Year Of Peating: TSH Increased From 2.0 To 4.6 . T3/4 Unaffected

Prosper

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I'm a bit concerned over what could have caused this. Stored PUFA? I eat mainly fruits, animal products, some starch, honey, sugar, 2k-4k calories a day. During this time I've also experimented with moderate/high doses of pregnenolone and niacinamide.

- 5'7 170 lbs ~15% bodyfat
- temps ~36.5 pulse 80
- mental health below average

Should I wait it out or do something particular?
 

jyb

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TSH can vary wildly even on the same diet in short time frame. For example it could double from one reading to the next while you feel the same or better. For these reasons, I find TSH of no practical use and do not measure it anymore even for free.
 
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TSH can vary wildly even on the same diet in short time frame. For example it could double from one reading to the next while you feel the same or better. For these reasons, I find TSH of no practical use and do not measure it anymore even for free.

It's been pretty reliable for me. I've gotten mine down to 3.57 from 8 and now it's been at 3.57 for the past year. Not sure how to get it down to the next level but for sure I feel better with it at 3.5 than when it was at 8, that was hell.
 
OP
Prosper

Prosper

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How much niacinamide and for how long?
Rarely more than 500 mg. Rarely less. There was a period of 5 days during which I built up to 3g dose in an attempt to get a better practical understanding of its effects, but apart from that, I dosed only a few times a month, never in a row. Now I just remembered reading about Niacinamide being potentially harmful to liver in ways which I can't remember (I assume you know what I mean), and coincidentally some toxin-related liver entsymes were on the higher end of the reference range in this same blood test. Coincidence? Mostly I think. I had also taken street amphetamine within the last 5 days before the test, which probably is not that good of a thing to do if you want accurate results.

TSH can vary wildly even on the same diet in short time frame. For example it could double from one reading to the next while you feel the same or better. For these reasons, I find TSH of no practical use and do not measure it anymore even for free.
Well that is an interesting perspective to become aware to. l will dig further into this to understand from where, and with what knowledge, my doctor will be approaching this issue.
 
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maybe?

Darkness is stressful and catabolic. For example, in aging people, the morning urine contains nearly all of the calcium lost during the 24 hour period, and mitochondria are especially sensitive to the destructive effects of darkness. Sleep reduces the destructive catabolic effects of darkness. During the rapid-eye-movement (dreaming) phase of sleep, breathing is inhibited, and the level of carbon dioxide in the tissues accumulates. In restful sleep, the oxygen tension is frequently low enough, and the carbon dioxide tension high enough, to trigger the multiplication of stem cells and mitochondria.
Protective CO2 and aging

The pituitary hormones, especially prolactin and TSH, are pro-inflammatory, and darkness increases TSH along with prolactin, so to compensate for a light deficiency, the pituitary should be well-suppressed by adequate thyroid. Armour thyroid or Thyrolar or Cynoplus, Cytomel, would probably be helpful. (Eye-drops containing T3 might be a way to restore metabolic activity more quickly.) Limiting water intake (or using salt generously) helps to inhibit prolactin secretion. The saturated fats protect against the body's stored PUFA, and keeping the blood sugar up keeps the stored fats from being mobilized. Aspirin (or indomethacin) is generally protective to the retina, analogously to its protection against sunburn. Adequate vitamin E is extremely important. There are several prescription drugs that protect against serotonin excess, but thyroid and gelatin (or glycine, as in magnesium glycinate) are protective against the serotonin and melatonin toxicities. Copper and magnesium deficiencies predispose to retinal damage. Red light is protective, blue light (or u.v.) is harmful, so wearing orange lenses would be helpful. Progesterone and pregnenolone, by reducing the stress reactions, should be helpful--in the eye diseases of infancy and old age, as they are in the respiratory distress syndromes.
Aging Eyes, Infant Eyes, and Excitable Tissues
 

paymanz

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Have you used biotin prior to your test? That can disturb the test results.
 
OP
Prosper

Prosper

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Could be. Lately I've gone to sleep near sunrise and woken up when it is about to go down. I have seen maybe 10 hours of daylight in this month. Considering your info, shifting the schedule would probably work. I just feel worse in the daytime. More stressful, and never as peaceful as in the nighttime, as if I should be somewhere doing something because everyone else is active too. At night I can bask in the silence and stillness that is unspoiled by the regular folk. Gives me greater focus and awareness. I feel more myself.
 
T

tca300

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" Aging, infection, trauma, prolonged cortisol excess, somatostatin, dopamine or L-dopa, adrenaline (sometimes; Mannisto, et al., 1979), amphetamine, caffeine and fever can lower TSH, apart from the effect of feedback by the thyroid hormones, creating a situation in which TSH can appear normal or low, at the same time that there is a real hypothyroidism."
Preventing and treating cancer with progesterone.

