Medical Mystery: Thyroid Resistance in Fibromyalgia

Today, there are three types of thyroid hormone resistance that patients should be aware of. These are:

• General thyroid hormone resistance: This develops when the pituitary land and peripheral tissues are only resistant to the thyroid hormone partially. Here, the levels of the hormone increase, while the TSH level is unrestrained and the peripheral tissue metabolism is controlled. With this, most patients do not experience symptoms and metabolic changes
• Pituitary thyroid hormone resistance: This develops when the tissues are not responding properly to the hormone as most tissues would usually. The test results would indicate a high reading of TSH, free T3 and free T4. All of these high levels, however, do not trigger the peripheral tissues because of their partial resistance. With this, patients have normal metabolic rates and, again, do not feel any symptoms. Even when they have high levels of TSH and other thyroid hormones.
• Peripheral thyroid hormone resistance: This type of resistance is what Dr. Lowe associates fibromyalgia with. In fact, he suggested that approximately 40 percent of fibro patients have peripheral tissue resistance to the thyroid hormone. Unlike pituitary thyroid hormone resistance and general thyroid resistance, this is when most of the tissues in the body, and the brain, are partially resistant to the thyroid hormones.