Hello everyone, can someone explain what is meant by reverse T3 & and how do we know if it is an issue?

[Kitten-whiskers]

[Hidden]

A healthy thyroid produces T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. Reverse T3 comes from the conversion of the storage hormone T4. The body converts T4 to RT3 as a way to get rid of any unneeded T4 - c40% of T4 goes to T3 and 20% of T4 goes to Reverse T3.

Where the body needs to conserve energy and focus on something else, eg emotional or physical stress for instance, it will change the above percentages, changing the conversion of RT3 to 50% or more, and the T3 goes down.

[shaws Administrator]

Maybe this link will help. An extract and go to the date March 24, 1999 to read the rest:-

Dr. Lowe: Some readers will not be familiar with reverse-T3, and I know from experience that many others harbor misconceptions about the molecule. Because of this, I have summarized in the box below what we know about reverse-T3. I've answered your question below the summary.

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

[humanbean]

Following on from Hypnoteq's answer, I just wanted to add :

Reverse T3 and ordinary T3 are made of exactly the same atoms & molecules but the arrangement of the atoms and molecules is different. In chemical/biological terms they are isomers of each other.

Each cell of the body has receptors for T3 to park itself in. Reverse T3 can also park itself in the same receptors and effectively blocks the cell from getting enough T3. Reverse T3 has approximately 1% - 4% of the activity of ordinary T3. In effect, reverse T3 blocks the activity of cells when compared to the same cell with active T3 in it.

Some people have suggested (I don't know what evidence they have), that if a person is chronically ill then gets better, the body gets itself into a state where over-production of reverse T3 continues despite the improvement in health, and the only way to restore the natural balance of ordinary T3 and reverse T3 is by taking large amounts of T3 only, thus suppressing production of T4, thus reducing the amount of reverse T3 in the body (because T4 is the raw material from which reverse T3 is made).

Is this nonsense or it it true? I have no idea!

[Kitten-whiskers]

Thank you very much everyone - I really appreciate it x