Nutritional Endocrinology Practitioner Training (NEPT)
Clinical Pearl
May 3rd, 2015

The Thyroid Adrenal Relationship

You’ve heard me speak many times about the functional hierarchy and how addressing the thyroid without restoring adrenal function is asking for trouble.

One thing that very few people talk about is how conventional medicine’s approach to low thyroid, treatment with synthetic T4, can cause problems.

If the T4 to T3 conversion doesn’t happen as it should, which happens as a result of adrenal imbalance, the body can become overloaded with unused T4. The extra T4 can get converted to reverse T3, which puts on the breaks and blocks the thyroid receptors.

If T4 is adequately converted to T3, but the T3 cannot enter the cell walls due to adrenal insufficiency or iron deficiency, the T3 can’t be used, and may pool or build up in the blood.