TSH - are the tests useless?

[JemBron]

This was posted on Earth Clinic.

stopthethyroidmadness.com/t...

[PinkNinja]

An interesting quote from that page;

"ARE YOU A SMOKER?? There is evidence that smoking can lower your TSH, and with our current culture of lab-obsessed doctors, it may be wise to avoid smoking the day of your labwork. See an interesting research study on smoking and your TSH here."

I don't know that it is totally "useless" but it is definitely not very useful if you are already diagnosed hypothyroid! I agree that once you have a diagnosis of hypothyroidism it definitely is useless a lot of the time for dosage purposes. I certainly don't think it should be used on its own and definitely not with the reference ranges we have here in the UK.

I think the TSH test, if we use sensible reference ranges, could be used to give an indication of whether further tests should be done but, as we don't have sensible ranges in this country, it is not even particularly useful for that in many cases!

Basically, don't let your doctor diagnose or dose you based solely on TSH. If you have hypothyroidism, TSH bears little relation to your actual thyroid status. However it can be quite useful for hyperthyroidism diagnosis and treatment, provided it is used sensibly in conjunction with other tests.

Carolyn x

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to PinkNinja]

It is one of those "if it is way out of range, you definitely have a problem, but being in range doesn't mean you haven't" things.

It seems all right for broad screening, except that relying on TSH only makes it all too easy to miss some cases. Then, because the ones that are missed are going to be the minority, it seems to make it progressively less likely that someone will ever get picked up.

You can imagine a future in which TSH is added to regular tests: "If it was your thyroid, why, we'd have picked that up on our well-person screening program."

I also do not like the way the call it the "TSH man-made lab" apparently intending that to be dismissive of the test and derogatory. Come on, *ALL* such labs are man-made.

[PinkNinja in reply to helvella]

I didn't read that far. I got distracted

[Hashi_since_age9-1988]

It's not useless and if we make statements like that then we wont be taken seriously. Just because its not always right doesn't mean we should swing to the other extreme and say it is useless. It is one factor that should be taken into account but it needs to e recognised that it is not always right.

[Hidden]

My understanding is the TSH test is an indicator of Thyroid response to a pituitary hormone. - to be used with actual clinical presentation.

A link to TSH research courtesy of new TUK advisors.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/news.h...

[ladydawny]

''Cortisol produced during stress by the adrenal gland can also inhibit TSH production further throwing off the accuracy of the test''

drhedberg.com/2011/02/08/th...

I had heard that steroid hormones can scew the TSH before, so something else to think about.

hugs Dawnx

[JemBron]

I have always felt that a more thorough testing process should be in place for all people with wonky thyroids - whatever their diagnosis....hypo, hyper, thyrotoxicosis, etc. In this way a more complete and appropriate treatment protocol can be offered. Certainly it is my experience that very little complete testing is done and I am always advocating with the medical people I see to try and make changes to the system (to no avail and so I test privately and that helps me enormously). TSH alone is not enough. Fortunately we are now able to do our own research and understand more about further testing....the adrenals, vitamins and minerals, antibodies etc.

I thought bringing to people's attention - especially newly diagnosed - might be helpful.

stopthethyroidmadness.com/r...