Recommended Thyroid and Adrenal Labs

These are the routine labs that have been helpful for myself and my family for a decent outlook on thyroid function and adrenal glands.  There is a limited amount of blood we can get out of our children, and we don’t want more blood ordered than is available. 

THYROID:

TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3.  It is good to also rule out antibodies with TgAb (Hashimoto’s), TPO (Hashimoto’s), and TSI (Graves.) The antibodies tests may be bumped to another set of labs if it is hard to get an order for this many labs.

ANEMIA:

TIBC, serum iron, ferritin, and % saturation.  Pernicious anemia: serum B-12, MMA, folate.

General: CBC, CMP

Adrenal function: 24-hour Saliva Cortisol (see below)

For adults, looking at sex hormones could be important too: Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone.

I also like to refer to The Down Syndrome Treatment Center of Oregon’s list of labs.  I wouldn’t limit this list to Down syndrome.  I feel it is a great list for us all.

http://www.downsyndrometreatment.net/faq.html

 

Stop the Thyroid Madness has an excellent list of recommended labs. 

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/recommended-labwork/

 

SALIVA CORTISOL TESTS

If it is questionable whether your kiddo can spit into a tube, you can practice spitting to see if and how much saliva you can get.  You could also check with the lab and see if the sample drawn by a bulb syringe could be used.  Smelling a lemon can help produce saliva.  There are pediatric collections kits listed below as well as a good spit test.

NeuroScience Adrenal Tests (doctor must order these tests)

NeuroAdrenal Basic 9028 (Cortisol x4, DHEA, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, Dopamine, Serotonin, Glycine, GABA, Glutamate, PEA, Histamine)

https://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?p=testDet&testID=31&TestPanelName=NeuroAdrenal Basic

NeuroAdrenal Essential 9094 (Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, Dopamine, Serotonin, GABA, Glutamate, PEA, Cortisol x4) https://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?p=testDet&testID=239&TestPanelName=NeuroAdrenal Essential

 Adrenal Rhythm 7000 ( Cortisol x4)

https://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?p=testDet&testID=73&TestPanelName=Adrenal Rhythm

 

Here are some avenues to get a saliva cortisol test without going through your doctor.

Cotton:  MyMedLab’s *Sabre* cortisol saliva kits come with the cotton swab ones, but it has to be the Sabre ones.

Cotton:  MyMedLab carries others as well. It’s a 6-sample test, which would mean waking your child up twice during the night.

/https://www.mymedlab.com/products/search?q=adrenal+stress

Cotton: DirectLabs has a 4-sample one from MetaMatrix which is the cotton one, too. https://www.directlabs.com/TestDetail.aspx?testid=308&locale=en-US

Spit:  MyMedLab spit, four times a day.  https://sttm.mymedlab.com/sttm-profiles/sttm-24-hour-cortisol-dhea

© Leslie Boswell 2014