Posted by Cairo on July 19, 2004, at 14:39:58
In reply to Re: TSH Levels and Thyroid Meds? » greenwillow, posted by Larry Hoover on July 18, 2004, at 21:11:36
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> Low thyroid could be a sign of iron deficiency. It could be sign of selenium deficiency. It could be a sign of iodine deficiency. It could be a sign of autoimmune thyroiditis. It could be a sign of tyrosine deficiency (most likely due to poor protein digestion, which declines with age). All these are affected by nutrient intake, so supplementation is something that can reasonably and safely be considered.
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> LarA TSH level above 3 is now considered suspect, though some experts start looking at thyroid function above a TSH of 2:
http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/aacereversal.htm
Also, anemia can be secondary to hypothyroidism, so it's important to see if the chicken or the egg came first.
Hypothyroid-like symptoms can also be due to hypofunctioning of the HPA (hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal) axis, where you've got enough T3 and T4 and cortisol, but either there is a problem with the receptors or you can't mount enough to deal with stress.
I have discussed this issue at length with both my endocrinologist and Fibromyalgia specialist who say that giving T3 or T4 to someone in these hypofunctioning cases may bring about a short term improvement, but will eventually shut down the thyroid via negative feedback. SAme with giving cortisone to someone who looks Addisonian.
While there are certainly nutritional deficits that can cause these problems, me thinks there is a bigger problem upstream such as dysregulation of the stress sytem:
www.neurotransmitter.net/Gold.pdf
Deficiencies of nutrients may be secondary to stress and disease, rather than primary, though the reverse certainly may be true.
Cairo
poster:Cairo
thread:366914
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040719/msgs/367814.html