Hey ,
Excellent questions! I will answer them the best way possible one by one.
Vitamin D
Excellent supplement choice! When I have clients dealing with low vitamin D levels, I usually make sure that they supplement with magnesium as well. We need magnesium to transform vitamin D3 into the bioactive form of vitamin D. This happens in 2 steps: one is done in the liver and the second step is done in the kidneys. Remember this for later.
Usually, once magnesium is repleted or at least in sufficient quantities added into the diet, I recommend somewhere between the 2000-8000 IU. But I would really recommend you to read this handout about vitamin D. It will provide you with a protocol description on how to raise your vitamin D levels.
One final tip on this topic: the amount of D3 units to raise serum vitamin D levels is personal. Some need more than others. Once you are on a maintenance dosage for 2-3 months retest your serum vitamin D levels. Personally, I aim with my clients to have serum levels around 50 mg/dl.
TSH
Elevations in TSH can indicate that your thyroid function has slowed down. Since vitamin D is needed to produce healthy amounts of T3, a lack of vitamin D can influence TSH levels.
Other nutrients that should be in your diet are Iodine, Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, Selenium and enough protein (in particular the amino acid Tyrosine is needed to produce thyroid hormones). Examining your intake of these nutrients can be helpful as well.
There could be other reasons why your TSH is influenced, but since this isn’t considered a full thyroid panel in functional medicine, we can’t dive deeper into what other things might have caused these elevations. It might be a logical next step to investigate this further. Especially when you experience symptoms like:
• feeling cold all the time
• experiencing unexplained weight gain/hard to lose weight
• Hair loss
• feeling fatigued.. moving slowly or feeling that your thoughts are slow.
• depression
• constipation
You can find information about how to test your thyroid in this video.
Cholesterol
I already touched on this a bit. There could be more reasons why LDL is elevated. LDL is a taxi and it drives cholesterol around. But its primary function is to transport fats and therefore fats do influence LDL. A diet high in fast carbs and sugars can also elevate cholesterol. If you believe diet isn’t a factor, cholesterol secretions might also be worth something to examine.
Cholesterol is transported out of the body through the bile produced by your liver. Cholesterol crystals could form and cause a bile duct obstruction leading to elevations in cholesterol in the body.
These crystals are called gallstones and when there sometimes can cause sudden pain in the upper right portion of your abdomen, sudden and rapidly intensifying pain in the centre of your abdomen, just below your breastbone or back pain between your shoulder blades.
If you experiencing these pains the supplement D-limonene can help solve these cholesterol crystals.
Iron
We can say a lot about lab values, but lab values never answer the most important question: how do you feel?
Hemoglobin for example is at the lower end of the reference range. Some people can feel already start presenting anemic symptoms like:
• Feeling cold
• Feeling fatigued, even when you have slept well
• Looking pail
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Pins & needles in hands & feet (although often not in the beginning)
A lack of vitamin B12, folate and B6 however can also lead to another type of anemia. When both types of anemia are present at the same time, they can hide each other to a certain degree making some lab values look really great, while your body takes the hit.
MCV is for example such a marker. MCV is a value that describes the size of the average red blood cell in your body. A lack of iron can make the size of red blood cells smaller, while the lack of B12, folate or B6 can make the average size bigger. If both types of anemia are present at the same time, the MCV might average out to a normal value.
Asking yourself “how do I feel?”, is therefore leading to what you should do.
As to your question: what part confuses you in particular? Perhaps I could give you a more targeted answer there.
Are there any additional things I need to keep an eye on given these lab results?
Most of the markers look really great! Your liver enzymes (ALT, AST) are on the lower end of normal though. This can indicate the need for more B6 in your diet. The alkaline phosphatase marker is also at the lower end of the reference range. This often happens with a zinc deficiency since zinc is a cofactor needed to produce this enzyme.
The white blood cells should also be interpreted in light of your current health circumstances. Vitamin D is needed for an optimal functioning immune system. A lack of vitamin D can lower the number of white blood cells in your body making you more receptive to flues. There is some evidence in your white blood cell differentiation that your immune system is dealing with something. Were you sick recently?
I hope this answers your questions.
Let me know if you have any more!