50mcg T4/daily
April 20 - Begin 112mcg T4/daily
~June 25 - Cease T4 cold turkey
July 1 - Begin 50mcg T3/daily
July 8 - Begin 100mcg T3/daily
September 10 - Reduce to 25mcg T3/daily (current)

My most recent blood work which was done on the 12th showed my TSH down to 0.44 (near hyperthyroidism). I assume that it'll be going up and it was that low due to the 100mcg/day of T3 and the fact that I've quartered it will have it rise up (but that's what my scrip is and the high dose was my personal attempt at flushing rT3 out of my system and I obviously didn't have a scrip for that much).

As for your levels, your TSH is a great number. You're correct that the lower the TSH, the better your metabolism is (or at least should be).

Unfortunately, the whole endocrine system is so complicated that there are a seemingly endless number of variables that could be coming into play. Largely, I'd want to know what your Free T3 is, as well. But outside of that, there are iron (ferritin) values, iodine levels, cortisol levels, etc. It's nearly an endless list.
 

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