If you go to your doctor and tell him or her that you are tired, overweight, and have brain fog, you will likely be told to reduce your stress or to take antidepressants. Even if you push for important thyroid lab tests, you will likely hear that everything looks "normal". There is a reason why this is so, and it's not because doctors are uncaring. They are, though, using the wrong tools to assess their patients, and often patients are misdiagnosed. The true reason for this rampant misdiagnosis of thyroid disease is the widespread use of standard thyroid blood tests called the "TSH", which stands for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. TSH is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland that tells your thyroid to start working. Conventional physicians who don't specialize in thyroid illness often make the mistake of evaluating you just by this one test, which frequently comes back in the normal or only slightly elevated reference range. Thus, your doctor concludes that your thyroid function is perfectly fine.
A TSH test for thyroid doesn't capture what's happening inside your trillion cells. It is a reflection of your thyroid activity based upon the pituitary gland. Your tissues and organs may still be starving.
The Best Lab Tests
These are the lab tests you want to request your doctor to do in order to determine if your cells are getting the thyroid hormones they need to keep you feeling and looking great. See what I believe are optimal ranges of these tests in the chart at left.
Free T4 - While this is great to measure as part of a bigger profile, it's not a good marker of your thyroid health all by itself. This is because you may have plenty of T4, but it may not be able to get converted into T3. Or if your transporters are low, it may not be able to get into cells. This is just one piece of the puzzle, however, an important one. (healthy levels 0.80 to 1.8 ng/dl)
Free T3 - This test is very important. It measures the amount of T3 that is not bound to a protein. So it's the form that is readily available to power up your cells and make your thyroid healthy. Meaning testing your free T3 is one of the best ways to evaluate your thyroid status. (healthy levels 3.5 to 4.3 pg/ml)
Reverse T3 - You'll have to ask for it, or maybe even nag for it. It's so important because the more rT3 you have, the less feel-good T3 gets into the cells. Some data suggests that rT3 decreases the absorption of T3 into the cells by 34%. (healthy levels <15 ng/dl)
Free T3 to RT3 ratio - This is the absolute best test to tell what's happening inside your cells. It's actually something you can only do after you've had free T3 and RT3 tested (healthy levels <2)
Common Thyroid Blockers
If you want to radiate well-being and feel fantastic, no matter how old you are, you're going to have to calm chronic inflammation.
Inflammation
Inflammation and poor thyroid function go hand in hand. If you have inflammation, you likely have an impaired thyroid too. And if you have any issue with your thyroid, you probably also have inflammation. Inflammation is like a small fire smoldering inside your body. If you want to be healthy, you have to put out the fire.
Inflammation is triggered when your body makes chemicals called cytokines. You can think of cytokines as tiny sparks because they cause low-grade, smoldering fire in your glands and tissues. It's a natural reaction to being exposed to anything your body doesn't like, whether something in your diet, the chemicals in your dry-cleaned clothes, pollutants in the air, or even toxic relationships. In addition to triggering inflammation, cytokines reduce the number and sensitivity of the thyroid hormone receptors on your cells, making it harder to get the T4 into the cells where it can be converted into T3.
The substances and conditions on this list impair your thyroid function.
- Processed food, vegetable oils, and MSG
- Gluten
- Artificial sweeteners and colors
- Tap water due to fluorine and chlorine, etc
- Imbalanced hormones
- Infections such as H. pylori, Lyme disease, parasites, strep, etc.
- Nicotine and alcohol
Support your Thyroid with Supplements
While some of you may require actual thyroid medication, there are many supplements that help you make more T4 and convert it to T3.
Probiotics - As much as 20% of your inactive T4 is converted to T3 in your gut, if your digestion if your digestion is working well. Unfortunately, many of us have compromised gut healthy and lack friendly bacteria. Taking probiotics is a simple fix, and sometimes the only thing a person needs to do to normalize a mild thyroid deficiency.
P5P - This is the biologically usable form of vitamin B6. A deficiency in this B vitamin can make your immune system more likely to attack your thyroid and can lead to hypothyroidism. Also, you need P5P to join with the mineral zinc, which is necessary to make thyroid hormone work. Symptoms of B6 deficiency include depression, irritability, nerve pain, and an enlarged tongue. (dosage guideline: 10-25 mg daily)
Methylcobalamin - This is one of the active forms of vitamin B12, not to be confused with cyanocobalamin, which is synthetic. B12 deficiency goes hand-in-hand with hypothyroidism - research suggests as many as 40% of hypothyroidism patients also have B12 deficiency. (dosage guideline: about 1,000 mcg taken with food)
Zinc - Zinc is critical for activating T4 to T3 in the liver and kidneys. It helps improve the function of the enzymes that activate thyroid hormone. According to a human study, 9 of 13 participants with normal T4 but low free T3 had mild to moderate zinc deficiency. After oil supplementation with zinc sulfate, the levels of free T3 and T3 normalized. (dosage guideline: don't overdo zinc. A safe dose is about 10-20 mg daily with food)
Selenium - Like zinc, this mineral is needed for the enzymes that convert T4 to T3. In addition, Selenium is a powerful antioxidant. (dosage guideline: about 100 mcg once daily, some cases may need more)
Catalase - It's a super-antioxidant that targets hydrogen peroxide, an oxidant typically high in people with thyroid disorders. (dosage guideline: about 12,500 CatU)
Ashwagandha - This Ayurvedic herb is one of my favorite thyroid supplements. It stimulates production of both T4 and T3 in your body. It also nourishes your adrenal glands to better cope with stress. It also protects your thyroid from DNA damage. (dosage guideline: typically somewhere between 300-600 mg per day, take at nigth to support with sleep)
Resveratrol - Resveratrol is a potent antioxidant that may help prevent or slow growth of thyroid cancer by causing cancer cells to commit suicide. It also enhances iodine utilization, which is key for thyroid health. (dosage guideline: To be safe, follow the recommended dose on the product you buy, typically somewhere around 100 mg a day.)
I firmly believe that the first step is to support your body in making the most of the thyroid hormone you already produce, rather than immediately turning to medication. By strengthening what’s naturally there, you create a more stable foundation for long-term thyroid health.
