Thyroid question

ladyathome · Post by **ladyathome** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:24 am

Well my biggest symptoms right now are: hair falling out, tired, ridged nails, and the worst thing is I cannot lose weight. I've been on a strict diet (more strict than even my dietary restrictions are) and I haven't lost a pound. I do crossfit 4 times a week, yoga 2 times a week, and walk 3 miles about 3 - 4 times a week. No sugar, no dairy, no grains, no alcohol, and I am not eating too much of any of the good healthy foods.
Could the low T4 be a factor in these issues?
I know my T3 is high, but could the T3 and T4 not being balanced cause issues?

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 12:03 pm

One option is to set up a telephone consult with Janie Bowthorpe, author of Stop The Thyroid Madness.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others/

Pat

Post by **tex** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:54 pm

ladyathome wrote:Could the low T4 be a factor in these issues?
I know my T3 is high, but could the T3 and T4 not being balanced cause issues?

Hmmmmmmm. Well, the problem is that your Free T4 is not exactly low (the normal range is 0.8–1.8), and the slight imbalance shouldn't cause response problems. If anything, the high Free T3 should cause hypertyroidism symptoms.

By contrast, the symptoms you named are hypothyroid symptoms. That suggests that you may need to find a doctor who is willing to treat by symptoms, which may be mission impossible these days, even though that was the standard policy a few decades ago (before the advent of the TSH test).

I have a hunch that most naturopaths would be more willing to treat according to symptom relief, then an endo, but I'm just guessing. Or, you could cut to the chase and try Pat's suggestion.

Tex

LindyLou · Post by **LindyLou** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:46 pm

Pat, it isn't standard practice for doctors and I don't know why but it sounds like your T4 is being converted to reverse T3. This is measurable and your doctor should order labs for that to see if that is what is happening. I don't know a lot about it as I'm just learning about this myself but this could account for your high T3. Reverse T3 is basically an inactive form of T3.

Post by **tex** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:53 pm

Linda,

The problem is that Free T3 does not include Reverse T3 — it's a separate entity. When analyzing a potential Reverse T3 problem, the key value is the ratio of Free T3 to Reverse T3, IOW, FT3/RT3 needs to be 20 or higher. If the result of that ratio is below 20, a Reverse T3 problem exists (according to the theory). Therefore, the higher the Free T3 level, the lower the chances that the Reverse T3 level would be high enough to exceed the threshold. Still, you are correct that there is a possibility that this might be the case, it just doesn't appear to be as likely in view of ladyathome's test results.

Reverse T3 (also called Reverse Triiodothyronine)

Tex

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:40 pm

Jean- I love your sense of humor!

Pat- I'm trying to find my happy medium too. It's really a pain in the behind when you have to figure out the right way to convince your doctor to do what you want. This site is my security blanket. I like to run ideas and questions by the non-doctors first so I am prepared for my appointments. It has literally saved my life.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:07 pm

I think my T3 is below normal not high. I am still trying to understand all of this. It's like learning a foreign language.

Pat