Puzzling about thyroid

[AgnesT]

Shelley, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. I hope you have plenty of support around you as you get thru this loss. You do so much good for others, I want you to have only good things happen to you.

I would like your opinion of something. I have had my TSH tested several times in the last few years and it is always low, most recently .73. I realize this would imply hyperthyroid, but my symptoms say hypo. They are low body temps, my hands and feet are often icey cold, low libido, sparse eyebrows, and, I even saw on one list of symptoms...cold bum. This one really caught my eye, because my husband and I have always laughed about how cold my bottom can be! Now I know I don't have all those other numbers T3 T4, etc. but can we guess anything without them? I thought you might have some ideas about this.

I went ahead and started taking one drop of iodine morning and night. I read your cautions on it and I'm not interested in megadosing it, but I seem to feel better already--increased libido and new eyebrows.

Thanks for your thoughts! Agnes

[shelley]

Even if TSH is normal you can still exhibit wonky thyroid symptoms based on the ratio between TSH and T3 and T4, plus if you're low in iodine and have a wonked out liver you still will have symptoms even if the TSH is normal. So it's good that you started taking a bit of iodine, you should be able to do that near-daily for awhile and then you can stop.

It's best to get a full thyroid panel done. Read the book by Mary Shomon to find out what the ratios should be, and whether you should be taking Armour Thyroid.

[AgnesT]

Thank you. It's amazing what those two little drops have done for me!

BTW, if lemon juice seems to help my digestion better than anything, even better than HCl, would that give you any clues as to what might be wrong that's causing the digestion problems? Thanks.

[shelley]

It's still an acid like HCL, it's just an acid with more nutritional benefits like vit C.