Dr. Westin Childs Podcast: Thyroid | Weight Loss | Hormones

Are you feeling worse on your thyroid medication? If so, you are not alone. Many thyroid patients feel this exact same way! But how can the very medication that is supposed to help you feel better make you feel worse? It's actually not that complicated but in order to understand what is happening, you have to understand some basic thyroid physiology. Here are the top 3 reasons people feel WORSE when taking thyroid medications such as levothyroxine and Synthroid: #1. Your thyroid medication is SUPPRESSING your T3. In the normal and healthy state, your thyroid produces BOTH T4 thyroid hormone and T3 thyroid hormone. The ratio is about 80% T4 to 20% T3. But when you take thyroid medication it completely shuts down how much T3 your body can produce naturally. When this happens you substitute out 20% T3 that your body produces naturally for 100% T4. And if you aren't able to convert that T4 into T3 then you will feel poorly! This is how thyroid medication makes most people feel worse, by reducing how