A Quick Thumbnail Sketch
of
Wilson's Temperature Syndrome

• Low Thyroid Symptoms respond. Many patients with symptoms of low thyroid function respond dramatically well to the treatment described in this Doctor's Manual even though their thyroid blood tests are completely normal.
• Thyroid blood tests are normal. The T4 produced in the thyroid gland is not the active form of thyroid hormone. T3 is the active form and most of it is produced outside the thyroid gland in the tissues of the body, by the enzymatic deiodination of T4. This simple fact shows that there's no good reason to think that thyroid blood tests are conclusive. Impaired conversion of T4 to T3 in the tissues of the body could easily explain why T3 therapy works so well even when tests are completely normal. Even patients with free T3 and total T3 levels that are above normal can still respond well to the treatment.
• Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome is often reversible. Remarkably, patients' temperatures and symptoms often remain improved even after the T3 therapy has been discontinued. This is an encouraging sign that suggests the treatment is corrective, not palliative. We call this the "resetting phenomenon." There is a precedent for this sort of hormonal correction. Women with irregular periods are often cycled on birth control pills to regulate their periods. When they are weaned off the oral contraceptives after a time, their periods often remain regular. Just as female hormone pills may be correcting female hormone imbalances, trials of T3 therapy may be correcting a thyroid hormone imbalance (a complete paradigm for which is presented in this Doctor's Manual).
• Low body temperatures. Low body temperatures as well as other signs and symptoms of low thyroid function, which are unexplained by thyroid blood tests, characterize Wilson's Temperature Syndrome.
• Brought on by stress. Stress, such as childbirth or the death of a loved one, can especially bring on the symptoms. Around 80% of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome patients are women. WTS appears to be more common in patients whose ancestors survived famine (e.g., Irish, American Indian).
• The treatment of Wilson's Temperature Syndrome involves the use of pure T3 powder mixed with a sustained release agent usually administered in capsules. Patients take increasing doses according to a schedule and their signs and symptoms. After the signs and symptoms resolve, the treatment can be tapered off after a time. Sometimes more than one "cycle" of treatment is needed to fully correct the problem. The paradigm of WTS has shaped it's treatment, and the treatment that's fully described in this Doctor's Manual goes a long way to confirm and define the problem.