Michael from Planet Naturopath explains why standard thyroid tests miss 60% of low-thyroid cases. Most doctors check only TSH, but a full panel should include T4, T3, and reverse T3. High stress raises reverse T3, an inactive form that blocks thyroid function.
Hi, it's Michael from Planet Naturopath, and today I'm going to talk about thyroid testing. When you go to your doctor, they only ever check TSH, or if you're lucky, sometimes T4. This only shows part of the story. TSH is the brain telling the thyroid what to do. But there's a lot more to TSH and T4 with thyroid function.
60% of people with low thyroid function go undiagnosed. That's because they're not getting the full thyroid testing. Your classic symptoms like weight gain, fatigue, digestion problems, depression, they might not be relevant for people who are eating perfectly, training really hard. They may notice subtle differences like poor exercise performance or poor recovery.
So if you want to optimize your performance, you need to optimize your thyroid function. Let's have a look at a full thyroid test, and I'll show you what I mean.
So here is an example of a full thyroid test.
The first marker here is TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone. And the range is 0.5 to 5. But ideally you want to be between 0.5 and 2. And this person is right in the ideal range.
TSH is the brain telling the thyroid to make more T4. And the range for T4 is 11 to 21. But ideally you want to be around the 1516 mark. T4 at 14.3 is okay.
T4 then gets converted to T3, and the range is 3.1 to 6. But ideally you want to be above 4.5. This person here is only 3.1. So they're going to experience a lot of low thyroid symptoms.
Normally, when you have low T3, a message goes to the brain to make more TSH and stimulate more thyroid hormone production. But in this case, reverse T3 levels are very high at 683.
So this fools the brain into thinking there's enough T3 in the system. But reverse T3 is inactive, and it's a sign that there's some type of infection or nutritional deficiencies, adrenal stress, enzyme deficiencies, or even possibly heavy metal exposure. In this case, we've already done their adrenal test as well, and we know that they have very high cortisol levels. The other thing we need to look at is the thyroid antibodies and the thyroid receptor antibodies, and they're all very low.
So we know this is not an autoimmune condition, but it's low thyroid relating to their adrenal stress.
So that's what a full thyroid test looks like. Knowing what your thyroid is doing helps with your treatment plan. And this can involve diet, nutrition, and even modifying your training program.
So if you want to get a thyroid test or book a consultation, you can contact me@michaellanetnaturopath.com and just say Ben sent you. Thank you.
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