Posted by Sara Field on January 16, 2003, at 16:31:16
In reply to Re: Omega-3 questions, posted by Noa on January 16, 2003, at 16:16:57
Thanks. DUH me. I take levoxyl that is the one approved last year. I have known I have hypo for about 10 years and have been on medications.
I totally agree with you that it can be missed. My gyn thought that might have been a cause of some of my problems for years but was missed.
Is there a non-prescription way to supplement? Both of my husband's parents, who are first cousins just found out in their late 70s that they are hypo.
My husband who is exhausted all the time and of course depressed asked his doctor to test him. It came back negative but I do not think he did the sensitive testing. I still firmly believe it could be one of the causes.
Thanks for taking the time to write all that information.
I love this board.
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> T3 refers to the thyroid hormone with three iodine molecules. It is the active form of the thyroid hormone--the form that acts on cells in the body, and it is also the less stable form--cannot be stored in the body for long in this form. One of the brands of T3 is cytomel. I know there are others, but I don't know their names.
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> T4 is the thyroid hormone with four iodine molecules. It is the more stable form of thyroid hormone, the form in which the hormone is stored. One of the brands of T4 is synthroid, but there are other brands, and a relatively new one that was approved by the FDA last year that I cannot remember the name of (someone please help with this).
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> When the hormone is needed, apparently one iodine molecule is dropped to convert the T4 to T3, so it can be used by the body.
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> Hypothyroidism is when there is not enough thyroid hormone. But sometimes, people have enough T4 but it doesn't convert sufficiently to T3 for the body to use it. This is another form of hypothyroidism, but one that is often not detected on the basic thyroid test, TSH.
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> (I know you didn't ask about this, but TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone--it signals the thyroid to produce more thyroid hormone. In hypothyroidism , the TSH is high, meaning that the thyroid gland is requiring a louder signal to respond to the need for thyroid hormone. It is an efficient way to test for thyroid disorders. However, the statistical range of "normal" is not normal for every individual, and too often, doctors rely too heavily on it, and ignore other signs and symptoms.)
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> For more info, see the thyroid and depression folder (link is in the intro to Babble at top of Babble main page).
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> TMS refers to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, which I will leave to someone else to explain.
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poster:Sara Field
thread:135923
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030113/msgs/136144.html