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Take Your Life Back and Stop Hypothyroidism Naturally at the Source |
I
hate to be the bearer of bad news. But if I don’t tell you, then no one else
will. Often times you look to your doctor for answers and you’ve been raised to
believe that your doctors knows exactly what is going on with your health and
exactly what to do about it.
But,
I’m here to tell you that your doctor and the medical profession in general is
more confused than ever regarding hypothyroidism, healthy thyroid function, and
thyroid testing.
For
what it’s worth, it’s not entirely your doctor’s fault.
Your
doctor is really only as good as the thyroid function tests or tools he has
available to diagnose you with. And, the TRUTH is that there really is NO
perfect test for hypothyroidism.
Don’t
get me wrong!
The
hypothyroidism testing that takes place today is really abysmal. There is so
much more the medical profession could be doing to improve their practices but
they simply don’t for a number of social and economic reasons. Unfortunately
today, improvements in medical science and testing are only considered if they
can generate more profit.
All
thyroid tests have their pluses and minuses, which can be expected. But today
we’re so far off the mark when it comes to testing and diagnosing
hypothyroidism that it really brings into question whose best interests are at
mind here?
Bad Tests for
Thyroid Function
The
issue of thyroid function testing has been a hot debate for more than a
century. If we can learn anything from history (which we rarely do) we should
learn that thyroid tests come and go with the wind.
There
have been a number of previous tests that have been “accepted” and used as the gold
standard in diagnosing hypothyroid for years or decades only to eventually be
discredited and deemed useless.
So,
it’s important to take our current methods of thyroid function testing with a
grain of salt because it’s likely that they too will follow suit at some point
in time and be deemed unreliable.
Below
are some of the commonly used hypothyroidism testing methods and why they are
unreliable.
1. TSH
(Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) Testing
Odds
are, if you’ve been diagnosed as hypothyroid by your doctor then you’ve had
your TSH levels measured and they have likely been above “normal” (at least
their interpretation of normal that is).
This
is currently the standard test that medical doctors use to diagnose
hypothyroidism. And it’s the ONLY test they typically run.
If
you’re not familiar with human physiology, TSH is a hormone that tells the
thyroid gland that more thyroid hormone is needed and to release more thyroid
hormone into your bloodstream.
So,
if TSH is high then this is thought to mean that your thyroid gland is not able
to produce adequate thyroid hormone, thus you must be hypothyroid.
Extraneous
Influences on TSH
One
of the biggest problems with TSH testing is that it can be influenced by a
number of extraneous factors unrelated to the direct function or health of the
thyroid gland including:
·
Aging
·
Stress
·
Infection
·
Blood
Sugar
·
Excessive
T4
·
Etc.
It’s
important to understand that any thyroid function test is merely giving you a
snapshot of your hormone levels at one single moment in time. And any factor,
including the list above, can cause an immediate or drastic change in your
hormone levels.
So,
let’s say you’re under a considerable amount of stress, you’ve caught a cold, or
you didn’t have time to eat before your doctor’s appointment… these variables
can affect the outcome of your test.
It’s
also important to note that doctors typically prescribe T4 only medications
like Synthroid, which can easily lower TSH without actually improving your
thyroid function.
Illogical Reference
Ranges
Any
lab test is only as accurate to the degree that its reference ranges are
accurate. And there is a lot of evidence surrounding the illogical reference
ranges that have been established for TSH.
The
original TSH reference ranges were based on the results of the Protein Bound
Iodine test, which was one of the many tests that were deemed unreliable.
Basing TSH reference ranges on a test that was proven to be unreliable makes
the results of the TSH test… unreliable at best!
2. Free T3
Testing
Triiodothyronine
(a.k.a. T3) is typically referred to as the “active” thyroid hormone because it
is far more metabolically active in your cells than T4, or the “inactive”
thyroid hormone. Because of this, we know that T3 is the primary thyroid
hormone that your cells use to produce energy.
When
thyroid hormone exists in the bloodstream, it relies on carrier proteins to
move it within your bloodstream and delivery it to your cells where it is used
to produce energy.
One
of the biggest arguments today regarding hypothyroidism is that of the Free
Hormone Hypothesis. This hypothesis speculates that only “free” or non-bound T3
thyroid hormone can enter your cells and produce energy and that any T3 that is
bound to a carrier protein is unavailable to your cells.
