They say that history is written by the victors. Not always. Sometimes histories are written by advocates for the oppressed and disenfranchised. A common theme on our website is the need to see current practices and thyroid therapy challenges in light of thyroid therapy history. Instead of trusting histories written by scientists, one ought to … Continue reading Mimicry: The idol of T3-T4 combo therapy 2004-2014
A trend in thyroid therapy, sparked by a 1995 rat study, attempted to mimic a narrowly estimated T3:T4 ratio secreted by human thyroid glands. This trend was based on a theory of pharmaceutical mimicry of "the" thyroid gland. Its proponents chose to represent every human being's thyroid gland by the narrow statistical average secretion ratio … Continue reading The foundations of synthetic T3-T4 therapy in the 1990s
Lack of knowledge about Free T3 peaks and valleys contributes to failure and frustration in T3-based therapies, including desiccated thyroid and T3-T4 combination therapy. On patient support groups, I often see conversations that go like this: "My FT3 result was over reference range, FT4 low in range, and my TSH was low, so my doctor … Continue reading Free T3 peaks and valleys in T3 and NDT therapy
Sigh. Just sigh. Even some of our best thyroid patient advocates can unknowingly share misinformation about thyroid therapy. Mary Shomon's thyroid articles on Verywell.com are usually to be trusted. But yesterday I was saddened to see that an article supposedly authored by Mary Shomon was spreading unscientific myths about "normal" thyroid secretion ratios being 13:1 … Continue reading Stop spreading the unscientific myth about the normal T4:T3 ratio!
What does NEW thyroid science have to say on the topic of thyroid pharmaceutical equivalency? How many micrograms of L-T3 Liothyronine (i.e. Cytomel) are equivalent to L-T4 Levothyroxine (i.e. Synthroid)? Thyroid hormone pharmaceutical monographs currently provide very rigid and low-ratio equivalency statements: ERFA Canada says "Desiccated thyroid 60 mg is usually considered equivalent to ... … Continue reading How to calculate LT3 vs. LT4 substitution: New thyroid science
