Posted by Larry Hoover on July 19, 2004, at 16:45:26
In reply to Re: TSH Levels, posted by Cairo on July 19, 2004, at 14:39:58
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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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> > Lar
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> A TSH level above 3 is now considered suspect, though some experts start looking at thyroid function above a TSH of 2:
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> http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/aacereversal.htm
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> Also, anemia can be secondary to hypothyroidism, so it's important to see if the chicken or the egg came first.When you're dealing with systems so tightly under feedback regulation, is it not true that all aspects, and all interventions, are both chicken and egg simultaneously? In other words, isn't it arbitrary to define a point of intervention, when you will ultimately have that intervention feed back to the point of origin?
> 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.
Enough of what?
> 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.Which is exactly why I happen to lean first towards nutrient manipulation. If the system can be stabilized by enhancing the availability of certain key substrates, exogenous hormone treatments might be precluded altogether. I know of no instance of nutrients over-regulating a dysregulated system, short of toxic effects due to ill-advised megadoses. Instead, if the system has the capacity to stabilize, it simply does so.
Of course, I am not meaning that nutrients might compensate for e.g. tumours of the hypothalamus or pituitary. Of course, a thorough work-up is indicated.
> 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:
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> www.neurotransmitter.net/Gold.pdf
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> Deficiencies of nutrients may be secondary to stress and disease, rather than primary, though the reverse certainly may be true.
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> CairoIn either case, is not supplementation warranted? Do you believe it would be ill-advised to consider supplements while awaiting the endo appointment? I'm unclear on that element of your comments.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:366914
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040719/msgs/367874.html