Subclinical Hypothyroidism
In medicine, accurate diagnosis is essential for selecting the most effective course of treatment for a patient. Unfortunately, misdiagnosis is commonplace in the management of hypothyroidism - Chris Kresser
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The Tyranny of Blood Levels
Doctors used to treat mostly based on symptoms; they kept giving you thyroid supplement until you lost weight, regained your hair, and perked the hell up. If you developed heart palpitations, sweating, insomnia, or anxiety, they cut back your dose.
But then it became easier to test for TSH. Guidelines were developed--conservative guidelines that erred on the side of hypothyroidism, since being hyperthyroid can kill you, while being hypothyroid just, well, makes you fat, bald, constipated, and depressed. As a result, as thyroid patients have now been complaining for years, doctors stopped paying attention to the symptoms. They treated the number instead of the disease. As long as…
Articles of Interest
Five Thyroid Patterns That Won’t Show Up on Standard Lab Tests
The standard thyroid panel usually includes only TSH and T4. There are many factors involved in optimal thyroid function, and TSH and T4 don’t tell the whole story. To obtain a clearer picture of a patient’s thyroid health, a clinician must also assess additional markers such as free T4, free T3, and reverse T3 (rT3).
Subclinical hypothyroidism: Controversies to consensus
Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is biochemically diagnosed when there is a persistently high TSH level, while circulating free thyroid hormone levels are within range.[1,2] Other terms for this condition are mild hypothyroidism, early thyroid failure, preclinical hypothyroidism, and decreased thyroid reserve.
Why Your “Normal” Thyroid Lab Results May Not Be Normal
When lab results for thyroid function come back as “normal,” it’s easy to assume that everything is functioning well. However, there are several different reasons these results can be misleading.
