Misdiagnosed Hypothyroidism (low T3 Syndrome) My Findings

Thiroyd, I am looking into it. What was your TSH at untreated?

Officially the cause of my TSH being raised is not known, other tests are normal except for reverse T3 which is high. Considering this, are thyroid hormones really the answer for me? I don't want to take something like Thiroyd if it will do nothing, or in worst case, make me worse.

I have some more information. I had this test around 3 years ago, I got better since then, but recently getting worse again. Adrenal stress profile

Cortisol - Morning 15 (acceptable range is 13-24)
Cortisol - Noon 1 (acceptable range is 5-10)
Cortisol - 5pm 1 (acceptable range is 3-8
Cortisol - 11pm less than 1 (range is 1-4)

Cortisol was below range at every point.

Salavary Siga - 5 (acceptable range 25-60) a low score such as mine indicates a severely weakened immune system, due to adrenal fatigue in my case.

13/07/2010 Reverse T3 test 0.55 (range is 0.14 - 0.54) (high)


I also have thyroid blood tests from as far back as 15 years ago

03/11/2000 TSH 2.25 - I was only 16 or 17 years old and I was reguarly going to the gym, I also did kickboxing and training was incredibly tough. I don't even remember why the doctor gave me the test, but it must have been in response to symptoms I had told him about, such as tiredness.

13/11/2002 TSH 3.77 - I was regularly going to the gym to do weight lifting. (I was sure exercise is a factor into this)

Other things to note is that it was around this time, when I was 16/17 years old, that I was using computers heavily and I didn't go outside much, not very healthy. I was trying to be healthy by going to the gym, but that perhaps was just making things worse because i was likely low on vitamin D. Also note the time of year these tests were done, November 2000 and November 2002, it compliments my theory that this is related to the winter, perhaps a factor of it being winter, spending too much time indoors and stressing my body through weight lifting.

Don't know if this information helps at all. You can my TSH was not always 7, in 2000 in it was 2.25 and in 2002 it was 3.77

I've found an interesting page here, in regards to adrenal fatigue, my thyroid problem, vitamin D and all the sunbathing in summer vs the lack of sun during winter: http://www.muscle-health-fitness.com/ad ... et-2.html/

His experience seems very similar to mine. A lack of vitamin D can cause what is known as adrenal fatigue and I had that before and probably have it again now. I just never knew what was causing it. I've always read about how adrenal fatigue is what throws the thyroid system out of whack and how it should not be treated with thyroid medication.

Sunbathing each day along with eating the adrenal fatigue diet I outline in part one will improve T levels within a few weeks.

It is thought that 10 minutes of full body sun exposure creates on average 20,000 IU vitamin d that will improve immune system function and help to reverse adrenal fatigue.

Throughout the winter or on cloudy days 2000 to 10,000 IU of supplementary D3 should be taken, alongside eating a high quality adrenal fatigue diet, for adrenal recovery and optimum health.

Vitamin D testing and my experience with dose

I’ve been part of the D action project for the last 2 years to monitor vitamin D levels and to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic.

Some early insights given by the researchers running the project are that ‘6000 IU/ day will get 98% of the group above 48ng/ml’ (40 to 60 ng/ml is considered a good range) and ‘at 10,000 IU/day, no-one was above 200ng/ml (a level considered to anticipate toxicity).

Even when I took a very high dose of D3, 25000 IU/ day for a winter, my blood level still only got as high as 60 ng – top of the recommended range.

I’ve taken 5000 IU over this winter and my level stayed in the recommended range but dropped to 41 ng. My experience has led me to believe that vitamin d researcher, Veith is correct in his theory that everyone should take at least 4000 IU/day of vitamin D3.

What's interesting is he took 25,000 ui of vitamin D3 per day for a whole winter, and although his vitamin D level got to the top of the range, the point is it stayed within range.

When he tested with 5000 iu of vitamin D3 during winter, his levels were significantly lower, within range still, but perhaps not optimal.

I think i've found the answer. It's not vitamin D, at least not in my case, it's too much melatonin. I was taking 5000iu of vitamin D3 last winter and it didn't have any noticable effect. I'd forgotten what my blood test result was when I had it tested last winter, I had it tested february 2014. My result was 140+, near the top of the range. The supplement did its job, it's not a deficiency of vitamin D.

