Re: Iodine salt? -- with test results

[Guest guest]

Jackie - Thanks! Will definitely have a look next time we're at Lidl!

Sheila - Thanks for the information and the links! I just phoned the surgery,

and the only thing tested was my serum TSH, which apparently was at 3.3. I

forgot to ask when the test was actually done, but it must have been done at the

end of 2010.

Looking back on the journal print-out I got from my GP in Sweden before I moved,

these are previous results:

I should perhaps start by explaining that when it was first tested (a month or

so before my 16th birthday), it was because I read an article in a magazine,

about a woman who had symptoms that were strangely familiar to mine (dry skin,

feeling cold, etc., but her symptoms were more severe than mine), and who found

out she had an underactive thyroid. I showed the article to my mother, who

agreed and said we should have it checked. So, we went to the doctor and took a

blood test. Here's what that came back as:

8 June 1998: TSH 2.6 (reference 0.4 - 5 mU/L)

11 June 1998: Free T4 15 (reference 8 - 23 pmol/L)

I was told my levels were perfectly normal, nothing to worry about, my thyroid

was perfectly fine. At the end of April 2001, mum and I went to see a holistic

practitioner in the nearest city (~30 miles). Didn't take him long to say my

thyroid was underactive and gave me homeopathic thyroxin or something like

that). I don't remember a lot about symptoms, except my eyes didn't seem to

bulge as much if I looked at my profile in a mirror.

Next time I was tested was, according to the journal, when I had a throat

infection and pestered them for most of the summer about it. They tested a total

of 21 items, and I haven't been able to figure out what half of them are for

(could be they were using Swedish acronyms and all the lab info I can find is in

English). Amongst those 21 are these two:

10 August 2001:

TSH 1.8 (reference 0.1 - 3.0 mU/L)

Free T4 20 (reference 12 - 21 pmol/L)

(Funny how both reference values have changed since '98 ...)

So if a lower TSH value is good, it would seem the holistic medicine was working

.... I just didn't take it for long enough. (School finished, and with that, so

did my free regional bus pass. Bus tickets weren't cheap even back then.)

I've read about T3 levels, but there's nothing labelled " T3 " on the test

results, and if it's referred to using a different name, I wouldn't know which.

If they have the same way of measuring TSH in the UK, having 3.3 WOULD mean I'm

hypothyroid, if the upper level is 3.0 ... so did they just say I was within the

normal range because it's " close enough " to it or is the range different in the

UK?

I moved to Britain in October 2004, and if iodised salt is not the norm here, no

wonder my TSH levels have pretty much doubled. Either way, I now feel one step

closer to booking that doctors appointment!!

Thanks again,

Sofia

>

> Hi Sofia - what you need are the a\actual thyroid function test results from

> your doctor, together with the reference range for each of the tests done.

> Doctors tell their patients they don't have a thyroid problem because their

> results have been returned ANYWHERE within the reference range, but we need

> to know where about. Were they are at the bottom, the middle or the top of

> the range. This matters. A doctor cannot withhold any information that is in

> your medical notes, so telephone the receptionist and ask for your last two

> serum thyroid function test results and when you have got these, post them

> here on the forum and we will help with their interpretation.

>

> Check out the attached document - this is a speech that Dr Peatfield gave at

> one of our annual TPA Meetings - this one is about iodine.

>

> You might be interested to read the article here showing iodine deficiency

> in the UK and the need for iodized salt

> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/01/iodine-deficiency_n_870000.html?

>

> You can buy Iodized salt through this UK Amazon link

> http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8

> <http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8 & keywords=iodized+salt & tag=googhydr-21 & in

> dex=aps & hvadid=17222001470 & hvpos=1t1 & hvexid= & hvnetw=g & hvrand=933411149181584

> 0038 & hvpone= & hvptwo= & hvqmt=b & ref=pd_sl_62aigz4ks8_b>

> & keywords=iodized+salt & tag=googhydr-21 & index=aps & hvadid=17222001470 & hvpos=1t

> 1 & hvexid= & hvnetw=g & hvrand=9334111491815840038 & hvpone= & hvptwo= & hvqmt=b & ref=pd

> _sl_62aigz4ks8_b Luv - Sheila

>

>

>

>

>

> Hi,

>

> In Sweden, you can get " jodsalt " , which is just normal salt but with added

> iodine. I think most salt there is that kind, but I've never really had any

> reason to think about it when I lived there.

>

> As iodine is supposed to help with symptoms, I thought I'd pick some up

> iodine salt from the supermarket (think it was Asda), but none of the salts

> they had mentioned iodine. There was table salt, rock salt and sea salt.

