I sent off for a blue horizon advanced thyroid profile and these are the results. Bit baffled as I was expected a low T3 level so I could demand a trial of T3. My symptoms of hypothyroid have not improved. I'm still lethargic and brain fogged. I also don't appear to have any symptoms of hyper - no dramatic weightloss, anxiety, etc.
The thyroxine level is high, and the thyroid stimulating hormone is low -which is diagnostic of hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland). If this has not been highlighted before, treatment is probably indicated and I advise you to seek medical advice at your earliest convenience. If you already taking thyroxine, it is possible you are on too high a dose, again medical advice should be sought.
You may have symptoms - including weight loss, rapid heart rate, sweating and anxiety, amongst others.
The positive thyroid antibody results suggest a diagnosis of autoimmune thyroid disease (eg Grave's disease).
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clarence2013
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Well, it doesn't actually look as if you're hypER to me, either in a Graves way or a Hashi's way. I would say that your system has detected the high level of T4 in your blood, which means your pituitary has no need to stimulate your thyroid, hence low TSH. Your FT3 is OK and could even be higher, so my guess is that the T4 you are taking is not doing a lot other than sitting around in your blood, while it waits to convert, very slowly.
Yes, I'd go for dropping the T4 a bit and adding in some T3.
No doctor I know would give you T3 with a set of results like that. Your FT4 is to high, your TSH is to low (according to their guidelines) and your FT3 is in range so don't hold your breath. I could be totally wrong and you have a very forward thinking GP who would be willing to give it a go but if I were you I would be looking at why your body isn't up taking the thyroid hormone into your cells.
I have written another reply about a paper published in the BMJ and this could explain some, if not all, of your problems. It might be interesting to show your GP it as well.
Are you on any medication and if so what. You don't appear to have an absorption issues but maybe you have an up take issue - in other words your thyroid hormones are pooling in the blood and not being taken up by your cells.
I do have a link that explains what can inhibit your meds from being taken up by your cells but I don't think links are working at the moment. I could copy and paste it for you in a response but it will be a long response. Let me know if that's what you want me to do as it is a very interesting and eye opening medical paper that was published in the British Medical journal.
Here goes, but I did warn you that it was a long article. It takes a bit of reading and can be confusing at times but take your time and read it through a couple of times and you will slowly take it all in (well this is what happened to me but then I can be a bit slow on the up - take).Take extra care to read the bit about iron deficiency.
Understanding Local Control of Thyroid Hormones:
(Deiodinases Function and Activity)
To accurately assess thyroid function, it must be understood that deiodinase enzymes are essential control points of cellular thyroid activity that determine intracellular activation and deactivation of thyroid hormones. This local control of cellular thyroid levels is mediated through three different deiodinase enzymes present in different tissues in the body; type I deiodinase (D1) and type II deiodinase (D2) increase cellular thyroid activity by converting inactive thyroxine (T4) to the active triiodothyronine (T3) while type III deiodinase (D3) reduces cellular thyroid activity by converting T4 to the anti-thyroid reverse T3 (reverse T3) (1-9) (see deiodinase figure).
The activity of each type of deiodinase enzyme changes in response to differing physiologic conditions, and this local control of intracellular T4 and T3 levels results in different tissue levels of T4 and T3 under different conditions. Because it is the activity of these deiodinases and transport of T4 and T3 into the cell that determines tissue and cellular thyroid levels and not serum thyroid levels, serum thyroid hormone levels may not necessarily predict tissue thyroid levels under a variety of physiologic conditions.
Deiodinase type I (D1)
D1 converts inactive T4 to active T3 throughout the body, but D1 is not a significant determinant of pituitary T4 to T3 conversion, which is controlled by D2 (1,7,10). D1 but not D2 is suppressed and down-regulated (decreasing T4 to T3 conversion) in response to physiologic and emotional stress (11-22); depression (23-45); dieting (46-51); weight gain and leptin resistance (47-91); insulin resistance, obesity and diabetes (91-99); inflammation from autoimmune disease or systemic illness (11,100,102-115); chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia (121-125); chronic pain (116-120); and exposure to toxins and plastics (126-134). In the presences of such conditions there are reduced tissue levels of active thyroid in all tissues except the pituitary. The reduced thyroid tissue levels with these conditions is often quoted as a beneficial response that lowers metabolism and thus does not require treatment, but there is no evidence to support such a stance while there is significant evidence demonstrating it is a detrimental response (135-142).
