Electrolytes/Lipids/Thyroid Labs- Please advise

[Guest guest]

I originally posted this at the Leptin Resistance group as I have concerns about

my Cholesterol, blood sugar and thyroid all playing into weight gain.

WARNING- this is really long- sorry. Feel free to skip to the labs.

I'm not sure that I mentioned my current status in my intro last week.

I know there have been so many intros, and so much information I probably should

just mention a few pertinent things so my labs may make some sense.

In a nutshell:

I am 42 years old- life long dieter (slightly overweight child- I would say

chubby- but that word makes me cringe)

Had a few years in college with " disordered eating " lost 25 lbs and gained back

35-40 the following year- had killed my metabolism by dropping to one small meal

a day...anyway that is ancient history except my behaviors resurfaced a bit...

Spent my mid-thirties prepping and competing in natural bodybuilding- so would

lose and gain 20 lbs - 2x/ year.. Until I could not lose- only gain- and my

" career " was side lined. Lost my cycle - for 1.5 years despite regaining lots of

weight. Have had infrequent irregular cycles for the past 2-3 years. Prometrium

really helped- but my doctor suggested to go off because I have been

trying to conceive. (at 42 my clock is on hyper drive...yikes)

After the failed attempts at losing weight - and being very heavy- moody- etc...

I embarked on my very long quest- which I am still on... to solve thyroid/

adrenal issues. I am sure we all know how hat story goes....

Fast forward - As it stands now- I began T3 only therapy after speaking with Dr.

Lowe and with the help of Val and Nick at the RT3 group on yahoo. Interestingly

enough, also began a similar journey around the same time - the 3rd week or

so of October-so that's how I began to follow her progress.

That being said - at this writing, I am nearing 12 weeks of T3 only. I started

at 75mcg and got as high as 175mcg til I realized my pulse was too high.

derrrrrrr..... Temps have been 98.6-98.9 -- a wee bit high still....

For the past 2+ weeks I have been backing the T3 dosage down and am at my

starting dose of 75mcg. I will have my doctor run a complete thyroid panel at

the end of January (Free T3/ Free T4 and RT3) so I can really see if I have been

able to reduce my RT3 issue. My ratio of FT3/ RT3 was 9.6 when I began.

I recently had a " complete wellness profile " done from directlabs.com-at $59 it

seemed like a bargain and I had not had a cholesterol lab in many years. I did

the testing directly thru the lab and not thru my doctor because considering the

time and aggravation to get her on the phone, get the req, etc... it was easier

to pay out of pocket. Sadly.

Mind you- I have never had high cholesterol, though my father and younger

brother do, and with a history of heart diesase and diabetes - I figured I

should get a current snapshot. NOT TO MENTION- with the link between hypothyroid

and possibly leptin resistance, I needed to know my status.

Here are the labs- drawn Sat 1/9- I did have a CBC/full electrolyte panel etc...

and have MORE details I can provide if what I list is not specific enough.

Lipids:

Cholesterol Total 126 (100-199)

Triglycerides 36 (0-149)

HDL Chol 51 (40-59)

LDL Chol 68 (0-99)

MY concern- I have heard from a few ND's that low cholesterol can be problematic

because you don't have enough to make hormones.

Is mine considered LOW in a bad way?

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GLUCOSE SERUM 98 (65-99)

Umm.... so yea.... I was supposed to be fasting...but I was not- I had tea with

lemon and stevia, water with lemon and stevia and sugarless gum. I had already

done a cardio workout in the earlier morning and these labs were drawn at

10:45am. I was super hungry and ate right after.

Should STEVIA and sugarless gum raise my glucose levels like this?

Is this suspicious?

I have instructions for Dr. Lowe's Glucose Intolerance testing which involves a

glucometer/lancets and glucose strips. Should I be doing this? I know he has

attributed thyroid resistance and or poor conversion from T4 to T3 due to

glucose " dysregulation " .

Dumb question- is Serum Glucose the different from Insulin?

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ELECTROLYTES:

Uric Acid Serum 2.3 LOW (2.5-6.6)

BUN 29 HIGH (5-26)

Creatinine Serum 0.77 (0.5-1.5)

BUN/ Creatinine Ratio 38 HIGH (8-27)

Sodium 129 LOW (135-148)

Potassium 4.2 (3.5-5.5)

Iron Serum 69 (35-155)

ps: My ferritin from October 09- 287- a wee bit high....

I won't include additional values unless there is something I should report.

Is lemon juice too alkalizing and reducing my acid levels?

I use Redmonds REALSALT unrefined sea salt on everything I eat.

Gobs of it. I don't normally drink it just with water- but I use it in protein

shakes- on every speck of food. Any ideas? is the CELTIC that much different?

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Lastly this CWP from directlabs did happen to include some thyroid tests - not

the valuable FREE T3 though.... I wonder with just these tests would it appear

my T4 is sinking low enough?

TSH 0.030 LOW (0.350-5.500)

T4 Total 2.4 LOW (4.5-12.0)

Free Thyroxine Index 0.8 LOW (1.2-4.9) (is that FREE T4?)

As a comparison on 10/23 - a few days before I started T3 only my labs were--

ALL LOW-- and taking 4 grains COMPOUNDED NT + 40mcg

SR T3

TSH 0.01 (0.40-4.50)

T4 Total 3.9 (4.5-12.5)

T4 Free 0.7 (0.8-1.8)

T3 Total 91 (97-219)

T3 FREE 221 (230-420)

RT3 23 (11-32)

I came to the conclusion that compounded meds were great in THEORY but I knew

after NT went AWOL that things were unraveling.

Thanks for reading my epic report- and Val - ladies and gentleman any

feedback would be appreciated.

I will post as soon as the SERUM LEPTIN test is in!!!! Hopefully soon:)

Bonnie