posted
AFAIK, you need to get free t3, free t4, and tsh, all done at the same time.
Posts: 340 | From san francisco, ca | Registered: Nov 2010
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posted
Also reverse T3.. Before you can fix any thyroid issue your adrenals must be checked only by a 24 hour saliva adrenal test. ZRT labs is a good as well as NeuroScience labs. A good book explaining this is Stop the Thyroid Madness.
Posts: 871 | From orange county, ca. | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
For blood tests, ideally you should get a full hormone panel done for your gender as well as adrenal functions and a full thyroid panel. Many physicians rely only on T3 and TSH and that is an outdated, isolated way of looking at a lot of interconnected systems.
In addition, a saliva adrenal panel is a good ide as noted above. However, Lyme patients are often "lucky" that our thyroid issues are linked and secondary to our other known illnesses - our body is simply "burned out" from working so hard. Treating the infections themselves will help to resolve the issue, but until then some complete thyroid and hormonal supplementation may be helpful.
These blood diagnostics can be done at LabCorp and are covered by most insurance, however the specialty labs that do the saliva testing often want cash up front or a credit card on the request slip, as they don't accept any insurance. However, you can usually get this money reimbursed from your insurance company. In terms of treatment, nearly all prescription medication for thyroid issues is covered easily, and the cheaper natural thyroid drugs are actually more complete (T3 and T4 both included, not just T3) compared to synthroid, for instance.
Posts: 690 | From East coast, USA | Registered: Jun 2006
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how to fix the adrenals sk8ter? really, i don't know Posts: 159 | From Germany | Registered: Nov 2010
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Sammi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 110
posted
Insurance does usually cover thyroid testing.
Important tests to get are Free T3, Free T4, TSH, and thyroid antibody tests. Positive antibody tests can indicate Hashmimoto's Thyroiditis which is an auto-immune thyroid condition. Some people who have this have other test results in the normal range, but treatment is still warranted if symptoms are present.
Posts: 4681 | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Fixing the adrenals, you need to give them support. Some people do Cortef which is for people with low cortisol numbers. This helps relieve them of their duties.
I take ADR from Pure Encapsulations which is a supplement that helps support the adrenals and their function.
-------------------- IgM- 31,34,39,83-93 IND IgM- 41+
IgG- 31,34,39,83-93 IND IgG- 41++ Posts: 610 | From Lymeville | Registered: Nov 2010
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Abxnomore
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18936
posted
Low or high cortisol levels can be treated with supplements to support the adrenals. Cortef is often given for addison's or cushings where there is true cortisol dysfunction from the pituitary or adrenal gland, not necessarily when the adrenals are being overtaxed from stress or illness although some LLMD's use it I don't think it's a good option unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
Low dose or not it's still a steroid.
Posts: 5191 | From Lyme Zone | Registered: Jan 2009
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canefan17
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 22149
posted
rT3 and the antibodies imo are good markers to go off of.
As long as rT3 is really high, T3, T4, TSH all irrelevant
And antibodies will conclude hashi's (lyme can cause autoimmune issues)
Treat infection, support adrenals, nourish with quality foods/nutrients
Posts: 5394 | From Houston, Tx | Registered: Aug 2009
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posted
For most people the free T4 test is best for determining overall thyroid status. For example, if Free T4 is low in the range, but free T3 is near the middle, the T4 levels should be given more weight for actual thyroid status. T4 is like a savings account drawn on by the body and converted to T3 as needed. It is more stable in the blood overall than T3 and gives a better indication of status.
Since some people also have conversion issues, T3 should also be run, at least in the beginning of treatment. So, for example if T4 is in the middle of the range, but T3 is below the mid-line, a person could have conversion issues and may need more thyroid or T3 added. T3 can vary greatly in the blood, depending on many things. For example, not eating breakfast can raise it, because glucose is needed to use T3. Or, if you have adrenal issues, T3 can become quite high in the blood. Cortisol from the adrenals is needed to make glucose available to the body. Over the years that I have been on thyroid newsgroups, I have seen a number of times, where people are on minuscule amounts of thyroid, but have severe adrenal problems. Their tests come back showing high T3 and T4 both and very low TSH. The thyroid is building up in the blood with nowhere to go, because cells cannot get the resources (usually glucose) that they need to use thyroid to create heat and energy. Cells will become resistant to thyroid if they lack the resources to use it.
According to several books and doctor articles, TSH is of dubious value. There are auto-immune anti-thyroid antibodies that actually can interfere with these tests and can cause TSH to be either erroneously high or low. So, the TSH test needs to correlate in some way with the actual free T3 and free T4 values. For example, if TSH is 0.06, but free T4 is 0.70 (at the bottom of the range), then you have to know the TSH is not reflecting your true thyroid status, because a person with 0.70 free T4 is actually hypothyroid. T4 is a direct measurement of thyroid status, where TSH is only an indirect measure. It is just measuring what the pituitary is doing.
Also, people with certain types of antibodies that either attack thyroid receptors or thyroid hormone itself of some part of the thyroid system inside cells, may actually need much more thyroid than the average person to get their metabolic rate up to normal. So, it's always a good practice to monitor your body temperature using the Broda Barnes method or the 3 times a day method found on the internet. This gives a good idea if the thyroid dose is really enough and if the tests are really correlating to your actual status.
Tish
Posts: 31 | From TX | Registered: Nov 2008
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chiquita incognita
Unregistered
posted
Here is a top-level thyroid authority's book about the subject:
Thyroid Power by Dr Richard Shames, MD
He was a researcher at National Institutes of Health, is mainstream trained but naturopathic by practice, and has a different view about tests (and their high level of inaccuracy) and how/when to treat. He does discuss which tests are the best, in his book, and yes this does include free T3 and Free T4 as well as TSH and a few other things which he recommends.
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