Hi
@LucySW - I don't have an active thyroid gland thanks to having had radioiodine treatment for Graves' disease in 2001.
Back in the summer I had a TSH result of 21.33 - way out of range. My T4 was correspondingly low. I take my thyroxine every day at the same time so was quite offended when the hospital suggested the way-out result might because of 'non compliance' - ie not taking the tablets - but because my cholesterol was also up they reckoned it was an 'absorption issue'.
They reminded me to take my thyroxine without anything else. That got me thinking - I take all my tablets together.
Between my previous thyroid function test (January - all in range) and my July one (bonkersly out of range) I had started taking a cod liver oil capsule daily - at the same time as everything else. It struck me that maybe my thyroxine tablets and my statin were struggling to be absorbed because of the oil. 'Absorption' was the thing they were going on about.
So I decided off my own bat to just stop taking the cod liver oil, in case it might be mucking up the absorption. I mean, I can imagine a chalky tablet dissolving quite well in acid or in water, but not really in oil, which was kind of what I was thinking. In August and September when they retested my thyroid function my T4 had gone from 21.33 to 15 to 11 to 4.5.
Amazing!
Now, during this entire time I have been extremely unwell due to a kidney infection and its lingering after-effects (in fact I am now on antibiotics AGAIN as of yesterday evening), and the high number and its lowering
might conceivably be to do with that.
Do note that I am talking about replacement thyroxine
tablets rather than the function of a working thyroid gland. I don't have a functioning thyroid gland, so the connection I have personally made between thyroid test results and cod liver oil is purely to do with the ability of
tablets to be absorbed, and has nothing to do with naturally-produced thyroxine in people with a functioning thyroid gland.
Am just reporting my own assumptions and experience - please don't view this as any kind of medical recommendation on my part!
