New information on why you can have normal thyroid results and still have hypothyroid.

[Flickingermary]

nahypothyroidism.org/thyroi...

This is a must read.

Mary

[shaws Administrator]

Yes, Mary, it is a must read and it's a pity it cannot be circulated to all of the Endocrinology Depts and BTA and RCoP. I particularly liked:

"Many overweight individuals fail to lose weight with dieting. While it is always assumed they are doing a poor job of dieting, it has been shown, however, that chronic dieting in overweight individuals results in increased levels of NEFA, which suppresses T4 uptake into the cells (3). This suppressed T4 uptake results in reduced intracellular T4 levels and subsequent T4 to T3 conversion and a reduced metabolism (3,112,114,115,116) (see thyroid transport graph)"

“It is clear that serum thyroid hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations cannot be used with any degree of confidence to classify patients as receiving satisfactory, insufficient, or excessive amounts of thyroxine replacement…The poor diagnostic sensitivity and high false positive rates associated with such measurements render them virtually useless in clinical practice…Further adjustments to the dose should be made according to the patient’s clinical response.” (121)

"In a study published in the British Medical Journal, Meir et al also investigated the correlation of TSH and tissue thyroid effect. It was shown that the TSH level had no correlation with tissue thyroid levels and could not be used to determine a proper or optimal thyroid replacement dose. The authors concluded that “TSH is a poor measure for estimating the clinical and metabolic severity of primary overt thyroid failure. … We found no correlations between the different parameters of target tissues and serum TSH.” They stated that signs and symptoms of thyroid effect and not the TSH should be used to determine the proper replacement dose (122)."

Why is it that the doctors we rely upon to know more than us are more ignorant? Why do we have to search for answers but yet are ignored when we dare to suggest that there knowledge is lacking? Why don't they keep up-to-date but doctors who treat holistically are aware and use all of the above measures.

Thanks.