Advice with thyroid panel test: Anti-Thyroglobulin antibodies

[InitialConditions]

Hi all,

Another thyroid post! I am not overly familar with the science in this area, so looking for advice.

I had a Thriva thyroid test recently. The results are shown below.

The only thing flagged is raised Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies. The other levels are within range. The Dr giving the summary of results suggests this could mean some sort of auti-immunity, although he does state that other levels are clearly ok - though perhaps TSH is on the high side given the Anti-thyroglobulin finding. Here is the complete summary of what he reported back for the thyroid tests:

"You have raised levels of TGAB antibodies. This indicates autoimmunity, where the body's immune system is attacking the thyroid gland. TGAB antibodies are found in up to 80% of people with Hashimoto's disease (the most common cause of underactive thyroid gland). In the presence of TPO or TGAB antibodies, Hashimoto's is usually diagnosed if your thyroid gland is underactive. Your thyroid hormone levels are within the normal range according to UK guidelines, however, in the presence of autoantibodies, some experts may consider your TSH levels to be too high. If you have symptoms of underactive thyroid, some endocrinologists may and recommend treatment, though this is not standard practice in the UK. Having Thyroid autoantibodies increases the risk of developing thyroid illness in the future. Thyroid autoantibodies are also linked to a number of other autoimmune conditions including Coeliac disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and SLE. If you have noticed a lump in your neck, are feeling tired or have other symptoms, you may wish to seek the advice of your GP or an endocrinologist. There are a number of lifestyle changes that may help your thyroid, however these are not widely accepted as standard clinical practice, please see the focus area for further information. You may wish to consider having a blood test for coeliac disease (through your GP)."

What should I read into this? Should I be looking into this further? Perhaps this result could be explained through stress?

B12, Vit D, and ferritin and folate tests came back ok, though ferritin and particularly folate and were close to the low end of the range. Might it be worth looking into supplementation?

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Float]

HI there. I have a lot of personal experience treating hypothyroidism.
If it were me , I would retest in 6-8 weeks , to see if the anomaly is still there (one test, one moment in time isn't enough to confirm presence of a disease state ),
If tsh keeps going up , and/or antibodies are still high and /or ft3 or ft4 go down, then maybe there is something to do.

Symptoms? I'm presuming you have some symptoms as you are on a me forum which of course shares symptoms with some thyroid diseases. But your free t3 is a very healthy level so assuming your cells are receiving it, you shouldn't have thyroid symptoms.

Autoimmunity. You might look into the link between gluten and thyroid autoimmunity (or at least anecdotally so many patients report improved symptoms when gluten free).....and there is science out there to support if, I just don't have the resources to hand. That's why your doc suggests a celiac test but that won't show an intolerance, only an allergy.

Autoimmunity. .....you could look at autoimmune lifestyle choices if you have not already . Dr Terry Wahls is one resource (healed MS) . There's a lot online about Autoimmune Paleo.

Your ft3 is nice and high and it's mainly t3 that enters cells. So that's good news.

Your free t4 is below halfway on the range. ...something worth monitoring.

Yes if your nutritional markers are low, it's worth either eating more of them or supplementing. I use cronometer app to track nutrition and find out what I am not consuming. I take a multivitamin daily .

Supplementation only works if your body can absorb it. So consider if you have digestive issues to simultaneously work on these (autoimmunity generally goes along with 'leaky gut').

I don't know if you are male or female but ferretin of 70-90 is good for a menstruation age woman. You'll have to look up the functional levels for male or post menopausal women.

B12 is good to have over 500 (not just scrape into the range ).

Vitd25oh good to have around 50-70 (eg not scraping into the 20s or 30s )

Hope there's something helpful in there for you.

 

[Gingergrrl]

@InitialConditions I wanted to share my story with Hashimoto's in case anything in it is helpful for you. I was diagnosed with Hashi's in Oct 2013 and initially hoped that it was the explanation for my entire illness (but sadly it was not)!

At the time, my TSH was elevated but not super high (somewhere around "4" and I do not remember the exact number but it was definitely lower than "5"). My T3 and other readings were also slightly off but the biggest thing the doctor found (who is still my Endo today) was that I had extremely elevated numbers on both Hashi's autoantibodies (TPO and TGAB). I think one was in the hundreds and one was in the thousands but don't remember the exact numbers.

My Endo sent me for an ultrasound of my thyroid which was basically normal and he immediately started me on a low dose of Armour Thyroid. I started super low at 7.5 mg and it brought my TSH into the range between 1-2 and it significantly brought down the autoantibodies (even though I will always have them). When my TSH goes above "3", we usually raise my Armour dose to 15 mg which is my current dose.

