My dear Peat community, I’m looking for advises for my ADD 10y.o son.
Just got diagnosed w/underactive thyroid and copper overload. I’m attaching his last results.
Would highly appreciate your thoughts on what could affect his thyroid (was it copper or possibly smth. else) and how we can try to up his thyroid naturally, as well what to do with copper.
I don’t know for how long he has this copper issue going (this is the last thing docs would want to check), but I definitely see his thyroid going down since 2019. TSH was 1.5 in 2019, in 2022 – 2.0 and 2023 – 3.7.
This goes along with worsening of his ADD symptoms and others:
- HUGE sleep issues (difficulties going to sleep and multiple wakeups through the night)
- difficulty concentrating and memorizing
- struggles with school progress (went from 95% to 25%)
- mood swings: sadness to excitement, outbursts of anger and irritability, often low grade anxiety.
- very tired in the mornings and hyperactive pm.
- multiple flues/colds in the past year.
And things have dramatically worsened in the last 6-9mo. During this period he significantly (like x4 times) increased his sports activities and lives in high-stress environment due to a family situation.
Some of his health history:
- adenoidectomy in 2019, long before I learned a lot …
- appendicectomy in early 2020. Both w/antibiotics and we had long entertainment to restore his digestion.
- He was a bit anemic and D-deficient, but currently his levels look much better.
His BT looks a little elevated to me: 36.7-36.9C (97.9-98.4F) am, 37,5-37,6C (99.5-99.7F) pm, 37.1C (98.8F) before bed (runs on cortisol?)
BP is normal for his age.
He is rather constipated, but Magnesium 200mg/day makes him regular.
His diet is mostly eggs, chicken, beef, milk, yogurt, cheese, broth/soups, fruits, some vegies (cucumbers, carrots, beets, potato), honey, OJ and other juices, rice, pasta and home-made bread, gelatin to boost his protein intake. BUT he does not have appetite and usually consumes only 1200-1300k/day. Despite that, he is very tall for his age…
Also, he has to have occasional school dinners…
He does not have any allergies or gluten sensitivity.
Supplements: Estroban + Energin full dose/day + sperti lamp for D + Thorne Trace Mineral 1/day + additional Zn ~10mg/day to antagonize his copper +Mg 200mg/day.
We tried:
- Thorne multivitamins 2/day for about 2years, and had great respond to them initially. But taken for so long and coupled with gelatin, it may have contributed to copper overload (?)
- black tee/ some coffee for caffeine + L-theanine for ADD, and
- high dose of different forms of Thiamine, but I did not see noticeable improvements from both.
- stopped sport completely and got some sleep improvements.
To what I learned so far, copper overload can indirectly make thyroid working less efficiently. On the other hand, hypothyroidism can also affect liver’s ability to filter out copper properly.
Zink, EGCG, Vit C, A (not sure here, though), B3, B6, B5 can help with copper overload. Please correct/ add your thoughts.
As to thyroid issue…
I do not want to jump on supplementing thyroid until I try all possibilities to improve it in natural way. Most likely, because I did not have success with levothyroxine/liothyronine myself. There are a lot of things to screw up on this road if you do not have great understanding what you are doing. Also, I would have impaired feedback from him (child’s communications) and would need frequent bloodworks to monitor his levels.
Sorry guys, I tried to keep this post short and readable, but wanted to include some details as well.
@redsun, @haidut, @Hans, @youngsinatra would highly appreciate your thoughts.
@Daniil, just started your thread on ADHD and copper. So you think supplementing some Vit A in addition to the diet would help? His ceruloplasmin is already on the higher side.
Just got diagnosed w/underactive thyroid and copper overload. I’m attaching his last results.
Would highly appreciate your thoughts on what could affect his thyroid (was it copper or possibly smth. else) and how we can try to up his thyroid naturally, as well what to do with copper.
I don’t know for how long he has this copper issue going (this is the last thing docs would want to check), but I definitely see his thyroid going down since 2019. TSH was 1.5 in 2019, in 2022 – 2.0 and 2023 – 3.7.
This goes along with worsening of his ADD symptoms and others:
- HUGE sleep issues (difficulties going to sleep and multiple wakeups through the night)
- difficulty concentrating and memorizing
- struggles with school progress (went from 95% to 25%)
- mood swings: sadness to excitement, outbursts of anger and irritability, often low grade anxiety.
- very tired in the mornings and hyperactive pm.
- multiple flues/colds in the past year.
And things have dramatically worsened in the last 6-9mo. During this period he significantly (like x4 times) increased his sports activities and lives in high-stress environment due to a family situation.
Some of his health history:
- adenoidectomy in 2019, long before I learned a lot …
- appendicectomy in early 2020. Both w/antibiotics and we had long entertainment to restore his digestion.
- He was a bit anemic and D-deficient, but currently his levels look much better.
His BT looks a little elevated to me: 36.7-36.9C (97.9-98.4F) am, 37,5-37,6C (99.5-99.7F) pm, 37.1C (98.8F) before bed (runs on cortisol?)
BP is normal for his age.
He is rather constipated, but Magnesium 200mg/day makes him regular.
His diet is mostly eggs, chicken, beef, milk, yogurt, cheese, broth/soups, fruits, some vegies (cucumbers, carrots, beets, potato), honey, OJ and other juices, rice, pasta and home-made bread, gelatin to boost his protein intake. BUT he does not have appetite and usually consumes only 1200-1300k/day. Despite that, he is very tall for his age…
Also, he has to have occasional school dinners…
He does not have any allergies or gluten sensitivity.
Supplements: Estroban + Energin full dose/day + sperti lamp for D + Thorne Trace Mineral 1/day + additional Zn ~10mg/day to antagonize his copper +Mg 200mg/day.
We tried:
- Thorne multivitamins 2/day for about 2years, and had great respond to them initially. But taken for so long and coupled with gelatin, it may have contributed to copper overload (?)
- black tee/ some coffee for caffeine + L-theanine for ADD, and
- high dose of different forms of Thiamine, but I did not see noticeable improvements from both.
- stopped sport completely and got some sleep improvements.
To what I learned so far, copper overload can indirectly make thyroid working less efficiently. On the other hand, hypothyroidism can also affect liver’s ability to filter out copper properly.
Zink, EGCG, Vit C, A (not sure here, though), B3, B6, B5 can help with copper overload. Please correct/ add your thoughts.
As to thyroid issue…
I do not want to jump on supplementing thyroid until I try all possibilities to improve it in natural way. Most likely, because I did not have success with levothyroxine/liothyronine myself. There are a lot of things to screw up on this road if you do not have great understanding what you are doing. Also, I would have impaired feedback from him (child’s communications) and would need frequent bloodworks to monitor his levels.
Sorry guys, I tried to keep this post short and readable, but wanted to include some details as well.
@redsun, @haidut, @Hans, @youngsinatra would highly appreciate your thoughts.
@Daniil, just started your thread on ADHD and copper. So you think supplementing some Vit A in addition to the diet would help? His ceruloplasmin is already on the higher side.