blood tests back- hyper
Find a Conversation
blood tests back- hyper
| Fri, 08-20-2004 - 5:00pm |
got blood tests back
TSH .03
free T4- 1.69
t3- 267
TSH .03
free T4- 1.69
t3- 267
So I guess I am hyper?! ha!
They are schedule an appointment to get the 24uptake test done...find out if it's graves disease.
I thought both t4 and t3 would be elevated with hyper?
April

They want to do that 24 hour uptake test to see if I have graves disease.
He basically implied that I had that too. He went over the 3 options and said "if I were to have Graves Disease, which option would I choose?" I told him I would need to think about it.
I have kids so the radioactive stuff scares me.
what are you doing to control hyperthyroid?
April
Grave's disease is when you have a hyper-T autoimmune disease. That means some part of the immune system in your body is confused and is fighting your thyroid's healthy tissue. Usually we build up antibodies when we get the flu or immunizations--like against measles. Our body fights off the infection and develops antibodies that will further protect us from that disease, etc. For some reason when you have an autoimmune condition the body is fighting against itself. So, when your antithyroid (against thyroid) antibodies are elevated it shows that the body is attacking the thyroid and is starting to build up antibodies against it. Crazy, eh? But Grave's disease can be diagnosed through blood work too. It usually is the most common reason that a person becomes hyperthyroid though. Same with Hashimoto's disease and hypothyroid patients.
Here's an article that can explain what antithyroid antibodies are:
What it means to have thyroid antibodies, and whether this calls for treatment
February 1998 -- If your doctor has told you that you have tested positive for "thyroid antibodies" but you have a normal TSH, what does that mean? Usually, it indicates that your thyroid is in the process of autoimmune failure. Not failed yet, and not failed enough to register in the standard TSH thyroid test, but in the process of failing.
Many doctors believe that antibodies alone are NOT reason to treat someone with thyroid hormone. This is despite the fact that the presence of antibodies alone can cause thyroid-related symptoms, and have been shown to affect fertility or the ability to maintain a pregnancy. (An article in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, August 1997 states, "the risk of miscarriage is twice as high in women who have antithyroid antibodies than in those who do not..." and Obstetrics and Gynecology 1997 Volume 90:364-369, states "the risk of miscarriage is higher when a woman is positive for antithyroid microsomal antibody...")
There are, however, some endocrinologists, as well as holistic MDs, osteopaths and other practitioners who believe that the presence of thyroid antibodies alone is enough to warrant treatment with small amounts of thyroid hormone. If you’ve tested positive for antibodies, and have a TSH in the "normal range," but still don't feel well, you may with to consult with a practitioner who has this philosophy.
One such practitioner is Dr. Elizabeth Vliet, an MD who runs Her Place, a women's health clinic at All Saints Hospital in Fort Worth, and author of Screaming to be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect...and Doctors Ignore. Dr. Vliet does not believe that TSH tests are the almightly indicator of a woman's thyroid health. Dr. Vliet says that symptoms, along with elevated thyroid antibodies and normal TSH, may be a reason for treatment with thyroid hormone. Here's a quote from her book:
"The problem I have found is that too often women are told their thyroid is normal without having the complete thyroid tests done. Of course, what most people, and many physicians, don't realize is that...a 'normal range' on a laboratory report is just that: a range. A given person may require higher or lower levels to feel well and to function optimally. I think we must look at the lab results along with the clinical picture described by the patient...I have a series of more than a hundred patients, all but two are women, who had a normal TSH and turned out to have significantly elevated thyroid antibodies that meant they needed thyroid medication in order to feel normal. This type of oversight is particularly common with a type of thyroid disease called thyroiditis, which is about 25 times more common in females than males...a woman may experience the symptoms of disease months to years before TSH goes up..."
The other issue is the TSH level itself. While at many labs, "normal" range is .5 to 5.5 (with over 5.5 being hypothyroid), my endocrinologist (a 40 year old woman) believes FIRMLY that most women do not normalize unless TSH is between 1 and 2 (considered low by some docs) and that a woman with evidence of thyroid disease will find it hard to get and/or maintain a pregnancy at higher TSH's than 1-2. (I didn't get pregnant at a TSH of 4, a level considered totally NORMAL at my lab, but got pregnant in one month at TSH of 1.2 and just had my baby on Dec 31).(See my Pregnancy Guide.
