And how are you all? Absorbing as much information on the thyroid as you possibly can? Taking on board all of the things I do to help my little gland out and maybe even trying a few things yourself? I really hope so. Because over the past month or two I have spoken to so many people who are affected by their thyroid gland and do not know what to do about it, especially when it comes with a blood test to verify the fact that they are 'fine'. So today I want to give everyone a bit of a heads up on what I suspect is going on here...
"The doctor took blood to test my thyroid but said it is fine."
First off, we will just run through that blood test since it is the ‘proof’ that you do not have low thyroid function. Here comes the science:
It is most likely that your doc would have requested a test on how much Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is in your blood, possibly a check on your t4 and antibody levels too. The amount of these hormones in your blood is what your doc intends to use to diagnose you as hypo or send you on your way (or check for other things like M.E, fibromyalgia and other things that I believe are actually symptoms of low thyroid).
It would be useful if I explained that TSH is a hormone released by the pituitary gland when it receives hormonal messages that there is not enough thyroid hormone going round the body. The TSH sends a message to the thyroid gland telling it to secrete more t4, t3, t2 etc. If all is working well, your thyroid will respond to these signals and release more hormone into the blood stream. This will in turn send signals back to the pituitary to confirm all is fine and then the pituitary cuts back on the TSH – this goes on in a continuous cycle and is known as a feedback loop - this is how it rolls. Except for when your thyroid stops working properly. What happens then is that the pituitary gland is getting the messages that there is not enough thyroid hormones in circulation, so it releases more TSH to try and encourage the thyroid to release more of the good stuff. Unfortunately the dang thyroid ain't working like it should and those life giving hormones are not being sent out in the numbers needed. The TSH levels in your blood are going to creep up and up now and if your bloods are taken at this stage….well you could still be classed as normal.
The current guidelines for doctors state that if TSH levels are between 0.5 and 5 then thyroid function is classed as normal. And would you believe it, I am going to suggest that these levels are too high a range (in the US I think the upper level is 3 – still too high for me but let’s not go there today). Everyone is different and for some people TSH at 1 might be too high! So to clarify, you may be tested for TSH hormone and be told it is fine when in fact the TSH level may be too high for you but within the set 'normal' range.
The other problem that we have is the fact that your TSH might be fine, your T4 levels may also show fine. You are likely to be told your thyroid function is fine. But what happens if ytour body is not doing a great job at converting the T4 hormone into the very valuable and active form – T3, this will not be picked up by only testing for how much T4 and TSH there is in the blood.You would still have symptoms but your blood work is....fine. Fine. Fine!
So, people, there you have it. A little insight into some of the reasons I think the TSH test your doctor uses to ‘prove’ you are feeling fine is a load of codswallop. And just one of the reasons I think you should lead your life in a pro thyroid way – regardless of your test results. More later......Why not keep in touch via facebook!
