First things first, my TSH test was 'normal,' although the doc didn't give me the numbers so I have asked for them. I expect the lab uses the 0.3-3.0 measure as in Vietnam, and also not that long along there were no labs here so, logically (bearing in mind that logic can be circumvented in Asia), they should not be operating on the old guidelines. We shall see....
Now, getting to the mysterious equation above, there's a little back story first. The doc asked me about symptoms and I was forthcoming about how I feel like large piles of what-the-dog-did-on-the-lawn. I also pointed out that I seem to feel this bad every year at this time even though I live in the tropics. Now this is a red flag for bad thyroid doctorin.' The uninformed doctor would now be starting to narrow done which mental health issue they were dealing with and getting their imaginary prescription pad out.
What Doctor Elise said however was circadium rhythms. These are set at a young age and persist throughout life, therefore my body is currently operating as though it is the victim of a miserable Invercargill, New Zealand winter and I have most of the symptoms of seasonal winter flu' without actually having it. That really sucks as although it's rainy season here, it doesn't rain that much and it is usually around a very pleasant 27/28 degrees with a gentle breeze. Kind of perfect, but I'm missing out on the feel-good weather factor big time, most of the time.
So this set me off on yet another great internet search. I had not gotten far when I came across the following abstract at the Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism, which I've copied in. http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Doi=177254
Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to food restriction so that they ate 65% of food ingested by control rats. While control rats had free access to food over the 24-hour period, food-restricted rats were provided with food daily at 10 a.m. The experimental period lasted for 34 days. On day 35, rats from both experimental groups were killed at 08.00, 11.00, 14.00, 24.00 and 02.00 h. Food restriction modified the circadian rhythms of ACTH and corticosterone. In addition, total circulating corticosterone throughout the day was higher in food-restricted than in control rats. In contrast, food restriction resulted in depressed secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone and growth hormone. The results indicate that time of food availability entrained circadian corticosterone rhythm but not thyroid-stimulating hormone and growth hormone rhythms.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there an implication that if you restrict calories as you must do to lose weight, that your pituitary will reduce the amount of TSH produced so your thyroid receives less stimulus so thyroid function decreases? Isn't this the ultimate catch 22 for the Hashi who needs to lose weight? I would love to know if this has been followed up however as it was not the main objective of the research it may not have been. It was published in 1987 (so someone's known about this for a long time) and it has been cited 55 times but I have no info on the thrust of the research of those citing. This would explain A LOT!
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