guru

I had been unable to contact my friend who lived in Pattaya. I did not know his family but by looking through his social media contacts I managed to send a message to his sister/father to see if he had returned to the uk. They had also been unable to contact him so called the foreign office who confirmed he had passed away in hospital in Pattaya. The embassy are working on it but as of yet they have not managed to find out where his body went after the hospital, only that a charity foundation was involved. I thought the embassy would have had all that info available in case any family came forward. I have no idea why the British embassy could not find his family in the uk. Surely his passport application data over the years and birth certificate could be accessed which would lead to father and family being found? I don’t have any idea about the process though. I don’t know exactly how long ago he died but my guess is months rather than weeks or days. As the embassy are looking into it, I’m sure they will find out the details but in the meantime any ideas where his body could have been taken after the hospital? A marked grave somewhere in Pattaya?

I thought the same Scuba but then again I leave for indoors work during the week with the only sun exposure being when I walk to lunch. I thought I was getting enough sun by being outside at the weekends but obviously not. I go to the 24km airport bike lane at the weekend which is completely exposed to the sun but I put factor 50+ sunscreen on which is maybe part of the problem? After prior years of reckless sunbathing and sunburn I had a mole go strange two years ago which concerned the doctor. Biopsy was thankfully ok. Maybe it’s psychological on my part now and I’ve been more cautious of the sun since the biopsy and hence that’s when the low Vitamin D problems started.

Thank you Sheryl for your detailed response. I just went to see an endocrinologist at samitivej and pointed out my high uric acid/glucose levels and low vit d levels and asked her about ordering a parathyroid test. She disagreed after asking me a list of symptoms all of which I didn’t have. She said she didn’t think it was necessary nor could she justify ordering a parathyroid function test if using my insurance. She said abnormal parathyroid level results in abnormal calcium levels and she read me a list of symptoms of which I had none. She also said the low vit D could cause a false positive parathyroid result. She suggested taking the 100,000 vit D units per week for 4 months which she estimates will put me up to about 36 which is in the normal range. She said I could then ask for a parathyroid test which would be more reliable. This samitivej endocrinologist disagreed with the samitivej cardiologist that I saw last week regarding calcium supplements. Even though my vit D is low at 25 today’s doctor says I do not need calcium supplements as I will get enough calcium through diet. She also said she doesn’t think it’s necessary to get a calcium and phosphate blood test today but to reevaluate in 4 months after next appointment and blood test. I am overweight and she obviously told me to reduce weight, by 10%. I’m 89kg. I’m hopeful to get that goal achieved this coming year. I could have not used my insurance and she would order every test I wanted but she said she still didn’t think any were necessary. The parathyroid test was 2400 baht. Calcium was 300 baht and phosphate I think was 400 baht. I have the choice of now waiting to reevaluate at next blood test in 4 months or go somewhere cheaper and pay by myself for the tests. However, I guess the problem is if the parathyroid comes back abnormal, is it a false positive due to my low vit D as warned about today. In response to your questions: My only current medication are statins and Vit D. I have never suffered from gout or any effects of high uric acid so no medication. Family history of gout is only in maternal grandfather. Don’t think I’ve got any bone problems. My age - coming up to 50. Alcohol: did not drink for 6 weeks before last week’s blood test to see if that would have any significant results on uric acid. It did go down from 9.4 to 8.6. Is that significant? When I did not stop drinking before the blood test last year it went down from 9.5 to 7.5. On average I drink about half a dozen bottles of beer on some Friday nights after work but not every week of the year. Finally, she said the high cholesterol and high uric acid could be genetic.

Yes scuba thats’s the goal. I’m on statins three times a week now and will have had blood work done three times by this time next year. I’m hopeful I’ll be off them by then. I’m also hopeful that blood sugar will mirror this and decrease for the same reasons. I know from past experience that Vit D will increase with the 20k unit supplements so not worried there. I do not feel confident that I’m in control of my uric acid though. Doc said reduce alcohol so I didn’t drink for 6 weeks before last blood test but still didn’t reach the window. Will have to do some more research to see what other foods I eat are high in purines. I know about chicken so will reduce that further.

I’m not much of a squatter myself but I just tried and no, there was no pain. I go to the gym every other day and do the usual treadmill, stepper etc and also go cycling around the 24km bike lane at SV airport and no pain at all.

Yes the consumption of junk food was probably the root cause of it all. Reduced junk food after first blood test but I still couldn’t manage to get cholesterol down just by this. Started statins and further reduced junk food to a pizza etc on Saturdays. Now all cholesterol has been normal this year but I don’t know how much of this normality is from my further reduction of junk food and how much is from the three times a week Atozet 10mg/10mg.

Hello yellowtail and thanks for the reply. I’m beginning to think I need to see a nutritionist. I thought I was doing myself a favour by eating chicken, tuna and asparagus but maybe that’s my uric acid downfall. Looking at a range of food on different websites, it’s quite confusing to know what to eat if I want to lower cholesterol, uric acid and glucose.

