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“Resetting” The System

“Resetting” The System

Of course, one approach to alleviating Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome is to address and eliminate possible contributing causes or factors. If Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome is made worse under conditions of severe stress, one may seek to eliminate such conditions. If periods of starvation, excessive dieting, or certain kinds of diets send signals to the body that times are “tough” and that the body should enter into the conservation mode, then one may also seek to change those conditions when possible. If elevated levels of RT3 serve to perpetuate the vicious cycle of Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, then one may seek to decrease the levels of RT3 in a person’s body. RT3 is produced by the body from T4, so one way of reducing the levels of RT3 is by reducing the levels of T4. Of course, lowering T4 levels results in a decreased supply of raw material with which the body may make T3. However, the body’s T3 levels can be supplemented with T3 taken by mouth.

One may decrease T4 levels by decreasing the levels of thyroid stimulating hormone which regulates the body’s production of T4. The body’s thermostat (pituitary gland) decreases TSH production when there is a certain amount of T4 and/or T3 already present in the system. So TSH production can be decreased when the body itself produces a certain level of T4, when it produces a certain level of T3, or when it produces certain levels of T4 and T3.

Likewise, the body’s production of thyroid stimulating hormone can be decreased when a certain amount of T4 is added to the system by mouth, when a certain level of T3 is added to the system by mouth, and when certain levels of T4 and T3 are added to the system by mouth. Interestingly, when T4 is added to the system by mouth, decreased TSH levels and increased T4 levels may result. However, when T3 is added to the system by mouth, there may result decreased levels of TSH and decreased levels of T4. In either case, the body still has a source for the critical thyroid hormone T3. How adequately those sources are being utilized, however, depends on how adequately the body is converting the T4 to the critical T3, and how sufficiently and steadily the T3 is being supplied by mouth and absorbed by the system.

The WT3 protocol by mouth can accomplish two things at once. It can provide sufficient levels of T3 at the active site to generate adequate body temperature patterns while reducing TSH production, thereby reducing T4 production, thereby reducing Reverse T3 production, thereby decreasing the impairment of T4 to T3 conversion by decreasing competitive inhibition for the converting enzyme. This is important because it can provide for a “resetting” of the system, thereby improving the body’s chances of being able to once again properly convert T4 to T3.

As an analogy, we can consider the function of a seat belt. If a person’s seat belt “catches” before it can be fastened when it is only half-way across the person’s lap, then, try as he might, he will not be able to pull the seat belt any further in order to fasten it until he first lets it go backwards. The seat belt mechanism is reset by disengaging the component that is preventing further advancement. This is accomplished by letting the seat belt be retracted to its starting position.

Likening the thyroid system to this analogy, one component that can hinder the return of a temporarily impaired conversion of T4 to T3 back to normal is the transient elevation of RT3 levels that can result from the impaired conversion. This may lead to a vicious cycle which causes the system to be “stuck” in a position in which there is insufficient conversion of T4 to T3 (this cannot be easily be detected with blood tests). But in order for this conversion to be increased, it must first be decreased in order to “reset” the system by decreasing T4 levels and thereby, decreasing RT3 levels in order to disengage the component that is preventing further advancement. Then when the treatment is weaned, the T4 to T3 conversion can return to more normal levels. The only difference between the analogy of the seat belt and the thyroid system is that the WT3 protocol is not only useful in “resetting” the system, but also in providing necessary levels of T3 for adequate, if not ideal, functioning in the meantime.

Another example that can be considered in understanding the rationale for the WT3 protocol, is the example of the use of birth control pills in patients with irregular periods. There are times when women begin having irregular periods. Their periods can be out of synchronicity, excessively heavy, too light, or skipped completely. In such cases female hormone blood tests and other tests are often found to be completely normal. The only indication that there is a problem is that the woman notices a change in the pattern of her menstrual cycles which she feels is inappropriate and undesirable. Upon careful history and examination, her physician may agree that the symptoms she describes are inappropriate and undesirable. Without any tests available to determine the underlying problem the doctor often suspects a female hormone imbalance. Based on that suspicion, every day, many such patients across the country are given a therapeutic trail of birth control pills by their doctors in an attempt to “regulate” their menstrual irregularities. These patients can sometimes be “cycled” on birth control pills for several months causing their female hormone system and menstrual cycle to fall into a normal pattern again. After the system has been placed into a normal pattern again, the patient may be weaned off the birth control pills and enjoy a persistent improvement and normalization of her menstrual cycles.

This is the same goal of therapy for DTSF due to Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome. If a patient’s thyroid system is inappropriately stuck in the conservation mode, then the patient may be cycled on proper thyroid hormone treatment to again establish the proper pattern and balance for a period to time. Then when a patient gradually weans off the medicine, the responsibility of normal thyroid system function is returned to the body gradually, and the patient is frequently able to enjoy persistent improvement and normalization of the system even after thyroid medication is weaned.

When birth control pills are given to women with irregular periods, their own female hormone system function decreases to a great extent, if not completely, while the birth control pills are taking control of the system. Once the proper pattern has been set or the female hormone system has been “regulated”, the birth control pills can be weaned in the hopes that the patient’s body can maintain the newly reset proper pattern on its own once again. In that same way the WT3 protocol can be used to take control of the thyroid system for a time, and set it into a proper pattern. When the body temperature patterns have been normalized, then the WT3 protocol can be weaned in the hopes that the body can maintain the newly set proper balance once again on its own by gradually returning the responsibility of proper thyroid system balance back to the body.

So no matter where the problem is located in the thyroid hormone system, whether it is in the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid gland, conversion of T4 to T3, or even in the thyroid hormone receptors, the bottom line of therapy is always to adjust the medication in the thyroid hormone system in such a way as to provide a sufficient and desirable pattern of interaction between the thyroid hormones (primarily T3) and the thyroid hormone receptors at the nuclear membrane of the cells of the body.

If the problem is in the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, or thyroid gland, resulting in insufficient production of T4, then T4 supplementation can be given to provide sufficient raw material for the body to make the active thyroid hormone T3. In this way T4 supplementation can indirectly produce sufficient T3 stimulation of the receptor sites, to generate normal body temperature patterns (providing the body can adequately convert the raw material T4 to the active thyroid hormone T3). But if the problem is in the conversion of T4 to T3 and the body is already having difficulty converting its own T4 to T3, then it often has difficulty converting T4 given by mouth (which again can actually worsen the thyroid hormone imbalance responsible for Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome). So, many times T3 supplementation is preferable in treating patients with Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, since not only can it provide the T3 necessary for thyroid hormone receptor interaction, but it can also reverse the imbalance of the thyroid hormone system that may have caused the impairment to begin with.