THYROID
A tiny, butterfly-shaped gland called the thyroid can be found in your throat, just behind your Adam's apple. Thyroid issues can result in a wide range of symptoms since it acts as the body's thermostat, constantly regulating factors like temperature, appetite levels, and energy expenditure.
The National Women's Health Information Center estimates that approximately 20 million Americans have a thyroid issue of some kind (mostly hypothyroidism and to lesser extent hyperthyroidism). Surprisingly, it is believed that 60% of people with thyroid disorders worldwide are fully ignorant that this is the cause of their difficulties, such as weight gain or weariness.
According to the American Thyroid Association, one in eight American women will experience a thyroid disease at some point in their lives.
What Causes Thyroid Issues Most Frequently?
Almost every aspect of your life can be negatively impacted by thyroid conditions and diseases. The thyroid gland is crucial to maintaining the harmony of your physical, mental, and emotional lives, from weight concerns to sadness and/or worry.
Hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) and hyperthyroidism are the two main forms of thyroid issues (an overactive thyroid).
Although there are other thyroid conditions as well, these two groups account for the bulk of thyroid problems. The thyroid condition known as hypothyroidism is by far the most prevalent. Women make up the majority of hypothyroid patients, particularly those who are middle-aged or of reproductive age.
Thyroid Main Function:
The creation of several hormones that allow the body to carry out essential functions, such as digestion and reproduction, is one of the many metabolic processes that the thyroid gland regulates. Sometimes the thyroid gland ends up secreting either an excessive amount or an insufficient amount of specific hormones. Although the symptoms brought on by these two sorts of hormone imbalances impact people differently, both scenarios are problematic for things like body weight regulation and mood stabilization.
Triiodothyronine, or T3, and T4 are two of the thyroid's most significant hormones (thyroxine). Once the thyroid gland has released these two hormones into the bloodstream, they circulate throughout the body, turning oxygen and calories into energy. This energy is essential for digestion processes, emotional management, and cognitive activities.
I witness people taking levothyroxine when their TSH is high. And regrettably, conventional doctors regularly use this risky method. I want to clarify what TSH is and list the ideal ranges of thyroid hormones that you should check before moving on to the next step.
The endocrine system includes the pituitary, hypothalamus, and adrenals (together referred to as the HPA axis), all of which interact with one another throughout the day. When the body experiences stress — whether it be emotional, mental, physical, or environmental —The hypothalamus instructs the pituitary to create more TSH, which instructs the thyroid to slow down, and it instructs the pituitary to tell the adrenals to exert more effort to release more cortisol (and sometimes it can cause TSH to lower causing the thyroid to produce excess thyroid hormones).
Thus, a high TSH level does not indicate a thyroid issue. Instead, there is an HPA axis imbalance, which could be caused by stress or an illness.
The most frequent signs of hypothyroidism are elevated TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) values, low free T4 levels, and/or low free T3 levels. However, doctors frequently make the incorrect diagnosis of hypothyroidism when they just observe high TSH levels in a patient.
Please remember this and refrain from accepting any medication until you've undergone the necessary testing:
TSH
Your pituitary gland releases a thyroid-stimulating hormone to connect with your thyroid. It's almost like your brain is screaming at your thyroid to work harder when your TSH level is high. Research has linked a lab "normal" TSH of 2.5-3.5 U/mL with a 69% risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. Now you can see why the optimal (functional) range is so important for your health.
Lab range: 4.5-5.5 U/mL
Optimal range: 0.6 -1.9 U/mL
Total T4
T4 is mostly metabolically inactive in the body and has to be converted to T3 to be usable. This lab gives you a total of unbound and bound forms of T4. Hormones have to be unbound from the protein carrier to be used by your body. Because of this, this lab doesn't give us the activity of T4 when measured alone. T4 is measured in conjunction with a T3 uptake.
Reference Range: 4.5-12 mcg/DL
Optimal range: 6.0-12.0 mcg/DL
T3 Uptake
This lab doesn't look directly at T3 but is very useful at indirectly looking at other hormones such as estrogen or testosterone and their relation with the binding of thyroid hormones.
Reference range: 22-35%
Optimal range: 28-38%
Total T3
This lab shows us the total amount of metabolically active thyroid hormone. It allows a doctor to check your body's ability to convert T4 to T3 and rule out an overactive thyroid.