In addition, D1 activity is also lower in females (143,144), making women more prone to tissue hypothyroidism, with resultant depression, fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and obesity despite having normal TSH levels.
Deiodinase type II (D2)
Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) is produced in the pituitary and is regulated by intra-pituitary T3 levels, which often does not correlate or provide an accurate indicator of T3 levels in the rest of the body. Using the TSH as a indicator for the body’s overall thyroid status assumes that the T3 levels in the pituitary directly correlate with that of other tissues in the body and that changes directly correlate with that of T3 in other tissue of the body under a wide range of physiologic conditions. This, however, is shown not to be the case; the pituitary is different than every other tissue in the body.
Due to a unique make-up of deiodinases in the pituitary, it will respond differently and often opposite to that of every other tissue in the body. Numerous conditions result in an increase in pituitary T3 levels while simultaneously suppressing cellular T3 levels in the rest of the body, making the pituitary, and thus the TSH, a poor indicator for tissue thyroid levels in the rest of the body under numerous physiologic conditions.
In addition to having a unique make-up of deiodinases, the pituitary also contains unique membrane thyroid transporters and thyroid receptors. As opposed to the rest of the body that is regulated by both D1 and D3, the pituitary contains little D1 and no D3 (136); so pituitary T3 levels are determined by D2 activity (1,7,10), which is 1000 times more efficient at converting T4 to T3 than the D1 enzyme present in the rest of the body (1,10,46,145,146) and is much less sensitive to suppression by toxins and medications (147). In the pituitary, 80-90% of T4 is converted to T3 (4,148,149) while only about 30-50% of T4 in the peripheral tissue is converted to active T3 (149,150). This is due to the inefficiency of D1 and the presence of D3 in all tissues of the body except the pituitary that competes with D1 and converts T4 to reverse T3 (7).
Additionally, D2 also has an opposite response from that of D1 to physiologic and emotional stress, depression, both dieting and weight gain, PMS, diabetes, leptin resistance, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, inflammation, autoimmune disease, and systemic illness. D2 is stimulated and up-regulated (increased activity) in response to such conditions, increasing intra-pituitary T4 to T3 conversion while the rest of body suffers from diminished levels of active T3. This causes the TSH to remain normal despite the fact that there is significant cellular hypothyroidism present in the rest of the body.
Thus, the pituitary levels are under completely different physiologic control and T3 levels will always be significantly higher than anywhere else in the body (2,151-158). Consequently, if the TSH is elevated, even mildly, it is clear that many tissue of the body will be deficient in T3; but due to the different physiology, a normal TSH cannot be used as a reliable indicator for normal T3 levels in the rest of the body.
Different thyroid levels and conditions will have different effects on the T3 levels in the pituitary than in the rest of the body, resulting in different T3 levels in the pituitary and the rest of the body, making the TSH unreliable under numerous circumstances. For instance, as the levels of T4 declines, as in hypothyroidism, the activity of the D2 increases and is able to partially compensate for the reduction in serum T4 (3,159-167). On the other hand, with reduced T4 levels, the activity and efficiency of D1 decreases (168-173) resulting in a reduction in cellular T3 levels while the TSH remains unchanged due to the ability of the pituitary D2 to compensate for the diminished T4.
As stated above, this lack of correlation of TSH and peripheral tissue levels of T3 is dramatically worsened in numerous conditions. These include chronic emotional or physical stress, chronic illness, diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, leptin resistance, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, PMS, and both dieting and weight gain. In such conditions, tissue levels of T3 are shown to drop dramatically out of proportion with serum T3 levels (8,9,100-103,174-176). While serum T3 levels may drop by 30%, which is significant but still may be in the so-called “normal range,” tissue T3 may drop by 70-80%, resulting in profound cellular hypothyroidism with normal serum TSH, T4, and T3 levels (8,11,100-103,146,174). Consequently, in the presence of such conditions, the TSH is a poor indicator for peripheral thyroid levels and a normal TSH should not be considered a reliable indicator for an individual being euthyroid (normal thyroid), especially in the presence of symptoms consistent with thyroid deficiency.
