Here is another interesting blog post from Dr. Tania S. Smith of Thyroid Patients Canada.
In this post, Dr. Smith gives us four different definitions of thyroid status. These are four different views, or ways of looking at thyroid problems and they are all important. It is clear by the end of the post that modern medicine rarely looks at the whole picture.
The four views or definitions described are:
- Etiology (the cause of the thyroid issue)
- Thyroid gland health status
- Thyroid hormones biochemistry
- Tissue thyroid hormone status
Dr. Smith’s post makes it clear that most endocrinologists and doctors rarely get beyond the most simplistic view of using TSH and FT4 as the only way of assessing the health of the thyroid patient. This latter mistake is what causes many thyroid patients to continue to have serious symptoms of hypothyroidism.
In my own books and other writings, I define hypothyroidism as the sub-optimal effect of the biologically active T3 thyroid hormone. This is effectively the fourth, and most important definition of thyroid status in the article.
Here is the link to Dr. Smith’s blog post:
https://thyroidpatients.ca/2020/03/28/four-definitions-of-thyroid-status/
Best wishes,
Paul