I thought perhaps that the sun or daylight was having some other function, and it is. It is a lack of daylight that is causing it. It explains why my cortisol was so low, because melatonin surppresses cortisol. It all makes sense now why I got so healthy in summer when I went in the sun a lot. Melatonin surppessses cortisol making it look like adrenal fatigue, but the adrenals are not exhausted, cortisol is only low during the day because I am making melatonin instead. It obviously isn't adrenal fatigue because I recover from that in just a few weeks of sunlight and as far as I know full blown adrenal fatigue takes longer than that to recover from.

It also explains my thyroid blood test being out of whack. Because excess melatonin and suppressed cortisol disrupts the entire endoctrine system including thyroid hormone metalobism.

I figured this out after learning about polar T3 syndrome. A disorder in which people who work in the antarctic who get very little daylight suffer from some hypo symptoms. Such as easily stressed, irritability and depression. It increases their clearance rate of T3 and causes a raised TSH. It's entirely to do with not getting enough daylight.

This is linked to Seasonal affective disorrder and it may actually be that. I also found a study in regards to daylight and its effect on reverse T3. People with SAD were subjected to either early morning natural light or bright light from a bright light box every morning for 4 weeks. Although they said no major changes occured to thyroid hormone status, all subjects saw a significant decrease in levels of Reverse T3. If you go by what is published online, a raised reverse T3 usually goes hand in hand with adrenal fatigue. Everything is linked together, and the root cause is simply insufficient daylight. You have to be outside, and if the sun is out it is even brighter and that helps even more. Those in the test lowered reverse T3 by getting more daylight, which is the same that happened to me. I have high reverse T3, but the problem goes away during the summer, when I get outside more and into the daylight.

Your cells need red light (orange - near infra-red) in order to keep reactivating the cytocrome C oxidase enzyme. Without that enzyme, they can't efficiently produce energy. When cells don't produce energy well, nothing works as well. Different people adapt or fail to adapt in different ways. The enzyme tends to run down during darkness. Morning sunlight gets it going again. In the absence of sunlight, very strong incandescents (but not CFLs) can help.

Hi Cm00,

Sorry about your struggles. I also messed up my metabolism by dieting ('m a 34 yo male)...more especially fasting and low carb, and excessive exercise. It was terrible and ruined my health.

You have a long history there, but you don't mention anything about your diet and/or supplements you're taking. I used to take a pre-workout, to increase Nitric Oxide. Apparently that also ruined my metabolism, as NO is very toxic to many systems of the body in chronically elevated levels.

If you were taking any workout supplements it is likely that they caused levels of stress hormones to elevate, and might be the source of your reduced energy. Also, it is not uncommon for athletes to be hypothyroid. You don't have to be overweight to be hypo, often the stress of constant activity can cause hypothyroidism just from the chronically elevated workout hormones. Also, there are studies that show that working out with low blood sugar causes enough stress to cause internal bleeding and leakage of chromosomes into the blood stream.

If you want to get fully better you will probably need to read a lot of the Ray Peat articles, especially the ones that are relevant to you, but even the articles on feminine issues contain science that is applicable to your situation, and it is imperative to get your diet to a healthy place. No one reason usually causes problems, and also no one deficiency will be a problem, as long as you do your best to fix the things you can, your body can often adapt and make due, especially since you aren't yet too old.

Healthy supplements to take before and after workout, that actually increase energy instead of reducing it, and also help reduce the stress of workout are coffee, sodium bicarbonate, chocolate, niacinamide, and bag breathing (never use coffee with low blood sugar). Vitamin E can also help, but make absolutely sure it is fully natural from NON GMO sunflower oil, and does not contain tocotrienols. Vit. D, A, and C can also maybe help, but might not be necessary because the diet can supply plenty of them. Fruit and table sugar are also excellent sources of fuel to have before working out, and will help to greatly reduce the stress of working out, but you should make sure to never over do it, and keep cardio to a minimum, and focus your efforts on concentric muscle contractions.

If you are on thyroid make sure it is natural and not synthetic.

