Sub-laboratory Hypothyroidism

[Ksmith]

This is a great scientific review article on "sub-laboratory hypothyroidism"

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[Nevadan]

Thanks for a VERY interesting article!

I'm almost a perfect fit for the sub-laboratory hypothyroid person described. About a year ago I started being really cold natured (had always been warm-natured before) but thought it was just "aging"; then a few months later my hair started noticeably thinning. It was then after a "hair thinning" search on Google that I became aware of hypothyroidism. After a bit of research I measured my body temperature - it was in the 95's at 4:00 pm which should be the time of max temp. Since then after leaving one dr and finding another, I'm on Armour Thyroid and so far things are looking much better. My afternoon temps are now in the 97's, and I'm not through increasing the dose.

As far as blood work is concerned, I was not hypoT. My previous dr took one look at the blood work and told me I couldn't be hypo and to go away and come back in 6 months. He just shrugged at my symptoms. Fortunately my new dr was willing to try a low dose of thyroid meds which immediately started raising my body temps. I probably have what this article calls "secondary hypothyroidism": all of my thyroid labs are within the acceptable ranges but "low normal" - this includes Free T3, Free T4, and TSH.

This article explained a lot things. Since I'm still on the hypoT learning curve, thanks again for this article.

[georgie]

I can't get the article to load at the moment but will go back to it. Important fact to remember re Thyroid tests is that previous to 1960 there were NO blood tests for Thyroid. Drs just looked at the patient and symptoms and if they thought you 'looked' HypoThyroid - they started a trial of Thyroid meds. Many may think they were the Dark Ages of medicine. Many misdx HypoThyroid people think it was a marvellous system and please bring it back All blood tests can throw false negatives ( look at Celiac) or be at the wrong side of normal but 'just' in range. Shades of grey my vet called it. Its all about knowing how to read a test and interpret it. When they set up these normal ranges they use the population to define what is normal for 95% ( for eg). Its too bad if you happen to be in the 94% - and fall just under that range.

This is what happened to me 30 years ago. I was told it was borderline. I wasn't told to keep checking it or anything. I was told I was imagining my symptoms. I now find that the range has changed 3x in those years and according to todays range - I was very Hypo back in 1977. So - I could have had 30 years of good health - instead of what happened. Weird. Can't turn back time - but I can sure spread the word !

[Ksmith]

Goergie,

I can pm you the pdf as an attachment if need be--let me know. Take care :-)

~K