An increase in TSH might even mean you have made progress by lowering adrenaline and or cortisol. Like said above, TSH can quickly very greatly for many reasons and on its own shouldn't really be used to interpret anything.
 
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Could be. Lately I've gone to sleep near sunrise and woken up when it is about to go down. I have seen maybe 10 hours of daylight in this month. Considering your info, shifting the schedule would probably work. I just feel worse in the daytime. More stressful, and never as peaceful as in the nighttime, as if I should be somewhere doing something because everyone else is active too. At night I can bask in the silence and stillness that is unspoiled by the regular folk. Gives me greater focus and awareness. I feel more myself.

i think it's about the exposure to the light itself, like if you are out in the sunlight vs not in the sunlight
 

Wilfrid

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Did you get also any blood test to measure vitamin D, PTH, aldosterone, cortisol, calcium, potassium and sodium?
 

marsaday

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TSH is such a poor measurement. The Ft4/3 are more important to focus on.

TSH is highest at bedtime because as soon as we sleep we make thyroid hormones for the next day. We then make cortisol hormones after the body has had the delivery of thyroid hormones. The two hormones need to match each other approximately. People low in thyroid have lower cortisol production when they do the saliva test.

Some patients with very high TSH levels feel totally well. This is because they have better conversion of T4 to T3. T4 maybe lower, but T3 is good and the cells have plenty of T3 so they feel fine. How long this can go on i don't know, but eventually the conversion is supposed to not keep up and the patient can feel hypothyroid and ill. So docs step in as soon as they see TSH go to high and quite often patients complain they feel much worse taking some T4 medication. This is because the body has stopped super converting and they actually have less T3 in the cells, but good FT4 and TSH numbers.

The thyroid is a tough nut to crack and has many mysteries to it.

I would say if you are not sticking to a normal circadian sleep pattern your TSH will go a bit crazy. Shift workers have so many more health problems than the normal population as their hormone production goes totally off.
 

Birdie

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But if you say you’ve been “Peating” for a year, and then say you stay out of the light all day, seems to contradict since a main Peat principle is getting a lot of light. So, looks like you have been following the nutrient part but kinda omitting an important aspect of the whole thing. But I know what you mean about the quiet of the night. I love that too. The feeling of being yourself then. Yes!
 

jitsmonkey

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As a health metric TSH
Without consistent and accurate historical pulse and temp data. Both waking and pre/post feeding

Is worthless
 

Tarmander

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Rarely more than 500 mg. Rarely less. There was a period of 5 days during which I built up to 3g dose in an attempt to get a better practical understanding of its effects, but apart from that, I dosed only a few times a month, never in a row. Now I just remembered reading about Niacinamide being potentially harmful to liver in ways which I can't remember (I assume you know what I mean), and coincidentally some toxin-related liver entsymes were on the higher end of the reference range in this same blood test. Coincidence? Mostly I think. I had also taken street amphetamine within the last 5 days before the test, which probably is not that good of a thing to do if you want accurate results.

Have you tried lowering your dose of Niacinamide? 250mg/100mg per day? Niacinamide can be a great destressor, but overtime higher doses can deplete glycogen in your muscles and liver, and make you gain weight. If you need it, you need it, but can you take less?
 

stevrd

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When did you take your TSH test? It will be considerably higher in the winter as opposed to warmer months.

The thyroid is a tough nut to crack and has many mysteries to it.

Good points.

I would suggest to the OP to think about food intake as well. As it was rightfully stated, the thyroid is a tough nut to crack. Unfortunately many in the Peat community focus on the thyroid too much and neglect other things, but as Chris Masterjohn and others have pointed out in some of the recent research, leptin and insulin play a rather large role in determining how well your thyroid is functioning. Taking thyroid supplements without addressing low calorie or low carb intake, for example, will not get to the route of the problem, which is the body sensing low energy availability. This is why quite often people who take several grains of thyroid a day may not notice a change in their basal temperatures. If the diet or lifestyle is not up to par, thyroid supplements will do little for you.
 

Mito

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Dec 10, 2016
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I'm a bit concerned over what could have caused this. Stored PUFA? I eat mainly fruits, animal products, some starch, honey, sugar, 2k-4k calories a day. During this time I've also experimented with moderate/high doses of pregnenolone and niacinamide.

- 5'7 170 lbs ~15% bodyfat
- temps ~36.5 pulse 80
- mental health below average

Should I wait it out or do something particular?
Was your T4 exactly the same value when TSH was 2 vs 4.6? Very small changes in serum T4 can have a large impact on TSH.
 
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