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Low Thyroid Or Hypothyroidism: What You Need to Know
Low thyroid, or hypothyroidism is more common than most people, including doctors, realize.
Do you eat like a bird and still gain weight? Feel depressed and exhausted even though you eat well and sleep enough? Do you have high cholesterol? It might be low thyroid.
Fortunately, it's relatively easy to improve your thyroid levels. In fact, many cases of hypothyroidism are preventable. Here’s what you need to know…
The Prevalence of Low Thyroid
Low thyroid affects one in seven.
Five to eight times as many women as men get diagnosed. However, that doesn’t mean it occurs in women five to eight times as often as it does in men.
Women are more proactive about their health, so it’s more likely the much higher occurrence of hypothyroidism is due, in part, to the fact that they get tested more often.
Read also: Irritable Male Syndrome, Andropause, and Reclaiming Your Manhood
Thyroid Hormone Basics
The thyroid gland sits on the front of your neck and regulates metabolic rate.
When someone with low thyroid says, “I have a slow metabolism,” they're right. However, it doesn’t mean they have to have a slow metabolism forever. They just need to do something about it.
The thyroid hormones include thyroid-stimulating hormone, thyroxine, triiodothyronine, reverse T3, and thyroid peroxidase. Technically, thyroid peroxidase is an antibody, not a hormone, but it should be measured along with the others.
HormoneNormal LevelsThyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH)0.45-4.21 mIU/L (optimal: 0.45-2.3 mIU/L)Thyroxine (T4)0.93-1.71 ng/dLTriiodothyronine (T3)2.3-4.2 pg/dLReverse T39.2-24.2 ng/dLThyroid Peroxidase (TPO)<34 IU/mL
The Thyroid-Related Hormones
Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
TSH is usually the first (and unfortunately, sometimes only) thyroid-related hormone doctors measure. TSH stimulates the thyroid gland to produce T3 and T4, the main thyroid hormones.
Elevated TSH indicates low thyroid production, or hypothyroidism. Low TSH indicates high thyroid function, or hyperthyroidism.
When a doctor uses only TSH to diagnose thyroid issues, he or she makes an assumption about your thyroid needs.
As an example, let’s say your co-worker drives up in a brand new, full-loaded Tesla. Your first assumption might be that he is wealthy, or just came into a bunch of money. But if you were to look at his finances, you’d see that he’s racked up all kinds of credit card debt, sleeps on his parents couch, and has enough money after his car payment to eat ramen noodles and tuna fish three times per day.
Your assumption was wrong because you didn’t have all the facts. That’s what can happen when a doctor only looks at TSH to determine your thyroid health.
The only way to know whether your thyroid levels are optimal is to test the actual thyroid hormones, T4 and T3.
Thyroxine (T4)
T4 is the weaker of the two thyroid hormones, but it is 30-100 times more concentrated in the body than T3. So even though it isn’t as powerful, there’s so much more T4 than T3 that T4 has the greatest impact on metabolism.
Free T4 is the T4 available for use by the body.
Triiodothyronine (T3)
T3 is the most powerful thyroid hormone. Some T3 is produced directly by the thyroid gland, and some is converted from T4.
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By Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training
4.9
3737 ratings
Low thyroid, or hypothyroidism is more common than most people, including doctors, realize.
Do you eat like a bird and still gain weight? Feel depressed and exhausted even though you eat well and sleep enough? Do you have high cholesterol? It might be low thyroid.
Fortunately, it's relatively easy to improve your thyroid levels. In fact, many cases of hypothyroidism are preventable. Here’s what you need to know…
The Prevalence of Low Thyroid
Low thyroid affects one in seven.
Five to eight times as many women as men get diagnosed. However, that doesn’t mean it occurs in women five to eight times as often as it does in men.
Women are more proactive about their health, so it’s more likely the much higher occurrence of hypothyroidism is due, in part, to the fact that they get tested more often.
Read also: Irritable Male Syndrome, Andropause, and Reclaiming Your Manhood
Thyroid Hormone Basics
The thyroid gland sits on the front of your neck and regulates metabolic rate.
When someone with low thyroid says, “I have a slow metabolism,” they're right. However, it doesn’t mean they have to have a slow metabolism forever. They just need to do something about it.
The thyroid hormones include thyroid-stimulating hormone, thyroxine, triiodothyronine, reverse T3, and thyroid peroxidase. Technically, thyroid peroxidase is an antibody, not a hormone, but it should be measured along with the others.
HormoneNormal LevelsThyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH)0.45-4.21 mIU/L (optimal: 0.45-2.3 mIU/L)Thyroxine (T4)0.93-1.71 ng/dLTriiodothyronine (T3)2.3-4.2 pg/dLReverse T39.2-24.2 ng/dLThyroid Peroxidase (TPO)<34 IU/mL
The Thyroid-Related Hormones
Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
TSH is usually the first (and unfortunately, sometimes only) thyroid-related hormone doctors measure. TSH stimulates the thyroid gland to produce T3 and T4, the main thyroid hormones.
Elevated TSH indicates low thyroid production, or hypothyroidism. Low TSH indicates high thyroid function, or hyperthyroidism.
When a doctor uses only TSH to diagnose thyroid issues, he or she makes an assumption about your thyroid needs.
As an example, let’s say your co-worker drives up in a brand new, full-loaded Tesla. Your first assumption might be that he is wealthy, or just came into a bunch of money. But if you were to look at his finances, you’d see that he’s racked up all kinds of credit card debt, sleeps on his parents couch, and has enough money after his car payment to eat ramen noodles and tuna fish three times per day.
Your assumption was wrong because you didn’t have all the facts. That’s what can happen when a doctor only looks at TSH to determine your thyroid health.
The only way to know whether your thyroid levels are optimal is to test the actual thyroid hormones, T4 and T3.
Thyroxine (T4)
T4 is the weaker of the two thyroid hormones, but it is 30-100 times more concentrated in the body than T3. So even though it isn’t as powerful, there’s so much more T4 than T3 that T4 has the greatest impact on metabolism.
Free T4 is the T4 available for use by the body.
Triiodothyronine (T3)
T3 is the most powerful thyroid hormone. Some T3 is produced directly by the thyroid gland, and some is converted from T4.