LOW THYROID

Low thyroid symptoms include fatigue, both physical and mental, depression, feeling cold, hair loss, dry skin, excess weight with low caloric intake, and sleeping 8 to 10 hours and still feeling tired. This condition is frequently missed in doctor’s offices.

You can be low thyroid with normal thyroid tests. So it’s important that even if your doctor tells you your thyroid test is normal that you make sure that you have had all the tests.

The TSH test, generally the only one performed to screen for an abnormal thyroid, is not sufficient. The free T4, free T3 and thyroid antibodies, (anti TPO and anti-thyroglobulin) are also necessary to determine if thyroid replacement is indicated. If a patient has significant symptoms that point to low thyroid and ALL their tests are normal a trial of thyroid hormone may still be beneficial.  A search may be required to find a doctor who is skilled in thyroid diagnosis and treatment.

The most common thyroid medication is Levothyroxine, known as T4 for short. Some people need another thyroid medicine that is not often prescribed called liothyronine, or T3 for short. T3 is a more active thyroid molecule and increases energy dramatically for some. For others T3 gives a hyper or jittery feeling and should be avoided. T3 and T4 come in several forms: cytomel, a pure T3, is a commercially available product. Porcine thyroid, from a pig’s thyroid gland, comes in 2 brands, Armour thyroid and  Naturthroid. Both of these brands combine T4 and T3,  and contain about 4 times as much T4 as T3. Some people have much better results on this preparation.

• Supplements that can be helpful for low thyroid:
• selenium, iodine, Care must be taken with iodine replacement since excess can cause problems.
• vitamin D, L-tyrosine, rosemary.