Reasons why the thyroid medication is not working

The medication available for the thyroid problems vary from the prescribed one to the natural ones. However, the condition mostly persists for life and so leaves us to wonder if the medication ever works at all.

It is only for a minor population that the medication has been proved to work; otherwise for the majority of the population, the medication is not working as expected. Here are a few reasons as to why the medication is not working:

1. Failing to address the underlying problem- the thyroid medication’s aim is to replace the non functioning body hormones with other hormones in form of pills and expecting to work as the normal body hormones that are produced by the thyroid gland.

   The notion is not entirely bad. The problem is not being addressed completely and that is why the hormonal replacement is likely to fail in the long run.

   The underlying problem is the immune imbalance which causes the immune system to attack the thyroid gland or over stimulate it causing the hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism disorders.

2. Deficiency of receptors or the existing receptors not being sensitive enough. The thyroid problems are as a result of the self attacking response from the immune system causing inflammation.

   The inflammation is responsible for the decrease of the number of the hormones and also the decreased sensitivity of the thyroid hormone receptors. Due to this, the medication cannot work as the receptors are the ones responsible for the response desired from the body.

3. Non conversion of T4 to T3. The T4 is the inactive form of the thyroid hormones in the body and the T3 is the active form of the same hormones. The treatment in the market is in the T4 form and expects the body to convert the T4 to T3 as the medicine cannot fully be given in its active form.

   The inflammation caused by the self attacking immune system causes decreased conversion of the T4 to T3. This effectively means that the treatment will lie in the body in its inactive form and is useless to the body if the body cannot convert it.

Since inflammation of the body suppresses the HPT axis that affects s many aspects of the blood like TSH, t4, t3 and TRH. The hormonal replacement only addresses the problem of T4 and to a minor extent the T3.

Since the other problems caused by the imbalance to the axis are not addressed, then the medication fails to address the whole problem which renders it not fully effective.