Help with Blood Test Results

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

I hope I’m putting this in the right forum. I recently got the results from a blood test I had done, and was hoping someone could help point out anything that seems like it could potentially keep me from my goals (strong, lean, and healthy).

I’m 27 years old, 5’9", 190 lb with 15-16% bodyfat. I just finished I, Bodybuilder, running each phase for 4 weeks. I started this year at 178 pounds. I haven’t been gaining weight as quickly as I was before I dieted last (November-December '09), and I’m not really sure why.

Results:

*DHEA Sulfate - 60 m(EDIT: SHOULD READ 206) cg/dl (Normal Range: 110-510)

*Lipids:
-Total Cholesterol - 216 mg/dl (125-200)
-HDL - 70 mg/dl (= > 40)
-LDL - 131 mg/dl (<130) ← was surprised by this result
-Triglycerides - 75 mg/dl (< 150)

*Metabolic Panel
-Glucose - 88 mg/dl (65-99)
-Urea Nitrogen (BUN) - 28 mg/dl (7-25)
-Creatinine - 1.16 mg/dl (0.80-1.30)
-eGFR Non-Afr. American - > 60 ml/min/1.73m2 (less than or equal to 60)
-eGFR Afr. American - > 60 ml/min/1.73m2 (less than or equal to 60)
-BUN/Creatinine Ratio - 24 (6-22)
-Sodium - 142 mmol/L (135-146)
-Potassium - 4.1 mmol/L (3.5-5.3)
-Chloride - 105 mmol/L (98-110)
-Carbon Dioxide - 25 mmol/L (21-33)
-Calcium 9.8 mg/dl (8.6-10.2)
-Protein, Total - 6.7 g/dl (6.2-8.3)
-Albumin - 4.5 g/dl (3.6-5.1)
-Globulin - 2.2 g/dl (2.1-3.7)
-Albumin/Globulin Ratio - 2.0 (1.0-2.1)
-Bilirubin, Total 1.8 mg/dl (0.2-1.2)
-Alkaline Phosphatase - 98 U/L (40-115)
-AST - 31 U/L (10-40)
-ALT - 26 U/L (9-60)

*TSH, 3rd Generation - 3.94 mIU/L (0.40-4.50)

*Testosterone
-Total T - 583 ng/dl (250-1100)
-Free T - 102.6 pg/ml (46.0-224.0)
-Bioavailable - 219.8 ng/dl (110.0-575.0)
-SHBG - 24 nmol/L (7-49)
-Albumin, Serum - 4.7 g/dl (3.6-5.1)

*Sed Rate - 9 mm/h (< or = 15)

*Complete Blood Count - Lots of stuff, nothing abnormal, so I won’t post it

*Prolactin - 10.2 ng/ml (2.0-18.0)

*Estradiol - 32 pg/ml (13-54)

Sorry for the long post. Any help would be appreciated.

2

I would have thyroid checked
ft3
ft4
ferritin
revere t3
TPO
TGAB
vitamin d 25 oh
Cortisol saliva 24 hour

Dieting probably screwed your adrenals and thyroid up affecting your ability to metabolize estrodial

You should feel fine with these numbers.
Question are what are your symtpoms?

3

Find 50mg DHEA and take every day. Your low DHEA suggests that there might be adrenal problems and low DHEA can limit T production. Your DHEA is very low.

E2 is getting high, compared to your T levels.

You might have hypothyroidism. You need to make sure that your diet has a decent source of iodine. If you use sea salt or kosher salt you are probably iodine deficient. Address that before you get too deep into testing.

Describe your energy morning, noon, late afternoon and evening. Do you sleep ok and how has that changed?

Do you ever feel physically weakened by major stress? Any surgeries, infections, car accidents, periods of high stress?

4

Adding in dhea may drive up e2 so one needs to be cautious about this.
Here is what I have found people with low dhea are also low thyroid as well as have altered 2/16 OHE ratio.
Correcting the thyroid may be the route to go here to raise the DHEA levels
The body may lower DHEA as a protective mechanism against low thyroid to protect its self from cancer…

5

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:
I would have thyroid checked
ft3
ft4
ferritin
revere t3
TPO
TGAB
vitamin d 25 oh
Cortisol saliva 24 hour

Dieting probably screwed your adrenals and thyroid up affecting your ability to metabolize estrodial

You should feel fine with these numbers.
Question are what are your symtpoms?[/quote]

I would agree that I dieted wrong a few years ago (2007), as my sex drive diminished drastically since then, but is on it’s way back up. Since then, I’ve learned a lot and I diet much more intelligently, but probably haven’t recovered from my past mistakes.