My Endo also had me eliminate gluten (since it worsens the autoimmune attack of the thyroid) so I have been gluten free for 5+ years even though I do not have Celiac. Because of my other diagnoses, I was never truly able to tell which symptoms were from Hashimoto's itself.

 

[jason30]

@InitialConditions I wanted to share my story with Hashimoto's in case anything in it is helpful for you. I was diagnosed with Hashi's in Oct 2013 and initially hoped that it was the explanation for my entire illness (but sadly it was not)!

At the time, my TSH was elevated but not super high (somewhere around "4" and I do not remember the exact number but it was definitely lower than "5"). My T3 and other readings were also slightly off but the biggest thing the doctor found (who is still my Endo today) was that I had extremely elevated numbers on both Hashi's autoantibodies (TPO and TGAB). I think one was in the hundreds and one was in the thousands but don't remember the exact numbers.

My Endo sent me for an ultrasound of my thyroid which was basically normal and he immediately started me on a low dose of Armour Thyroid. I started super low at 7.5 mg and it brought my TSH into the range between 1-2 and it significantly brought down the autoantibodies (even though I will always have them). When my TSH goes above "3", we usually raise my Armour dose to 15 mg which is my current dose.

My Endo also had me eliminate gluten (since it worsens the autoimmune attack of the thyroid) so I have been gluten free for 5+ years even though I do not have Celiac. Because of my other diagnoses, I was never truly able to tell which symptoms were from Hashimoto's itself.

That applies to me as well, I could have write the same post.
The only change is that I never took any thyroid meds or supps.
I wonder if you did noticed some changes regarding your symptoms after intake of Armour Thyroid?

 

[Gingergrrl]

That applies to me as well, I could have write the same post.
The only change is that I never took any thyroid meds or supps.

Did you ever end up taking any thyroid med or did your TSH and autoantibodies improve without medication?

I wonder if you did noticed some changes regarding your symptoms after intake of Armour Thyroid?

I felt an improvement when I initially started taking Armour (in Oct 2013) but I continued to get progressively sicker and by Oct 2014 I had to start using a wheelchair 24/7. But this had nothing to do with the Hashimoto's or Armour vs. that I also had very severe POTS, MCAS, and other autoantibodies that were weakening my muscles and breathing. Nothing reversed that (beyond small band-aid amounts of symptom reduction) until I began IVIG and later Rituximab.

 

[max_yazhbin]

Hi all,

Another thyroid post! I am not overly familar with the science in this area, so looking for advice.

I had a Thriva thyroid test recently. The results are shown below.

The only thing flagged is raised Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies. The other levels are within range. The Dr giving the summary of results suggests this could mean some sort of auti-immunity, although he does state that other levels are clearly ok - though perhaps TSH is on the high side given the Anti-thyroglobulin finding. Here is the complete summary of what he reported back for the thyroid tests:

"You have raised levels of TGAB antibodies. This indicates autoimmunity, where the body's immune system is attacking the thyroid gland. TGAB antibodies are found in up to 80% of people with Hashimoto's disease (the most common cause of underactive thyroid gland). In the presence of TPO or TGAB antibodies, Hashimoto's is usually diagnosed if your thyroid gland is underactive. Your thyroid hormone levels are within the normal range according to UK guidelines, however, in the presence of autoantibodies, some experts may consider your TSH levels to be too high. If you have symptoms of underactive thyroid, some endocrinologists may and recommend treatment, though this is not standard practice in the UK. Having Thyroid autoantibodies increases the risk of developing thyroid illness in the future. Thyroid autoantibodies are also linked to a number of other autoimmune conditions including Coeliac disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and SLE. If you have noticed a lump in your neck, are feeling tired or have other symptoms, you may wish to seek the advice of your GP or an endocrinologist. There are a number of lifestyle changes that may help your thyroid, however these are not widely accepted as standard clinical practice, please see the focus area for further information. You may wish to consider having a blood test for coeliac disease (through your GP)."

What should I read into this? Should I be looking into this further? Perhaps this result could be explained through stress?

B12, Vit D, and ferritin and folate tests came back ok, though ferritin and particularly folate and were close to the low end of the range. Might it be worth looking into supplementation?

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

View attachment 30768

I really like Elizabeth Wentz's work on health, she delt with hashimoto's yet it is my understanding that one of the defining features of hashimoto's is high anti-TPO ab whereas if it is anti-TPO ab and anti-Tg ab then that might lean more towards hyperthyroidism or graves disease. I am at a loss on further steps on this one.