Hello tropic and thanks for your reply. Oh goodness I hope I can get my uric acid levels down so it doesn’t develop to gout later. I remember my grandad suffered from gout so it’s interesting that you say your high uric acid was hereditary.

No unfortunately body weight not always healthy. It used to be but then I tore my ACL and meniscus playing football. I took far too long to pluck up the courage to get down to see Dr Panya at Bumrungrad to have the knee operation. During that time I gained too much weight, not exercising and not eating healthily. After recovery things got better but the trigger for starting blood work was last year when a friend of the same age dropped dead from a heart attack with no prior warning signs. I booked myself in for a health check up and started to self reflect on my lifestyle. All the bad cholesterol numbers were high. I tried diet first but it did not lower significantly so the doc suggested statins. She initially said I would be on them for life but I don’t want that, so since last year she’s gradually took me down from daily to 3 times a week on the lowest dose. She said if I stop cold turkey it would probably rebound to high levels so she said the best way is to gradually reduce the dosage and frequency to try and get off them. I’ve now managed to lose weight, exercise more and eat more healthily. I’m still not where I want to be with my weight but it’s slowly going in the right direction.

Hello Mike and thanks for your reply. TSH 2.284 Free T4 1.00 Total T4 8.77

Hello scuba and thanks for your reply. Age - approaching 50 Exercise - gym every other day Weekday sun exposure low - limited by work. Weekend - no limit but don’t sunbathe anymore. Weekday lunch- e.g. tuna/egg/salad wholewheat sandwiches. Bread probably doesn’t help glucose levels. Week day evenings - e.g. meat/fish/vegetables. Weekends - eat at wife’s family house or out. Usually end up with rice/noodles in some form. Need to get on top of that.

Hello. I have blood work done at samitivej Sukhumvit every 4 months or so since 2022 and having trouble with my Vitamin D levels and uric acid levels. I obviously get advice from the doc but I’ve come here for any extra tips. Uric acid: their normal range is quoted as 3.5-7.2. I started at 9.5 and it got down to 7.4 and remained stable for a while but then went back up to 9.4 and now it’s back down to 8.6. No matter how much I reduce my alcohol and chicken consumption I haven’t reached the window and don’t know why it’s fluctuating. Not on any medication and no symptoms at all e.g. gout. Vitamin D: their normal range is 30-100. I started at 18 in mid 2022 and she put me on 20,000 units of vit D three times a week and a calcium supplement. 6 months later vit D was still only 25 so she increased the dose to 20k units four times a week. It then rose steadily reaching 35 in August and I was in the window. She then reduced the dosage slightly and said no need to take calcium daily now but just whenever I wanted to as a supplement but I never took any. I’m now back out of the window and down to 25 so she has now increased dosage to 20k five times a week and put me back on calcium. I understand that calcium needs vit D for absorption so it makes sense that when my vit D is low she prescribes a calcium supplement but does it also work the other way round because the only thing I did differently was not take calcium. I can’t find any google literature on this but she said could be. No noticeable symptoms but just been reading the BBC website where they have reported a link between low vit D levels and early onset dementia. I know about sunlight but my work involves being indoors during the day. I do get out at the weekends though but still cautious. After a reckless sun bathing youth, a recent skin cancer scare on a mole on my back came back negative from the biopsy. Cholesterol: this seems to be doing well and my goal is to get off statins eventually. I was on 20mg daily in 2022 but shes gradually decreased dosage and I’m now down to Atozet 10mg/10mg three times per week. Hopefully next visit gets this decreased further. Glucose: HbA1c hasn’t budged from 5.7 which she says is just in the prediabetes window. I blame the rice/noodles everywhere when all I want is meat/fish and vegetables. Not sure what meat I can eat though because red meat affects cholesterol and chicken affects my uric acid. Anyway I need to get in control of this by myself. One last thing, when I had the exercise stress test false positive last year, the CT scan gave 0% calcium in the arteries. Will all these calcium supplements make their way into my arteries and change my clean record? Samitivej Doc says no but Dr Google suggests otherwise.

I had my meniscus repaired and ACL reconstructed by Dr Panya at Bumrungrad. He did a good job.

If you decide to have the exercise stress test, don’t automatically panic like I did if the doc says your results are abnormal. I had an exercise stress test as part of my annual medical at Samitivej Sukhumvit and doc said abnormal. She said it could be a false positive but to cease all exercise until I had a CT scan at 25k and one just happened to be available that evening. Only way to rule out this false positive was this CT scan. I was as scared as anything and in my mind, I had no choice. Scan came back normal with 0% calcium in my arteries and the exercise stress test abnormality was ruled a false positive. My mate had the same false positive stress test and same clear CT scan result at an annual check up in a different hospital. Good luck with your check up and I hope all goes well.

Just got an sms from Bangchak with log in details for their phone app and successfully gained entry. The app is all in Thai so can’t read a word of it except my name at the top but ever so excited about the imminent arrival of my member card. Oh and the wife found her member card in the car yesterday so I didn’t have to do any of this.