Wellness Trends<\/p>\n
Patients increasingly arrive taking thyroid-related supplements. Low-dose T3, around 5 mcg, is unlikely to cause harm if TSH remains unsuppressed, Messer said, though she noted meta-analyses have not supported T3 augmentation for refractory depression. Bovine thyroid products are harder to assess because their content is often unknown.<\/p>\n
Iodine-rich supplements such as kelp pose a less obvious risk. In patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis, high iodine exposure can produce a permanent shutdown of hormone production, while patients with TSH receptor antibodies may develop hyperthyroidism. Brandon emphasized taking a thorough supplement history in any patient with new anxiety or mood changes.<\/p>\n
Monitoring and Follow-Up<\/p>\n
For patients starting lithium, Messer recommended a baseline TSH, a repeat at 1 month, and testing every 6 months thereafter, cautioning against more frequent checks. Both speakers agreed that serial testing driven by health anxiety offers only brief reassurance and may reinforce the cycle.<\/p>\n
When hypothyroidism is treated, symptom relief can trail TSH normalization by several months, so dose escalation is not automatically warranted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all colleagues and we can all just curbside each other,\u201d said Messer.<\/p>\n
Dr Brandon\u00a0is the founder and medical director of Whole Body Psychiatry. She is dual board-certified in adult psychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry, and specializes in gut-brain health.<\/p>\n
Dr Messer is a double-board certified endocrinologist and the founder of both Well by Messer<\/a> and Fifth Avenue Endocrinology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wellness Trends Patients increasingly arrive taking thyroid-related supplements. Low-dose T3, around 5 mcg, is unlikely to cause harm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-635517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}