This is a review of what is known about some of the less talked about thyroid hormones and the full PDF is available for free. A good illustration of how much we have yet to understand. PR
Conclusion and perspectives
It is clear that the so-called ‘nonclassical THs’ can induce various biological actions. TH derivatives exert important actions on metabolic parameters and on growth. At the cellular–molecular level, several pathways are affected, the most intriguing of which are related to lipid metabolism and signaling pathways. Beneficial effects of these molecules require more considerations due to their potential to modulate human health.
Thanks for posting. Wish I understood more! I actually know/knew one of the people on the list of references to earlier work. My late husband worked with him around 1990! wish I had listened more and asked more questions when I had the opportunity. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! I suspect in the scientific scene that each fact you discover throws up may more that you don't fully understand. It's progress but when it's you that has the problem it doesn't seem so! Funnily I was talking to my next door neighbour the other say along similar lines. I knew where she worked and so assuming she's a medic but I know she also does research. Not thyroid connected but with the same problems of trying to push back boundaries etc. I just checked with her that as well as the research she has a clinical side then said I think every medic should be connected with relevant research programmed to get the best of both worlds. She did agree but says the Daily Mail articles cause her problems, they raise expectations. She sees a lot of terminally ill patients so yes they are desperate but I ive mentioned a few weeks back it takes a long while to get from rat to patient and this she has to keep explaining. I said I like the awareness side of things and keeping things in the public domain and not wanting to put a dampner on anything but there is so much we don't understand and that must affect the next stage of development to get nearer a clinical trial. What I've never understood is that when the contraceptive pill first came out they knew it work and was safe for healthy people to take but they didn't know why it worked! I'd have thought they would have waited to find that information. (Don't worry ladies I'm going back a long way) I think we must also remember that sometimes discoveries are made by accident when looking elsewhere. But I should like to see more interaction between scientists and medics. Learning mustn't stop when presented with a degree but must progress though scientific fact and clinical observations.
silverfox7, I also wish I understood more, it is a highly complex subject and our knowledge is actually rather limited. Regarding the contraceptive pill Dr. Ellen Grant was one of the early people running trials in the UK (1961-62) and after 10 years thought women shouldn't use it because of possible damage. If you can find a copy of her book "The Bitter Pill" it will give you a different perspective. PR
When I first started to read up on thyroid, I came across a simple description of hypothalamus > pituitary > thyroid > T4 > T3 + rT3 > T2 > T1. Of course, I didn't really understand, whoever does on their first pass through?, but it hung together as a skeleton of ideas/processes.
Since then, I have realised that the hypothalamus is almost totally ignored. The pituitary is assumed to work with robot-like precision and god-like infallibility. rT3, what's that? T2 and T1 - they must be waste products. And as for the iodine released at each deiodination...
From where we are, it looks to me as if following the "What does thyroid hormone really do?" might be the most fruitful. It might at least explain the plethora of symptoms. And then work backwards in order to achieve satisfactory results.
Agreed. The hypothalamus is the king of glands - the controller of the endocrine systems. The pituitary is also important, and is prone to damage in several different ways.
Yes it was the hypothalamus my late husband did his PhD on. He even thought about getting our next car in Hull as TRH was then their local registration! I also got 'lectured' on oxytocin when I was pregnant. If he was still alive he would be fighting our corner, speaking up for Dr Skinner and pulling others apart! I just wish I had his knowledge and asked more questions!
And then you can get into circadian rhythms and what feeds signals into the hypothalamus starting with the eyeballs. It really is quite an elegant system. A Merry Christmas to you. PR
Rod, Dr. Stoll commented on the hypothalamus almost every day on his bulletin board until his death. He thought it was the source of most chronic disease due to the "overload" of stored stress and advocated that people should learn the concept of the relaxation response in order to fight disease. There were many success stories. askwaltstollmd.com/articles...
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Food and Intracellular conversion of thyroid hormones 
Very informative paper about the interactions between thyroid hormones and other hormones
