I get roughly 1.8g a day and rarely reach the 3.5g unless I try.
I was meant to mention potassium being normal here. I thought I deleted this bit.
Like renfr said: 3.15 isn't normal, it's frank hypothyroidism. It's outside the reference range, so I don't understand why you would say it was?
Go very easy on the iodine. Even small amounts can suppress thyroid function in some people so take it slow.
Everything else he advises is correct. If doing that doesn't change things start T3/T4.
The reference range on the report is 0.30-4.20 mIU/L, and it says underneath "consistent with euthyroidism". I'm glad I posted it here. Maybe there's some difference in tests. I'm in Australia.
3.15 for a TSH is very high, this was the value when my brain was dead and so was my body.
A healthy TSH value shouldn't exceed 1.5, some people will feel terribly crappy with a TSH of 3 and I did!
I had the same "extremely dead tired" thing.
I would point out first at your ketogenic diet, a diet high in fat slows down your thyroid hormone synthesis, I also did a low carb though not ketogenic diet for a while and felt crappy for months because my body lacked carbs, if you want to keep up with the ketogenic diet maybe you should think about doing carb refeeds once a week, never tried that but to me the ketogenic diet was the cause of my deadly brain fog.
Also it is obvious from your test that you have hypothyroidism, your hypothyroidism is likely caused partly by your ketogenic diet.
But in case I would suggest you start taking iodine which you probably have a huge deficiency like many others, start with 150mcg a day (only from potassium iodide OR norwegian sea kelp such as that of NOW foods, beware with BS kelp from pacific) and don't forget drinking water and put some salt in your food, the first days might be rough since your body wasn't adapted to get so much iodine.
If your doctor is kind then ask him for a full thyroid panel : T4, T3 and thyroid antibodies (Tgab, TPOab, TRAb)
Get some selenium (preferably se methyl l selenocysteine) and take it 2-3 times a week at most (never exceed 200mcg each time) and take it at night before sleeping.
Eat more protein to give you more energy and give you more tyrosine which is vital for thyroid hormone synthesis.
A high protein diet will give you more energy and help you feel great, if you don't get enough through diet, think about a protein shake such as whey protein isolate.
Don't use omega 6, you don't need these, what you need is omega 3 FA, you already get tons of omega 6 through the diet and an unbalanced omega6/3 ratio causes inflammation, not what you want with an underworking thyroid.
Just a thing also, HIIT reduces T3 overtime and causes rT3 (inactive form of the thyroid hormone) to be elevated so don't overdo it, once a week is fine like you do.
Other things that will help : zinc 25mg to boost the mind, lower excess cortisol, (cortisol and hypothyroidism usually go hand in hand), boost your T, take it a night just 2 hours after dinner but NEVER on empty stomach.
A B vitamins complex may help to provide enough NADH for your metabolism.
Stop drinking coffee if that's the case since it puts a strain on adrenals and can exacerbate hypothyroidic tiredness.
Good luck, I went through that and I feel for you.
Do you mean hyperthyroid if my TSH is too high?
My ketogenic diet has never been a problem in the past and only ever made me feel calm and good. I don't know of any need for carbohydrates in diet but I am open to new ideas. I was eating around 100g per day just before the brain fog got worse so I cut back down to sub 50g. I'm adverse to eating carbohydrates because I am incredibly upset with my weight and want to get it back down to before my chocolate binging. I haven't heard anything about ketogenic diets affecting the thyroid before :| In terms of protein, I'm getting plenty at 120g a day but on keto I avoid going over that to stay in ketosis. In terms of omega-6, as far as I understand omega-6 is still an essential fat and without it you cannot live, and I have gone through my logs and seen that I was only getting about 10g a day when RDI is more like 20g. I get omega-3 because I always make sure to. I had been avoiding omega-6, but you do need a certain amount in your diet. I have started eating iodized sea salt on my food but I have no idea how much that contributes.
Like renfr said: 3.15 isn't normal, it's frank hypothyroidism. It's outside the reference range, so I don't understand why you would say it was?
Go very easy on the iodine. Even small amounts can suppress thyroid function in some people so take it slow.
Everything else he advises is correct. If doing that doesn't change things start T3/T4.
Yes, that's why I think he should get tested first and see if he has a goiter, hashimoto's or any other disease that screws up the thyroid.
People with goiters need to be extremely careful with iodine intake, for hashimoto selenium combined with iodine makes iodine intake much safer.
