Re: : Introducing myself

[Guest guest]

Hi , welcome to this group. Don't have much to say right now but wanted

to know what is the normal range your endocrinologist believes is ?

SB.

michelle_poelsterl <michelle_poelsterl@...> wrote:

Hi my name is and I am new to this group. I was diagnosed

with hypothyroid disease in May 2004 after I went through an unusual

weight gain that began in January 2004. I have been through 2 family

physicans who have interest in thyroid issues and am seeing my second

endocronologist. She is finally explaining to me what a normal range

is and believes me when I say my weight problems are thyroid related.

I keep reading about a lot of herbal supplements and other vitamins

that may help. I guess I'm looking for weight management advice

besides diet and exercise, which I feel I do great with.

I look forward to hearing others share experiences.

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

She says that the normal range is .5-5.0 and looks for numbers to be lower. She

recently increased my medicine to 112mg when I was at 2.5.

sensitive abc <wordsofrelief@...> wrote:

Hi , welcome to this group. Don't have much to say right now but

wanted to know what is the normal range your endocrinologist believes is ?

SB.

michelle_poelsterl <michelle_poelsterl@...> wrote:

Hi my name is and I am new to this group. I was diagnosed

with hypothyroid disease in May 2004 after I went through an unusual

weight gain that began in January 2004. I have been through 2 family

physicans who have interest in thyroid issues and am seeing my second

endocronologist. She is finally explaining to me what a normal range

is and believes me when I say my weight problems are thyroid related.

I keep reading about a lot of herbal supplements and other vitamins

that may help. I guess I'm looking for weight management advice

besides diet and exercise, which I feel I do great with.

I look forward to hearing others share experiences.

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

You wrote:

> She says that the normal range is .5-5.0 and looks for numbers to be

> lower. She recently increased my medicine to 112mg when I was at 2.5. ...

It's good that she's looking to lower the TSH, but that means that she

knows the " normal " range is something other than " normal, " unless by

" normal " she means " Gaussian. " The range you are quoting is actually a

" reference " range published by the lab for the reagents they use. It

means that if you randomly brought 100 people in off the street who

showed no symptoms of hypoT, roughly 68 of them would be expected to

have TSH in the specified range. The reference range is the one sigma

variance above and below a mean value which is not specified. However,

the distribution is not Gaussian. It is skewed, with the mean closer to

the lower end than the middle. For both reasons, it should not be called

a " normal " range.

People on meds, especially T3, should have a lower reference range, but

the experts don't agree on exactly what that should be. Many docs

continue to refer to the lab reference range for untreated people, which

is one reason some people are unhappy with their dosage.

Chuck