TSH hormone
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Thyrotoxicosis vs. Low TSH
Our medical system has invested so much in the TSH test that we’ve given it authority to override medical discernment about thyrotoxicosis. The oft-repeated mantras that “TSH is the most sensitive and specific test” and “the only necessary test” have blinded many doctors to the diverse influences that can suppress or inflate TSH secretion. Many…
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Thyrotoxicosis? Many factors can lower TSH
Many substances and health factors can, independently of thyroid hormones, lower TSH secretion significantly. These factors are not listed in Braverman & Cooper’s chapter on thyrotoxicosis in Werner & Ingbar’s The Thyroid textbook, 10th edition 2013, because their chapter avoids defining the syndrome by a low TSH. Nevertheless, these TSH-lowering factors should always be mentioned…
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TSHR Antibodies can distort TSH secretion
There’s an underestimated, under-studied TSH feedback loop that almost nobody talks about: The ultrashort feedback loop at the pituitary gland. By means of acting on this feedback loop, a thyroid antibody may have a direct effect on TSH secretion as well as our T4 and T3 levels. This antibody is far more prevalent and clinically…
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The pituitary response is abnormal. Stop TSH worship.
After oversimplifying T4 conversion as if it only converts into T3 (see Part 1 of this post), Canada’s endocrinology association make the claim that: “Intracellular T3 levels regulate pituitary secretion and blood levels of TSH, as well as the effects of thyroid hormone in multiple organs.” (1) This may be partially true, but it is…
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REVIEW: TSH does not enhance T3 levels in age
This 2016 research study discovered that TSH plays a role in enhancing T4-T3 conversion, but TSH is less able to enhance T3 levels after age 40. METHODS: Free T3, free T4, and TSH levels from 527, 564 sera collected from patients aged 1 year or greater were studied. … 27,940 samples remaining after exclusion were stratified…