New Approach to Thyroid Physiology

Thyroid care in this country has become a debacle. Doctors have been taught that one lab test, a TSH, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone can determine the thyroid physiology of the whole body. The idea that all cells regulate thyroid hormone the same is a very simplistic model of thyroid physiology. It’s simplistic, easy to explain, makes it easy to diagnose and treat with a lifetime of medications but it is not how thyroid physiology works. Allopathic medicine has relied on this simplistic explanation of thyroid hormone physiology for 50 years. Under this model, only one test is needed to evaluate thyroid hormone status in the body and that is TSH. TSH unfortunately cannot and does not represent the thyroid status of all tissues of the body.

Unfortunately, what allopathic medicine guidelines and treatment protocols ignore is that thyroid values in blood do not necessarily equate to what is in your cells and it’s the thyroid hormone in your cells that matters. TSH is not a valid marker of thyroid hormone physiology in all the cells of the body especially in a stressed state. There are too many factors that can influence TSH’s value to make it a reliable test of thyroid physiology on its own. Unfortunately, allopathic medicine continues to rely on the old dogma of thyroid physiology and TSH as a valid test of thyroid physiology which is why thyroid care has been such a debacle.

We also now understand that thyroid hormone physiology is regulated via two different mechanisms in the body. One mechanism controls or regulates thyroid physiology when we are in a non-stressed or homeostatic state, and the other when we are in a stressed or allostatic state. This information is critical to understanding thyroid physiology.

At Rejuvagen, we understand that thyroid physiology is more complex than what a TSH can evaluate. We realize the most important aspect of thyroid physiology is what is happening in your cells, not in your blood.