Women's Health Promotion Unit

-- Name withheld

Your very specific question concerns the most common endocrine disease of humans, even affecting newborn children. The TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) value in most laboratories, normally from 0.2 to 8.0 uU/ml, rises and falls in response to the amount of thyroxine in the circulation. TSH is secreted by the anterior pituitary gland at the base of the skull, and it directs the thyroid gland in the front part of the neck to secrete thyroxine which has many functions in the body, mainly dealing with metabolism.

So, your pituitary gland is working overtime to get the thyroid gland to release more thyroxine, which may be hampered by several causes, including having too little iodine in your diet. In this situation, the gland may enlarge producing a goiter, a benign tumor of the gland. This may subside after thyroxine is given as a drug, and iodine is added to the diet. This substance is also used to shrink the gland before surgery to remove the tumor, if necessary for cosmetic or respiratory reasons.

Having a TSH value elevated to 100uU/ml indicates that replacement with thyroxine is necessary, and that your physician has been alert, perhaps to the obvious, to find the abnormality. Given this high a value, beginning slowly and increasing the dose gradually over a month or two to an average dose, may prevent some disagreeable symptoms. The TSH value should come into the normal range. At any rate, almost all such cases (except the one in which the gland is unable to respond because of lacking the receptors) will benefit from therapy. You can expect to feel warm again, to loose weight if you eat sparingly and exercise, to think more clearly and have better memory, to have less constipation, and feel 'more alive'. Take a before and after picture of yourself and you will be amazed.

I found for you over 4000 medical abstracts on this subject on the Internet: double-click on this blue-colored string and search the PubMed library by typing in the words hypothyroid +TSH. Many articles under that topic will be listed for your further selection. Most do not give values, but percentages of normal from the laboratory where the values were measured.

I hope that this information is helpful for you, and Good Health!

LeRoy Heinrichs, MD

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