Doctors in the thyroid division of the department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School investigated how the pituitary’s unique deiodinase makeup responds differently than the tissues of the rest of body and how the pituitary is a poor indicator for thyroid levels in the rest of the body. In their review published in Endocrine Reviews, the authors state, “The approximately 1000-fold lower Km of D2 than D1 [D2 is 1000 times more efficient] may give this enzyme a major advantage in terms of extrathyroidal T3 production… The free T3 concentration in different tissues varies according to the amounts of hormone transported and the activity of the tissue deiodenases. As a result, the impact of the plasma thyroid hormones on target tissues is not the same in every tissue” (1).
In the journal Endocrinology, Lim et al. measured peripheral (liver) and pituitary levels of T3 in response to induced chronic illness. They found that pituitary T3 and TSH levels remained unchanged while the peripheral tissues were significantly reduced. The authors summarize their findings by stating,
“The reduction in hepatic nuclear T3 content and T3-Cmax in the Nx2 rats is consistent with the presence of selective tissue deficiency of thyroid hormones. The pituitary, however, had normal T3 content, suggesting a dissociation in thyroid hormone-dependent metabolic status between peripheral tissue (liver) and the pituitary. This explains the failure to observe and increase in serum TSH level, a manifestation of reduced intracellular rather than serum T3 concentration…Most interesting, we found that, in contrast to the liver, the pituitary of the Nx rats was not deprived of thyroid hormone. This finding offers a convincing explanation of the failure to observe an increase of serum TSH when illness or stress-induced reduction of hepatic T4 5’-monodeiodination causes a fall in serum t3 concentration (11).”
In the New England Journal of Medicine, Larsen et al. summarize the fact that the pituitary has a unique composition of deiodinases that is not present in any other tissue in the body, making the pituitary T3 levels, and thus the TSH, a poor indicator for tissue T3 in the rest of the body — stating that the TSH cannot be reliably used as a marker of thyroid status in the rest of the body (148).
“Changes in pituitary conversion of T4 to T3 are often opposite of those that occur in the liver and kidney under similar circumstances. The presence of this pathway of T3 production indicates that the pituitary can respond independently to changes in plasma levels of T4 and T3…Given these results, it is not surprising that a complete definition of thyroid status requires more than the measurement of the serum concentrations of thyroid hormones. For some tissues, the intracellular T3 concentration may only partially reflect those in the serum. Recognition that the intracellular T3 concentration in each tissue may be subject to local regulation and an understanding of the importance of this process to the regulation of TSH production should permit a better appreciation of the limitations of the measurements of serum thyroid hormone and TSH levels (148).”
Deiodinase type III (D3)
The pituitary is the only tissue that does not contain D3 (7), which converts T4 to reverse T3 and competes with D1 that converts T4 to T3 (8,9,11,23,24,92,104,178-183). Reverse T3 is a competitive inhibitor of T3, blocking T3 from binding to its receptor and blocking T3 effect (184-189), reduces metabolism (184,187,188), suppresses D1 and T4 to T3 conversion (147,185,187,190-192), and blocks T4 and T3 uptake into the cell (183,193), all reducing intracellular T3 levels and thyroid activity. Because many tissues may have abundant D3 levels while the pituitary is uniquely void of D3 (7), the inhibitory effects on the peripheral tissues causing hypothyroidism are not reflected by TSH testing.
Reverse T3 is present in varying concentrations in different tissues and with different individuals (1,12,61,62,151,179-183,194-196). It is up-regulated with chronic physiologic stress and illness (1,195,196) and is an indicator for reduced T4 to T3 conversion and low intracellular T3 levels even if the TSH is normal (104,177-179,182,184,193,195,196).
Because increased serum and tissue level of reverse T3 will result in a blocking of the thyroid receptors, even small increases in reverse T3 can result in a significant decrease in thyroid action and result in severe hypothyroidism not detected by standard blood tests (184-189). Because any T4 given will contribute to more reverse T3, T4-only preparations should not be considered optimal thyroid replacement in the presence of high or high-normal reverse T3 levels (197-201) while T3 can be significantly beneficial (52,53,121-124,201-215).
