Transcription
T2 thyroid hormone is emerging as an incredibly important and potent thyroid hormone, and tons and tons of thyroid patients are taking notice. This has led many a thyroid patient to ask themselves this important question: "How can I test my own T2 level to see if this is something that I should take?" If this thought has crossed your mind, then you are in the right place. Let's talk more about T2 testing, why T2 thyroid is so beneficial to thyroid patients, and how to determine if you should try it.
Let's start with the bad news first. Currently, there is no commercially available T2 test for thyroid patients. This means that, unfortunately, you aren't going to be able to test your T2 like you would your free T3 or free T4. But this doesn't mean that you can't make highly educated guesses about your T2 status, and it definitely doesn't mean that there are no T2 tests period. It just means that those tests that are available are not readily available for you and me.
This is for a couple of reasons. The first is that the available tests are not quite as accurate as we like. T2 tests are available for researchers who are doing research on T2, but many of these tests fail to provide accurate T2 results because they're inaccurate when T2 levels are low. Some of these T2 tests miss up to one-third of thyroid patients who have low T2.
The second is that we're still learning about the functions of T2 thyroid hormone, its functions in the cell and on the thyroid hormone receptor, and how it is bound and carried through the body. This information is well known for other thyroid hormones like T3 and T4, which is why we have tests like free T3, total T3, free T4, and reverse T3. Researchers better understand the life cycle of these thyroid hormones, how they are carried through the blood, and what they are bound to, and how they interact with the thyroid hormone receptor. While we do know that T2 thyroid hormone exerts powerful effects on the body and interacts with the thyroid hormone receptor, there's still a lot left to learn about this thyroid hormone.
But just because you can't test for T2 like you would say, your T3 levels, doesn't mean you can't estimate how much T2 is in your body or if you would benefit from taking a T2 supplement. So, at least for now, the only thing that we are left with is educated guessing. I understand for many thyroid patients, this is not the ideal situation, but the only alternative right now is to simply sit around and wait until a test is developed, and this process may take several years.
If you don't like the idea of sitting and waiting, then here are some ways that you can estimate your T2 status. These tests are what I call proxy measurements, and while they are not as accurate as a true T2 test, they can still give you a lot of good information. Here's how they work: While we may not have a good way to assess T2 levels in the body, we have a pretty good idea of how T2 functions. So, what we can do is look at the systems that T2 impacts and determine if it's doing its job. If it isn't, then we can make an educated guess that you probably don't have enough of it.
And by the way, this system of evaluating thyroid hormones in the body shouldn't come as a surprise to many of you, and that's because this is the same thing that we often do for evaluating T4 and T3. If you are taking a thyroid medication like levothyroxine and still experiencing low thyroid symptoms, then you can make an educated guess that you're probably not taking enough thyroid hormone because if you were, those symptoms would not be present at all. The primary difference here is that if you had that suspicion, you would be able to confirm it with the use of a free T4 lab test, which is not something we can do with T2.
How accurate is this system of looking at proxy measurements? Based on my experience, they are fairly accurate. I say that because I've had the advantage of monitoring over 10,000 people who have used my T2 supplement, and I rarely have any problems using these methods. With this in mind, let's talk about these proxy measurements.
Number one, we have resting heart rate. This is a simple metric that you can test at home right now. Here's how it works: Your heart contains thyroid hormone receptors, which are known to be sensitive to T2 thyroid hormone. We know this because excessively high doses of T2 (not the type of dose found in T2 supplements, by the way) can cause cardiac enlargement. This enlargement doesn't happen with normal doses, but the fact that it does happen with high doses tells us that T2 does impact the heart in some way. Given that, we would expect in the hypothyroid, T2 deficient state, that the heart rate would decline, and this is exactly what we see in many thyroid patients.
Just using this measurement alone can be tricky, though, because we know that other thyroid hormones like T3 also impact the heart. So, if you are a patient who is taking levothyroxine, how do you know if your low heart rate is due to low T3 or low T2? Well, the most obvious way is with testing. You can't test for your T2 level, but you can test for your T3 level. If you have a low resting heart rate and you are taking levothyroxine and your free T3 is relatively normal, then by process of elimination, only T2 thyroid hormone is left, and in this situation, it would be very reasonable to give T2 supplementation a try.
One of the best things about this measurement is that it's so easy to test. All you need to do is check your pulse for 15 seconds, multiply that number by four, and you've got your resting heart rate. And if you don't want to do the manual method, then you can always opt for a wearable device like an Apple Watch or a Fitbit. A normal resting heart rate is somewhere between 60 and 80 beats per minute. When you are in the hypothyroid state, you may find that your resting heart rate is somewhere in the 50s, which would be highly indicative that you have a problem with either T3 or T2, or both. From here, it's just a matter of experimentation to see if you can tweak your T3 and T2 levels to get that resting heart rate up.