Also another thing I would recommend is ashwagandha to enhance T4 to T3 conversion.
I would take tetraiodothyronine and triiodothyronine as a last resort if your thyroid is really screwed up but a TSH of 3 makes me think that this is recoverable, if it was really screwed up you'd have abnormally huge readings (over 40 for example).
My doctor seems to think I'm perfectly biologically healthy now and has simply referred me to a psychologist. I guess I just have a case of the crazies. Maybe it could be a manifestation of my sexual frustration. Too much info :P - I will continue to consider that the doctor missed my real problem.
No, the TSH is what makes your thyroid gland grow, it will grow if there isn't enough thyroid hormones circulating in the body, so a high TSH means roughly hypothyroidism.
The problem is that once you start eating carbs again you will gain weight as the body will build as much reserves as possible but this weight gain is temporary if you keep eating carbs on the long term.
I also have that weight problem despite my hypothyroidism seemingly absent, I also was doing a low carb diet and couldn't handle it due to the massive brain fog it caused me while not causing any weight loss.
I started a moderate carb diet combined with lots of protein, I gained some pounds after starting eating decent amount of carbs again and then it started going down.
Some people might be totally OK with a ketogenic or low carb diet but if weeks after you still have the brain fog then it just isn't for you. If the brain doesn't get enough nutrients (which is shown by brain fog) it will cause brain shrinkage on long term.
Maybe slowly eating carbs back again would limit the weight gain but don't worry once you get to a carb plateau you won't gain more.
Just ban refined carbs, processed carbs and eat lots of carbs from fruit, raw organic honey, grains such as rice, beans, lentils, vegetables as well.
The RDI is utter BS, you don't need 20g omega 6, been months I take 3-5g of omega 6 a day and I still live
Also look at the omega 6 intake in asian people, it's very very low.
If you have a western type diet then you get enough omega 6 from meat, eggs, vegetable oils, butter and so on.
You need to have a omega6/3 ratio as close as 1:1, over 5:1 is bad for you.
Omega 6 are sure vital but not in huge quantities, the fact is that omega 6 is neutral when the ratio is low and it is pro inflammatory when the ratio is high.
Also eat as less nuts as possible, these contain immense amounts of omega 6.
Since you use the cronometer you can easily calculate your ratio.
As for iodized sea salt, forget about it, and I bet it's not sea salt but mere refined table salt which isn't very good for health.
Iodized salt is worthless because iodine will be flushed out by the chloride in salt (salt is sodium chloride) so you likely get almost no iodine.
I suggest you buy KI solution or caps or buy kelp seaweed to get generous amounts of iodine, you're never going to reverse hypothyroidism with iodized salt unless you overdose on it.
Also remember that the 150mcg RDI is the strict minimum for you to not develop a goiter, some people will be fine on 150mcg only but most people will need more than that to erase hypothyroidism.
A lot of people are hypothyroid but are undiagnosed because the TSH thresold is too high and I see a lot of people in my country with hypothyroidism, it's easy to see when you look at their weight, their neck, their skin, really a lot of people are highly deficient in iodine.
I would do the following :
1. ask for a full thyroid panel : t3, t4, thyroid antibodies
2. if you don't have antibodies but T3, T4 are low then you can start supplementing iodine
3. if you have antibodies you can start selenium to reduce them or/and start with T3/T4 caps if your doctor prescribe them to you
4. if everything is normal, check your hormones (cortisol, SBHG, testosterone, estradiol, DHT)
Check copper, ceruloplasmin as well.
5. Even if it's not normal, check them anyway!
This only if your doctor isn't a jerk, sadly mine is and I had to solve that problem myself!
Also, another thing, avoid all goitrogenic foods (and there are many) :
This :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoitrogenPM me if you want, I went through almost exactly the same problem and I am so much better now, the only issue I have now is my weight.
My doctor seems to think I'm perfectly biologically healthy now and has simply referred me to a psychologist. I guess I just have a case of the crazies. Maybe it could be a manifestation of my sexual frustration. Too much info :P - I will continue to consider that the doctor missed my real problem.
Yep, typical ignorant doctors (it's hard to find the good ones...), my replacement doctor went totally crazy when I asked her a T3 test, I managed to get a T4 test but no T3 sadly, I would pay to get tested for T3 but oh wait... in my country you must get a prescription, this sucks so much.