Renew the paradigm. Optimize our therapy.
We've known since at least 2002 that being within "normal range" is never good enough when it comes to thyroid hormone blood tests. An important set of articles has taught us that each human being has an optimal range for TSH, Total T4 and Total T3 that is far less the width of the population-wide …
Continue reading Individual thyroid ranges are 38-68% the size of the lab reference range
Robert Utiger, M.D. (1931-2008) is well known in endocrinology as the father of the TSH test. Despite his trust in the TSH test, in his publications he acknowledged that TSH behaved very unnaturally in response to T3 levels in blood while dosing T3 thyroid medication. What Utiger discovered in the 1970s and 1980s about the …
Continue reading A Dialogue with Utiger: T3-based thyroid therapy over-suppresses TSH
In standard T4 thyroid therapy, TSH normalization is so easy to achieve that it is almost impossible to fail. First, TSH out of range is the judge of an initial DIAGNOSIS. Next, normal TSH becomes the sole TARGET of therapy. Finally, normal TSH becomes the sole JUDGE of therapy success. This is faulty reasoning. There …
Patients and doctors are often told there's an ideal "target" for TSH levels. Some believe that in thyroid therapy, your TSH should be below the upper reference limit, some say it should be below 2.5, and a minority will even say it should be suppressed entirely whether or not you are a thyroid cancer patient. …
Continue reading Targeting TSH? It’s not as specific or as sensitive as people claim.
Many research studies have shown a strong association between low TSH and low bone mineral density or osteoporosis. As a result, many guidelines strongly caution against the risk associated with low TSH. Some doctors and thyroid patients have jumped to the conclusion that a low TSH “causes” osteoporosis. Some even believe a low TSH must …
Continue reading As of 2019, still no proof that low TSH causes harm to bones
Table 17.1 in Braverman & Cooper's 2013 chapter in Werner & Ingbar's The Thyroid textbook, 10th edition, lists many causes of thyrotoxicosis. One of the interesting causes of thyrotoxicosis, rarely mentioned in public discourse, is "Circulating HCG or Mutant TSHR [TSH receptor] hypersensitive to HCG." What is HCG? "Human chorionic gonadotropin" is a hormone produced …
Continue reading Pregnancy thyrotoxicosis vs just a low TSH due to HCG hormone
How many treated hypothyroid patients' TSH has fallen below range even when both their thyroid hormones are in normal range and when they have no symptoms or signs of hyperactivity or hypermetabolism? In my observation on thyroid patient forums, the answer is "too many." It's common among thyroid patients to resort to such forums for …
Continue reading TSH “can be very misleading” during thyroid therapy, say researchers