Does bright light therapy work too though? I've ordered a 10,000 lux one.

natedawgg's has lot's of good suggestions above, in addition to the light factor. People often find benefit from changing several factors, not just one, to improve energy production and reduce stress.
I don't know much about the bright lights used in SAD treatment, but I think they usually have more light in the blue end of the spectrum than is ideal, whereas more at the red side of the spectrum is likely to be helpful.

natedawggh said:

Hi Cm00,

Sorry about your struggles. I also messed up my metabolism by dieting ('m a 34 yo male)...more especially fasting and low carb, and excessive exercise. It was terrible and ruined my health.

You have a long history there, but you don't mention anything about your diet and/or supplements you're taking. I used to take a pre-workout, to increase Nitric Oxide. Apparently that also ruined my metabolism, as NO is very toxic to many systems of the body in chronically elevated levels.

If you were taking any workout supplements it is likely that they caused levels of stress hormones to elevate, and might be the source of your reduced energy. Also, it is not uncommon for athletes to be hypothyroid. You don't have to be overweight to be hypo, often the stress of constant activity can cause hypothyroidism just from the chronically elevated workout hormones. Also, there are studies that show that working out with low blood sugar causes enough stress to cause internal bleeding and leakage of chromosomes into the blood stream.

If you want to get fully better you will probably need to read a lot of the Ray Peat articles, especially the ones that are relevant to you, but even the articles on feminine issues contain science that is applicable to your situation, and it is imperative to get your diet to a healthy place. No one reason usually causes problems, and also no one deficiency will be a problem, as long as you do your best to fix the things you can, your body can often adapt and make due, especially since you aren't yet too old.

Healthy supplements to take before and after workout, that actually increase energy instead of reducing it, and also help reduce the stress of workout are coffee, sodium bicarbonate, chocolate, niacinamide, and bag breathing (never use coffee with low blood sugar). Vitamin E can also help, but make absolutely sure it is fully natural from NON GMO sunflower oil, and does not contain tocotrienols. Vit. D, A, and C can also maybe help, but might not be necessary because the diet can supply plenty of them. Fruit and table sugar are also excellent sources of fuel to have before working out, and will help to greatly reduce the stress of working out, but you should make sure to never over do it, and keep cardio to a minimum, and focus your efforts on concentric muscle contractions.

If you are on thyroid make sure it is natural and not synthetic.

Click to expand...

Hi, yeah in the past I exercised a lot more. I did intermittent fasting for a year, I combined this on and off with low carbing and low calorie intake and I lost a lot of weight. This was all 2 years ago, however, I seemed to have fixed the problem for a while. I stopped the fasting in the beginning of spring when my testosterone was found to be extremely low, I had lost all libido and I felt so weak and exhausted all the time, I was down to 10 stone, not much for a man. I wasn't taking any supplements, although I did overdo it on coffee drinking to fuel my workouts near the end of it, I had 3 very strong coffees per day.

I realise how bad that all sounds. However, I wrote in my first post what happened next. I already suspected low testosterone, and had been doing a lot of reading about how to boost testosterone, so as soon as I got that low testosterone result, I made several changes:

I stopped dieting (greatly increased calories)
I stopped fasting
I started eating lots of fats, mostly saturated and monounsatured. (beef, greek yoghurt, avacado, 5-6 eggs a day)
Many of these were cholesterol rich foods, you need cholesterol for hormone production.
I started sunbathing when ever possible, it was a particulary good spring and summer. I did maybe 5-10 hours of sunbathing per week.
(this is best i had read that testosterone levels were found to be higher in subjects who spent more time in the sun)
I started sprinting once or twice a week (about 5 or 6 sets of 10 second as fast as I could go sprints each session)

It only took 6 weeks for my testosterone to reach the maximum of the test range. I felt and looked better than ever, I had so much energy, and this lasted for the entire summer, the great health I experienced all spring and summer only started to dwindle away gradually as winter came and I wasn't able to sunbathe any more, instead spending a great deal of time indoors, as I work from home so don't have to go outside very often.

The point I am making is although I had fasted for a year, dieted, low carbed, consumed large amounts of caffiene, it took only several weeks to make a full recovery and not only did I recover but I was the best and healthiest I have ever been.

This is why I am so sure this is all linked to daylight, and at first thought it could be vitamin D. I realise it could be a multitude of things I am doing wrong, so as you can see, I altered many things to try to solve the issue, and it did solve it completely.

