I would like to introduce you to Subject #7, the only person in Pilo's 1990 study who had a thyroid secretion ratio of 14.5 parts T4 to 1 part T3, which was closest to the statistical average of 15.87 to 1. Why is this individual so important to the history of thyroid science and modern … Continue reading Meet a person with the perfect T3:T4 thyroid secretion ratio
In my earlier post about circadian rhythms in thyroid health, I asked two quiz questions about TSH, FT3 and FT4 variability. First I asked "Which value varies the most during the day, a) TSH, b) Free T3 or c) Free T4?" There, I showed you, through various visuals by Russell et al, 2008, that TSH … Continue reading The significance of the TSH-FT3 circadian rhythm
Let's take a thyroid hormone rhythm quiz to get into this article. It's only two questions long, and both questions and answers are in this introduction. Question #1. Which value varies the most during the day, a) TSH, b) Free T3 or c) Free T4? If you chose a) TSH, you get a gold star! … Continue reading Circadian rhythms of TSH, Free T4 and Free T3 in thyroid health
This summary blog post will take you through a visual journey as you follow thyroid hormones through bloodstream, transporters, cells, and receptors. This infographic is not like most others you'll see that portray a gland-centric view of the HPT axis. Instead, I take a hormone-centric view. The thyroid hormones themselves are the heroes of their … Continue reading Infographic: Thyroid hormone journey
Too many diagrams focus on the "HPT axis," in which the Hypothalamus, the Pituitary, and Thyroid gland are the biggest icons. Take for example this diagram from Ortiga-Carvalho's chapter in a physiology textbook. The huge, super-ballsy pituitary. Seriously? In diagrams like these (this is not the only such pictorial), the truly pea-sized TSH-secreting pituitary gets … Continue reading Visual bias: The pituitary gland in HPT axis diagrams
