Help with Hypothyroidism
I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid in 2003, and like every other good patient, I had my labs done every 6 months. The labs the doctor requested were usually TSH and T4. The result was usually “every looks fine, your labs are normal”, and every now and then the doctor might do a slight […]
Tracking your signs and symptoms can provide vital information and clues to whether your treatment plan, your medication levels, supplements and even lifestyle changes are effective or not. Doctors use “symptoms” and “signs” in a very specific way: Symptom: something that you, the patient, feels or complains about. Sign: a specific observation or measurement that […]
Do you know the difference between clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism? And what euthyroid means?
The (scary) statistics about hypothyroidism [1]: An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease. Women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to have thyroid problems. One in eight will develop a thyroid disorder during her lifetime. Then, let’s add the following statistics [2]: In iodine-sufficient regions, autoimmune thyroid disease […]
Following from yesterday’s email about cortisol and that it is an important ingredient for your energy levels: Your cells need glucose, together with T3 hormones, to produce energy. The glucose level in your blood is managed by cortisol. However, cortisol fluctuates during the day, and our quality of sleep also affects our cortisol levels. Here’s how it works […]
Fatigue is a symptom that can have many underlying causes. While too little thyroid hormones (T4, T3 or both) could be cause, what if your thyroid hormones levels are “normal”? What then? Hello cortisol. You may know cortisol as your stress-coping hormone. Did you know that your cells contain mitochondria, which is like the cell’s energy […]
Free T3 hormones are the active hormones that our cells can use for energy and other metabolic functions. Reverse T3 plays an important role, in keeping the balance in our body and ensuring that there are not too many T4 thyroid hormones in your body. But some things can throw this balance out. According to […]
During the process of converting the inactive T4 hormones to the active T3 hormones, the body converts some of this T4 into another hormone called Reverse T3. Reverse T3 (shortened to rT3) plays an important role. It acts like a balancer – to make sure that there is not too much T4 going around in […]
The thyroid gland produces mainly T4 thyroid hormones and a little T3 hormones. But these two types of hormones play very different roles in your body. First, T4 has very little biological action of any significance, according to Paul Robinson, author of the book Recovering with T3. T4 is more of a storage hormone, or […]
Once your thyroid gland produced thyroid hormones, these hormones must reach its end destination: the cells in your body. Think about it this way: the thyroid hormones must catch a ride on a bus to get to its destination. There are plenty of busses to make sure that this happens. The bus is actually called […]
