Dr. 50 Something
Whether you are in the midst of midlife or you want to prevent the physical and mental signs of aging that occur in midlife, this is the podcast for you! It is my passion for men and women to know that studied and safe ways to harness that elusive fountain of youth do exist. Aging is so much more than a number and encompasses, not only how we look, but also our energy level, and how long we can put off chronic disease and declining quality of life. In this podcast, we will explore many facets of aging and incorporate my experience in aesthetic medicine, preventative medicine, functional medicine and family medicine.
All of us should take an active role in how we age from an early age.
The length of time in our lives that we feel really good in terms of energy, aches and pains, and thought clarity has a definite impact on the mark we can leave on this world. My wish for my listeners is to always be mistaken for being fifty something (OR LESS) in mind, action, and appearance!
Dr. 50 Something
S1 E7 Normal Labs, Not Normal: The Hidden Thyroid Struggle
Ever wondered why you still feel exhausted, foggy, and can't lose weight even after your doctor says your thyroid is "normal"? The answer might lie in a critical hormone that most healthcare providers never check.
T3 (Triiodothyronine) is the powerhouse thyroid hormone that controls everything from your metabolism to your memory. While medical schools have traditionally taught doctors to check only TSH and occasionally T4 levels, these tests miss the complete picture. Even more shocking, the standard medication Synthroid only replaces T4, not the active T3 your body desperately needs to function optimally.
With over 200 possible symptoms of low T3—including fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, thinning hair, depression, and constipation—this overlooked hormone deficiency may be the root cause of why you don't feel like yourself anymore. As we age, our bodies naturally produce less T3 and have more difficulty converting T4 into the active form, especially in women.
The problem goes beyond simple hormone deficiency. Many people suffer from thyroid receptor resistance, where environmental toxins and endocrine-disrupting chemicals physically block T3 from working properly. This explains why countless patients continue struggling despite "normal" lab results. The good news? Proper diagnosis and thoughtful treatment with desiccated thyroid hormone that contains both T4 and T3 can often reverse these issues within months, restoring energy, mental clarity, and quality of life.
Ready to take control of your thyroid health? Ask specifically for T3 testing at your next appointment, reduce exposure to endocrine disruptors in plastics and personal care products, and consider consulting with a preventative medicine physician who understands complete thyroid optimization. Your body deserves better than partial treatment based on incomplete information.
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Welcome to the Dr 50-something podcast. I'm your host, dr Nicole Norris. Whether you are in the midst of midlife or you want to prevent the physical and mental signs of aging that occur in midlife, this is the podcast for you. This is a show where I share my knowledge gleaned in family practice, preventative medicine and aesthetic medicine, to shed light on aging or, better yet, how not to feel or look like you are aging. We should be taking an active role in how we age from an early age. We should not settle with growing old gracefully or letting nature take its course. How we age directly affects our confidence, which impacts all of our relationships with those around us. The length of time in our lives that we feel really good in terms of energy, aches and pains and thought clarity has a definite impact on the mark we can leave on this world. My wish for my listeners is to always be mistaken for being 50-something or less in mind. Action and appearance. Let's go. Welcome back to the Dr 50-something podcast. Do you know which hormone deficiency is associated with the most symptoms of feeling unwell? It is the same hormone that, if it is low, can affect every major organ in the body Triidothyronine, or, for short, t3, aka your most important thyroid hormone. This hormone is produced in our thyroid gland, which is in the center of our neck. It plays a crucial role in regulating metabolism, growth, development, body temperature and even heart rate. The thyroid gland actually first produces thyroxine, which is also called T4, which is then converted to T3, which is the active thyroid hormone metabolite that controls seemingly everything important, from our metabolism all the way to our memory. So there are over 200 symptoms related to T3 or thyroid deficiency. Here we go. I will list them and you can say check if you have it. Okay, cold all the time, tired, needing naps, often no energy, thin hair, thin skin, thin nails, weight gain and increased body fat despite trying to lose weight. Loss of motivation, loss of memory, loss of overall cognition, which I refer to as brain fog. Low T3 can also cause mental health abnormalities, such as sense of just not being well, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome. Patients with low T3 also may commonly have menstrual irregularities, either heavy menses or very irregular menses. Patients with low T3 also often report constipation. So you can have one of these symptoms, or all of these symptoms, and you are a good candidate to have your T3 checked, even if you just have one, so dial back a few years.
Speaker 1:In medical school I learned about hypothyroidism, which is when your TSH your thyroid stimulating hormone created in the brain is high because your thyroid gland is not working well and not producing T4 or T3 due to various reasons. So if your lab levels are abnormal, with high TSH and low T4, I learned in med school to use Synthroid or Levothyroxine to treat this, and I learned to only treat it when these two lab levels were abnormal. No matter how many symptoms of low insufficiency of thyroid that a person had, I usually at that time only checked a TSH because this was usually covered by insurance or at least, if it wasn't covered, it was the most inexpensive test compared to ordering the more specific hormones T4 and T3. I can actually count on one hand the times I checked a T3 in my 15 years providing family practice care to my patients. This, I have recently learned through the Academy of Preventative Medicine, was actually an incorrect practice of medicine. Why is this an incorrect practice?