Stress
Chronic physiologic stress results in decreased D1 activity (11,12,13-17,234) and an increase in D3 activity (1,195,196), decreasing thyroid activity by converting T4 into reverse T3 instead of T3 (1,195,196,216,234). Conversely, D2 is stimulated, which results in increased T4 to T3 conversion in the pituitary and reduced production of TSH (11,16,18-22,234). The increased cortisol levels seen with stress also contribute to physiologic disconnect between the TSH and peripheral tissue T3 levels (16,18-20). This stress induced reduced tissue T3 level and increased reverse T3 results in tissue hypothyroidism and potential weight gain, fatigue, and depression (12,13,194,217-219). This vicious cycle of weight gain, fatigue, and depression that is associated with stress can be prevented with supplementation with timed-released T3 (25,26,52,121-124,199,201-215,220,221) but not T4 (52,197-199,201,222,223).
The reduced immunity from chronic stress has been thought to be due to excess cortisol production; but the associated reduction in tissue thyroid levels are shown to play a larger role in the decreased immunity seen with stress, and thyroid supplementation is shown to reverse the stress induced reduction in immunity (217).
As with stress, treatment with prednisone or other glucocorticoid will suppress D1 and stimulate D3, reducing T4 to T3 conversion and increasing T4 to reverse T3, causing a relative tissue hypothyroidism that is not detected by TSH testing (12,18-21,194,218,224). This low cellular thyroid level certainly contributes to the weight gain and other associated side-effects with such treatment. Thus, in stressed patients or those treated with corticosteroids, there are reduced tissue T3 levels that are not reflected by the TSH level, making the TSH an inappropriate marker for tissue levels of T3.
Depression
Many depressed and bipolar patients have undiagnosed thyroid dysfunction as the underlying cause or major contributor to their depression that is not detected by standard thyroid tests (23-38). The dysfunction present with these conditions includes down regulation of D1 (reduced T4 to T3 conversion) and reduced uptake of T4 into the cell, resulting in increased serum T4 levels with low intracellular T3 levels (24-26,30,31,35,39-45) and upregulated D3, resulting in elevated reverse T3 (23,24,30,31), which blocks thyroid effect (147,184-194) and is an indicator of reduced transport of T4 into the cell (183,193). Additionally, studies show that depressed patients have reduced T4 transport across the blood brain barrier due to a defective transport protein, transthyretin, resulting in significantly reduced thyroid levels in the brains of depressed patients despite “normal” serum levels and standard thyroid tests (23,39,40) as well as a reduced TSH response to TRH (28-31,43-50).
It is not surprising that T4 and T4/T3 combinations may have some benefit in depression; but due to the suppressed T4 to T3 conversion from suppressed D1(24-26,30) and reduced uptake of T4 into the cell and brain (25,31,39,40), timed-released T3 is significantly more beneficial than T4 or T4/T3 combination supplementation (25,41,202,225-227).
In the International Journal of Neruopsychopharmacology, Posternak M et al. published a double blind placebo control trial of 50 patients with normal thyroid function as defined by a normal TSH (1.5 +/- 0.8). The patients were randomized to receive 25 mcg of T3 or placebo in addition to antidepressant therapy (221). The study found almost a 2-fold increase in response rate with T3 and a 4.5 times greater likelihood of experiencing a positive response at any point over a six-week period with the addition of T3. Side effects were higher in placebo group on 10/11 criteria including a significant increase in nervousness with the placebo group.
Kelly TF, Lieberman DZ et al. investigated the effectiveness of T3 for the treatment of biopolar disorder in who patients had failed to adequately respond to an average of 14 medications used to treat their bipolar disorder. The average dose of T3 used was 90.4 mcg (range 13 mcg-188 mcg). The medication was found to be well tolerated and 84% experienced significant improvement and 33% had a full remission. Again, this is in patients who had not previously responded to numerous medications. One patient who was switched to T4 for cost reasons experienced a return of symptoms, which resolved with the reintroduction of T3. The authors concluded, “Augmentation with supraphysiologic doses of T3 should be considered in cases of treatment resistant bipolar depression… (227).” The authors thanked several doctors who encouraged them to go beyond the traditional 50 mcg of T3 because it has helped so many of their patients.
