Seasonal Temperature Fluctuations And Thyroid

[DaveFoster]

I'm going to e-mail Dr. Peat about this topic. There's a few points:

1) In temperate climates, temperature fluctuations exacerbate physiological stress with colder months lowering thyroid function.

2) When supplementing thyroid hormone (with T3 and T4), there's a gap of time between the stress brought about from cold exposure, and the need to raise the amount of thyroid hormone taken.

2a) During this gap, stress increases.
2b) It's assumed there's some level of adaptive capacity in the person for a short period of time (until thyroid levels succumb to the stress, possibly a few weeks or months).
2c) It's also assumed that someone's normal "sensitivity to adrenaline" goes down with a steady introduction of thyroid hormone over time, and they may then adjust the dosage more quickly according to need without a skyrocketing pulse (as they've experienced previously.)
2c) During the gap, short-acting pro-thyroid substances can oppose the stress, whether pregnenolone, progesterone, coffee (or caffeine), aspirin, or T3 (without T4), along with other steroids or adaptogens.​

3) Due to the problematic "balancing act" when living in temperate climates, it would be preferable to live in a region with a stable annual temperature with minimal fluctuations. This may be the reason for the idealized "tropical paradise" with warmth and climatic stability. High elevation would also be ideal due to the atmospheric CO2 levels.

Feel free to merge this thread with this one:
Moving To A Warmer Climate And Stress

Thoughts?

 

[Mito]

I'm going to e-mail Dr. Peat about this topic. There's a few points:

1) In temperate climates, temperature fluctuations exacerbate physiological stress with colder months lowering thyroid function.

Thoughts?

Effect of Seasonal Changes on the Transition Between Subclinical Hypothyroid and Euthyroid Status | The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism | Oxford Academic
Results:
During a median 36 months of follow-up, 57.9% of subclinical hypothyroid subjects reverted to euthyroidism, and 4.3% of euthyroid subjects developed subclinical hypothyroidism. The monthly distribution of follow-up TSH levels indicated a biphasic pattern, ie, an increase during the winter-spring season and a decrease during the summer-fall season, with a maximal TSH difference of 0.69 mIU/L in subclinical hypothyroid and 0.30 mIU/L in euthyroid subjects. Normalization of subclinical hypothyroidism was increased 1.4-fold in follow-up tests during the summer-fall follow-up, whereas subclinical hypothyroidism increased 1.4-fold in euthyroid subjects during the winter-spring follow-up.

 

[DaveFoster]

...with a maximal TSH difference of 0.69 mIU/L in subclinical hypothyroid and 0.30 mIU/L in euthyroid subjects. Normalization of subclinical hypothyroidism was increased 1.4-fold in follow-up tests during the summer-fall follow-up, whereas subclinical hypothyroidism increased 1.4-fold in euthyroid subjects during the winter-spring follow-up.

So in other words, having good thyroid function actually makes you less sensitive to temperature fluctuations. All else being equal, a hypothyroid person will suffer more in the winter than a euthyroid person. Also, keep in mind that TSH follows a logarithmic effect, where the difference between 0 and 1 has a great deal more physiological significance than the difference between 1 and 2, so maybe there's no functional difference.

A very intuitive confounding factor for this: if someone's euthyroid, they may continue to drink coffee (or consume caffeine) during the winter, whereas if someone's hypothyroid, coffee can provoke anxiety (as in myself), and so they forego consumption and enter into what Dr. Peat calls "the vicious cycle of estrogen dominance" or something similar.