McCall McPherson explains why T4 thyroid medication doesn't work for everyone: your body has to convert it to T3, the active form. Stress, inflammation, calorie restriction, and nutrient deficiencies all block that conversion. Fixing sleep, eating enough protein, and addressing deficiencies can help, or you might need direct T3.
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I got this question 1 million times. How do you activate T4? Let's talk about it. So most everyone is on an inactive form of thyroid medication that is T4 based. Doesn't actually help you at all until that medication is activated. And guess what guys, a huge percentage of y' all just can't activate it very well. So let's talk about how to activate your levothyroxine, synthroid, tyrosen or your natural T4. Because. Because it's the same thing your body halts the activation of your T4, halts the conversion to T3 on purpose. It does this when it wants you to go into recovery mode. So I want you to think about what things would drive your body to push you to go into recovery. AKA make you lay down, make you tired, make you foggy so that you do lay down, rest and recover. So some things that I see commonly cause this stress can be family dynamics, can be your ride into work in rush hour. It can be physiological stressors, inflammation, caloric restriction, not enough protein, not enough micronutrients, poor sleep, pregnancy, breastfeeding. It can be micronutrient depletion specifically that impacts the activation of your hormones. Think about when you don't get enough food. Your body wants you to go into hibernation mode and it lowers your basal metabolic rate so that you can preserve resources. All of these things keep your thyroid hormones from activating. So reverse engineer them, meditate, reduce your stress, eat enough protein, eat enough micronutrients, get enough sleep, don't be inflamed, eat a low inflammatory diet, detox, get rid of inflammation. All of these things will help convert. But in my opinion, there is a poor conversion level that is normal and average that is associated with standard American lifestyle or modern life. And so to work your way out of that enough to feel good can be complicated. And that is where taking T3 or active thyroid hormone really can come into play and benefit you.
