Simon said:

[Guest guest]

Check this out. The same thing I was just trying to say, but not so

eloquently. Since Simon Is one of our members, I am slipping this over here

from Mediboard, where he posted it.

Simon... we miss you. :-)

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The real crux is that the negative feedback loop, which is what TSH is for

in

healthy people, and other control methods, are designed to regulate thyroid

hormone levels very precisely.

It can up production when needed, be it cold weather, or exercise, or other

stresses. It can even divert hormone from T3 to rT3 if you are recuperating

and

need to take things easy. It even adjusts levels according to how much sleep

you

are getting.

Now when we are treated we have two basic options. Go hypo and replace with

the same amount each day (RAI, total thyroidectomy, block and replace), or

drug

down the thyroid so production is in the right ballpark (PTU, Methimazole).

Either way with you go from a highly refined regulation to something very

crude,

for a hormone that controls the activity of every cell in your body.

It is amazing replacement works at all, and is a tribute to how robust

animals (and

people) are.

Thyroid are common to fish, birds, reptiles and mammals, so nature has had

hundred of millions of years to perfect this regulation.

Till we get equally sophisticated with the drug delivery, the replacement is

never

going to be as good as a working thyroid.

If the TSH regulation is working I think it should be relatively easy to

design a

protocol that uses TSH to regulate hormone delivery. What is lacking is the

medical research will, it is treated as a " solved " disease, but smarter

hormone

regulation is seen as a big market in diabetes, so maybe someone will pick

up on

the idea - especially if they can convince enough patients that it is worth

the extra

expense to be better regulated.