Hey everybody Dr Hagmeyer here and today’s video is on the 12 Signs Of An Under-Active Thyroid. Maybe you have been suspecting a thyroid problems for a while and you went to your doctor complaining of low thyroid symptoms- only for your doctor or the nurse to call you and tell you that your thyroid is completely fine.
Is it possible to have a thyroid problem with normal thyroid testing. This is tricky question and a question I am asked daily. So lets dive into these symptoms a little bit and then I will let you know what you want to do if you can related to more than three of these symptoms.
12 Low Thyroid Symptoms
#1 Do you feel tired and sluggish? – this is pretty common complain by many people so this one is easy to write off and think life is just busy.
For many woman, perhaps you work, you own your own business, you have kids, you have sports, you have lunches and dinner to prepare and you have homework. So its easy to see that many of us could argue that we are all tired and feeling sluggish.
#2- Feel cold- hands are cold, tips of your feet are cold, nose is cold-
#3- Require excessive amounts of sleep in order to function properly– do you go to sleep at 9 or 10 pm and wake up feeling just as tired as you were when you went to bed?do you feel like you never rested? Do you feel that without your morning coffee- you will never make it through the day-
#4 & #5 deal with weight gain. In the last 5 years I have seen so many patients do a fantastic job eating super clean- cutting out all the junk foods, cutting out gluten, drinking only water, exercising 4-5x a week and yet still struggle seeing the weight come off or keeping the weight off. I would add to you gain weight one month and a couple months later lose weight- that to me is sometime a tip off that the underlying may be a condition in which you have autoimmune Hashimoto’s.
#6- Are you depressed or anxious- this is an incredibly common problem I see in many of my patients. I would also argue that in all the patients I have worked with, I rarely see a anxiety and depression without some degree of thyroid problems. So if you are depressed or experiencing anxiety- in a few minutes, I am going to tell you about the thyroid tests you need to have done. In fact if you don’t have a pen and pencil- you may want to pause this video and get a pen handy to write them down.
#7- Difficulty or infrequent bowel movements– do you find yourself constipated or bloated? This is also a common consequence of low thyroid function. If you notice this happening you may not have enough stomach acid to properly breakdown food.
#8 Do you experience morning headaches that wear off as the day goes on.
#9 and #10 deal with hair loss. Sometimes the hair loss is on the head, sometimes it’s the outer 1/3 of the eyebrow or sometime is the hair around the genitals. Hair loss is a very common problem- while thyroid is not the only cause of hair loss and its not the only hormone I think of when a man or woman is losing hair- a thorough workup of the hormones and nutritional status can help identify the cause. If you have not seen my video on hair loss and the hormones that cause it I recommend that you watch that. If that’s something you are struggling with.
#11- Dryness of skin, and scalp-here again while this may not be caused solely by low thyroid- its preety hard to correct these problems when you are hypothyroid.
#12- brain fog- this is very common problem I see in my patients with low thyroid. Can’t focus, cant concentrate, you head just feels heavy. You make mistakes at work. You have to read a sentence 2 or three times to understand what you just read.
So here’s the deal, When you look at any of these symptoms by themselves, They are very common problems and they are easily dismissed by doctors. But when you can identify with more than 3 of these, it is time for a Complete Thyroid Panel
1 in 8 woman Develop Thyroid Disease-Your Not Alone!
My bet is that if you can relate to more than three of these, you need a more thorough workup including T3, Reverse T3 and Thyroid antibodies. If you are a man or woman suffering with these problems- #1 realize that you are not alone. According to American thyroid association, An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease.
1 in 8 women develop a thyroid disorder and Up to 60 percent of those with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition. They have no idea. They are suffering with these symptoms day in and day out- not enjoying a quality of life they had hoped for.
So right about now you may be thinking- how is that so many people have a thyroid problem and don’t know it.
One word- MISDIAGNOSIS.
Here’s what happens in doctors office throughout the country. You complain to your doctor about these symptoms and you ask your doctor to check you thyroid.
He or she agrees to check your thyroid. You get a phone call form the nurse of the doctor and he or she goes on to tell you that your TSH is normal. There are couple of problems with this that I want to point out to you.
#1- TSH and T4 is a screening test- this is what most doctors are using to determine whether a person has a thyroid problem or not- in my opinion and many other doctors- looking at ONLY these two tests by themselves is- USELESS- this is a far cry of what should be tested.
#2- the laboratory reference ranges for these two thyroid lab markers is extremely broad and not specific enough. Take for example the TSH range (0-5.5)
When it comes to the Thyroid- The reference ranges you want to use are called Functional Thyroid Ranges
The reference range if you have a copy of your blood work may go from .5 up to 5.0. there are a lot of numbers between .5 and 5.0. This is why you want to familiarize yourself with Functional Thyroid ranges. Functional Thyroid ranges is what you want to use an monitor the function of your Thyroid.
Does Your Thyroid Panel include These Markers? If not- Understanding Thyroid Function is Next to impossible.
- TSH,
- T4
- Free T4,
- Total T3,
- Free T3,
- Reverse T3,
- TPO antibodies and TGB antibodies-
The T3 and Reverse T3 markers are used to look at the T3/Reverse T3 ratio and the last two markers (TPO and TGB) help in identifying an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s which incidentally accounts for the majority of hypothyroid cases in the US.
If you don’t have these Thyroid biomarkers or your doctor wont run a Complete Thyroid Panel you can purchase a complete Panel and consult here
If you have a free T3 and Reverse T3 levels you can go to my website watch a video that explains how to calculate your ratio.
Calculate your T3/RT3 ratio here
So there you have it folks- hope you found today’s video helpful I hope it sheds some light on why your levels might seem normal range despite having symptoms.
I hope you understand why its so important to have more than a TSH and T4 test done.
If you are looking for more information in understanding your thyroid lab values I put together a free guide titled “5 patterns of thyroid disease that don’t show up on standard blood testing”– If you want to see that I will put a link in the description- click on the link and you can download your free copy.
If you want to order a complete Thyroid Panel and consultation with me use the link here
