Basic Thyroid Function

What does the thyroid do and how does it impact our body? So the thyroid hormone actually starts in the brain.

There's a place in the brain called the hypothalamus.

that releases a hormone called thyroid-releasing hormone, and that goes to the pituitary gland.

Pituitary gland is basically back just behind your eyes.

It's a little pea-sized shaped gland, and that controls some of the endocrine system.

So your pituitary releases TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone, which is the marker that your primary care physician or endocrinologist will check to see if you have a hyper or a hypo or overactive or underactive thyroid.

So it actually starts in the brain, the first two steps.

So it's hypothalamus, which is part of the brain, and the hypothalamus is impacted by multiple neurotransmitters, but two of them, which are very important, is dopamine and serotonin.

So let's take a quick look here.

Hypothalamus is impacted by neurotransmitters called dopamine and serotonin.

It's activated and it talks to the thyroid, to the pituitary gland.

The pituitary gland releases TSH thyroid stimulating hormone.

Then it stimulates the thyroid to produce two basic hormones.

There's more than two.

but the two basic hormone, which is T4 and T3.

Now, you have to understand that T4 is the primary production of the thyroid, and T3 is the minority production.

So if you have T4 production, which is 93%, and you have T3 production, which is about 7%, you have to understand why there's a discrepancy in the thyroid hormone there.

T4 is the inactive form.

It has a minimal physiological effect on our body.

So T4 needs to convert to T3.

T3 is the active hormone.

So T4 inactive needs to convert to T3 active.

It has to be converted into that hormone.

The conversion of T4 to T3 actually occurs in your liver, and your gut.

I said it.