The sex drive was my main symptom that initiated the blood test.

Otherwise, I do have a lot of trouble losing fat when dieting. I’ve been concerned that it may have to do with my thyroid, as a Biosignature practitioner that I used to see was also frustrated by my lack of fat loss, despite following his diet, training, and supplement protocols.

I will see if I can get my thyroid checked out. It was tough convincing my doctor to test what I had requested, so I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for the response.

6

[quote]KSman wrote:
Find 50mg DHEA and take every day. Your low DHEA suggests that there might be adrenal problems and low DHEA can limit T production. Your DHEA is very low.

E2 is getting high, compared to your T levels.

You might have hypothyroidism. You need to make sure that your diet has a decent source of iodine. If you use sea salt or kosher salt you are probably iodine deficient. Address that before you get too deep into testing.

Describe your energy morning, noon, late afternoon and evening. Do you sleep ok and how has that changed?

Do you ever feel physically weakened by major stress? Any surgeries, infections, car accidents, periods of high stress?[/quote]

I worry about my estrogen levels, as I had gyno as a teenager (had the surgery for it when I was 16).

I use sea salt mostly, but it’s the “real” sea salt (gray and pink color). I also eat a few eggs a day, which seems to be a good source for iodine. Is there a food you recommend I add in for iodine?

My energy is almost always steady throughout the day, but waking up is tough. I have to lift in the morning (wake up at about 5am), which I know isn’t ideal, but I’ve been doing it for a couple years now and prefer it that way. My energy never slips throughout the day. On weekends, I never have a problem falling asleep, but if I have work the next day, I have trouble sleeping without 1.5 mg of melatonin and 1 Z-12 capsule. With that, I fall asleep in 10 minutes or less.

I don’t feel weakened by stress, but actually the opposite. I have more drive to get my work done. College was extremely stressful for me, however, and it almost completely changed me as a person. I finished college 2.5 years ago.

Otherwise, no surgeries, infections, or other traumas.

I have been having a bit of digestive distress over the past few months, usually 2 hours after a workout, I need to run to the washroom. It’s probably just my para-workout stuff (Finibar, malto, whey hydro/whey iso, BCAA’s, Beta Alanine), since I know it gets digested quickly, but I figured I’d mention it in case it’s a symptom of hypothyroidism.

Thanks a lot for your response and all the questions you answer for us.

7

[quote]KSman wrote:
Find 50mg DHEA and take every day. Your low DHEA suggests that there might be adrenal problems and low DHEA can limit T production. Your DHEA is very low.

E2 is getting high, compared to your T levels.

You might have hypothyroidism. You need to make sure that your diet has a decent source of iodine. If you use sea salt or kosher salt you are probably iodine deficient. Address that before you get too deep into testing.

Describe your energy morning, noon, late afternoon and evening. Do you sleep ok and how has that changed?

Do you ever feel physically weakened by major stress? Any surgeries, infections, car accidents, periods of high stress?[/quote]

I checked my DHEA number again, and realized I had a typo. I edited the entry, but it should read 206mcg/dL.

My mistake.

8

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:
Adding in dhea may drive up e2 so one needs to be cautious about this.
Here is what I have found people with low dhea are also low thyroid as well as have altered 2/16 OHE ratio.
Correcting the thyroid may be the route to go here to raise the DHEA levels
The body may lower DHEA as a protective mechanism against low thyroid to protect its self from cancer…
[/quote]

I don’t think that we are wanting to discourage DHEA use, few really have such problems and your work probably exposes you to a disproportionate group. If E levels are elevate or increase, we still do not want low levels of DHEA and then one should supplement DHEA and then address the other problems as needed.

“altered 2/16 OHE ratio” is cryptic that it leads to confusion. We need to define this and find a home in the stickies for this info with links. If there is a digestive link, then we also need to define the role of probiotics and diet.