The practice of treating patients who have Hashimoto's thyroiditis but normal range TSH levels is supported by a new study, reported on in the March 2001 issue of the journal Thyroid. In this study, German researchers reported that use of levothyroxine treatment for cases of Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis where TSH had not yet elevated ("euthyroid") beyond normal range could reduce the incidence and degree of autoimmune disease progression.
In the study of 21 patients with euthyroid Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (normal range TSH, but elevated antibodies), half of the patients were treated with levothyroxine for a year, the other half were not treated. After 1 year of therapy with levothyroxine, the antibody levels and lymphocytes (evidence of inflammation) decreased significantly only in the group receiving the medication. Among the untreated group, the antibody levels rose or remained the same.
The researchers concluded that preventative treatment of normal TSH range patients with Hashimoto's disease reduced the various markers of autoimmune thyroiditis, and speculated that that such treatment might even be able to stop the progression of Hashimoto's disease, or perhaps even prevent development of the hypothyroidism.
Journal Reference: Thyroid, 2001 Mar;11(3):249-55, "One-year prophylactic treatment of euthyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients with levothyroxine: is there a benefit?"
Here is a website that has alternative advice on treating Grave's: http://askwaltstollmd.com/graves.html
Graves' Disease: Alternatives to RAI Treatment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A practical understanding of mechanisms of causation leads to alternatives.
This condition is NOT a primary disease of the thyroid. It is caused by the hypothalamus being chronically overwhelmed by stress-effect storage which then tries to compensate by "turning up the metabolism" to cope. It does THIS by telling the pituitary to produce TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which then does exactly what its name suggests. Actually, the condition is rarely recognized during this initial phase of high TSH although it is an absolutely universal stage of the condition.
By the time the individual has the classical symptoms of Graves', the pituitary portion of the hypothalamic cascade is exhausted and the TSH is low. Unfortunately, by that time, the pathology of the Thyroid is running by itself. Graves' is determined by another of those idiosyncratic genetic susceptibilities that are determined by the individual's genetic makeup. Others might end up with allergies or arthritis, etc., from the exact same set of stressors and stored stress-effect which result was determined by THEIR genetic susceptibility factors.
Typically, the Allopathic Monopoly is so simplistic that it only considers the end organ of this cascade. This is similar to the following scenario: Your neighbor is continually ringing your doorbell to warn you that your house is on fire. The noise is so annoying that you disconnect the doorbell so you can't hear the noise. In the meantime, your house burns down!
Until the stress-effect is discharged, your only alternative is to eventually destroy the thyroid. New ways that the endocrine system is balanced are being discovered every few months. There is no doubt that we will eventually find mechanisms, other than the pituitary, that tell the thyroid to produce thyroid hormone. The problem is with the chronic storage in the hypothalamus and until that is discharged the physiological pathology will continue even though the thyroid portion may be controlled by the destruction of the Thyroid.. That is what RAI treatment does to the thyroid.
Actually, the risk of cancer is the least of the complications of RAI treatment. Nearly every case becomes hypothyroid since the dose necessary to get quick results is always great enough to eventually burn out the thyroid completely. Taking the replacement thyroid, by necessity, must be an average daily dose--since we are not yet capable of adjusting the dose daily as our system normally does for us. We do not need the same dose of thyroid daily; therefore, even though we can take an average dose, nearly every day we are either getting too much or too little. We are extremely fortunate when we just happen to take the exact dose our body would have made for us that day--were it normally responsive. All by itself, this discrepancy makes an individual much more susceptible to all forms of acute and chronic disorders.
Read what I have on the web site about Modern Medical Interpretation of Stress and Skilled Relaxation. My book, Saving Yourself From the Disease-Care Crisis, goes into considerably greater depth than is possible here.
There are many treatable aggravating factors that you could do something about. I would suggest you find a good Complementary Medical Practitioner, near to you, who would be able to evaluate where one could put their efforts to get the greatest benefits, in the shortest period of time, with the least expenditure of time, money and energy. This process needs to be tailored to the individual. These resources are documented in my book
So that's info on a different way to treat Grave's disease.
I hope that this information helps you. I hope that you are not too anxious about your upcoming test. That dosage of RAI that you will get for the RAI-U scan is not dangerous, Have you asked your doctor about it and expressed to them that you are concerned about the RAI b/c of your children? Hopefully they can put your mind at ease.
Take care, lisa