BingDing
Member
The current issue of AgingMatters is about hypothyroidism. Written by Rick Wilkinson, MD, who says his mentor about thyroid was Broda Barnes.
The title refers to a Dr. Samuel Levine, who was impressed with the brightness and quickness of hyperthyroid people and maintained that they "had bright, sparkling eyes and appeared to be interesting people, because personality is conveyed largely through the eyes". He opined that the Mona Lisa has fascinated us for centuries because of her eyes.
Interesting observations, I think, and both likely with some merit.
Dr. Levine took 3 grains of Armour thyroid every day for thirty years, apparently to stay on the hyperthyroid side of normal. The article talks about dosing towards "slightly hyperthyroid" deliberately, which is pretty Peat.
What I thought reading this is that the medical vocabulary has evolved in the context of disease, and "hypo" and "hyper" are pretty crude tools to discuss optimum or ideal thyroid function. Obviously no one wants to go into clinical hyperthyroidism, but .... getting closer might be the ideal no matter what you call it.
The article also says TSH can vary dramatically over 24 hours, which is news to me. He cites two cases where "the TSH was drawn every few minutes". Not sure what that means, but one case had about 0.3 to 2.0 and the other had about 1.0 to 5.0, over 24 hours. Wilkinson asks the logical question of what number should be used.
And often women have damaged pituitary glands after childbirth, which makes TSH levels an (even more) unreliable indicator of thyroid function.
There is some interesting discussion of the history of learning about thyroid, and a strong case that hypothyroidism and atherosclerosis are closely related. (I think that's right, don't want to say it wrong).
The title refers to a Dr. Samuel Levine, who was impressed with the brightness and quickness of hyperthyroid people and maintained that they "had bright, sparkling eyes and appeared to be interesting people, because personality is conveyed largely through the eyes". He opined that the Mona Lisa has fascinated us for centuries because of her eyes.
Interesting observations, I think, and both likely with some merit.
Dr. Levine took 3 grains of Armour thyroid every day for thirty years, apparently to stay on the hyperthyroid side of normal. The article talks about dosing towards "slightly hyperthyroid" deliberately, which is pretty Peat.
What I thought reading this is that the medical vocabulary has evolved in the context of disease, and "hypo" and "hyper" are pretty crude tools to discuss optimum or ideal thyroid function. Obviously no one wants to go into clinical hyperthyroidism, but .... getting closer might be the ideal no matter what you call it.
The article also says TSH can vary dramatically over 24 hours, which is news to me. He cites two cases where "the TSH was drawn every few minutes". Not sure what that means, but one case had about 0.3 to 2.0 and the other had about 1.0 to 5.0, over 24 hours. Wilkinson asks the logical question of what number should be used.
And often women have damaged pituitary glands after childbirth, which makes TSH levels an (even more) unreliable indicator of thyroid function.
There is some interesting discussion of the history of learning about thyroid, and a strong case that hypothyroidism and atherosclerosis are closely related. (I think that's right, don't want to say it wrong).