“The body may lower DHEA”: I am not aware of any control loop for DHEA and was under the impression that it was open loops and highly subject to the effects of aging as we see with its decline. The body is not cancer aware. If you told me that low thyroid levels impair many functions of the body and that this also compromises adrenal function as evidenced by lower DHEA levels, that would make sense to me.

9

here is a pretty in-depth article about the 2/16 ratio.

The incidence of cancer of the breast and other estrogen-sensitive tissue is increased by exposure to estrogen and especially by increased 16�±-OHE1 in the presence of low conversion to 2-OHE1. The 2/16�± ratio is the most modifiable and possibly the single greatest factor impacting estrogen-sensitive cancer risk. <www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/7/2/112.pdf>

should this be posted on the estrogen thread? Also can the current estrogen thread be replaced with a new uncluttered one? 542 posts is a lot to read through when 75% of them are not particularly helpful.

10

If it is something to test for, there is a clean sticky thread for that. The issue can be its own post in that thread and I can refer to it from the leading post. This new post in that thread can be evolved with the [edit] button, but only one person can do that. If others have concerns or questions, they should PM the post’s author and then changes can be made to the one post.

But we need to also post why one would be considering this testing, then what one would do with the results in terms of correcting the situation. If the issue is not actionable, what is the point? Also discuss the consequences of doing nothing. We don’t need too many breast cancer research papers. What are the implications for guys on TRT and what are the implications for those who are not. How rare are these imbalances with males?

Doc: You are going to die in 6 months.
Patient: Doc what can I do about this?
Doc: You can spend thousands of dollars on tests, but you are still going to die.

11

[quote]eggers wrote:

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:
I would have thyroid checked
ft3
ft4
ferritin
revere t3
TPO
TGAB
vitamin d 25 oh
Cortisol saliva 24 hour

Dieting probably screwed your adrenals and thyroid up affecting your ability to metabolize estrodial

You should feel fine with these numbers.
Question are what are your symtpoms?[/quote]

I would agree that I dieted wrong a few years ago (2007), as my sex drive diminished drastically since then, but is on it’s way back up. Since then, I’ve learned a lot and I diet much more intelligently, but probably haven’t recovered from my past mistakes.

The sex drive was my main symptom that initiated the blood test.

Otherwise, I do have a lot of trouble losing fat when dieting. I’ve been concerned that it may have to do with my thyroid, as a Biosignature practitioner that I used to see was also frustrated by my lack of fat loss, despite following his diet, training, and supplement protocols.

I will see if I can get my thyroid checked out. It was tough convincing my doctor to test what I had requested, so I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for the response.
[/quote]

You can goto Dr crisler in michagen …

12

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:

[quote]eggers wrote:

[quote]Hardasnails wrote:
I would have thyroid checked
ft3
ft4
ferritin
revere t3
TPO
TGAB
vitamin d 25 oh
Cortisol saliva 24 hour

Dieting probably screwed your adrenals and thyroid up affecting your ability to metabolize estrodial

You should feel fine with these numbers.
Question are what are your symtpoms?[/quote]

I would agree that I dieted wrong a few years ago (2007), as my sex drive diminished drastically since then, but is on it’s way back up. Since then, I’ve learned a lot and I diet much more intelligently, but probably haven’t recovered from my past mistakes.

The sex drive was my main symptom that initiated the blood test.

Otherwise, I do have a lot of trouble losing fat when dieting. I’ve been concerned that it may have to do with my thyroid, as a Biosignature practitioner that I used to see was also frustrated by my lack of fat loss, despite following his diet, training, and supplement protocols.

I will see if I can get my thyroid checked out. It was tough convincing my doctor to test what I had requested, so I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks for the response.
[/quote]

You can goto Dr crisler in michagen …[/quote]

It looks like I’ll have to visit my doctor for another reason, so I’ll ask for this while I’m there.

I’m using an HMO health insurance plan right now, so my choices of doctors are limited. Thanks for the tip, though.

13

[quote]KSman wrote:

E2 is getting high, compared to your T levels.

[/quote]

I’ve been looking at this thread: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

Do you think that would be a good path for me? Otherwise, what would you suggest I do to lower my E2?

14

I added a post to that thread. The topic is way bigger than you [and they] thought. There really is not a connection to E2 at all other than the fact that more T drives higher T–>E aromatization rates. You need to use anastrozole to manage E2, stay focused on that.