Alzheimer’s Reversal for Doctors:
by Steven Wm. Fowkes
These top-down factors are components of the neuroendocrine system.
Thyroid hormones are at the top of the list for two good reasons, 1) they play the most direct role in regulating basal metabolic rate, which is the foundational dimension of the body’s energy systems, and 2) traditional medical practice for the last 50 years regarding the standard of care for hypothyroid symptoms are woefully dysfunctional. The widespread medical belief that TSH tests are a reasonable measure of thyroid-gland function and thyroid-hormone function is just plain wrong. There is no evidentiary basis behind the belief.
Since any and all deviations from the standard of care are potential disciplinary events as far as state medical boards are concerned, despite any clinical benefit that can be documented, despite any medical rationale that may be advanced, and despite any scientific evidence that the standard of care is erroneous, the approaches presented here may entail regulatory risk. Please see future posts for a discussion of proactive strategies regarding minimizing such risks.
The primary thyroid hormones are T4 and T3. Roughly 85% of the hormone secreted by the thyroid gland is T4, with 15% T3. But since T3 is four times more active at the thyroid-receptor level, the activity ratio of thyroid hormones is 60% T4 and 40% T3. This is the first reason why refusal to measure T3 is medically unwise.
The T3 secreted by the thyroid gland goes directly to the deep tissues of the body and interacts with thyroid hormone receptors on cell membranes, on nuclear membranes, and on mitochondrial membranes. These receptors coordinate the activation of protein synthesis in the nucleus and mitochondria which increase energy production systems in the mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA produces only 13 proteins; the rest are produced in the cell nucleus and transported to the mitochondria for energy production.
The T4 secreted by the thyroid gland has both direct and indirect paths. There are two selenium-dependent enzymes called deiodinases that remove one of the iodines from T4 to make either T3, which potentiates the thyroid signal by a factor of roughly four, or reverse T3 (rT3), which drops the thyroid signal to zero. This is the second reason why refusal to measure T3 (and rT3) is medically unwise. Statistically, the best correlation of thyroid tests to metabolic rate is the T3 to rT3 ratio. This is not rocket science. This is merely comparing thyroid potentiation to thyroid deactivation.
There are two other factors that directly govern the activity of thyroid hormones in the body , 1) autoimmune processes, in which immune dysregulation attenuates the thyroid signal, and 2) thyroid resistance, in which the signal is sabotaged at the receptor and/or transduction level. While there are thyroid autoimmune tests, there are no tests for thyroid resistance. [Whole-body calorimetry is a research-only testing capability.] Generalized resistance to thyroid hormone (GRTH) is the overtly clinical diagnosis, but many scientists and physicians are convinced that sub-clinical GRTH is both widespread and a serious health hazard.
The only clinical assessment that is practical is a thyroid trial, in which a slowly escalating dose of thyroid is administered over an extended period of time, and the effects are monitored for 1) clinical improvements in wellbeing (memory, orientation, proprioception, body temperature, strength, stamina, coordination, etc.) and 2) symptoms of hyperthyroidism (hypervigilance, insomnia, elevated body temperature, irritability, restlessness, etc.).
There are a couple of aspects of a thyroid trial that are inconvenient within a traditional medical practice. One is the timing. Most medical practices involve medical appointments that are a month or two apart, and the TSH feedback loop for thyroid hormone is 2-4 weeks. Therefore, thyroid dosing has to be incrementally increased on a weekly basis, to stay ahead of the TSH negative-feedback loop. Therefore, there is a higher training burden for the caretaker to make in loco physician decisions and medical-monitoring tasks, like heart rate, Am and PM body temperature, and blood pressure (if indicated), which are the earliest symptoms of hyperthyroidism. And then there are cognitive assessment tests involving memory, awareness, sleep quality, mood, attentiveness, coordination, dexterity, proprioception, and desicion making abilities, and the physical counterparts involving strength, stamina, tissue healing, food cravings, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and on and on.
I suggest that baseline monitoring be the test for caretaker compliance.
Iodine and selenium are needed for making thyroid hormones. These will be discussed in the blogs on bottom-up factors.