Your thyroid gland is the key to your metabolic health and getting thyroid blood tests along with knowing your body temperature and pulse, tells you a lot about the health of your body.
As readers of my ramblings know, I am interested in my health, that’s why I read about it, write about it and see how things work for me by testing it out and gauging how I feel.
I can also measure if things are working by taking temperature and pulse, see how my weight is tracking, how energetic I feel as well but sometimes, you need a blood test to reveal more. Things like your cholesterol levels, iron levels, and B12 levels. Only then it reveals a complete and more accurate picture of what’s really happening in your body.
Hands up all those who have a cooperative doctor who will 100% test everything you would like to test? Or who doesn’t try to talk you out of it. Or have an argument about why you don’t really need it.
Hmmm… perhaps let’s not go there.
But what if there was a way that you could test anything you wanted to test, whenever you wanted to test it?
Awesome I would say ! Then you could take your power back and schedule tests annually for example to see what impact your lifestyle changes are having. Or just confirm if your suspected health issues are anything to worry about at all.
Well totally by accident, I came across this new service that does exactly that!
New private blood testing service
It’s called i-screen. Which is short for Intelligent Screening.
They have a range of bundled tests available like thyroid blood tests like the full thyroid panel (hello reverse T3!), adrenal check, gluten sensitivities, general all over check and more.
If you would like another test added to a bundle, you just contact them by email and they will give you a quote.
They identify the blood collection centres with which they are affiliated, so you just find one near you and have your blood taken. Then in a couple of days your results are available on an online account you set up – so you have access any time!
Also they have a panel of doctors who give some recommendations based on your results. How cool is that?!
Thyroid Panel tests
Of course I was interested in the thyroid blood tests. Just to give another perspective on my temperature, pulse and many other symptoms pointing to Hypothyroidism.
The blood collection centre was really close to home which was great. One other thing – some tests like reverse T3 seem to indicate additional charges, however these are already covered in your fee with i-screen. If the person taking your blood tries to tell you there are more charges, be reassured in the knowledge that i-screen has this covered. They will be charged and not you.
So here are the results:
TSH – Score: 1.5 – given range 0.4 – 4.0
Free T3 – Score: 4.6 – acceptable range 2.8 – 6.8
Free T4 – Score: 12 – acceptable range 10 – 20
Reverse T3 – Score: 171 – acceptable range 170 – 450
Prolactin – Score: 8 – acceptable range less than 20
All markers are well within range, which is awesome (the low-ish ones are supposed to be low.) These results are not surprising. My increases in temperature over the past year were also an indicator that this is likely to be the case.
Boy though, I wish I had done this testing when I first discovered my super low waking body temps of 35.2C! It would have been fascinating to see the changes.
Prolactin
Prolactin is a test normally in the estrogen-testing panel, however I specially requested it for a particular reason. I will elaborate more in another blog post why this particular marker is important in relation to cancer for my family history.
So next time your doc says ‘no you don’t need that test.’ Or they refuse to give you a copy of your test results. This is somewhere else to turn. Take your power back and keep your health on track. Brilliant!
Power on!
Kristy x
NB: To learn how to eat to improve your thyroid function, grab a copy of the Zen Beach Diet book.
