Compounding options for thyroid disorders
Your thyroid gland is a small gland in the front of your neck. It is located just below your larynx. It produces two thyroid hormones - triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) - which migrate through the blood to all tissues of the body. Thyroid hormones Is responsible for how our body breaks the food we eat down and converts thee food back into energy; it can either be for immediate use or as storage for the future use. In other words, our thyroid hormones regulate our body's metabolism.
What are the most common thyroid disorders?
Thyroid disorders are common in the general population and the prevalence increases with age. It is estimated that millions of people in the United States have some type of thyroid disease and that the majority of these people are women. Two of the most common thyroid disorders are:
HOW IS HYPOTHYROIDISM TREATED?
Hypothyroidism can be treated with thyroid hormone replacement therapy. The goal of thyroid hormone treatment is to replicate the normal function of the thyroid gland. It is important to understand that each patient's therapy will be different. How the body absorbs hormones and the amount of hormones needed varies. Your treatment plan will be individualistic. Therefore, you should expect a certain amount of experimentation when it comes to finding the dose and form of therapy that is best for you.
It is estimated that more than half of all people who are affected by thyroid disease to their disease are not aware, although the patient may have many of the following symptoms of hypothyroidism:
Patients may have some or most of the above symptoms, but they may not be diagnosed for years!
Thyroid Hormone exists in 2 different forms:
(T3) Triiodothyronine is the active type of thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland produces about 20 % of T3, the rest is produced in different tissues in the body through the conversion of T4 when more T3 is needed.
(T4) Thyroxine-- is the inactive form produced exclusively by the thyroid gland.
In today's world, many are treated with T4 alone although both T4 and T3 are produced by the human thyroid gland. Studies suggest that replacement treatment with T4 alone does not adequately address the thyroid needs of the patient in most tissues. Some of the hypothyroid patients treated with T4 alone still remain symptomatic. A mixture of T4 and T3 might be required to achieve ideal thyroid hormone levels in humans. Commercially readily available T4 and T3 are available as immediate release dosage forms only. The immediate release dosage forms may cause higher tissue concentrations that are often undesirable for most patients. Compounded sustained release T3 might prevent adverse reactions often common in immediate release forms.