Thoughts on this article?

[sarahbeth629]

http://thyroidnation.com/optimum-thyroid-levels-risks-to-heart-and-other-diseases/ You often see these charts for "optimal ranges" on thyroid forums, and now after reading this article I'm more confused.

[Barb135]

I just now saw your post and I did go read the article and I find contrary to most of what I've learned, personally, and what we see for most people here on this forum, it's totally unreal...

I totally agree with everything that, both goolarra and gimel have said.  For many of us, TSH has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on our actual thyroid hormone levels.  If this woman were trying to treat my thyroid problem, she'd end up killing me.

I'd like to know what "thyroid community" she operates in... I'll be sure to give her a wide berth.

[gimel]

I am not ignoring your post, but upon starting to read through it i quickly had a problem with the "optimal ranges".  In addition to what goolarra said, I found that the idea of having an "optimal range" for TSH to be inconsistent with such ranges for Free T4 and Free T3.  Of course TSH is affected by levels of FT4 and FT3, and vice versa.  So you cannot adjust both FT4/ FT3 levels and also adjust TSH independently.   If you adjust FT4 and FT3, you get some result for TSH that is not adjustable separately.  

I wrote an email to the site two days ago pointing out that the ranges were misleading and why.  No response yet.

I still intend to look at the links shown in the article to understand if the studies were valid.  It won't be right away, however.  

[goolarra]

First, let me confess to not having finished the article.  I have trouble with statements like the following (from the article):

"...which means TSH out of normal range (too high or too low) increases our risk of a secondary disease."

This is blatantly NOT true.  TSH is not responsible for any symptoms or any secondary disease.  It may sound like I'm nitpicking, but it's FT3 and FT4 levels that cause symptoms and secondary diseases.  There's too much emphasis on TSH, and statements like the quote above only serve to further confuse.  A statement like the above assumes that TSH is accurately reflecting FT3 and FT4 levels, which is not true for so many of us.

I also have a problem with any "optimal ranges".  We are individuals, and my optimal range is not your optimal range. (Her optimal ranges would probably kill me.)  We really have to all find our own spot.  Optimal ranges ignore symptoms.  What better way to determine if we are at our own personal optimal level than to be symptom free?  Lack of symptoms, either hypo or hyper, is pretty much your body telling you what it needs.