For those of you who don’t want a full blood test done, I have some good news! I have just listed the new ZRT Comprehensive Thyroid Panel including Iodine for us. It is done using new methodology that requires blood spot and dried urine samples so doesn’t need a full blood draw. It also includes an iodine status check (not loading) and one of the halides – bromine – plus selenium (essential co-factor) and arsenic ( a major contra to thyroid efficiency).
I STILL prefer to do separate tests such as the Thyroid Plus, the Iodine/Halides Loading and the Toxic & Essential Elements tests (the latter two on the Nutrients tests page here) as you get a lot more information, but this new one is a good compromise if you need it.
I’ve added it to the shop here and this is what I’ve said in the blurb:
For Thyroid
I could offer loads of different ones, but over the years I have found the Thyroid Plus gives the most effective, useable information. I like it because it looks for the usual TSH, free T4, free T3 etc, but also gives an idea of how much inactive reverse T3 you are making, shows up conversion problems that might be related to selenium or iodine deficiency (surprisingly common this latter one, see it in Nutrient Tests) and measures the two main peroxidase and thyroglobulin autoimmune antibodies. With all that info, you can make a start on seeing what is going wrong, what further investigations might be useful and how to treat effectively.
If you suspect hyperthyroid rather than hypothyroid, the Thyroid Advanced Test, is very similar to the Thyroid Plus but also includes the most common hyperthyroid (Graves) autoimmune antibody TRAb.
It measures: TSH, Free T3, Free T4, Total T4, Thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO Ab), Thyroglobulin Antibody, Reverse T3 and T3 Uptake, plus the advanced TSH Receptor (TRAb) for hyperthyroid. You can read much more about the different thyroid antibodies here if you need that and see a sample report here. Centrifugation of this sample is not required but it must be sent the same day as the draw on Monday to Thursday only back to the UK lab.
There is also a new blood spot and dried urine thyroid test from ZRT which might make life easier for those of you who don’t want to do a full blood test. The ZRT Comprehensive Thyroid Panel has most of the usual markers I look for – although only one of the autoimmune antibodies and no Reverse T3 – but it does include thyroid elements like iodine, selenium, arsenic and bromine. It’s a new methodology – which always makes me slightly nervous! – but it should certainly give you enough info on thyroid problems and I rather liked the report they give too. You can read all about it here and see a sample report here.
Finally (for now!), I have also listed the new DI02 Deiodinase 2 Thyroid Gene Test. Some people have a fault on the gene that controls T3 delivery to the brain and these are often people who don’t do well on normal thyroxine treatment and who do much better in combination with T3. I can now check for this gene issue to help you determine effective treatment. You can read much more about it here: DI02 Deiodinase 2 Gene Test.
Simply put: if you suspect underactive thyroid, do Thyroid Plus (which I prefer) or the ZRT. If you suspect overactive thyroid, do Advanced Thyroid. From that, we can then assess whether you need further eg. iodine or halides testing to confirm hidden issues, which you can see below..
I hope it helps. We’re currently reviewing a few new tests and I’ll let you know about those shortly – the new Cyrex 12 pathogens test is just out too so watch this space!