Jim Harwood, a patient researcher for thyroid disease, has set up a website that details a possible form of hypothyroidism not currently recognised which covers the links between IBS and hypothyroidism.
Jim describes a form of hypothyroidism that presents with normal blood tests that he calls ‘Acquired Resistance to Thyroid Hormone (ARTH)’.
Resistance to Thyroid Hormone (RTH) is a genetic condition where there are mutations in the genes that produce thyroid hormone receptors and that RTH presents with elevated thyroid hormones and a non-suppressed TSH.
Jim believes that ARTH is the result of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) disrupting T3 binding to receptors and that ARTH is like RTH except patients have normal blood hormone levels and so are unlikely to be diagnosed.
He believes that it is likely that many thyroid patients will have a mild form of ARTH, perhaps concurrent with primary hypothyroidism.
ibshypo.com is a resource for research and education. It has no financial interests and will not carry advertisements. It will not have any kind of forum.
Jim will be adding more topics in the next few months and refine some of the existing pages based on feedback.
Jim tells us that the United Nations and World Health Organisation have called for urgent action on EDCs although most endocrinologists don't completely understand endocrine disruption.
If you are interested in reading the information on the website (there is a huge amount of interesting information) you can visit the website here: ibshypo.com
Written by
lynmynott
Partner
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Very very interesting. I have bouts of IBS and my blood hormone levels always says normal even though I have a T3 conversion problem.
Interesting, thank you. I am still wondering how my Partner was diagnosed Hypo with no symptoms whatsoever, he only went in for an over 70's check up. His TSH was 19 so he was started on Levo.
Three months later he still has no symptoms at all, weird. His results read that he has Hashimotos.
As the thyroid starts to fail TSH rises to stimulate more secretion and also increases the rate of T4 to T3 conversion. People can feel well with a TSH this high although it probably is a good idea to treat him as a high TSH carries higher risks in the long term. If they measure his fT3 you would probaly see that it is reasonably average.
Others have a mildly elevated TSH or even a normal one with quite low normal fT3 and fT4. These patients can be very hypothyroid. I will cover this topic in about a months time under the 'Subnormal TSH Secretion' section.
I've had a closer look at the site, and sent an enquiry via email, but they've asked me to also ask the question here:
My situation is that I presented with a lot of symptoms of hypothyroidism, but have never had any abnormal test results, apart from over-range antibodies. I'm wondering if antibodies are a common theme with ARTH? Is it possible to have Hashimotos and ARTH?
As far as I know there is no strong link between PBDEs and autoimmunity, I believe there are some studies that show an increase in various antibodies in animals or people with higher PBDE levels. If PBDE burden does increase the risk of thyroid antibodies it’s a minor issue compared to their endocrine disrupting effects. If it leads to autoimmunity and destruction of the thyroid, then it will be picked up in blood tests and the patient treated for primary hypothyroidism.
ARTH and autoimmune hypothyroidism can co-exist. My concern is that some patients with ARTH are being misdiagnosed with primary hypothyroidism. The patient develops obvious signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, gets tested and their TSH is e.g. 8.0. They persuade the doctor to prescribe levothyroxine on the presumption they have primary hypothyroidism. These patients often do not recover on reasonable doses of levothyroxine and perhaps with some liothyronine added. This suggests that they do not have primary hypothyroidism, or if they do there is another concurrent condition such as ARTH.
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