I am still doing all of those things that I did that summer, everything the same. Apart from 1 thing, I am not sunbathing, and I am spending far too much time indoors and not in the daylight. It must be to do with daylight, or the sun. If so, I just need to figure out for sure exactly what it is about the sun or daylight so that I can fix it. I've got my sights set on a melatonin imbalance for now, too much time in poor lighting conditions may be forcing my body to downregulate everything, a survival mechanicsm that is no longer really required but still remains.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23891658 - This study shows increased T3 production during longer days and decreased T3 production during shorter days in siberian hamsters.

Acute downregulation of Type II and Type III iodothyronine deiodinases by photoperiod in peripubertal male and female Siberian hamsters.

Availability of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) in the mediobasal hypothalamus plays a central role in seasonal reproductive responses to photoperiod. Across many vertebrates, Type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (DIO2) is elevated under reproductively stimulatory long days (LD) and synthesizes the conversion of thyroxine to T3; Type 3 iodothyronine deiodinase (DIO3) reduces T3 production and signaling, and is upregulated under reproductively-inhibitory short days (SD). In Siberian hamsters, regulation of hypothalamic T3 is dominated by dio3 expression, whereas dio2 expression is less-consistently affected by photoperiod. In adult hamsters, changes in deiodinase mRNA expression typically require several weeks to manifest, but it is not known whether or how quickly these mechanisms are engaged during the rapid responses to photoperiod observed in young, peri-pubertal hamsters. This experiment tested the hypotheses that (1) deiodinase responses to photoperiod are accelerated in juvenile hamsters and (2) photoperiodic downregulation of deiodinase expression occurs more rapidly than upregulation. Hypothalamic dio2 and dio3 mRNA expression was quantified in male and female Siberian hamsters that were weaned on postnatal day 18 (PND 18) into SD or remained in their natal LD, and on PND 31 were exposed to a single long or short day. In SD males and females, a single long day inhibited dio3 mRNA expression, but did not increase dio2 mRNA. In LD males, a single short day rapidly inhibited dio2 mRNA expression, but did not stimulate expression of dio3 mRNA. Downregulation of dio2 and dio3 mRNAs precedes gonadotrophin responses to day length. Rapid photoperiodic inhibition of deiodinase mRNAs may initiate changes in thyroid hormone signaling in advance of longer-term, melatonin-dependent, responses.

I also found this

Melatonin is derived from the mood-enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin in the pineal gland. It regulates your 24-hour sleep rhythm and is commonly used to prevent jet lag, to cure sleep disorders and to adjust the sleep rhythm in people who work nightshifts. Melatonin is also a potent antioxidant and can be used to prevent oxidative stress. According to a review published in the April 2002 issue of “Neuro Endocrinology Letters,” however, melatonin may down-regulate the activity of the thyroid gland. So melatonin may be beneficial as a supplement for individuals with hyperthyroidism, but taking a melatonin supplement with hypothyroidism could worsen the condition.

I don't know if this is true, but i've found several websites that suggest EMFs can impair thyroid function (electromagnetic fields)

I work from home in a room full of computers, I have over 12 computers. I am here most of the day, especially during the winter, I try to get out more during the summer, which gets me away from the computers, and I start to feel better.

Does anyone know if there is truth to this?

A search of the forum will answer your question. EMF is bad stuff.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4300&p=51771&hilit=EMF#p51771

I was just going to link this study I found http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3243874/

I went camping right before summer started, felt so much better not being around all the EMF's and having all the fresh air and sun. I wanna go back!

Cm00 said:

I don't know if this is true, but i've found several websites that suggest EMFs can impair thyroid function (electromagnetic fields)

I work from home in a room full of computers, I have over 12 computers. I am here most of the day, especially during the winter, I try to get out more during the summer, which gets me away from the computers, and I start to feel better.

Does anyone know if there is truth to this?

Click to expand...

LOL. YES. I have struggled with severe insomnia for years, and discovered just a couple months ago that if I turned off my wifi router (and my iPhone) that I finally started sleeping. This was severe insomnia even after Peating for a year. I'm not sure that it specifically interferes with your thyroid, but it definitely interferes with your red blood cells. It causes what is called Rouleaux, and around EMF signals it becomes severely pronounced, clogging up your blood vessels and keeping the cells from reaching the smallest capillaries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7E36zGHxRw

I've noticed for years that as I use my computers I become stressed, and the longer I use them, the more stressed I feel. I can feel really quite awful after a long session.

