Glucose needed for T4 to turn into T3

Hello - could anyone help me find a website or study that outlines the need of glucose to make T4 into T3? I'm writing an essay on it for my course and while I know this to be true, I can't find anything to back it up...

[DippyDame]

I'm curious...how do you know this "to be true" if you still have to find peer reviewed supporting evidence?

[Hidden in reply to DippyDame]

Yes good Q. I have been told it a lot of times by many people, in particular Paul Robinson names it as important in conversion.

[Lalatoot]

Do you mean glucose and not carbohydrates? Thyroid hormones are a factor in control of glucose. Carbohydrates levels can affect conversion.

[Hidden in reply to Lalatoot]

glucose is the same as carbohydrates to me

[Lalatoot in reply to Hidden]

But they are not the same. Carbohydrates can contain for example glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, galactose, raffinose depending on whether it is a simple or complex carbohydrate.

[Hidden in reply to Lalatoot]

glucose is the breakdown of carbohydrates into its simplest form and informs ATP production, so I just mean the simplest form of carbohydrates. It doesn’t matter too much, I just would really like some sources that show how important glucose is for t4 conversion to t3. For instance conversion is greatly down regulated in the context of ketosis because of low glucose availability but I just can’t find any sources anywhere 😅

[Lalatoot in reply to Hidden]

There are lots of scientific papers that discuss restricted carbohydrate intake and how it affects conversion.

[Hidden in reply to Lalatoot]

yes… I just wonder if there are papers that say that glucose is actively essential for conversion

[radd in reply to Hidden]

Relentlessearch,

If I remember rightly Paul Robinson says cell receptors require balanced glucose levels for good uptake, not that thyroid hormones directly use glucose in the T4 - T3 conversion process.

He relates a lot of information regarding T3 to glucose because it is so influential on glucose levels and how it is utilised, such as increasing: glucose absorption in the gut; insulin response to elevated blood sugars; glucose uptake rate by cells; insulin clearance from the blood, cell sensitivity, etc, etc.

Quite a few members have ended up with elevated blood glucose levels after raising FT3 levels too high. And on the flip side elevated blood glucose levels caused by insulin resistance can impair thyroid hormone conversion by making the adrenals flood out cortisol.

[Hidden in reply to radd]

that’s fascinating. Do you know if this is reflected in any papers?

[radd in reply to Hidden]

Relentlesssearch,

There are plenty of papers on hypERthyroidism as FT3 levels become naturally elevated.  There are less within hypOthyrodism because of the belief you can’t have high T3 in a condition with low thyroid hormone. Many mistakenly believe when levels do go sky high as happens during a Hashi attack, we have become hypERthyroid 🤷‍♀️. 

It is also difficult to talk about T3's effect on increasing glucose metabolism without mentioning it also potentiates insulin signaling, increases insulin sensitivity and synthesis, and for many people T3 may perform the reverse of what I described above and bring about anti-diabetic effects.  

I know when I started T3 I had previously been experiencing ongoing & unexplained blood glucose issues (hypoglycaemia) and although had to continue eating several small meals a day for about another 6 months, the issues eventually reversed and have remained normalised. This T3 effect completely amazed me.

Although both elevated and inadequate T3 levels can cause insulin resistance, it is through totally different mechanisms, and dependant upon state of adrenal function and other systems involved in glucose metabolism. 

There are also other issues to consider such as inadequate T3 levels will induce low body temps that place higher demand on glucose metabolism, and I read that high T3 levels have more effects on obese mice than skinny ones, indicating the further from ‘normalised’’, the more change will be seen including glucose/insulin metabolism.  It is known that diabetics typically have high reverse T3 levels that reduce once glucose levels are controlled, and uncontrolled inflammation (as in obesity or even long term elevated thyroid antibodies) influences glucose metabolism.

What I’m saying is you can not simplify it and that is why you are struggling to find a paper that says T3 may increase blood sugars, although I seem to remember finding fairly relevant papers for a member who moved form Wales to Stoke but can't remember their username 🤪. Anyway these may help .....

Links between Thyroid Disorders and Glucose Homeostasis ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Paper evidencing improved usage of insulin ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Correlation between Glucose and RT3 in Diabetics pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/714...

Links between insulin resistance and inflammation pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/165...

[Hidden in reply to radd]

you’re a star!

[Batty1]

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/682...

Not sure if this is helpful