I have hypothyroidism. Can you advise on blood tests?
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If you go by that site why does she need lab work or order her own when somebody reads this at that site?
"Have you been told you are "normal", but you have continuing symptoms?? LISTEN HERE
Why the TSH lab test may be the worst way to diagnose or treat by.. LISTEN HERE"
Should one go by the T4 or T3? No, those are bad also according to the site.
"5. Making labwork more important than the hypo symptoms which scream their presence."
They don't believe in tests in diagnosis or in monitoring thyroid disorders.
They rely on self diagnosis and don't need tests which is why doctors lost licenses listening to all that nonsense. There isn't any logic there on how to diagnose nor treat thyroid disorders.
Incorrect. More than a cursory look will tell you which labs to get. Are you ignorant of the fact that there are tests other than T3, T4 and TSH?
I'm just reading the first page of this thread, but to me, I'd ask my doctor instead of a forum. For some reason I think he may have a whole lot better idea what you need.
Incorrect. More than a cursory look will tell you which labs to get. Are you ignorant of the fact that there are tests other than T3, T4 and TSH?
Tell the OP which tests are more important than the T3, T4 and TSH. Are you asking me if I was incompetent in not knowing tests used in diagnosing thyroid disorders the past 44 years of me working in the laboratory? Who do you think does the tests? Who do you think doctors go to when they questions about tests? Who do you think doctors ask about getting specific tests done? Who do you think sees all the doctors orders when it comes to thyroid testing so I know what the vast majority of the doctors order and that is the TSH by itself. I would say 90% of the doctors only that as a screen. I needed to know what was ordered in order to perform the testing or send out others not performed at that site. Do you think nurses do the testing?
I showed you specific statements that said lab tests don't matter. It didn't say there are other tests you can do besides those.
From the site,
"Have you been told you are "normal", but you have continuing symptoms?? LISTEN HERE
Why the TSH lab test may be the worst way to diagnose or treat by.. LISTEN HERE"
"5. Making labwork more important than the hypo symptoms which scream their presence."
The "normal" refers to lab tests get it?
Those patient sites only consider symptoms to diagnose and symptoms to treat. They don't believe in tests when the results turn out normal.
The OP had questions about the TSH and the site says it is the worst way to diagnose thyroid disease. That's just totally void of any reality in the medical world. I showed you specific citations taken from a state medical review board to pulled a doctors license for not using the TSH.
Tell the OP which tests are more important than the T3, T4 and TSH.
The OP can go to the site, click on labwork, then select recommend labwork.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Medical Lab Guy
Are you asking me if I was incompetent in not knowing tests used in diagnosing thyroid disorders the past 44 years of me working in the laboratory? Who do you think does the tests? Who do you think doctors go to when they questions about tests? Who do you think doctors ask about getting specific tests done? Who do you think sees all the doctors orders when it comes to thyroid testing so I know what the vast majority of the doctors order and that is the TSH by itself.
I showed you specific statements that said lab tests don't matter. It didn't say there are other tests you can do besides those.
From the site,
"Have you been told you are "normal", but you have continuing symptoms?? LISTEN HERE
Why the TSH lab test may be the worst way to diagnose or treat by.. LISTEN HERE"
"5. Making labwork more important than the hypo symptoms which scream their presence."
The "normal" refers to lab tests get it?
Those patient sites only consider symptoms to diagnose and symptoms to treat. They don't believe in tests when the results turn out normal.
The OP had questions about the TSH and the site says it is the worst way to diagnose thyroid disease. That's just totally void of any reality in the medical world. I showed you specific citations taken from a state medical review board to pulled a doctors license for not using the TSH.
You already posted all of that and you're still reading it wrong.
The OP can go to the site, click on labwork, then select recommend labwork. Are you sure you want to take credit for this?
You already posted all of that and you're still reading it wrong.
Follow the logic please. The conventional medical screening for primary thyroid disorder involves one test, the TSH that was validated by pathologist and endocrinologist. A person is tested with a TSH and found to be normal say a 1.2 mIU/L which is completely normal. They then tell themselves that can't be right because I have all of the classic symptoms and I want to lose weight. They look on the web and come across multiple sites that say the TSH is meaningless in order to diagnose disease. It isn't a matter of which test is missing or one needs to order it then becomes try to find anything abnormal in order to justify the diagnosis and when all tests are normal then they ignore that also. They also try and change the normal reference limits to make it easier to say one is abnormal. They do that with the TSH and they do that with the thyroid hormones with well it is in the lower third of the reference range for thyroid hormones or in the upper third for TSH.
They value the symptoms over lab tests so even if the TSH might be outside the reference range they insist on everything being treated because they say they have symptoms and again being overweight is one big symptom for people with hypothyroidism even though it has been stated many times that weight loss reduction by itself should not be used for dosing. The TSH is not a thyroid hormone. It is a pituitary hormone. What ultimately determines overt hypothyroidism is the thyroxine levels. The TSH screen followed by a T3 and T4 if abnormal can tell the doctor if one has subclinical hypothyroidism where the TSH is slightly abnormal and the T4 normal and the person is asymptomatic or overt hypothyroidism where the TSH is elevated and the T4 is low and the person exhibiting symptoms o hypothyroidism. The rest of the tests determine the nature or cause of the hypothyroidism.
All the medical literature and research involving endocrinology is well established. We know the pathophysiology. We know the medical historical record of goiters. We know the pathology examination of the thyroid that Hashimoto did years ago and we progressed from Protein Bound Iodine (PBI) that we no longer do because of the ability to measure iodine containing hormones T3 and T4. We know the history of radioimmunoassay and going away from radioactivity to the generation of monoclonal antibodies that replaced it. We know the history of TSH from a cumbersome insensitive hormone to third, fourth or fifth generation TSH which allowed the disbanding of the thyroid panel by medicare because the ultra sensitive TSH allowed us to use it as a screen with it's ability to confirm very low TSH values.
Non-medical sites completely ignore the history, technology, the pathophysiology, the basic endocrinology and the entire science of the topic. Those sites are not science based. They cater to symptoms and complaints and the science takes a way far out back seat.
My wife takes Levothyroxine when she first started she had some side effects I don't remember exactly what side effects she had it was a number of years ago. When she asked the doctor about it was basically told to live with it. We found another doctor who lowered the dose down and kept having her blood work done lowering the dose a few more times until the numbers changed turned out she needed a much lower dose of Levothyroxine all her side effects resolved on this lower dose.
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