About 2 years ago, during summer, I was feeling quite okay. But I had this period of work I had to do, 2 weeks of intense computer use. That red skin inflammation on the red side of my lip flared up really bad. After the work was over, the inflammation went away.

For the past 2-3 months I've had to work on the computers a lot. The red inflammation on the right side of my lip has been bothering me again, near enough constantly, occasionally it near enough clears up for a few days, only to come back again.

I've tried everything over the years to get rid of this red patch on the right side of my lip. Nothing works, it's definitely not an infection as I've tried both fungal and bactarial infection treatments from the doctor and they made no difference. The red patch just comes and goes as it pleases.

I watched that video and saw the effects that EMF have on your cells. I am starting to wonder if it's EMF from heavy computer use that is making ill, affecting my hormones, and causing this red patch on my lip. It makes sense at least because last year in the summer when I spent a lot of time outdoors, absorbing the suns rays, instead of being around computers constantly, I suddenly became very healthy and it lasted until the summer ended, which is when I stopped going out so much and spent more time around the computers.

Cm00 said:

I've noticed for years that as I use my computers I become stressed, and the longer I use them, the more stressed I feel. I can feel really quite awful after a long session.

About 2 years ago, during summer, I was feeling quite okay. But I had this period of work I had to do, 2 weeks of intense computer use. That red skin inflammation on the red side of my lip flared up really bad. After the work was over, the inflammation went away.

For the past 2-3 months I've had to work on the computers a lot. The red inflammation on the right side of my lip has been bothering me again, near enough constantly, occasionally it near enough clears up for a few days, only to come back again.

I've tried everything over the years to get rid of this red patch on the right side of my lip. Nothing works, it's definitely an infection as I've tried both fungal and bactarial infection treatments from the doctor and they made no difference. The red patch just comes and goes as it pleases.

I watched that video and saw the effects that EMF have on your cells. I am starting to wonder if it's EMF from heavy computer use that is making ill, affecting my hormones, and causing this red patch on my lip. It makes sense at least because last year in the summer when I spent a lot of time outdoors, absorbing the suns rays, instead of being around computers constantly, I suddenly became very healthy and it lasted until the summer ended, which is when I stopped going out so much and spent more time around the computers.

Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, Cm00, when you're doing intense computer work, do you enjoy it?

When you get out and spend time outdoors in the sun, do you enjoy it?

Sorry I meant to write "It's definitely not an infection" I wrote it's definitely an infection, missed a word.

Hard one to answer. Sometimes I enjoy using the computers, other times not. Sometimes I feel bored out in the sun.

I just know I begin to feel stressed the longer I use computers for, at that point I am no longer enjoying it, and feel a strong urge to get away from them, but usually can't because I have to complete what I was doing first.

I'm sorry, but I can't remember if you mentioned anything about your digestion. Is it good?

I believe it's ok, haven't noticed any problems. I've been tested for a whole bunch of things, including celiac disease, they can find nothing wrong, other than my slightly high creatine kinase but my kidneys are fine, it's only high because i have a well above average lean mass.

Something else I've remembered that could be significant is this. I didn't get so healthy this past summer, not like the summer before. Sure my health improved but not that much.

Due to the circumstances at the time (I won't go into them) I put up blackout curtains this summer, I used them all summer, and for most of the summer I would get up at 7am, for 10 minutes to take my partner to work, and then I would come home and go back to sleep, until near enough 12 noon.

I did a good job of setting up the blackout curtains and removing all sources of light. It was pitch black in my room where I slept, even on a bright sunny morning, pitch black.

This meant that although it was summer and it was already daylight outside at 5am, as far as my body was concerned, it was night time until almost noon. For me it was as though days were only 8 hours long and night time was 16 hours.

I don't know if perhaps I've thrown my body out of whack by doing this. Perhaps for my body the short daylight hours for the last several months have made it seem like a very long winter (I was doing this since April). Anyone know if it's possible? I get up at 7am now and stay up, although it's winter now. But I am trying to get as much time in direct sunlight as possible.