The #1 Reason Most People Are Sick

When we take tests, particularly medical tests, most of us breathe a sigh of relief when we’re told our results are “normal.” In general, a “normal” test result is a good thing.

But when it comes to tests of your thyroid hormone levels, “normal” doesn’t necessarily mean much at all. That’s because “normal” thyroid levels can vary quite a bit from person to person.

Therefore, what’s normal for me may not be what’s normal for you.

So, if your doctor is deciding on whether or not you need thyroid hormone replacement simply from the results of blood tests, he’s playing a guessing game. And you may not be getting what you need.

This is one of the most unfortunate problems in medicine today because, as you will see, when it’s not adequately treated, decreased thyroid function can do a serious number on your health.

This fact is underscored in a study recently published in the journal Hormone and Metabolic Research. Additionally, the study shows that the problem is compounded if you’re overweight. The researchers found that people who are overweight are increasingly being diagnosed with something called “subclinical hypothyroidism.” But what exactly does subclinical hypothyroidism mean?

There are basically three blood tests that doctors use to determine thyroid function. They are T4, T3, and TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). T4 and T3 are thyroid hormones. So presumably if you have low thyroid function, your levels of either T3 or T4 will be low. As you will soon see, this is not necessarily true. But for now, let’s pretend it is. TSH is not a thyroid hormone. TSH is made in the pituitary gland in the brain. When the brain decides that your body needs more T3 or T4, it releases TSH into the bloodstream and the blood values of TSH go up. The TSH goes to the thyroid gland and stimulates it to make more T3 and T4.

Then, after the thyroid has made enough T3 and T4, the brain recognizes this and stops releasing TSH into the bloodstream and the blood levels of TSH go down. Thus, when the TSH levels are high, the implication is that the brain thinks that there’s not enough T3 and T4 (i.e., a low thyroid condition). This is why doctors are taught in medical school that when the TSH is elevated, the patient has low thyroid function. It sounds reasonable. But the problem with this theory is that it often doesn’t pan out. Overwhelmingly, when the TSH is elevated, the T3 and T4 levels are completely normal. This is a common finding. Almost 10% of the population has an elevated TSH with normal T3 and T4. There are three possibilities to account for this discrepancy. Either (1) the TSH test is inaccurate; (2) the T3 and T4 tests are inaccurate; or (3) all of these tests are inaccurate. As you will see, #3 is the correct answer.

Furthermore, the TSH theory assumes that the brain's hypothalamic and pituitary axis and the liver are functioning optimally. This turns out to be a false assumption much of the time, as a 2005 article entitled, “The evidence for a narrower thyrotropin [TSH] reference range is compelling,” points out.

Subclinical hypothyroidism is the term that doctors use to describe the situation I just mentioned, where the TSH is elevated but the actual levels of the thyroid hormones are in the normal range. It’s often a milder form of low thyroid function. But as you will see, it’s still significant. The authors of the new study start off by stating that subclinical hypothyroidism is on the rise, especially in obese people. So they decided to see if there were any metabolic differences between obese men and women with subclinical hypothyroidism and those with completely “normal” test results.

To do the study, they divided a group of 219 obese men and women into two groups. One group had subclinical hypothyroidism. The second group did not. Then they specifically looked at the following in both groups: their insulin levels, their levels of inflammation, their vitamin D levels, their HDL (good) cholesterol, their liver function tests, and how well their thyroid glands were able to make thyroid hormones. Here’s what they found.

The people with subclinical hypothyroidism had significantly higher insulin levels, higher inflammation levels, lower vitamin D levels, lower HDL levels, and higher liver function tests. And their thyroid glands were less able to make hormones effectively. And the greater their degree of subclinical hypothyroidism was, the worse the results were. The study dramatically points out how important it is to have healthy thyroid function. Every one of these parameters were worse in the patients diagnosed with subclinical hypothyroidism. That places them at a greater risk for premature aging and disease. But there’s more.

Decreased thyroid function in all its forms is dangerous. The problem is that it’s often present even in people with normal TSH, T3, and T4 levels. Make no mistake, these blood tests are NOT reliable. Even when they are all in the normal range, they’re going to miss the great majority of patients who need thyroid hormone replacement. And that places a lot of people at risk.

So here’s the question. Is there an accurate way to test thyroid function? The answer is that there used to be.

Back before 1960, there was a foolproof way to measure thyroid function. It was called metabolic testing. And here’s why it was foolproof. Thyroid hormones only do one thing. Sure, it’s an incredibly important thing. But the fact is that they only do one thing. They stimulate the metabolism. So before 1960, when doctors wanted to measure thyroid function, they simply measured your metabolism. A high metabolism meant excessive thyroid function. A low metabolism meant deficient thyroid function. And a normal metabolism meant normal thyroid function. Pretty simple isn’t it? Instead of measuring the amount of thyroid hormones in the body, which can vary enormously from person to person and minute to minute, doctors just measured the effect of the hormones. But then all that changed.

In the early 1960s, scientists discovered a way to measure thyroid hormone levels in the blood and the world of thyroid diagnosis changed forever. Forever for the worse, that is. Here’s the mistake they made. They just assumed that these new thyroid tests reflected a person’s metabolism. But the fact is that no one ever bothered to see if that was true. Even to this day, there hasn’t been one published study that shows that thyroid hormone blood tests accurately reflect a person’s metabolism. So amazingly, even though there was no proof at all that measuring thyroid hormone blood levels accurately determined thyroid function, metabolism testing was completely abandoned, and blood testing became the standard of the day.

When I went to medical school in the 1960s, I was not taught anything about metabolic testing. It was already passé. The only thing they taught me was blood testing. And so it is 50+ years later. Except for a very select few, the doctors of today not only do not use metabolic testing, they don’t even know what it is! But fortunately, that's not where the story ends.

Almost 20 years ago, I became aware of a way to quickly and easily measure my patients’ metabolism. It involved measuring how much oxygen their bodies were consuming using a method called VO2 testing. Since oxygen consumption is directly related to metabolism, after applying a few mathematical formulas, I was able to accurately determine my patient’s metabolism. Ever since then, I’ve measured the metabolism of thousands of patients. And 96% of the time, when a patient has a depressed metabolism indicating significantly depressed thyroid function, their thyroid hormone levels including T3, T4, and TSH are all in the normal range. This became such a problem, that I finally completely stopped using thyroid hormone levels to determine who had low thyroid function and who didn’t. Why measure them when they’re almost always wrong? Why not just go to the source and measure metabolism directly?

The study I covered above shows how important diagnosing low thyroid function is. Untreated low thyroid function will shorten the length of your life and put you at greater risk for a host of diseases. It also points out how ineffective simply looking at blood levels is. It’s ironic. Low thyroid function is the single primary reason people feel tired, get diseased, and age prematurely. Yet the blood tests that doctors use to diagnose it are the most unreliable in all of medicine.

If you have any symptoms of low thyroid function (listed at: http://hypothyroidmom.com/16-signs-you-might-be-hypothyroid-10-tips-to-help/), and you can’t get a doctor to help you because your thyroid blood tests are in the normal range, see a doctor who uses metabolic testing. You can find a list of them at www.bioenergytesting.com. So far, there are only a handful of doctors who see the light. So you might have to travel to find the right doctor. But the effort is well worth it. Because neglecting to treat an abnormally depressed metabolism is just too important to ignore.