Regular readers will know that I waged war on my hyper-thyroid condition by zapping it with radiation five months ago. After first going even more hyper at the sheer indignation of it all, things seemed to be settling down a month ago and we waited to see whether Mr. Thyroid would give up and die; or keep operating, albeit at a much reduced level. Yesterday I went to Bangkok to find out.
The thyroid is a restaurant. The daily special on the menu is the hormone T4, and the only customers are the cells in your body. The cells take the T4 produced by the restaurant and then convert that into another hormone known as T3 which is then used in all sorts of important ways to regulate your cells and thus your body.
But the cells don’t come into the restaurant to order their T4. So how does the restaurant know how many T4 meals to produce? That job falls to your pituitary gland which checks on the amount of T4 circulating in the blood, and fires off orders for more T4 to the thyroid restaurant by means of something called TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone).
A somewhat simplified analogy, but you get the idea (hopefully).
In a properly functioning system, there will be small surplus levels of T3, T4 and TSH in your system. Measurements of these levels are used to highlight cases of too much thyroid hormone (hyper), or not enough (hypo).
The primary indicator for hypo is the TSH level. If the pituitary spots low levels of T4 in the bloodstream, it will signal the thyroid restaurant to produce more. If the thyroid is not functioning correctly (because perhaps you have recently destroyed it with radiation), it will be unable to fulfil the request. This will piss off the pituitary which will release even more TSH.
A healthy thyroid system will generate a TSH level of between 0.27 and 4.2 (cabbages per litre?). If the reading is higher than 6, then this means the thyroid is not producing sufficient hormone and you are hypothyroid. If the reading is above ten then your are chronically hypothyroid. Over 20 and you are massively, chronically and many other unpleasant words hypothyroid. My reading yesterday was 23.
The symptoms of hypothyroidism are many. Quick weight gain, puffy face, constipation, depression, lack of concentration, exhaustion, slow reflexes and many more unpleasant effects. I have none of these symptoms. In fact I feel great. I am full of energy, feeling more alive than I have in a long time, and I am crapping like a contender in the poo Olympics.
My doctor was amazed. He saw the results and looked out of his office into the waiting room expecting to see a puffy ball of fat slumped in a chair. And indeed there was one; but that was another patient and I looked as great as someone of my age and genes can possibly look.
The reason for my healthy condition appears to be in my T3 level. My T4 levels are indeed very low, which is what is prompting the overdose of TSH orders from the pituitary. But my T3, although slightly below normal, is not too bad. Doc reckons that my thyroid, thoroughly shook up by all it has been through, is producing more than its usual very low output of T3, to compensate for its current low production of T4. The cells are then saying “thanks very much, saves us converting all that T4”, and my body is currently happy with the arrangements.
He has seen this before and reckons there is every chance my thyroid will stumble back into some form of normal operation. Meantime, I have to watch out for signs of feeling hypothyroid, at which point I will start ingesting T4 thyroid hormone tablets. In six weeks we will test again and see what Mr. Thyroid is up to.
Right, I’m off to check that I am still not constipated.
Comments 🔗
2012-08-07| Craig saysGreat news, and you have not missed particularly good wind
2012-08-07| Grant saysSorry Craig, I’m a bit mutt ’n jeff. Was that ‘missed’ or ‘passed’?
2012-08-07| Jan saysreally pleased and almost ready for my human biology O level, could we do the digestive system next ?
2012-08-07| Spike saysBe careful what you wish for. I have cameras…
2012-08-07| Jock saysTrust you had a good crap … no photographic evidence required BTW.
2012-08-07| Robin Parmar saysGood to hear it, man!
2012-08-07| genuinej saysMy medical adviser, who happens to be in house this week, (i.e. staying with us) has been given access to your ramblings and tells me that you are in fact hypothyroid, with high TSH and low thyroxine. Unless you have high TSH and high thyroxine, in which case you have hyperthyroidism of a pituitary origin!
2012-08-08| Spike saysYour medical adviser is of course quite correct. What we had in that post were five typos, where I wrote hyper rather than hypo; your best chance ever to point out my screw-ups; and you passed the ball to a visitor. Thanks to them for pointing out my mistakes.
2012-08-08| Grant saysGenuineJ, our faith in you is lost! Santa is Dad, Dog is an illusion, all is ruined…