Speaker 1:First of all, tsh is made in the brain when the brain senses low levels of thyroid hormone, and TSH has no actual effect on how you feel. Yes, the lab that most doctors and healthcare providers use to screen you for a thyroid problem has no actual effect on how you feel. So what about T4 then? Thyroxin? Well, t4 is produced by the thyroid gland, but the levels of T4 actually decrease have no effect on how you feel either. T4 does actually convert into T3 if there is enough zinc and selenium in the body to do this, and also if we are not too old. T3 is the active metabolite that does all the work. This is what makes us feel good when our thyroid is normal. T3 is the real rock star here. Okay, so are you ready for another shock?
Speaker 1:Synthroid, or the generic form of Synthroid called Levothyroxine, is used by most healthcare providers to treat low thyroid. Synthroid only replaces T4, not T3. So if, for some reason, you are having issues with conversion from T4 to T3 because of, let's say, a nutrient deficiency or, let's say, because of old age, synthroid will do nothing for your symptoms. Yes, I have also learned that T3 production in the thyroid gland decreases as we age, and some studies have shown that T3 levels may decrease more in women than men with age. This is not how I was taught and trained. More recently, there have been studies that have been encouraging providers to not just check TSH but, more importantly, to check T3. Hopefully this is now being taught in medical schools. Okay, so you have the idea. If you have any of those symptoms I listed above of low thyroid, you should have your T3 level checked. But I have another curveball to throw at you. Sometimes your blood levels of T3 can be within normal range for your age on paper, but you still have real symptoms of low thyroid. Okay, so you can have your TSH, your T4, and your T3 lab levels all checked and they can all be normal, and you can still have symptoms of low thyroid.
Speaker 1:What is causing this? It is called thyroid receptor resistance. So how does this happen? I mentioned in a previous podcast EDCs endocrine disrupting chemicals. They are in so much of our food and self-care products. They probably are also in our water and clothing. These chemicals physically distort the receptor site that T3 is supposed to attach to, so in the lab this is called receptor site resistance.
Speaker 1:I really think that this is one of the biggest health issues we are facing today in our country. We really need to, as consumers, be more aware of what we are putting on and in our bodies. Our government should really outlaw some of these EDCs so that big food and big cosmetic product manufacturers can't use them. This has actually already been done in most European countries, but not yet in the US. So it's a smart idea to eat foods that you can pick or eat foods that you can plant. Most of them will not have EDCs. Protein sources that you choose to eat, I say, should have a mother or a face. As far as self-care products, it is definitely trickier. There are a few apps out there that can be helpful. Yucca Y-U-K-A is probably my favorite. With the free version, you can scan the UPC code of the product and it will give it a rating for how safe it is to use and then, if it has a poor rating, it will also tell you which ingredients are unsafe and why.
Speaker 1:Now in my preventative medicine practice we check TSH free T4, and T3. But, most importantly, we discuss symptoms. We have you do a symptom checklist If you have symptoms of low T3,. We discuss a trial of thyroid optimization. I have found that if I replace T3 and T4 and get your levels at the higher end of the normal range for, let's say, a 20 or 30-year-old, I can actually reverse receptor resistance and reverse your symptoms over just a few months Truly life-changing, I can say from my own experience and watching so many of my patients experience this amazing change.
Speaker 1:So in order to replace T3 and T4, I typically use desiccated thyroid hormone, which is compounded at a compounding pharmacy. A brand name version of this drug is called Armor Thyroid A-R-M-O-U-R. I have found that this is a little hard to get and it's more expensive than compounded desiccated thyroid hormone. And really the only people that typically are not good candidates for desiccated thyroid hormone from the compounding pharmacies are those who might have, let's say, a reason to abstain from pork, whether that's just religious or they just don't want to put pork in their body. So desiccated thyroid hormone comes from a pig's thyroid gland. Most patients do great with desiccated thyroid hormone and are feeling better just in a few months.
Speaker 1:So key takeaways One, if you have symptoms I listed above, just get your T3 checked. Two, if it's not in an optimal range for a 20-30 year old, consider replacement of T3 with desiccated thyroid hormone. And Synthroid only replaces T4. So if you are having receptor site resistance or, let's say, any trouble converting T4 to T3 because of nutrient deficiencies, synthroid will do nothing for you. Also, if you are an older person that means over 50, you potentially, naturally, are having trouble converting T4 to D3. This just happens as we age, so you want to make sure that your diet has adequate zinc and selenium to support thyroid production.
Speaker 1:Third, start paying attention to chemicals in your food and your self-care products. You really owe it to yourself and your whole family. Bpa, bisphenol A, is probably the most prevalent EDC that we encounter today. Stop using plastic water bottles, plastic cooking oil bottles, frozen food that are in plastic and need to be heated in the microwave, and you will actually probably improve your hormone levels. Start being an informed consumer for better health.
Speaker 1:Four, if your current primary care provider does not feel comfortable checking T3 and treating it with desiccated thyroid hormone, contact a preventative medicine physician in your area who is trained on this. There is a link in the show notes for my preventative medicine practice in Illinois where, of course, we can check your thyroid. There's also a link to a website to find other physicians who practice like I do all over the country. Thanks for listening and get that T3 checked. Thank you for joining this episode of the Dr 50-something show. If you are intrigued by this show and never want to miss an episode, click, follow If you are a really great friend, share it. The content of this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider to answer any questions you may have about your personal medical conditions. Until next time, get fit, get fabulous, get firm and take care of yourself.