Reference Range: 80-200 ng/DL
Optimal range: 100-180 ng/DL
Free T4
This will tell you the levels of the free or active form of T4. This will be low in cases of hypothyroidism but can be normal in subclinical, early stages of thyroid dysfunction.
Reference Range: 0.8-1.8 ng/DL
Optimal range: 1.09-1.9 ng/DL
Free T3
This is the more active, usable form of your thyroid hormone. Low T3 syndromes are a common dysfunction that I see in my practice and a low level of this hormone is strongly linked to a higher risk of a heart attack. The problem is that if you're taking a synthetic T4 medication, your body isn't converting the hormone properly into T3. However, there are many reasons your thyroid medication may not be working.
Reference Range: 2.3-4.2 pg/mL
Optimal range: 2.3-4.5 pg/mL
Reverse T3
Chronic stress and high cortisol can raise levels of reverse T3, which is an unusable form of the thyroid hormone.
Reference Range: 90-350 pg/ml
Optimal range: 100-320 pg/ml
Thyroid Antibodies
High levels of thyroid antibodies show an autoimmune attack against the thyroid. The overwhelming majority of low thyroid cases are on the autoimmune spectrum, the most common being Hashimoto's disease.
Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) Ab Lab range: 0-0 IU/mL
Thyroglobulin Ab optimal range: 0-0.9 IU/mL
Functional medicine practitioners will probably suggest more labs in addition to these thyroid-specific tests to address your microbiome, immune system, and other hormones. To get the fullest picture possible of your health, they should also be taken into account. Finding out the overall picture from lab results is a good starting point for figuring out exactly what is wrong with your thyroid. What conventional doctors might not tell you is that many thyroid dysfunctions don't often show up on lab tests, and that simply treating the condition with synthetic thyroid medication won't always be sufficient to ease symptoms.
Body's normal core temperature:
There are a few different methods, but the one that is most frequently used is a measurement of your basal body temperature at rest first thing in the morning for three days; if it is lower than 37°C, you have a thyroid imbalance or dysfunction.
An estimated 27 million Americans are thought to be living with thyroid disease, which affects more than 12% of the population of the US. Up to 60% of thyroid disease sufferers are unaware of their illness. Thyroid issues are five to eight times more common in women than in men. In the US, autoimmune diseases are considered to be responsible for 80% of hypothyroid disorders.
It's frightening, but in my practice, I've observed that all of my clients have some form of thyroid dysfunction without ever knowing it or having been tested. I work to correct this by teaching my clients how to read their functional blood work, as well as what their thyroid needs in terms of nutrition.
The first step is to do what I've suggested before and keep a thermometer by your bed.
Secondly, if you experience any of the following symptoms, pay attention to your body.
1. Unjustified fatigue or hyperactivity
2. Receding hair (eyebrows and eyelashes too)
3. An inexplicable increase or decrease in weight
4. Depression and anxiety
5. Chilly or hot feet and hands
6. Mood swings
7. Chest pain
8. Muscle sluggishness
9. A high or low cholesterol level
10. Sleepiness
11. Frayed nails
12. Loss of muscle
13. Low libido
14. Miscarriage and infertility
16. Constipation or diarrhea
17. Eye bulging
When you have autoimmune hyper/hypothyroidism, the list expands:
17. Lack of vitamins and minerals, including ferritin, b12, and D
18. Gut problems
19. Liver disease
20. Skin issues
21. An imbalance in blood sugar
22. High or low blood pressure.
23. weakened immune system (infection recurrence)
24. body aches/inflammation
We live in a toxic world, so anything from tap water, processed food, or food that is loaded with chemicals, cleaning products, EMF exposure, and chronic stress, to birth control or hormonal therapies, is what causes thyroid dysfunction. The sad fact is that prescribing levothyroxine won't be helpful for the majority of cases because if you have gut or liver issues, you won't convert T4 to T3, and you'll still experience the symptoms listed above or carbimazole and propylthiouracil that will not stop the immune system attacking your Gland.
However, if you are a pregnant woman patient with Hashimoto's disease, you must take the medication regardless in order to prevent complications. However, you must work on yourself meanwhile in order to identify the true cause of your hypo/hyperthyroidism in order to achieve the real result that will last longer.
RESOURCES:
https://www.nature.com/nrneurol/
2022 Malika Katrouche. All Rights Reserved.
