Of course having been diagnosed in ’14 with Hashimoto’s Disease of the thyroid, I’m all over this organ in my blood work, and the journey we are on really started with that diagnosis and reversing the disease with diet.  In other words, I pay a lot of attention to this panel.  The thyroid is on the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Thyroid (HPT) axis; the hypothalamus releases thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) to the Pituitary, which in turn releases TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to the thyroid.  The thyroid on receipt of the signal produces predominantly T4, which is converted in the liver and some other tissues to T3, the active hormone in the body.  If you want additional detail and references on the subject, please check out my problem-solving paper on the subject.  With that as background, let’s discuss the results.

My TSH is solidly within the reference range, unfortunately the references ranges cannot always be trusted.  My research has led me to conclude that the top of the range for “normal” should be 2.5, as opposed to 4.5, with “ideal” being 0.5 to 2.0; I was 2.6 when I was diagnosed.  Since diagnosis and the radical change of diets, seven thyroid panels, I’ve only been over 2.5 once, that at 2.6 in March of 2018.  Even better, it dropped from 2.38 before the Plunge; I’m good on this marker, and very close to the “ideal” range.

T4 is what the thyroid releases remember, and both it and Free T4 look good.  No issues.  According the University of Rochester Medical Center, “T4 is found in the body in 2 forms: free T4 and bound T4. Free T4 travels into body tissues that use T4. Bound T4 attaches to proteins that prevent it from entering these tissues. More than 99% of T4 is bound. Because T4 is converted into another thyroid hormone called T3 (triiodothyronine), free T4 is the more important hormone to measure.”

T3 is “Low” but Free T3 is within the reference range.  The situation is similar to that regarding T4 and Free T4, the “Free” is the more important number.  Regardless, this did give me pause.  More T3 is required to metabolize carbohydrates, and my diet is relatively low in carbohydrate; during the Plunge I averaged about 15% of calories from carbs, 25% from protein, and 60% from fats.  To put that in perspective, according to wiki “The typical American diet is about 2,200calories per day, with 50% of calories from carbohydrates, 15% protein, and 35% fat.”

Reverse T3 is in range, though up a bit from the pre-Plunge tests.  According the Mark Sisson’s post, Is Keto Bad for the Thyroid, “When you endure psychological or physiological stress, the body converts T4 into something called reverse T3. Reverse T3 does the opposite of T3—it lowers metabolism and conserves energy, in case things are falling apart around you. If that seems like a disproportional response to doing too much CrossFit without eating carbs, remember that the environmental conditions under which this physiological system evolved featured such stressors as famine, war, and disease.”

T3 does drop on a low carb diet and for reasons I am comfortable with; I’m completely asymptomatic of “hypothyroid,” and Reverse T3 is in range, I am therefore unconcerned.  Besides, my Doctor is also unconcerned.

These are the indicators of trouble, and TPO, Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody, is the chief marker for Hashimoto’s.  Let’s take a closer look at my history with respect to these two markers, TPO and Thyroglobulin Antibody (TgAb), which are in second and third rows from the bottom of the table pictured below.

So at the end of the day, it’s just that one number, TgAb, that I’m dissatisfied with when it comes to my thyroid.  I feel like a million bucks, but at the same time I will ensure that this question is anwered more conclusively when planning the next blood work.

This panel includes another one where the test protocol has changed, and of course it’s an important test, Free Testosterone, or as it’s often referred to, Free T.  Both Total and Free T dropped slightly between pre- and post-Plunge.  I’m never happy to see a drop in T, it is a crucial hormone, playing important roles in the body. In men, it’s thought to regulate sex drive (libido), bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells and sperm. And that’s just the start.  But again, it’s the Free T that’s most important.  And that bugger four lines down, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), is the fly in the ointment.  As SHBG rises the ratio of Free to Total T drops.  Not good.  This situation demands another look at the historical trends.

So you can see that between the ’15 and ’16 tests my ratio of Free to Total T dropped by half, while the SHBG doubled.  Now a couple of things happened during that timeframe, one is that my Total T doubled at the same time the Free T:Total T ratio halved, interestingly, and also that I stopped supplementing with DHEA and Zinc.  If it’s in this table it’s because I have established through research that it is a part of sex hormone production.  So already I have been back on DHEA and Zinc as a part of my reinstituted supplement regimen, but I’m going to take it a step further, I’m going to significantly increase the dose of Zinc, from 50 mg 3 days per week, to 100-150 mg 7 days per week.  I’ll hold DHEA at 100 mg per day for now.

And I’m thinking of adding Boron to the mix.  Boron is another trace mineral which has been substantially washed from the soils we grow our food in, through the persistent application of chemical fertilizers and irrigation. This quote from the article Nothing Boring About Boron will get you started, “The trace mineral boron is a micronutrient with diverse and vitally important roles in metabolism that render it necessary for plant, animal, and human health, and as recent research suggests, possibly for the evolution of life on Earth. As the current article shows, boron has been proven to be an important trace mineral because it (1) is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone; (2) greatly improves wound healing; (3) beneficially impacts the body’s use of estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D; (4) boosts magnesium absorption; (5) reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α); (6) raises levels of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase; (7) protects against pesticide-induced oxidative stress and heavy-metal toxicity; (8) improves the brains electrical activity, cognitive performance, and short-term memory for elders; (9) influences the formation and activity of key biomolecules, such as S-adenosyl methionine (SAM-e) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺); (10) has demonstrated preventive and therapeutic effects in a number of cancers, such as prostate, cervical, and lung cancers, and multiple and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; and (11) may help ameliorate the adverse effects of traditional chemotherapeutic agents.”

‘Nuf said!  I may hold off on the Boron until after my next labs.  If I introduce or change too many of the variables I won’t know which actually had the desired or undesired effect.