With over 4000 patients, The Star*D Report is the largest trial comparing antidepressant effectiveness for depression. It found that 66% of patients fail to respond to antidepressants or have side-effects severe enough to discontinue use. Of those who do respond, over half will relapse within one year (228). The trial found that T3 was effective even when other medications — such as citalopram (Celexa), bupropion (Wellbutrin), sertraline (Zolft), venlafaxine (Effexor), or cognitive therapy – were not. It was shown to be 50% more effective, even with the less than optimal dose of 50 mcg, under direct comparison with significantly less side effects than commonly used therapeutic approaches with standard antidepressants. The authors included a case study to exemplify the effectiveness of T3, especially when other medications are not:
“Ms. “B,” a 44-year-old divorced white woman, became depressed after losing her job as a secretary in a law firm. She initially sought treatment from her primary care physician and then entered the STAR*D study. Ms. B met criteria for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Her baseline QIDS-SR score was 16. After 12 weeks on citalopram, her QIDS-SR score was 10 [minimal response]. She was then randomly assigned to augmentation with buspirone; she soon experienced gastrointestinal distress, and she stopped taking buspirone after 6 weeks. She elected to try one more augmentation agent and was randomly assigned to T3 augmentation. When she started T3 augmentation, her QIDS-SR score was 12. After 4 weeks, she felt that her mood and energy had lifted substantially. She felt better able to make decisions, organize, and prioritize and felt that she was able and ready to look for another job. “I felt as if my brain suddenly had oxygen,” she said, “and everything became clearer.” After 12 weeks, Ms. B felt back to normal, and her QIDS-SR score was 0 [complete resolution of symptoms] (228).”
With an understanding of thyroid physiology and associated dysfunction that is present in depressed patients, it is clear that timed-released T3 supplementation should be considered in all depressed and bipolar patients despite “normal” serum thyroid levels. Additionally, straight T4 should be considered inappropriate and suboptimal therapy for replacement in such patients.
Pain
Chronic pain will significantly suppress D1 and upregulate D2, resulting in a reduction in tissue T3 without a change in TSH. Thus, the significant cellular hypothyroidism is not detected by serum TSH and T4 testing (116-119). This cellular hypothyroidism, which again is undiagnosed by standard blood tests, increases the risk of the associated fatigue and depression seen with chronic pain (116,117,229).
Narcotic pain medication can, of course, alleviate pain and thus potentially improve the diminished tissue T3 levels seen with chronic pain; but narcotics also suppress D1 but not D2, so such treatment is ineffective at reversing the suppressed tissue T3 levels (116-118,229). Thus, for those with significant chronic pain or using significant amounts of narcotic pain medicine, it must be understood that such a condition is associated with low tissue thyroid levels not detected by standard blood tests. Tolerance to the inhibitory effect of narcotics on TSH secretion and T4 to T3 conversion does not occur (116,119). Expert pain specialists understand this and recommend T3 supplementation to patients with significant pain or on narcotic pain medications (229).
Dieting
Acute or chronic dieting can result in a significant decrease in intracellular and circulating T3 levels by up to 50% (46,47,51,90), which significantly reduces basal metabolic rate (number of calories burned per day) by 15-40% (48,230,232). With chronic dieting, the thyroid levels and metabolism often do not return to normal levels; the body stays in starvation mode for years with significantly reduced metabolism despite the resumption of normal food intake, making it very difficult to lose or maintain lost weight (48).
A study by Araujo RL et al. published in American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism found that 25 days of calorie restriction (dieting) significantly reduced D1, resulting in reduced T4 to T3 conversion with a 50% reduction in T3. This dramatic reduction in T3 was associated with an increase in D2, so there was no increase in TSH but rather a decrease from an average of 1.20 ng/ml to 0.7 ng/ml, demonstrating the fact that the TSH is a poor marker for tissue T3 levels, especially in a chronically dieting patient (47).
Fontana et al. found that T3 levels were significantly decreased by 25% in chronically dieting individuals compared to non-dieting individuals with no difference in TSH and T4 (thus undetected by TSH and T4 testing). This clinically significant reduction in T3 levels, potentially causing inability to lose weight or regaining of lost weight, fatigue, and depression, remained in the normal range despite the significant decline, demonstrating the weakness and unreliability of the common use of population references ranges that consider 95% of the population as “normal” (49).
A study by Leibel et al. published in the journal Metabolism found that individuals who had lost weight in the past had a significantly lower metabolism than those of same weight who had not gained or lost significant weight in the past (48). The metabolism in the weight reduced patients was 25% less than an equal weight person who did not lose or gain significant weight in the past and equal to someone who weighed 60% less than they did. Additionally, the reduction was shown to be present years later.
