McCall McPherson explains why a TSH of 4.98 might be normal at one lab but high at another. Lab ranges vary widely, and you can feel terrible within the normal zone. Aiming for optimal, not just normal, matters.
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You know those thyroid labs your doctor keeps telling you are normal? There actually isn't any standardized range to say what's normal versus not, and they're all based on the lab that you went to. What they determine as normal. Your clinician is actually just looking to see if anything's in bold or off to the side when they're quickly scanning your lab document. If you have a TSH of 4.98 and you go to quest, that could be dictated as normal by that person, quest and lab location, because even between lab locations, there's variation. And the person right behind you seeing your doctor could also have that same TSH of 4.98, but they happen to go to a lab corps whose normal ranges are a little more narrow, leaving your result in bold or off to the side. And your doctor will tell the next person that their lab range is not normal and they need to add or change medication even though you have the same exact number. So normal. Normal does not mean optimal. And a reminder, you can be within normal ranges and be virtually on disability. You're so bogged down with symptoms, we need to change the expectation from normal to optimal. Share this with a friend.
