McCall McPherson explains how hypothyroidism drives high cholesterol and weight gain. Low free T3 impairs cholesterol clearance, so she recommends measuring it and aiming for 3.6-4.2 rather than accepting a normal lab range. She was offered Lipitor at 27 for cholesterol actually caused by thyroid dysfunction, and suggests T3-based medications like Cytomel or Armour instead.
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If you're hypothyroid, you actually have a significant increased risk for getting high cholesterol, which leads to heart disease, the number one killer of men and women. This is what you can do about it. This happened to me at 27. I was offered Lipitor because of my cholesterol that was actually just due to my thyroid problem. It is one of the earliest things that shows up when you have a thyroid disorder, and it's the same driver that causes weight gain, right? So very, very important in the cholesterol picture is optimizing your free T3, the hormone that's responsible for your metabolism, for helping to escort out efficiently and move cholesterol out of your body so it's not just hanging around, right? So be sure you're checking free T3. You want that lab range between 3.6 and 4.2 for most of the day. You do not want it in a normal range. Mine was normal and I was offered Lipitor at 27, so it has to be perfect. Okay. You also want to work on metabolic function. You want to make sure your blood sugar range is tight, your insulin is less than 10, ideally closer to 6. So you want to manage your metabolism because again, it's the same driver of high cholesterol that's causing weight gain. But start always by looking at free T3 and considering a T3-based medication like Cytomel, Liothyronine, Armour, or Renthyroid if your T3 is low.
