The standard measure of thyroid gland health (the TSH normal range) is not a fair or accurate measure of thyroid hormone sufficiency in thyroid therapy. And the same meme, this time with MEN — since men have hypothyroidism too. In a 2015 article, Midgley et al (1) wrote “the effective TSH level derived in a healthy normal population cannot necessarily be inferred to be equally optimal for a given patient on l-T4 medication.” Midgley et al and many others have proven that the TSH test is blind and insensitive to low T3 in therapy. As a result, the medical system …
Category: Therapy guidelines
Why T4 monotherapy has dominated
All thyroid hormone medications have the potential to be effective: L-T4 (Levothyroxine), L-T3 (Liothyronine), and natural desiccated thyroid (DTE / NDT). However, each patient is unique in their response to these medications. Optimizing a patient’s lifelong therapy involves finding the right thyroid hormone medication, or a combination of them, to relieve as many symptoms of hypothyroidism as possible without causing symptoms of hyperthyroidism. Most patients are offered only one therapy, L-T4 monotherapy (Synthroid, Levothyroxine, Eltroxin, Euthyrox). This therapy is apparently effective for many patients. However, a significant minority of patients on L-T4 therapy do not achieve relief of hypothyroid symptoms. …
Dosing by the TSH can cause Low T3
Research has proven repeatedly that TSH is not the same to a thyroid patient as it is to a person who is not taking any thyroid hormone medication. For example, on standard L-T4 monotherapy, at any given level of TSH, a thyroid patient will have a higher T4 and a lower T3. If TSH is used as the only indicator (which is common) and interpreted poorly (also common), the TSH test will keep a significant number of thyroid patients T3-poor. Here’s one example showing the significant shift in the TSH-T4 and TSH-T3 relationships even within the NORMAL TSH range. Yes, …