The Thyroid Explained

By Dr. Richard Chern M.D.

I’d like to start off by saying thank you to everyone who voted us BEST IN DESTIN for both Anti-Aging Clinic and Women’s Wellness Clinic.  We are so excited and for readers of South Walton Life we will be offering FREE consultations in the month of January- so call us today!

In this article, I want to talk about how The Hormone Restoration Center looks at the thyroid just a little bit differently than other physicians in the area.  The thyroid cycle can be confusing, EVEN FOR DOCTORS!  We occasionally get calls from primary care physicians who worry their patient’s thyroid level is too high or too low.  The problem is they are looking at the wrong lab values.  If you ask any of our patients, they will tell you we spend a long time discussing the thyroid with them and they all say, ”Wow, I’ve never had someone explain it to me before”.

To get the thyroid to work, the brain secretes Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) to tell the thyroid to produce hormones.  Thyroxine (T4) and tri-iodothyronine (T3) are two of the main hormones produced in response to TSH.  Thyroxine (T4) goes back to the brain to tell the pituitary to reduce the amount of TSH produced while tri-iodothyronine (T3) regulates nearly every aspect of our metabolism.

This is called a negative feedback loop like you see between a parent and child.  The parent yells louder and louder at the child to clean his room.  He eventually does which causes the yelling to stop and then the room slowly gets dirty again which restarts the yelling.

In the same way TSH increases and causes T4 to increase.  This causes TSH to decrease, which then causes T4 to decrease which causes TSH to increase.  Sounds much more complicated this way.

T3 is the active thyroid hormone that regulates body temperature, heart rate, body weight, muscle strength, cholesterol, menstrual cycles, mental health, concentration, hair growth, energy and much, much more.

Most physicians ONLY look at TSH to determine thyroid function which causes confusion as patients will say their thyroid is high when actually their TSH is high and thyroid is low.

At The Hormone Restoration Center, we look at your symptoms and ALL your thyroid levels to determine your need for treatment and optimal dosage.  If you need treatment, optimal levels of T3 and T4 will often cause your TSH to be low.  This is what concerns your physician.  However, if your T3 is good, your symptoms have resolved and you don’t have symptoms of too much thyroid, then your dose is usually fine, or as we prefer to say, optimal.

So if you have fatigue, tiredness, difficulty concentrating, joint and muscle pain, depression, anxiety, weight gain, trouble sleeping, coarse hair or hair loss, temperature sensitivity, weakness, high cholesterol, constipation, dry skin, or menstrual irregularities you might have a thyroid disorder even if you have been tested optimal in the past.

Call us today and make an appointment.  Come find out why we were voted BEST IN DESTIN in Anti-Aging and Women’s Wellness!  And if you mention this article we will do your consultation for FREE!