Connection between T3 and insulin resistance - Thyroid UK

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Connection between T3 and insulin resistance

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Would appreciate others' comments on this:

tiredthyroid.com/insulin-re...

The reason I'm asking is because I've been struggling with highish blood sugar and insulin levels for years, so basically insulin resistance, and that has not improved on NDT - if anything, got slightly worse.

But I wonder if this is another myth, much like rT3 dominance? Because US ND Westin Childs claims the opposite; that is, that insulin resistance creates a pathway for more rT3, leading to rT3 dominance, and the treatment he advocates is high doses of T3.

Both theories cannot be correct...but which one is????

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5 Replies

OK, so there is a link to one of the many articles Dr. Childs has written on the subject:

restartmed.com/diabetes-rev...

Basically, he advocates the use of T3 to reverse diabetes, whereas the author of Tired Thyroid quotes several sources to back up the claim that T3 creates or worsens insulin resistance (pre-diabetes).

High carb diets are a common cause of insulin resistance. T3 can raise blood sugar, but to say that T3 "causes" insulin resistance is a bit much. Here's an article that says that high doses of T3 reversed insulin resistance in mice ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... and here's one that basically says that poor glucose metabolism is a side effect of being hypo ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl.... There are several "popular"articles that say high t3 levels are associated with insulin resistance - but what is high? There are more scientific articles associating low t3 with insulin resistance. So - probably what we need it the right amount of T3: not too low, not too high

And this from diabetes UK on links between diabetes (both types) and thyroid function diabetes.co.uk/in-depth/can...

jgelliss profile image
jgelliss in reply to Angel_of_the_North

Thank You for sharing . Great article .It makes so much sense that getting the T3 hormone into the cells, which helps preserve beta cell function – and is essential for blood sugar control – requires healthy cortisol levels. High cortisol levels prevents the conversion of the inactive form of the thyroid hormone T4 into the active form T3 in the peripheral tissues.

When insulin is reduced due to low thyroid hormone, excess sugar can’t be shuttled out of the bloodstream into the cells to be utilized.

The take away lesson and message that I got is *Low Thyroid Function* could raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, especially in people with prediabetes.

It seems that cortisol is tricky...either having too little or too much can mess thyroid treatment up pretty badly. I know people who developed diabetes 2 after steroid treatment (non-physiological doses) so there is definitely a connection between cortisol and insulin. I have always been wary when doctors who treat adrenal fatigue say: "Yes, but you should only take a physiological dose and that won't shut your adrenals down". And a physiological dose is up to 40 mg of HC or 10 mg of prednisolone daily (although many seem to take half of that). But what I have been wondering is: how much is too much? Can anyone really guarantee that taking 5 mg of pred daily won't shut your adrenals down or weaken them to the point of not ever becoming fully functional again...? And how long is long enough to be on HC or pred? Some doctors say a couple of months, others that you can take it for a couple of years.

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