>

> So my question is, can you get iodine salt in the UK? If so, where should I

> look? Supermarkets or health food stores or elsewhere? And if you can't get

> it, does anyone know which salt type would have the highest natural levels?

> (If any do, I'm not exactly a salt expert!)

>

> When my mum was over for a visit, we both bought kelp from a health store,

> as that's a natural source of iodine. Trying to see if that makes a

> difference now, because at the moment, I'm completely exhausted for no real

> reason, but I still haven't worked up the courage to go see my GP about

> hypothyroidism, as they tested my blood specifically for that when I first

> signed up to that practice. It was within the " normal levels " apparently ...

> just like when it was checked in Sweden originally. Don't fancy going to the

> doctors only to be turned away again because my blood says there's not an

> issue, even if my body says otherwise, so just trying to self-medicate a

> bit.

>

> Cheers,

> Sofia

>

>

>

> _____

>

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>

[Guest guest]

Hi Sophia, the test results that you have are from

such a long way back, I would forget them and start again. But a TSH of

3.3 is too high and if you were still in Sweden, this would have been enough to

have given you a diagnosis of hypothyroidism and started you on thyroid

hormone replacement. However, in the UK, the upper level of TSH is around 5.0

to 5.6.

You should aim to get your levels of TSH, free T4, free T3

hormones checked and TPO and Tg antibodies too. At the same time, ask your GP

to test your levels of iron, transferrin saturation%, ferritin, vitamin B12,

vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and zinc. When the results come back, ask

your GP for these, together with the reference range for each test done and

post them here on the forum so one of us can help with their translation. With

low thyroid, it is very important to get these tested because if any are

showing low levels, no amount of thyroid hormone, not even your own, can be

fully utilised in the cells.

Luv - Sheila

Sheila - Thanks for the information and the links! I just phoned the

surgery, and the only thing tested was my serum TSH, which apparently was at

3.3. I forgot to ask when the test was actually done, but it must have been

done at the end of 2010.

Looking back on the journal print-out I got from my GP in Sweden before I

moved, these are previous results:

Next time I was tested was, according to the journal, when I had a throat

infection and pestered them for most of the summer about it. They tested a

total of 21 items, and I haven't been able to figure out what half of them are

for (could be they were using Swedish acronyms and all the lab info I can find

is in English).

[Guest guest]

Thanks very much again, Sheila! Now I know what I should ask for, test-wise.

And over 5?! Good grief, that REALLY needs to change!!

I'm currently taking kelp and multivitamins+iron. I guess I should hold off

taking those for a while before taking a blood test to not throw off the

results, but is there a suggestion how long for? (This would also mean not

starting to use iodised salt before having the test, of course.)

All the best,

Sofia

>

> Hi Sophia, the test results that you have are from such a long way back, I

> would forget them and start again. But a TSH of 3.3 is too high and if you

> were still in Sweden, this would have been enough to have given you a

> diagnosis of hypothyroidism and started you on thyroid hormone replacement.

> However, in the UK, the upper level of TSH is around 5.0 to 5.6.

>

> You should aim to get your levels of TSH, free T4, free T3 hormones checked

> and TPO and Tg antibodies too. At the same time, ask your GP to test your

> levels of iron, transferrin saturation%, ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3,

> magnesium, folate, copper and zinc. When the results come back, ask your GP

> for these, together with the reference range for each test done and post

> them here on the forum so one of us can help with their translation. With

> low thyroid, it is very important to get these tested because if any are

> showing low levels, no amount of thyroid hormone, not even your own, can be

> fully utilised in the cells.

>

> Luv - Sheila

[Guest guest]

Hi Sophia

According to the Royal College of Physicians and the British

Thyroid Association, no doctor should give a diagnosis or initiate treatment

with levothyroxine unless a patient's TSH is outside of their reference range

of 0.5 to 10.00. YES, THIS IS TRUE. This is very contentious in the UK.

This reference range cannot be matched by any other country in the world, and

still, they refuse to give us scientific evidence to show that this is correct.

Thankfully, most doctors in the UK will treat if their TSH is above 5.0 - and

some, even lower.

Luv - Sheila

Thanks very much again, Sheila! Now I know what

I should ask for, test-wise.

And over 5?! Good grief, that REALLY needs to change!!

I'm currently taking kelp and multivitamins+iron. I guess I should hold off

taking those for a while before taking a blood test to not throw off the

results, but is there a suggestion how long for? (This would also mean not

starting to use iodised salt before having the test, of course.)