Thyroid symptoms and iodine

[Sicm]

I have all the symptoms of an underactive thyroid except I am sensitive to hot and cold. My tsh and t4 are normal, but t3 4.0. (Lab scale started at 3.9 ). In June I was much better and had had 2 iodine injections for scans. Does an iodine deficiency cause the same symptoms thanks

[greygoose]

Iodine deficiency would be more likely to give the opposite results: low FT4 and higher FT3. Because the thyroid makes more T3 when iodine is in short supply, to economise on it. T4 has four atoms of iodine, T3 only has three.

[Sicm in reply to greygoose]

Thanks, that's odd not sure where to turn now

[greygoose in reply to Sicm]

When you say your TSH and FT4 are 'normal', what exactly does that mean? There's actually no such thing as 'normal' where thyroid is concerned. And, when a doctor says 'normal', all s/he means is 'in-range'. But, given the breadth of most ranges, what is more important is where within the range the result falls. So, if you give us the actual numbers - results and ranges - we might be able to tell you more.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to greygoose]

You, Sicm , just might find the article below (and the full paper which you can access) interesting and/or useful.

The normal range: it is not normal and it is not a range

1. Martin Brunel Whyte

2. Philip Kelly

Abstract

The NHS ‘Choose Wisely’ campaign places greater emphasis on the clinician-patient dialogue. Patients are often in receipt of their laboratory data and want to know whether they are normal. But what is meant by normal? Comparator data, to a measured value, are colloquially known as the ‘normal range’. It is often assumed that a result outside this limit signals disease and a result within health. However, this range is correctly termed the ‘reference interval’. The clinical risk from a measured value is continuous, not binary. The reference interval provides a point of reference against which to interpret an individual’s results—rather than defining normality itself. This article discusses the theory of normality—and describes that it is relative and situational. The concept of normality being not an absolute state influenced the development of the reference interval. We conclude with suggestions to optimise the use and interpretation of the reference interval, thereby facilitating greater patient understanding.

dx.doi.org/10.1136/postgrad...

pmj.bmj.com/content/94/1117...

[Sicm]

Thank you for this, sorry for my slow reply. New results : TSH 1.17 free T4 17.3 free T3 4.0 the endocrinologist says they are all normal argh !