Thyroid Symptoms

[lauren9748]

Hey there. So every woman in my family (mom, aunt, cousin and grandmother) have hypothyroidism.  For the past 9 months, I started having pain in the ball and big toe of my right foot. About 3 months ago, it started occurring in my left foot.  Since then, I have developed bizarre joint pain in my feet, knees, wrist, fingers.. etc.  Some days my left knee and right finger will hurt.. some days my wrist... it seems to move around, and doesn't necessarily occur on both sides of my body.  

I also have general fatigue, low libido, and my appetite seems to have faded.  I'm 5'6 and 128 pounds and have a lot of muscle.  (I lift weights and generally feel strong, but tired..) Definitely not having weight gain... but the SCARIEST symptoms I have noticed for the last 3 weeks has been HAIR LOSS. It is quite devastating.  It is definitely diffuse, which means it is general thinning (no bald patches). People in my life say they don't notice, but I feel as though half my hair is gone. Every time I gently stroke my hair (not pull) I get 15-20 strands... and this happens over 20-30 times per day. I am afraid that if this keeps going on in one month I will be bald!  

I'm in the process of waiting for test results,.... My TSH came back 2.18.... but I begged my doctor to test me for free T3 and free T4... so hopefully those will show SOMETHING.  I thought maybe I had rheumatoid arthritis, but he said the rheumatic antibodies didn't show up...   I know I have been on the low ends of folic acid, b12 and iron in the past.. so i'm wondering if I am deficient.  Could i have low intrinsic factor? The question would why am i no absorbing all of the high nutritive foods that I eat? My diet consists of eating gluten free, all local grass fed meat, eggs, dairy and veggies.  Lots of bone broths and highly nutritive teas (nettles, alfalfa..) fermented cod liver oil, fish oil, vitamin d, and daily fermented foods.  Do you have any ideas on what this could be?

[Red_Star]

Free T4 "ideally" around 10? If your lab is 10 - 20 pmol/L that is not ideal.  That 10 is ready to jump off! lol

Nutrient deficiencies, or lower in the range nutrient levels, are common with hypothyroidism. Slower metabolism leads to slower bone marrow production (iron anaemia) and lower stomach acid production.  Absorption of at least 8 nutrients are dependant on adequate stomach acid: calcium, folate, vitamin B12, magnesium, zinc, iron, vitamin C, and beta carotene.  

And of course suppressed appetite doesn't help matters (if you have that hypothyroid symptom)!

[lauren9748]

So I got my test results today (over the phone) and I would have much rather had my results on paper sitting in front of me... This is what I managed to scribble down.  

my Free T3 is supposed to  be between 87-178 and mine was 119.. which he said was "fine".

my free T4 is supposed to ideally be around 10 and mine was 7.3


So he wants to put me on a prescription for 25 micrograms (lowest dose possible) of levothyroxvin.  

What do you guys think of that?

The other weird thing though was that my Iron saturation is supposed to be over 40% and mine was 29%...

My Folic acid should be 20 or above and mine was 8

My b12 was 400


If i eat a ton of grassfed local meats, eggs, healthy animal fats and TONS of veggies including tons of greens... why are all these levels so low!?

He wants to put me on 1,000mg of folic acid but to me this isn't the answer.