You can feel hypothyroid, gain weight, and be exhausted but your doctor swears your thyroid labs are “perfect.” But often your "perfect" markers are hiding a big problem. Here's what you're not being told - and why TSH often lies - and tips on how to fix it. thread 🧵
First big thing to know: you can be hypothyroid with normal blood markers. This type of hypothyroid state happens when there's stress in the cell, which messes up your active thyroid hormone T3. In this context, your thyroid gland can't pick up on it - so your blood markers
A quick thyroid lesson: Thyroid hormone (T4) leaving the thyroid is a precursor to active thyroid. Think of it like foreign currency that needs to be exchanged before its use. The exchange of that currency happens in cells throughout the body by en enzyme DIO2. This allows
T3 is imperative to your health. Deficiencies in this hormone can cause weight gain, constipation, brain fog, feeling cold all the time, fat digestion issues, depression and much more. Unfortunately, when your cell is stressed, you will convert less T4 to T3, and the above
Why does stress convert less T4 to T3? When the cell is stressed, it produces more an enzyme called DIO3 (instead of the usual DIO2), which instead causes T4 to be converted to reverse T3 - the inactive form of T3. Think of it like money sitting in the bank, you can't use it.
The stress in the cell can be caused by a range of factors, such as inflammation, toxins, endotoxins, long term calorie deficits, hyperactive nervous system, stress hormones, and so on. In this situation, DIO3 goes up, T3 goes down, and reverse T3 goes up. So why can't you
The reason doctors miss this in lab-work is that they usually just look at TSH. TSH is controlled by the pituitary gland. This gland senses thyroid hormone levels in the gland. But critically, this gland doesn't make DIO3, so T4 gets converted to T3 in this gland despite low T3
So what's the solution? Many immediately jump for thyroid supplementation. This solution will be problematic if they're given T4 hormone, as it will also mainly convert to reverse T3. Others will try taking T3 hormones. But this hormone can be converted to T2 by DIO3. So
Dealing with stress is the ultimate fix Critically, dealing with why there is stress on a cellular level is key. This may be dealing with inflammation, insulin issues, excess weight, lack of energy from food, psychological stress, and so on. Fixing this will be the path to
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@GutOptimized It's ridiculous. They are so married to their TSH. 😂🤦🏻♀️ Meanwhile a patient can feel the worst ever. Must not be their thyroid. 🫤
@malolisica Exactly right
@GutOptimized Normal TSH can miss thyroid issues in illness, where low T3 and high reverse T3 happen, but that’s usually from stress or disease, not classic hypothyroidism.
@GutOptimized Great thread! Stress definitely wrecks the thyroid. when thyroid’s sluggish, everything feels harder and more stressful too. In most cases I’ve seen, bile and liver are the hidden culprits. Poor bile flow = impaired T4 → T3 conversion + poor absorption of thyroid-critical
@GutOptimized @threadreaderapp unroll please
@GutOptimized @readwise save thread
@GutOptimized @grok what labs can test for stress, inflammation, toxicity, etc
@GutOptimized Adding Lugol's Iodine to my coffee every day helped me tons. There are many chemicals (especially in breads) that prevent the body from using the little iodine it gets. The body cannot make enough hormones without the correct building blocks. Iodine is one of them.
@GutOptimized All "normal markers" are based on sick people
@GutOptimized @threadreaderapp unroll
@GutOptimized Hey Ross You failed to tell your followers the absolute MOST IMPORTANT WAY they can normalize and actually find the root cause and permanently fix their thyroid and pituitary function!!