This 25% percent reduction in metabolism equates to an approximate deficit of 500-600 cal per day. Thus, if the previous overweight person is to maintain the reduced weight he or she lost, he or she must either eat 600 cal per day less compared to a person of same weight who has not had a weight problem or must jog about 1 ½ hours per day to maintain the lost weight. This equates to approximately a pound per week of weight gain, explaining why weight is so quickly gained without continued very strict dieting. So many people who have difficulty keeping weight off don’t eat excessively but are continually told they are eating too much or they need to exercise more by people who have never had a weight problem. They are made to feel it is a character issue and that nobody believes how how little food they actually consume. Unless the physiologic thyroid dysfunction is corrected, any diet and exercise strategy is doomed.
Croxson et al. in Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism found that individuals with a history of intense dieting had dramatic reductions in T4 to T3 conversion with an intracellular deficiency of T3. The inadequacy and inaccuracy of standard TSH and T4 testing was demonstrated, as such testing failed to detect the dramatic reduction in tissue levels of T3 in all of the patients (50).
As with leptin resistance, it has been shown in numerous studies that insulin resistance, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome have associated significant reduction in T4 to T3 conversion, an intracellular deficiency of T3, and an increased conversion of T4 to reverse T3, further reducing intracellular T3 levels (91,100,92,94,147,184-193,235). Additionally, the elevated insulin will increase D2 activity and suppress TSH levels, further decreasing thyroid levels and making it inappropriate to use the TSH as a reliable marker for tissue thyroid levels in the presence of elevated insulin levels as occurs with obesity, insulin resistance, or type II diabetes (91-99,233).
Pittman CS et al. found that normal individuals had a 77% conversion of T4 to T3, while diabetic individuals had a 45% conversion of T4 to T3 and increased T4 to reverse T3. Improvement in glucose levels only slightly increased T4 to T3 conversion to 46% (93).
Islam S et al. investigated the T4 to T3 conversion in 50 diabetic patients compared to 50 non-diabetic controls. There was no difference in TSH and free T4 levels, but the diabetic individuals had significantly decrease free T3 levels (p = 0.0001) that averaged 46% less than controls. The FT3/FT4 ratio was 50% less in diabetic patients versus controls. The TSH failed to elevate despite the fact that serum T3 was approximately half of normal (92). Saunders J, et al. also found that diabetics had approximately a 50% reduction in T3 levels and significantly increased reverse T3 levels and decreased T3/reverse T3 ratios (94).
In the International Journal of Obesity, Krotkiewski, et al. published the results of their investigation of the impact of supplemental T3 on cardiovascular risk in obese patients to partially reverse the reduced T4 to T3 conversion seen with obesity (53). Seventy obese patients with “normal” standard thyroid function tests were treated with 20 mcg of straight T3 for six weeks. While the dose was not high enough to completely reverse the reduced T4 to T3 conversion seen with obesity, there was a significant reduction in a number of cardiovascular risk factors, including cholesterol and markers for insulin resistance. There were no side-effects in any of the patients. The authors conclude, “T3 may be considered to ameliorate some of the risk factors associated with abdominal obesity, particularly in some subgroups of obese women with a relative resistance to thyroid hormones possibly dependent on decreased peripheral deiodination of thyroxine (T4) (53).”
Thus, replacement with timed-released T3 preparations to normalize the reduced intracellular T3 levels is appropriate in such patients despite so-called “normal” levels while, on the contrary, T4-only preparations do not address the physiologic abnormalities of such patients and should be considered inappropriate replacement for obese patients or those with insulin resistance, leptin resistance, or diabetes, as they do not address the physiologic abnormalities in this group.
Leptin
The hormone leptin has been found to be a major regulator of body weight and metabolism. The body secretes leptin as weight is gained to signal the brain (specifically the hypothalamus) that there are adequate energy (fat) stores. The hypothalamus should then stimulate metabolic processes that result in weight loss, including a reduction in hunger, an increased satiety with eating, an increase in resting metabolism, and an increase in lipolysis (fat breakdown). New research has found that this leptin signaling is dysfunctional in the majority of people who have difficultly losing weight or are unable to lose weight (54-58).
