How can an elevated TSH indicate low thyroid hormone production?
Your pituitary gland helps regulate thyroid hormone production. Since it cannot audibly “speak” to your thyroid, it sends a hormone-messenger called TSH through your bloodstream. Consequently, if your thyroid gland is not producing enough thyroid hormone, your pituitary will begin to “call out more loudly” to your thyroid, telling it to work harder. The pituitary turns up the volume on its communication by increasing TSH production. Therefore, high levels of TSH mean the pituitary is saying there is insufficient thyroid hormone in your body. 7. How high does TSH have to be before I should be concerned? Historically, we would not label someone as hypothyroid until their TSH was significantly above the normal range (greater than or equal to 10 mU/l) and blood levels of thyroid hormone (usually measured as either Free T4 or Free Thyroxine Index, FTI) were below the normal range. However, many experts now realize that thousands of people have “subclinical hypothyroidism.” In this case, the
