Thyroid hormone and tissue repair: new tricks for an old hormone?

[helvella]

A very, very interesting paper has just been published. In essence, it suggests that thyroid hormone helps with the repair of almost every tissue it has been tested with.

One of the characteristics of hypothyroidism is the large number of symptoms – and the way they seem to worsen and increase in number as the disease progresses. If, as this suggests, thyroid hormone is necessary for tissue to repair, then lack of thyroid hormone could allow the damage to remain and accumulate – rather than being repaired?

It sometimes feels as if every type of medic except endocrinologists are becoming more fully aware of the impact of low thyroid hormone levels. Surely this cannot really be the case, but quite a few patient experiences point in this direction.

Happily, the full paper is freely and readily available here:

hindawi.com/journals/jtr/20...

I recommend viewing Table 1 within it.

The PubMed listing is here:

J Thyroid Res. 2013;2013:312104. doi: 10.1155/2013/312104. Epub 2013 Feb 25.

Thyroid hormone and tissue repair: new tricks for an old hormone?

Mourouzis I, Politi E, Pantos C.

Source

Department of Pharmacology, University of Athens, 75 Mikras Asias Avenue, Goudi, 11527 Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Although the role of thyroid hormone during embryonic development has long been recognized, its role later in adult life remains largely unknown. However, several lines of evidence show that thyroid hormone is crucial to the response to stress and to poststress recovery and repair. Along this line, TH administration in almost every tissue resulted in tissue repair after various injuries including ischemia, chemical insults, induction of inflammation, or exposure to radiation. This novel action may be of therapeutic relevance, and thyroid hormone may constitute a paradigm for pharmacologic-induced tissue repair/regeneration.

PMID: 23533950 [PubMed - in process]

Rod

[Clarebear]

Very interesting Rod - thanks.

I had a wound that wouldn't heal last summer, and think I was quite hypo at the time, possibly due to the wound being treated with excess amounts of iodine when I was on holiday in France.

Wish endo's would keep up to date with research...

[PinkNinja]

I look forward to reading it but first I need to sleep for about a week!

Thanks and well done on finding it!

Not impressed with endos knowing less about their chosen subject than other doctors

[JennyRay]

Thank you so much Rod. This is amazing.

[marram]

I found this fascinating but unsurprising if you know what I mean. I have just ordered some T3 from a recommended source and plan to give it a try by replacing some of my Levo in a 4:1 basis taking into account the suggested comparative strength of each (T3 being around four times stronger?) I am getting a BP monitor and plan to keep an eye on my BP, pulse and temp every day.

Hopefully this will help to heal some of the damage done to my heart by being starved of thyroxine for six years...

[Marz]

......Thank you Rod. So interesting and confirms my suspicions that my body felt as if it was waking up after a long sleep when I was at last treated. If those trillions of cells in the body need T3 to function optimally - then it's quite obvious to little ol' non-medical me that things will go wrong if you do not have enough. Moving onto T3 brought a further improvement which is gradual but positive.

Good to see it was done in Athens too ! Have confused the docs here with my Colonoscopy Biopsy results ( low to medium Crohns ! ) - and I suggested to him that it could be the thyroid treatment and VitD along with increased B12 et al. It brought a wry smile. His reply was I have to treat the disease and not the patient. Ummm - well this patient is not for turning !

Had years of Crohns surgery with complications so this is a great result as far as I am concerned and NFA required ! I will just keep taking those crumbly bits of T3...and all the other vitals for optimal health......

[Hidden]

I walked into wooden furniture many weeks ago during an undermedicated clumsy phase. I had massive bruising and swelling which didn't go. This week my increased dose of levo has really taken hold and I feel better than I have in years. (I do seem to respond well to levo at the moment.) Anyway, I noticed this morning that all of the black bruising has gone, almost overnight and I only have the tiniest hint of the 'after bruise' effect - but hardly there at all. I was only thinking on Wednesday that I could have bruising there for life as it wasn't showing even the first signs of fading. So I'd say the healing of my bruise seemed to be impossible, until the hormones in my body were sufficient to enable healing to take place. I suppose this was so obvious because the evidence was so visual.