The problem is not in the production of leptin; studies show that the majority of overweight individuals who are having difficulty losing weight have a leptin resistance, where the leptin is unable to produce its normal effects to stimulate weight loss (54-58). This leptin resistance is sensed as starvation, so multiple mechanisms are activated to increase fat stores, rather than burn excess fat stores (54-83). Leptin resistance is shown to suppress D1 and stimulate D2, resulting in reduced cellular T3 but a reduction in serum TSH (47,84-89). A study by Cettour-Rose et al. published in American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism demonstrated that physiologic reversal of leptin resistance restored deiodinase activity except in the presence of elevated reverse T3 (86). Thus, in the presence of elevated leptin level (above 10) there is a reduction of cellular T3 and a suppression of TSH, making the TSH an unreliable indicator of thyroid status, especially when combined with an elevated reverse T3. Thus, for anyone who has difficulty losing weight, a leptin level above 10 demonstrates that low intracellular thyroid levels is contributing to this difficulty, especially if combined with a high normal or elevated reverse T3 (above 150).
Exercise
It has been shown that women or men who perform more than moderate exercise, especially when associated with dieting, have reduced T4 to T3 conversion and increase reverse T3, counteracting many of the positive effects of exercise in women including weight loss (236,237). Consequently, T3 and reverse T3 levels should be evaluated in individuals who exercise and/or diet to better determine cellular thyroid levels, as TSH and T4 would not necessarily reflect tissue levels in such patients.
Iron deficiency
Iron deficiency is shown to significantly reduce T4 to T3 conversion, increase reverse T3 levels, and block the thermogenic (metabolism boosting) properties of thyroid hormone (238-242). Thus, iron deficiency, as indicated by an iron saturation below 25 or a ferritin below 70, will result in diminished intracellular T3 levels. Additionally, T4 should not be considered adequate thyroid replacement if iron deficiency is present (238,239,241,242).
Inflammation associated with common conditions
The inflammatory cytokines IL-1, Il-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and TNF-alpha will significantly decrease D1 activity and reduce tissue T3 levels (105-113). Any person with an inflammatory condition — including physical or emotional stress (243-248), obesity (248-252), diabetes (248,249,253), depression (254-257), menopause (surgical or natural) (258), heart disease (248,259,260), autoimmune disease (lupus, Hashimoto’s, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, etc) (114,115,164,265), injury (266), chronic infection (261,262) or cancer (267-269) — will have a decreased T4 to T3 conversion in the body and a relative tissue hypothyroidism. The inflammatory cytokines will, however, increase the activity of D2 and suppress the TSH despite reduced peripheral T3 levels; again, making a normal TSH an unreliable indicator of normal tissue thyroid levels (105-113)
There is a direct inverse correlation between CRP and reduced tissue T3 (112,270), so individuals with elevated CRP (greater than 3 mg/l) or other inflammatory cytokines will have a significant reduction in cellular T3 levels. The suppression of intracellular T3 levels correlates with the degree of elevation of CRP, despite serum thyroid tests being “normal” (112,270). Thus, if any inflammation is present, which is found in numerous clinical and subclinical conditions (as above), the body will have lower cellular T3 levels that are often inadequate for optimal functioning; but the pituitary will have increased levels of T3, resulting in a lowering of the TSH that would potentially be inappropriately interpreted as an indication of “normal” thyroid levels.
Thus, any person with an inflammatory condition will have diminished tissue levels of T3 potentially severe enough to cause symptoms, but these symptoms will not be detected by standard thyroid testing. Additionally, due to the reduced T4 to T3 conversion induced by the inflammation in these conditions, effective treatment must include T3 (combination or, ideally, timed-released T3). Also, due to the inflammatory suppression of TSH, not only is a normal TSH necessarily an indication of euthyroidism (normal thyroid), but also a suppressed TSH is not necessarily an indication of excessive thyroid with treatment. Rather, free T3 and reverse T3 levels along with clinical parameters should be used to determine optimal replacement doses of thyroid.
Thank you so much. This explains scientifically what my instinct was telling me. Despite "normal" test results, I just don't feel right at all. My gp adamantly refuses to consider T3 supplementation, so I had some sent from Turkey and began yesterday! I might just take a copy of this with me next time I go. Hopefully by then the brain fog will have lifted and I might get some short term memory back. Time will tell. Thanks again.
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