Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

4

TSH - 4.550 uIU/ml

Thyroxine (T4) - 7.3 ug/dL

T3 Uptake - 35%

Free Thyroxine Index - 2.6

I got these results back in May but at the time I was more interested in my liver numbers and didn’t really pay too much attention to these other than to note that TSH was a “little high”. Shortly afterwards I did start eating a couple of Brazil nuts every day for selenium and taking kelp supplements for iodine.

Some of comments here recently made me think TSH was more than a little high. Is this correct? And should I be doing something more or something different than what I am currently doing with the selenium and iodine supplementation?

edited Nov 18 2011 at 20:01

daz
3,989●4●16

asked Nov 18 2011 at 2:43

Paleo2.0
3,157●4●12

1

Most of the tests you received are no longer used by Doctors in the know. Your TSH is too high and it looks like your Free T4 is low but you don't give a normal range. If you repeat these tests I would have a doctor do TSH, Free T4, Free T3 and Reverse T3. This will give you a more accurate picture of your thyroid function and what to do about it. – Terry Nov 18 2011 at 15:19

just added kelp as a tag, thought it may be useful – daz Nov 18 2011 at 20:02

cliff · Answer 1 · 2011-11-18 13:14:41Z UTC

The best and easiest way to test thyroid function is with body temp. You want your temp to be ~97.6 upon waking and ~98.6 after your first meal.

also be careful with the iodine supp, according to ray peat its extremely easy to OD and mess with thyroid function. Stick to supping only 150mcg if you aren't already.

daz · Answer 2 · 2011-11-18 11:39:08Z UTC

I'm no expert, but i would say that back in May your TSH was too high.
The general consensus of the people 'in the know' is that the current lab ranges are too high.
As you mention there is plenty of recent info on TSH, Thyroid, Selenium, Iodine, Body Temp etc on this site with links to other good sites, so i won't repeat it all again.

It would be worth getting a current Thyroid panel done so you can see how you are tracking. Hopefully your TSH has dropped.

For TSH levels some sites mention below 3.0, others below 2.0 & some prefer it to be even lower. Paul Jaminet mentions in his book "...try to get TSH below 1.0".

On his website, Paul has also been recommending Against using kelp as a source of iodine of late (since around 11th Mar 2011, esp above 1mg), due to the various bromine and metal contaminants found in kelp. There are a few comments here (11 Mar 2011 onwards) on kelp; http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?page_id=1066#comment-18332 & it's mentioned elsewhere on the site as well (if you search for it).

you can find a recent question here with other related links & some info on my own supplementation amongst other stuff; http://paleohacks.com/questions/77394/iodine-supplementation-types-and-amount

Hack my thyroid panel

2 Answers