However,
there have been many studies that have disproven this theory and demonstrated
that bound hormones can enter not only cells, but cell mitochondria and cell
nuclei.
This
pretty much deflates the entire idea that only “free” T3 can be used by your
cells.
Since
free T3 accounts for less than five percent of your total T3, testing for free
T3 is practically useless for diagnosing hypothyroidism.
3. Basal
Metabolic Rate Tests
BMR
(Basal Metabolic Rate) Tests were extensively used in the early to mid-1900’s
before blood tests were developed. This same BMR test is still being used today
and is becoming more and more popular in recent years.
The
BMR test works by precisely measuring the amount of oxygen that you consume
when your body is basal, or completely at rest. Your rate of oxygen consumption
can then be used to determine your metabolism and therefore thyroid function.
However,
there are a number of factors that make this test unreliable.
For
starters, it requires that your body be in a completely basal state which is
practically impossible with this method of testing. The only time your body is
truly in a basal state is when you first open your eyes in the morning and
before you start moving and get out of bed.
By
the time you wake up, get dressed, drive through traffic to your doctor’s
office, check in, etc., your body is no longer in a truly basal state.
So,
how accurate can measuring your “basal” metabolism be if you’re not even in a basal
state?
In
order to make this test truly relevant, you would have to have your doctor come
to your home while you sleep, and then administer the test upon waking.
Even
in this scenario, the idea of having your doctor in your home and putting some
sort of mask over your mouth upon waking would elicit enough of a stress
response to alter the test results.
4. Thyroid
Blood Tests
There
are a number of blood tests available for measuring various factors related to
the thyroid hormone pathway including TSH, T4, T3, reverse T3, T3 Resin Uptake,
Thyroglobulin, etc.
If
you understand the physiology and roles that all of these play within the human
body, then you can begin to gain some insight into what the potential problems
are that are disrupting your thyroid.
However,
they do not answer the one single question that continues to elude medicine
even today, which is how much thyroid hormones are actually getting to and
being used by your cells.
There
are a number of physiological and dietary factors that can stop thyroid hormone
from actually being used by your cells. Thyroid hormone can be blocked in your
bloodstream and it can be blocked at the cellular level.
There is No Perfect
Thyroid Function Test
You MUST
understand that you can take all of the thyroid hormone you want, you can run
labs showing you have more than enough thyroid hormone in your blood, but if
that thyroid hormone is not being used by your cells then you are still
hypothyroid.
The
perfect test for thyroid function would be to directly measure the amount of
thyroid hormone being utilized by every cell of your body. But with billions of
cells, this is easier said than done.
I
think it’s safe to say that we’re not going to see any “perfect” thyroid test
any time soon.
What Is the Best
Option for Thyroid Function Testing Then?
We’ve
already established that measuring various levels of hormones in your blood can
provide some useful insight, but fails to tell you the most important thing you
need to know, which is how much thyroid hormone your cells are actually using.
Today,
this can only truly be estimated through measuring your Basal Metabolic Rate,
which has been problematic because it’s impossible to walk into your doctor’s
office in a truly basal condition.
Believe
it, or not, there is a simple and highly effective thyroid test that can
measure your thyroid function in a truly basal state.
By
simply taking your temperature upon waking, you can quite reliably determine if
your thyroid is able to keep up with the metabolic demands of your body, or if
you truly are hypothyroid.
This
is exactly how I work with my clients. We don’t rely on misguiding thyroid function
tests. We use basal temperature and pulse as well as temperature and pulse
throughout the day to determine the metabolic state of the body.
By
knowing this information, you can begin to use your diet therapeutically to
supply your thyroid and cells with the nutrients they need to keep them running
in their optimal state, which is essential for the body and thyroid to heal.
Author Bio:
Tom Brimeyer – The
author of Hypothyroidism Revolution – is a practitioner of functional medicine,
health researcher and author on nutrition, hormones and hypothyroidism.
His personal
mission is to inspire and educate people to take control and achieve true
health by correcting their hypothyroidism and underlying causes of their health
problems instead of being stuck relying on doctors and drugs that merely cover
up their symptoms while their health continues to suffer.