Proxy measurement number two is your metabolism. As far as thyroid hormones go, T2 is a major regulator of your metabolism, and it may even be more important in this regard than T3. Right now, there's a lot of effort and research into evaluating T2's efficacy as a treatment for obesity, but this research is still ongoing. When thyroid hormones are low (both T2 and T3), your metabolism will drop. This is due to the impact that your thyroid hormones have on things like hypothalamic function, mitochondrial energy production, and leptin signaling. Much like the example above, T3 also plays a role in regulating your metabolism, so having a sluggish metabolism doesn't automatically mean that you have a T2 problem. But again, just like the example above, you can differentiate between T3-related metabolism problems and T2-related metabolism problems with testing. If your metabolism is low but your T3 level is fine, then T2 is probably the bigger problem.
Testing your metabolism is actually a lot more difficult than you might think. So, instead of assessing how many calories you burn on a daily basis, it's best to look at your weight and your ability to lose weight as a proxy measurement of your basal metabolic rate. If you are having a hard time losing weight despite eating healthy and exercising regularly, or you are finding that you continue to gain weight despite lowering your calories, then it's very likely that you have an issue with your metabolism, and in this case, using T2 can be considered.
Proxy measurement number three is your cholesterol. Your thyroid is a known regulator of cholesterol metabolism, so when thyroid function drops, you will see a rise in your cholesterol. The low thyroid state is associated with a high LDL, high triglycerides, a high total cholesterol, and a low HDL level. This same cholesterol pattern is also commonly found in those people who have insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome, by the way, which means it's not a great marker all by itself. However, there is a lot of interest in using T2 thyroid hormone as a potential treatment for fatty liver. As someone with thyroid problems, if you notice that your cholesterol level is generally too high and unresponsive to other thyroid medications, then giving T2 a try is probably a good idea.
Proxy measurement number four are your free T3 and free T4 levels. You can also attempt to assess your T2 status by looking at these other thyroid hormones. The reason this strategy works has to do with how your body metabolizes thyroid hormones. It's understood that thyroid hormones, starting with T4, get metabolized by deiodinase enzymes, which systematically remove iodine molecules one by one. If you remove one iodine molecule from T4, you're left with T3. If you remove one iodine molecule from T3, you're left with T2. And if you remove one iodine molecule from T2, you're left with T1. So, one way that you can attempt to assess your T2 levels is by looking at both your T4 and T3 levels.
If we know that your body creates T2 from T3, then if your body is low in T3, it probably won't be able to create enough T2. While this makes sense logically, it's probably not as straightforward as I've made it sound. Some studies have shown that T2 levels remain unchanged despite whatever happens to T3 levels. This is further complicated by the fact that there are multiple types of T2 metabolites and that T4 can also be converted into reverse T3 instead of T3. How reverse T3 levels impact T2 levels is not known at this time. Even with all of this uncertainty, it's been my experience that a low T4 or a low T3 level is a fairly good predictor that someone will do well on T2. This is probably because T2 acts as a ligand on the thyroid hormone receptor, making it more sensitive to circulating T3 levels. We are still figuring all of this information out right now, so this is the best information that I can give you.
Proxy measurement number five are your thyroid symptoms. This is probably the most obvious out of all metrics that we've discussed so far and the one that everyone should understand the best. If you have a thyroid condition and you're still experiencing thyroid symptoms, then there's a good chance you probably need more thyroid hormone. This is an all too common problem that many thyroid patients face, probably even you listening to this right now, and that's because most thyroid patients are treated with only one form of thyroid medication known as levothyroxine. The problem with this approach is that it's very likely that the body actually has a need for every single thyroid hormone, including T4, T3, T2, and T1. And when you take levothyroxine, you are only receiving one of those four thyroid hormones. So, if you are given the chance and you want to replicate the healthy function of the thyroid gland, it makes sense to replace as many of these thyroid hormones as possible. This is probably why many thyroid patients prefer natural desiccated thyroid medications over more traditional medications like levothyroxine.
Just because we don't completely understand the function of all of these thyroid hormones doesn't mean they aren't important or that you should avoid them. This is one of the biggest reasons why I recommend that most thyroid patients consider trying T2. If you were to ask me, I would say that it's very likely that we end up seeing a commercially available T2 test in the coming years, and within the next 10 years, I think that T2 testing will become standard with every thyroid lab panel. That T2 thyroid hormone will make its way into many combinations of thyroid medications, think a combination of T2 plus levothyroxine, all built into one, and that ultimately doctors will recognize the importance of all thyroid hormones, not just T4. But this will take time, probably 5 to 10 years, or maybe even longer.
So, if you don't want to wait 5 to 10 years, you can always get started with T2 supplementation right away, and if you want to do that, you can learn more about how to take T2 in this video.