Thyroid Patients Canada

08/04/2025

New post on Thyroidpatients dot ca: "What happens when healthy people overdose Reverse T3? We learned in 1984."

One of the most common myths about Reverse T3 (RT3) thyroid hormone is that it blocks T3, impairs net T4-T3 conversion rates, or functions as a “metabolic brake.” No, that’s a RT3 myth that was debunked long ago, back in 1984.

Shulkin and Utiger’s 1984 experiment showed that dosing Reverse T3 as a pharmaceutical — to levels that inflated RT3 levels “at least 10-fold” which is 10 times the baseline mean level — did absolutely nothing to circulating TSH, T3, or T4.

Why didn’t RT3 excess affect any part of their thyroid function, metabolism, or pituitary response?

See the Link to the post in the comments!

07/25/2025

It's been almost 2 years since this piece of Canadian journalism by Karen Hawthorne featured my personal experience (Tania S. Smith) as a thyroid patient, founder, and president of Thyroid Patients Canada. It's still relevant today. Many patients still face these challenges:

• Treatment offered for a biochemical abnormality without a diagnosis of the cause(s)
• Under-recognition of the severity of symptoms before and during treatment
• Doctors who are taught that our symptoms can't possibly be from our thyroid disease or treatment whenever our TSH is normalized.
• Incomplete hypothyroid treatment with one hormone (T4) that doesn't fully replace a two-hormone gland (T4+T3).
• Failure to individualize treatment by customizing circulating T4 and T3 hormone ratios to the patient's unique needs.

INSTITUTIONALIZED OMISSION

Why is thyroid disease omitted from the long list of chronic diseases monitored by the Canadian government?

Our society faces many "nonthyroidal" chronic diseases -- cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, and so on.

But guess what? T3 thyroid hormone signaling supports the proper function of EVERY organ and tissue in the human body.

Science also teaches that even when TSH is normal, T3 can be deficient in blood and in cells, especially in severe disease, and during standard thyroid treatment.

Thyroid hormone signaling is foundational to health.

Therefore, undiagnosed thyroid diseases, and maladjusted thyroid treatment, can make ANY nonthyroidal condition much more severe or challenging to treat.

One pill per day will never adjust to life's demands like a healthy thyroid gland can. But we can do a lot better at adjusting treatment and maintaining a healthy population ... by listening to thyroid patients.

DOES ANYONE HEAR US?

Thyroid conditions can be so fatiguing and disabling that they often silence us. We can't find the right words. Sometimes, any words. We can't find the energy. We can hardly handle the little things. We can't find the emotional courage for the big things.

Once I found appropriate treatment, I voraciously read thyroid science. I realized the ignorance, gaslighting, and injustice I was facing during my first 13 years of thyroid therapy.

I found my voice and the energy to speak up.

People like me -- and you -- can and should speak up for our colleagues who can't do so ... yet. We can help set them free.

ADD YOUR VOICE

As of writing in July 2025, only 10 comments are on this article.

Ten comments in two years.

That silence says volumes about how debilitating thyroid disease can be even when it's being treated. It tells us just how persuasive the easy-peasy "TSH normalization" dogma has been.

But many doctors will think the silence from patients and their families and friends is a signal that nothing is going wrong.

Break the silence in 2025. Add your voice publicly in a comment, or like & share this Facebook post. Please show journalists and the Canadian public that this is an important health issue worth writing about, reading about, and talking about.

https://r.pebmac.ca/https://www.healthing.ca/wellness/hypothyroidism-in-canada-treatment-chronic-condition-status

07/25/2025

It's been almost 2 years since this Canadian news article on Postmedia's Healthing dot ca platform featured my personal experience (Tania S. Smith) as a thyroid patient and our patient-led nonprofit organization, Thyroid Patients Canada.

It's still relevant.

Karen Hawthorne's article raises issues with thyroid healthcare that many of us still struggle with today:

• Under-recognition of the severity of hypothyroid symptoms both before and during treatment.
• Treatment offered for the biochemical deficiency of hypothyroidism without a diagnosis of the cause(s).
• Incomplete treatment with one hormone (T4) that doesn't fully replace a functional gland that secretes two hormones (T4 and T3).
• Failure to acknowledge that effective, safe individual treatment may require a T3-inclusive, or even T3-dominant, therapy.

Why is thyroid disease omitted from the list of chronic diseases monitored by our Canadian government? Do people think we are cured? One pill per day will never adjust to life's demands like a real thyroid can.

TITLE: "Hypothyroidism in Canada: Challenges, treatment options and the case for chronic condition status."

August 28, 2023.

SUBHEAD: "Thyroid Patients Canada is now among the leading advocates for thyroid disease, which includes hypothyroidism, to be added to Canada’s chronic diseases list."

IMAGE CAPTION: "Activists say chronic condition status in Canada will help put hypothyroidism on the radar for educating the public and physicians."

ARTICLE INTRO:

"In her first year as a communications professor at the University of Calgary, Tania Smith was concerned about how tired and emotional she had become for no apparent reason.

She would nearly fall asleep while waiting at a red light or driving on a long, straight highway. When she walked on campus, she would close her eyes for 10 steps and then open them again for 10 steps just to save energy. She took long naps in the afternoon and then another in the evening. She also struggled with unexplained crying.

“Bouts of weeping would come over me with no warning. My mind would try to find reasons for how I felt,” says Smith. “It got so bad that I decided to try acting out my feelings by getting into my closet and cowering in a corner. I thought maybe it would help me identify a buried emotional cause. While I was crying in the closet, I realized there were no reasons, no triggers for the emotional distress.”

She decided to look up her symptoms and see if there was a medical or hormonal cause. Through online questionnaires, she checked off other symptoms like cold sensitivity, weight gain, constipation, slow speech and slow cognition. ..."

Read more at the link. (10 minute read)

YOU CAN HELP -- ADD YOUR VOICE.

The number of people with thyroid disease is huge, but our symptoms often silence us.

This article currently only has 10 public comments (including 4 replies) under the article. Only ten?

Come on! Help us show future readers and Postmedia network that people care about this health issue. It's an excellent piece of journalism.

Individuals can't change thyroid healthcare policy and medical attitudes. We need to come together.

Please be brave and add comments under the article itself if you feel comfortable doing so.

And of course, share, and add your reactions and comments here on our public page, or wherever it's shared on Facebook!

- Tania Sona Smith

Hypothyroidism in Canada: Treatments and chronic condition status