Elaine - Should I Have Another TSI? DIL Sitch.

[Guest guest]

Hi Barb,

TSI are IgG antibodies, and they stay intact in your blood circulation for

about 3 months and then break down into amino acids. They're then excreted. So

even if your immune system is healing and has slowed down on TSI production

your level isn't going to change much in one month.

It really is TSI's effect on your thyroid hormone levels that's important so

for regular monitoring FT4 and FT3 levels are more important.

When you have a TSI level, you're measuring the amount of antibodies that

have spilled out into the blood circulation. But these antibodies are primarily

produced within thyroid cells and you can't measure this. So you can have

moderate symptoms even before TSI has spilled out into the circulation. You can

also have worse symptoms with thyroid hormone levels that aren't troublesome to

other people. Many factors influence how you feel, including the number of

receptors for thyroid hormone you have on your body's cells.

Because you're having eye problems and your levels are falling, it's possible

that you're starting to produce more blocking TSH receptor antibodies than

stimulating ones. People with TED are more likely to have significant levels of

both stimulating and blocking TSH receptor antibodies.

Alt medicine, especially herbs like bugleweed, have a more subtle effect than

ATDs and have a milder effect. Alt medicine also helps reduce antibody titers

and also the activity of TSI.

To effectively slow down antibody production within your thyroid gland, you

want to avoid becoming hypothyroid. When you're hypothryoid, the glandular

activity increases in an effort to fix things. You might be a good candidate for

block and replace (adding levothyroxine to the ATD) to help reduce your

glandular activity without allowing hypothyroidism to develop. Take care, Elaine