Cellular Hypothyroidism
One of the clear distinctions about this site in regards to the multitude of websites available, is the focus of this site isn’t on the gland. I will discuss the gland, how it works, how it becomes dysfunctional, and why it becomes dysfunctional. But, the focus will be on what happens at the cellular level, in the peripheral tissues away from the gland.
Thyroid symptoms occur because of insufficient thyroid hormone function within your peripheral cells. I call this cellular, tissue, or peripheral hypothyroidism.
How is this different than what your primary care, or endocrinologist, or the multitude of websites focus on? Simple. In most of those cases the focus is on what is happening with the gland. Is the gland making too much thyroid hormone (glandular hyperthyroidism), or too little thyroid hormone (glandular hypothyroidism).
The gland is important, make no mistake about that. But, your hypothyroid symptoms are due to lack of thyroid hormone in your tissues and cells. You can have a gland that works fine, you can have a normal TSH, you can have normal T4 and T3 and still have hypothyroid symptoms.
Most doctors miss this point. Hypothyroid symptoms can occur for months or even years before there is dysfunction of the gland.
Hypothyroid symptoms are the result of what is happening at the tissue level, hence the name cellular or tissue hypothyroidism.
The problem is that doctors are following an antiquated model of thyroid physiology. The tools (blood tests) that are used to determine thyroid physiology in the medical model aren’t evaluating what is happening at the peripheral cells.
Doctors have been taught that TSH represents thyroid hormone status of the body. Today’s research shows that TSH represents the thyroid hormone status of the pituitary gland. In many situations, the pituitary thyroid hormone status is different than what is happening in the rest of the body.
If you have hypothyroid symptoms and have normal TSH and T4, you likely have cellular hypothyroidism. If you have a glandular thyroid problem, have been put on thyroid medication, your TSH and T4 values have normalized, and yet you still have hypothyroid symptoms, you still have cellular hypothyroidism.
You aren’t nuts or crazy. You aren’t lazy. What you are experiencing is real. What you have is cellular hypothyroidism. Understanding cellular hypothyroidism and what to do about it is the focus of this site.