Thyroid issues?

[kelliej1969]

My husband had blood work done and he has high trigylycerides (275) and low HDL (35) . He works out and eat healthy. His only tyroid test was TSH (3rd generation) his results were 2.88. I wanted to know if there were other tests he should consider. His mother had graves disease. He is refusing to take cholesterol medicine. I have also notice many behavioral changes in him. I am thinking he has thyroid issues. Can you please offer some advice.

[Swimdude]

Is your husband losing his hair?  Is he tired all the time, and sometimes very irritable?  

2 years ago I was getting into fairly good physical shape, I swim 2 miles per day and noticed that I was loosing all my hair on the back of my hands.  I also was getting almost non-existent hair on my head.  My Mothers father had thinning hair, but he had more hair at 80 than I do at 50.  I went to the doctor and he told me that I needed to loose 5 pounds.  My comment back to my doctor was "how do I do that?"  Of course the doctor said you need to workout, I said I already swim 2 miles per day, he knew something was wrong and started testing me for Thyroid because I mentioned the hair loss and fact that I was always fatigued.  

My initial tests came back as follows:

Cholesterol – LDL – Bad Cholesterol – June 2009 test – 114
Cholesterol – LDL – Bad Cholesterol – October 2009 test – 102
Cholesterol – LDL – Bad Cholesterol – January 2010 test – 99
Cholesterol – LDL – Bad Cholesterol – April 2010 test – 108

Cholesterol – HDL – Good Cholesterol – June 2009 test – 39
Cholesterol – HDL – Good Cholesterol – October 2009 test – 35
Cholesterol – LDL – Bad Cholesterol – April 2010 test – 35
Cholesterol – HDL – Good Cholesterol – April test 2010 – 35

Total Cholesterol – June 2009 Test - 181
Total Cholesterol – October 2009 Test – 166
Total Cholesterol – January 2010 Test – 166
Total Cholesterol – April 2010 Test – Sorry, didn't write it down

TSH Result – Thyroid - June 2009 Test – 121.8
(Started on 50 MCG Synthroid)
TSH Result – Thyroid - June Test 2009 – 46.6
(Started on 100 MCG Synthroid)
TSH Result – Thyroid - January Test – 27.8
(Started on 150 MCG Synthroid)
TSH Result – Thyroid - April Test – 11
(Started on 175 MCG Synthroid)

Triglycerides - June 2009 Test – < 150
Triglycerides - October Test – < 150
Triglycerides - January Test  – < 150
Triglycerides - April Test – 153

I have to go back in another month for a follow up.  Hope this helps.  Steve

[LazyMoose]

2.88 can be boarder line TSH for Hypo depending on the active hormone levels, but very doubtful its Graves.

TSH is a messenger hormone, a signal from pituitary gland to tell the thyroid what to do.

You need to test what is called Free T4 and Free T3 thyroid hormone. T4 hormone is the storage hormone that is converted to T3 in your body when needed. T3 is the active hormone that your cells need to live. The levels of these are what creates symptoms of Graves or Hashimoto or plain hypo thyroid.