Hi rose, Iam not sure I understand what you mean. I was diagnosed with hypothyroid about 3 years ago. He is a great doctor, but after being on synthroid for a year and 1/2, I was back in his office complaining of low energy and other things. But it seems once he diagnosed the hypo thing that was it. He would check my levels and they are all good. He says well not everything is about the thyroid maybe your stessed or..... I love this doctor, but not once did he ever mention b12 levels. When it comes the endo system hes one of the best. His name is on the list if you go online and look up info about doctors and the new ranges. Anyway Iam rambling now... THis happens way to often I was going to make a point here I completly forgot what is was. You mentioned an underlying thryroid problem, do you mean other then the aready existing hypo? What else is there? I thought you where eith hypo or hyper?

The doc is much better than even many endocrinologists. Even though B12 wasn't mentioned, it sounds like he is the type who would be willing to learn. Here is one good article: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030301/979.html You might want to make a copy and give it to him. There's much more to the issue, but the article will provide him with a good background knowledge.

One possibility with thyroid is Hashimoto's, but I imagine that your doc would have caught and mentioned that. Do you have copies of all your records and lab results? A very good thing to do, to get them and keep your own set of records.

Please keep asking questions. Let me know if I'm still not clear.

rose

Hi Rose, I am going to call my doctor tomorrow and get copies of my blood work. Before I found this doctor another one ran a thyroid work up, here are the results (this is 2003 before I was on anything, syntrhoid)
TSH 1.05 mIU/L ref. range 0.32 - 5.00
T3 total 6.7 ng/mL 0.52 - 1.65
T4, free 0.86 ng/ml 0.71 - 1.85
Anti -TPO Ab <10.0 IU/ml 0.0 - 35.0
Anti - TG Ab <20 IU/ml 0.0 - 40.0
DHEAS 138.0 ug/dl 35.0 - 430.0

Here are my results from yet another dr. in 11/2006 while on 50mcg or synthroid.
TSH 1.17 ref. range 0.49 - 4.67
T4 7.3 4.5 - 12.0
T7 2.6 1.0 - 3.8
T uptake 35.7 25.2 - 37.5
Total T3 1.13 0.60 - 1.90

I have no idea what all this means.

Well just to add to my confusion........ I was looking up symptoms of hyper and hypothyroid, I equally if not more so have the symtpoms of hyperthyroid?
How can that be????????????????

Hi cat, just read your message and wanted to mention something else about your first post although it's something rather off the topic that's developed. I just wondered if you had normal liver function?

You mentioned only taking a very small dose of Niacin / B3 (25mg I think you said in a later post) but some people are extremely sensitive to Niacin. Because I get major flushing problems and feel really edgy with even small doses of regular Niacin, if I'm taking niacin I find it better to take a no flush niacin. I sometimes get this mixed up but I'm pretty sure it's nicotinamide or niacinamide that is the no flush niacin. In the usual B complex they tend to use nicotinic acid.

Anyway, sorry to go back to the beginning there, but it was just something I thought of when reading your first post.

take care,
Lara

Hi Lare, thanks for your input.
Once when I was in my 20 I remember taking a vitamin and about 10-20 minutes later my freind looks at me and says whats up with your face? I felt hot and a little anxious, she said it looked like I had a sunburn. The same thing happed to me right in the middle of delivering my 2nd daughter. (c-section) A nurse walked in (there were some complicaitons I think she was trying to make small talk) and said wow look at you! You have great coloring. I was very red. My husband was like, yeah except she is usually as white as that pillow. It also felt like all the blood was rushing to my head and it was difficult to hold a conversation. I know I did not have any niacin then, but it felt the same. As far as I know my liver is fine. It seemed like B vitamin was giving me palpitaions, although I am not sure. That was the only thing different from my daily routine. And once I stopped it went away. But now that you bring it up since I was taking that multi I did not have any palpitaions. I was not taking it for that long.

cat265 Well just to add to my confusion........ I was looking up symptoms of hyper and hypothyroid, I equally if not more so have the symtpoms of hyperthyroid?
How can that be????????????????

Sometimes people have symptoms of both hypo and hyper , that's what endo told my wife sometime back and she was given thyroxine after that.
Your TSH value of 1.17 is considered to be good(normal) , but symptoms vary from person to person. You can get more info here -
http://thyroid.about.com/library/links/blthyroid.htm

I have read in forums for some people when TSH starts hitting 2 their thyroid symptoms get worse.
But I have read in many places and according to our endo. TSH in the range that you have is good. Have you asked your doc about armor thyroid or changing your dose(doesn't look like it) ?

And yes I am not surprised your endo. did not mention about B12 .But to share with you,my wife is hypothyroid patient ..coupled with low B12 count and a very very low Iron count . So better do your Ferritin test also.

Medhelp - every docotr I go agrees with you, that my thyroid is normal right now. I just saw a hematologist yesterday. She ran blood work in her office, of course she was able to have the cbc results right away and she said everything looks ok and that I am not anemic. She wants me to come back in two weeks and if my b12 level is still low she is going to start me on shots and show me how to do them myself. She mentioned about doing the mma and the hcy (?) She also said her lab forgot to do a clotting factor and she seemed very interested in that and wants to run that test in two weeks. She asked me like 2 or 3 times about arthitis and if my joints hurt. She kept refering to her fingers, at the time I said no, I have no pain in my joints. I do have osteo. in my knees, a pain that comes and goes in my hip and lower and upper back pain. The back pain I think is from an accident. My knees have been grinding and poping for years, i never give them a thought anymore. The hip I have know idea, it comes and goes, sor I forgot to mention that. I was so happy to be going to see this doctor I thought finaly I would get some answers. But as I was leaving she looked right at me and said that a low b12 level should not be making me so exhuasted. I lost a little faith after that comment. How could a hematologist not know about b12? When I go back in two weeks I will get a copy of the blood test resluts. As long as she gives me the shots, Idon't care anymore. I wanted to start taking the sublingal but she told me not to. Which I find a little odd because in the begining of the visit she said the amount of b12 i would get in tablet for would do nothing for me.

That is outrageous. For someone who considers B12 deficiency (and knows about MMA and Hcy) and knows you have serious symptoms to delay is especially shameful.

You don't "wait a couple of weeks" and test again. You do the MMA and Hcy immediately. If I were you, I would insist that the blood be drawn for those two tests no later than Monday, and on the way out of the lab I would start my oral B12 in doses of no less than 1000 mcg (I would take 5000 mcg methylcobalamin). And I would keep up the B12 for a very long time, since it is safe but deficiency is terribly damaging and those two tests do not catch a percentage of cases.

If I couldn't get that, I would start the methylcobalamin today.

It is shameful, but many hemotologists do not know anything about B12 developments within the last 35 years. And it is apparent that that one knows less than most. To not know that a large dose in a swallowed or dissolved tablet will help means the doc is over 30 years behind. To think that B12 deficiency can't make a person exhausted makes the doc hopeless, in my opinion.

rose

Thank you Rose, I had to force myself to go food shopping this morning. I actually broke down in tears in the car because I was that exhausted from shopping. I am going to call the hematologist now and tell them that I cannot wait and Iam going to start taking the b12. I bought by Biochem superior b12 methlcobalamin 3,000 mcg it also has 50mg of C and 400mcg of folic acid in it. Should I start taking just one tablet? (actually they say sublingual lozenges).