When you are tested, ask for the TSH, free T3 and free T4. Don’t just accept that your results are “normal;” ask for specific numbers and the range that they used to determine “normal.” Then you get a better picture than just a black-n-white answer of “normal” or not.

Also, there is controversy in the medical world as to when to diagnose hypothyroidism. The reference range used to be something like 0.5 – 5.0 (diff labs may have slightly diff variations on this). Some endocrinologists have espoused lowering the range to 0.3 – 3.0; others reject that change. Now I am hearing that some advocate lowering the threshold for diagnosis even lower, to 2.5. Others still won’t diagnose until levels well in excess of 5.0 – 5.5 or more. So whether you are “normal” or not can vary a lot depending on which range they choose to use.

I think the question is, do you have symptoms of hypothyroidism? If so, a ‘borderline’ TSH plus those symptoms might make a trial of meds worthwhile. If you have no symptoms, then a borderline TSH might not mean much of anything.

My anecdotal observation is that many women with PCOS or similar presentations have this kind of “borderline” hypothyroidism and often DO benefit from treatment with meds, even though they may not meet the classic definitions of hypothyroidism in the past.

For me personally, this was true. For years I had signs of possible hypothyroidism, but my levels were “borderline” or “normal.” One endocrinologist I consulted told me I was just looking for an excuse for being fat. So I quit having those levels checked. Several years later, I heard about the low body temp thing, checked mine on a whim, and found it usually around 97. A friend recommended an MD who was also more “alternative” in his training, we found my TSH to be in that borderline range, and given my sysmptoms, we started a trial of meds to see how it affected me.

TOTAL change!! It was amazing how much better I felt with the thyroid meds. I didn’t lose weight (which I could care less about anyhow) but it was amazing how much better I felt on the meds. Now I notice that even a small change in my TSH can make a huge difference in how I feel, and I feel best with a TSH of about 1.0 – 1.5.

Not everyone with a low temp needs thyroid meds, but I do think it’s worth having the TSH etc. test done to be sure. Most docs will only do the TSH but it helps to have your T3 and T4 levels done too, because sometimes the TSH can be normal and the others abnormal or vice-versa. To get a real picture of what’s up, it helps to have all three tests.

I think that many “obese” folks have a borderline TSH and might benefit from treatment. If you are thinking about kids, become pregnant, or have had children in the past, it’s esp important to get it checked regularly, because pregnancy and post-partum thyroid issues are incredibly common and has the potential to affect both you and the child significantly.

kmom
http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org

OMG OBESITY!

But it’s “for the children,” they say! Because it’s a shame that there are more overweight than starving kids in the world!

If they are it’s probably because they eat more fat and less pasta than Americans.

I know this is not going to be 100% correlated with a low metabolism (actually I think my metabolism is comparatively high anyway… I have often bemoaned how I think I eat much more than many people here and feel guilty about it), and especially will not be the “answer” to why some people are fatter than others, any more than genetics or thyroid issues or environmental factors are. But those of you who do research in this area or are familiar with the literature, do you know of any studies looking at average body temperature in connection with weight? It would be interesting to know if there was any correlation.

On another note, hotsauce and Jae, I mentioned the other day that bank commercial that sentimentalizes the fact that an apparently middle-class dad has to work a paper route (starting before dawn, natch, so you know if this were a real person he’d barely be sleeping) to afford braces for his daughter. That is not as bad as the real-life example you describe, but I find it just so sickening and frustrating–in 2008, in the “greatest nation in the world”–that we are apparently totally OK with people having to work themselves into an early grave just to survive.

Scientists call brown fat cells BAT or “brown adipose tissue” which means brown fat cells but sounds smarter. :P It is considered “good fat.” *sigh*

There’s a large deposit of BAT on mammal’s backs, including rats and humans. It stretches across the upper back like a shawl. And it works like an electric blanket, producing warmth to heat the body, especially during sleep. It is very oxygen intensive to use, but it is “priviliged” in that oxygen is preferentially directed to it before other tissues, not unlike it is to the brain. When baby rats are in cold temperatures sleeping (and baby rats, like baby humans, sleep over 90% of the time) without littermates, their BAT goes wild and keeps them warm, but more and more oxygen goes to the BAT and less and less to other parts of the body, like the nervous system. Breathing becomes labored and even then there’s not always enough oxygen. Warm the rat up by putting it in its litter or raising the temperature and the oxygen balance resumes. This tissue is very active in human babies in the first months of life. It is possible, but not firmly established, that the Back To Sleep campaign might work because it insulates the BAT and makes it less oxygen-demanding because it has less work to do. Oxygen balance is normal and babies do not go into respiratory distress warming themselves. And their nervous systems remain normally oxygenated.

BAT continues to work throughout life but is vitally important in infants since they have limited mobility and can do less to warm themselves up. Also, neonates sleep so much that even when their mobility is better than that of human babies, they aren’t using it much.

Okay, this is probably TMI. I’ll stop.

Also, there really has not been any change at all in the number of “obese” people in the last 5 years (some would say that statistically there hasn’t been any change in the last 10 years); that would seem to indicate there is a level at which weight gain does level off.

Anyone who has the linkies on these, please feel free to provide them. I’m working right now and don’t have time to search for them right this second.

” True, absolute rates are still lower here than in the United States and most other European countries: 11.3 percent of the French are obese and nearly 40 percent overweight, compared with more than 50 percent overweight in Britain and the United States.

But the sudden sharp rise – 5 percent annually since 1997 – is causing great alarm in a society renowned for thinness, a country that long seemed exempt from a worldwide epidemic of obesity. ”

I’m asking you because you have more experience with fat acceptance and with related scientific articles. How do I challenge, for example, the idea that obesity has been increasing all over the world? Don’t the numbers disrupt the assumption defended by fat acceptance movements that fatness is genetic? I mean, even if we discount the ridiculous BMI increase ten years ago from 25 to 27, isn’t the world as a whole still becoming more overweight? And can we claim that all, say, 30% of Brazilians who are now obese or overweight have a genetic disposition to be fat? Thank you for your willingness to help.