McCall McPherson argues that adequate free T3 thyroid hormone doesn't cause bone loss and may actually strengthen bones. A 2015 study found higher free T3 correlated with increased hip bone density, and research in postmenopausal women showed positive associations between free T3 and spine density.
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Can we get something straight? Fixing your thyroid and giving you enough T3 does not promote osteoporosis and osteopenia. Let's dig into three studies. This is a classic example by the way, of medicine taking a storyline and running with it without ever actually educating themselves. The Trimosos study was done in 2015. It was a huge large base study and it showed T4 or inactive hormone that all of you are on from Levothyroxine, Synthroid, etc. At higher levels can promote osteoporosis osteopenia. But do you know what, what do we preach here about Free T3? We want you to have active thyroid hormone and most of you do not have adequate levels of that because you are on inactive thyroid medication that never actually activates. Higher levels of free T3 in the study were found to promote increased bone density in the hip or I should say was correlated with increased bone density in the hip. So this study suggests higher levels of T3 that are optimal protect you from osteoporosis osteopenia. Here's another one. A study done on postmenopausal women also found the same thing, that free T3 levels were positively associated with bone density in the neck and the lumbar spine, suggesting that adequate levels of T3 improves bone density. Last one, a study in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology looked at the relationship between free T3 and the activation of a hormone receptor alpha TRA, that is in osteoblasts that promote bone formation and repair and also found that adequate levels of T3 reflected in improved bone density by improving osteoblast activ.
