Thyroid affects every cell of the body.  The thyroid gland and its hormones are the "traffic direction center" of the hormone system. Thyroid hormones are important in their own right but more so in relation to the function of other hormones. Put simply, a healthy thyroid function is critical to a healthy function of the hormone system in general.

For men, the effect on how they feel as a result of fixing thyroid levels is significant.  For women the effect is nothing less than dramatic – it has by far the greatest effect of all hormones tested and treated.

A few symptoms of hypothyroidism:

• Low energy -- fatigue
• Weight gain
• Water retention
• Hair loss (a major cause)
• Dry skin and brittle nails
• Feeling cold in normal temperatures
• Anxiety and irritability
• Depression
• High cholesterol
• Mental fogginess
• Susceptibility to hardening of the arteries

Thyroid is produced by the thyroid gland in response to stimulation by the pituitary gland. Like testosterone production, the pituitary gland works like a thermostat. It senses the level of thyroid (T4) in the blood. As it senses the body needs more, it puts out thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to stimulate the thyroid to produce more T4. As T4 levels rise to healthy levels the pituitary shuts the TSH down. As the body ages, the pituitary produces less TSH and the thyroid produces less T4. The result is a low level of thyroid hormone (hypothyroid).  Many doctors test only this TSH / T4 cycle.

T4 accounts for only 20% of thyroid function – it passes through the blood brain barrier into the brain. The other 80% of T4 should be broken down by the body into T3 and its functional form T3 free. As the body ages, chemical changes take place that inhibit this breakdown.

Some chemical changes that may inhibit the breakdown o f T-4 into T-3:

• 5 Deiodinase - Zinc and selenium deficiencies
• Severe stress and low cortisol
• Lithium
• Dioxins
• PCB’s
• Copper excess
• Low iodine

There is a simple test that can be done at home to determine if someone thinks they might be hypothyroid. With a thermometer by your bed, when you wake in the morning, and before getting out of bed, place the thermometer under your armpit. Do this for three mornings. If your average temperature is 97.8 degrees or less, you may be hypothyroid. The test may indicate problems that do not show up on lab tests.

Some doctors do the simple hand shake test.  When they first meet the patient they shake hands – if the hand is cold they have their first indication of possible low thyroid.

A noted physician said recently that hypothyroidism in aging adults is perhaps the most undiagnosed and under treated illness in modern medicine. Doctors are not doing the testing, are doing the wrong tests, and when given the test results are providing the wrong treatment.

Problem #1: Many/most doctors only measure the feed back mechanism  TSH and T4 – see above and ignore the T3. If the ,doctor decides to treat it involves giving synthetic T4 such as Synthroid. The doctors seldom check T3 and thereby miss 80% of thyroid function.

Problem #2: Increasing T4 when the body is not breaking it down into T3 is under treatment / mistreatment.

It is quite common for us to see patients who have been checked by their family doctor and/or are being treated with T4 but are showing all the symptoms of low thyroid. We check their T3 free and find it to be low.

In treating thyroid deficiency, we use desiccated thyroid that contains both T4 and T3. We want to see the T3 free somewhere between 350pg and 425pg.