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Showing posts with label diagnose and manage hypothyroidism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diagnose and manage hypothyroidism. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

What Causes High Reverse T3 (RT3) – a Major Driver of an Underactive Thyroid?

If you are experiencing the typical signs and symptoms of an underactive thyroid but your Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, free T4, and even your free T3 appear to be normal you may want to consider checking your reverse T3, which is an inactive form of T3. This article answers the question ‘what causes high reverse T3’.

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If you are experiencing the typical signs and symptoms of an underactive thyroid but your Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, free T4, and even your free T3 appear to be normal you may want to consider checking your reverse T3, which is an inactive form of T3.

This article answers the question ‘what causes high reverse T3’.

Firstly, what does a high reverse T3 mean to your health?

Too much reverse T3 can trigger a range of symptoms associated with an underactive thyroid such as fatigue, depression, hair loss, muscle weakness, low blood pressure, and a slower than normal pulse rate.

The single reverse T3 test is included in the top 5 thyroid blood tests that are most useful to check your thyroid health. Many integrative doctors and Naturopaths now consider the reverse T3 blood test to be essential to effectively diagnose and manage hypothyroidism.

What causes high reverse T3 (RT3)? {There are 5 key reasons}

+ Unrelenting physical and emotional stress.

Ongoing stress and anxiety cause cortisol to soar. Cortisol is the hormone that helps you cope with stress.

There is a flip side to having excessive amounts of cortisol circulating in your blood stream. High cortisol inhibits normal thyroid hormone activity. This leads to an excess amount of reverse T3 being produced.

Health experts propose this is a protective response to slow metabolism and conserve energy during times of prolonged stress. Your body knows it simply cannot survive on high alert for too long. It can lead to burnout.

+ Extreme, or yo-yo dieting.

Cutting calories in an effort to lose weight sparks the body’s hard wired famine response. Your body feels the need to conserve energy when food becomes scarce and it achieves this by putting the brakes on your metabolic rate.

The easiest and quickest way your body can slow your metabolic rate and thereby conserve energy is by producing a massive amount of reverse T3.

+ Low iron is leaving you tired and breathless.

Chronic iron deficiency is a common finding of an underactive thyroid. This deficiency needs to be addressed as a lack of iron impairs proper thyroid hormone metabolism. More specifically, low iron decreases healthy conversion of thyroxine (T4) to more active triiodothyronine (T3).

Adequate levels of iron are especially important to help fight fatigue as this mineral is required by your red blood cells to carry oxygen around your body. When iron is low your oxygenation levels are low and your body cannot utilise T3 at a cell level.

+ Long term exposure to toxins.

Toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals switch on a physical stress response. Toxins also have serious effects on your thyroid health.

At a cellular level toxins can block the thyroid cell receptors so the thyroid hormones cannot perform their job, and toxins can enter the thyroid causing damage to the actual thyroid tissue.

These factors sabotage day to day function of your thyroid leading to an underactive thyroid. Over time the stress of dealing with toxins and the diminishing function of the thyroid can activate far greater production of reverse T3.

+ Systemic illness is a factor.

It is difficult to recover from reverse T3 dominance when a chronic underlying illness is not addressed. When your body feels under threat by a long standing illness it slows metabolism. Your body hits the ‘hibernation’ button to lessen the impact of a chronic illness.

For example, a latent viral infection may be causing widespread problems. This can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome which is often associated with over production of reverse T3.

If you have low T3 you should get your reverse T3 checked, especially if you have some type of long standing illness. On testing it’s typical to see low T3 and high reverse T3.

Treating excess reverse T3 secondary to a specific chronic illness is best discussed with a skilled healthcare practitioner.

Watch this Video Below Here from Dr.Richard Hagmeyer - How High Reverse T3 Causes Symptoms Associated with an Underactive Thyroid


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Author Bio:

Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.


The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click on The-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com

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