Thryoid Lab Tests

You’ve probably asked your doctor already to check your thyroid if you’ve been feeling: 

• Fatigue

• Weight gain

• Hair loss

• Cold

Perhaps they told you, everything is “normal”, or maybe they put you on a medication of T4 like Levothyroxine or Synthroid. Some patients this helps, others need more help though. Often your doc did a short thyroid panel, just a TSH and T4

Here is what I like to call a complete thyroid panel:

• TSH

• Free T3

• Free T4

• TPO and TGA to rule out Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroid, possibly TSI if concerned about Grave’s Disease

• Reverse T3

If I’m concerned about the thyroid, we also need to include adrenal tests too:

• Cortisol, a.m

• DHEA-S

The adrenal glands communicate to a gland that sits at the base of the brain called the pituitary gland via the HPA Axis (Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal). The pituitary gland produces TSH which then goes and tells your thyroid gland it needs to make thyroid hormone (Free T3/Free T4).

When the stress is high or prolonged, cortisol values can change and starts to communicate that there is an imbalance to that pituitary gland, which in turn will affect the output of TSH and overall performance of the thyroid gland. 

An analogy I make, it’s a bad one, so apologies, is that if the adrenals are suffering, say like drowning in a pool, and reach up to the thyroid-energetically speaking, the thyroid function can be hindered and “go down” with the adrenals. 

There are more solutions to thyroid health besides just medication! It takes working with someone who is a good listener and offers you solutions that try to get to the root cause.

If you need help, we’d love to join you on your health journey!