Why your thyroid bloods may not be telling the whole story
Time and time again I see women in my clinic with all of the classical signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism but have been told their blood tests are normal.
Unfortunately here in Australia the first point of screening is limited to TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone (also known as thyrotropin).
TSH is released by the pituitary gland, and is in fact a sensitive marker for thyroid function. If our thyroid hormone t4 drops, our TSH will increase as our brain gets the message we need more thyroid hormone.
The problem is, around 90% of hypothyroid cases are actually due to an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s disease. In the early stages of Hashimoto’s disease, thyroid function can switch from “hypo” to normal and even “hyper” (aka overactive). Unfortunately, TSH levels will sit within reference ranging for many years before the damage to the thyroid gland has gone far enough to cause permanent dysfunction and altered TSH levels.
What we also need to remember is that standard lab ranges are using pathological ranges, that is ranges that are used to diagnose disease that require medical intervention. But what about what happens before we get to that point?
Functional ranges assess risk for disease before it develops, furthermore functional testing which would involve a full thyroid profile will look at all of the diving factors for a patients potential thyroid issue.
A prime example is Maddy (real patient, not her real name).
Maddy presented to the clinic with symptoms of fatigue, brain fog and hair loss. She mentioned her thyroid function was checked and was ok, but with further questioning it was pretty clear she was swinging between hypo and hyper episodes so I needed to see the results for myself. She also mentioned her mother was on thyroid medication and has Hashimoto’s disease.
Her TSH was in normal pathological range at 2.9 but nothing more was screened, so I sent her for a full thyroid profile.
Not surprisingly her t4 was within normal range but only just and her thyroid antibodies were elevated.
Her thyroid was on a path of self destruction and eventually as her symptoms worsened, so would her TSH levels and she would finally be medicated.
Luckily we got it early and managed to calm down the immune system, address a gut infection and make some dietary modifications. We also gave her some shorter term herbal and nutritional supplementation to support all of this. Within 6 weeks her symptoms had improved substantially and her antibodies levels dropped significantly (and continue to do so).
Naturopathic medicine is designed to look at the bigger picture and to question your bodies messages. If you would like to learn more on thyroid health, join the Thyroid Course coming soon!