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Are you tired or even exhausted much of the time? Is your hair thinning? Are you gaining weight and unable to lose it even with regular exercise? Do you feel cold? Do you have poor circulation? You may be experiencing what is known as Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.
Perhaps you have presented these symptoms to your doctor and were told to get a blood test for your thyroid. Then, perhaps, your doctor received the results and said that your thyroid is fine and that you have no problems. If you protested that you still have the symptoms, maybe you were given a prescription for anti-depressants. Does any of this sound familiar?
The problem is with your doctor’s test
The problem is that your doctor has only done a single blood test! These tests take a look at what’s called your “Thyroid Stimulating Hormone”, or TSH.
Basically, the TSH comes from your pituitary gland, and it tells your thyroid to make the hormones it’s supposed to make.
When your thyroid is doing what it’s supposed to, the pituitary is happy. But if your thyroid is having trouble producing hormones, your pituitary will shoot out extra TSH to get it running again.
If this happens, you’ve got “hypothyroidism”. But most of these tests come back “within normal range”, so your doctor will probably assume everything is kosher with your thyroid.
But there’s a lot more to it than just that!
What does “within normal range” mean?
First off, what the doctors consider “within normal range” for your TSH isn’t always optimal. You can be “within normal range” and still be off balance.
But more importantly, your TSH and thyroid hormone levels don’t necessarily match. And even if they do match, the levels in your blood might be different from the levels in your body’s tissues.
And it’s in the tissues where they do what they’re supposed to do. So if the levels in your tissues are off, even if they’re “within normal range” in your blood, you may still have a problem, and you may feel some of those nasty symptoms I mentioned above.
Next time we’ll talk about the different thyroid hormones in your body, what they do, and how things can get out of whack.
Until next time, this is Dr. Pat Nardini, ND, putting “Your Wellness First!”