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
Seeing things visually might help clarify what thyroid therapy is like. Our thyroid hides in our neck and our hormones hide in every inch of our body. Nobody sees our thyroid gland distort, die, or shrivel. Nobody sees what fatigue feels like. Nobody sees organs suffering from lack of T3. Nobody sees how our pills …
Continue reading What if TSH levels were like shoe sizes, thyroid meds like mobility aids
When you are steeped in a medical paradigm, its fallacies can be as comfortable and taken for granted as an old pair of sneakers. In this post, I'll take apart several thyroid therapy fallacies, starting with the fallacy "description is not prescription." I will investigate many of the ways in which patients on T4 monotherapy …
Continue reading Several fallacies in the TSH-T4 paradigm of thyroid therapy
This post takes a closer look at the "ultrashort feedback loop," the biological mechanism by which the TSHR stimulating antibody (TSAb) can oversuppress TSH in any autoimmune hypothyroid patient. TSHR ANTIBODY EFFECTS ON MANY ORGANS As most people know, in Graves' disease, when TSH receptors on the thyroid gland are overstimulated by TSH-Receptor antibodies (TSAb), …
Continue reading How TSH ultrashort feedback works, and antibody interference
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
Table 17.1 in Braverman & Cooper's 2013 chapter in Werner & Ingbar's The Thyroid textbook, 10th edition, lists many causes of thyrotoxicosis. The only time the TSH _hormone_ is listed as a cause of thyrotoxicosis is in the case of "Inappropriate TSH hypersecretion." If thyrotoxicosis can occur when TSH is inappropriately _high_ or non-suppressed in …
Continue reading Thyrotoxicosis can occur with high or normal 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. Unscientific …
