thyroid help

So my cpk continues to go up it went from 296 in march to 500 in june and now over the last 3 months it has gone 688-734-886- yesterday it was at 934. and with some continuing symptoms my LLMD sent me to a rheumatologist to see if it has caused an auto immune disease. The rheumatologist was checking for myasthenia gravis and scleroderma and when my thyroid tests came back I was interested to not that both the TSH and T4 were on the bottom end of normal. TSH was at 1.30 and T4 was at .86. all tests still keep coming back normal except the cpk but as it keeps raising does any one know if thyroid could be a culprit even though technically they were still in normal range

Elevated CPK can be caused by many things besides autoimmune disease.

Take a look at this:

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003503.htm

I can tell based upon the value that you posted for T4 that you actually had a Free T4 test done.

The most common range for the Free T4 test is .8 - 1.8 (or something very similar such as .76 - 1.77).

This means that your Free T4 level of .86 is close to the bottom end of the range which indicates hypothyroidism.

We should not be looking at TSH to judge thyroid status since TSH is a pituitary hormone that isn't a reliable indicator of thyroid function. Looking at TSH to judge thyroid function is like looking at the odometer when you want to know how much gas you have in your tank.

Lyme not only disrupts thyroid function but it also disrupts pituitary function.

This can result in a seemingly healthy TSH level in the presence of hypothyroidism.

You would benefit from some thyroid hormone replacement....and proper monitoring involves regular testing of both your Free T4 and Free T3 levels.

nberg said...
the reference ranges for our lab are TSH 0.47-4.68 and for the free T4 is .78-2.19

While that's quite the wide range for the Free T4 test you had done, I think you can see that your .86 result is close to the bottom end of the range.

Healthy people have Free T4 levels in the upper third of the range.

If you are still dealing with these infections, they could very well be the cause of the issues on your left side. Hypothyroidism "just" exacerbates things.

Do you have a LLMD? If yes, I'd address those thyroid results with him/her. It seems many LLMD's are thyroid-savvy and I would expect yours to start you on some thyroid hormone replacement. If you don't have a LLMD, perhaps you could talk to your GP about your thyroid levels....or perhaps a functional medicine or alternative MD.

Here's a resource for finding thyroid-savvy doctors (listing by state):

www.thyroidchange.org/list-of-doctors.html

There are many things that prevent TSH from rising when the Free T4 is low.

Certain thyroid antibodies can cause this.....as can infections.

Here's some info:

www.publichealthalert.org/the-lyme-thyroid-connection.html

/www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/lyme-disease/

TSH is a pituitary hormone. Just as Lyme affects thyroid hormone production, it also can affect pituitary hormone production. If the pituitary is unable to produce TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), TSH is lower.

When TSH is lower, the thyroid isn't getting stimulated enough to produce thyroid hormone which means the Free T4 and/or Free T3 levels might also be low.

Unfortunately, doctors were taught in medical school that the TSH test is the gold standard for diagnosis and treatment. It's marginally helpful when screening healthy people but misses easily 30% of cases of hypothyroidism.

Once the patient has any other health issue, TSH is useless.