A reader wrote: Most people will need a combination T4 and T3 containing medication. Now, let’s think about this for a minute. A healthy thyroid gland produces two main hormones: T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triidothyronine). So, all of us that do not have thyroid disease are producing, from the thyroid gland, T4 and T3. If that is what our thyroid gland would do if it is healthy, wouldn’t we want to try to mimic that with medication? Unfortunately, that only rarely happens. Nearly every newly diagnosed patient will be started on Synthroid (generic name Levothyroxine). This medication only contains T4 and ZERO T3. T3 regulates metabolic function, body temperature, body fat, cholesterol, mental function and energy while T4 is more or less a storage form of the hormone that needs to be converted to T3 in order for it to be used by the body. The theory is that the body will be able to adequately convert T4 into T3 to be used, but recent research has shown that T4-only supplementation often does not allow for adequate conversion to T3 and therefore many patients still feel lousy.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:22:51 +0000
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