How does Levothyroxine work?
Under ideal circumstances, the thyroid gland gets stimulated to produce thyroxine, when the hormone TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is secreted by the pituitary gland, in response to low levels of T4 in the blood. When the reaction to the stimulation does not manifest, the thyroid begins to swell due to it’s inability to manufacture thyroid hormone. The pituitary gland continues to release TSH in an effort to get a reaction from the thyroid to make thyroxine, leading to further irritation and swelling of the thyroid gland, resulting in a goiter. The administration of Levothyroxine reverses this trend by replacing the T4 that is lacking in the body, causing the pituitary to decrease it’s production of TSH, thereby reducing the goiter. How does it help in weight loss? Levothyroxine can be used for many things, but weight loss is not one of them. People with a normal thyroid do not need to use it for losing weight because the normal therapeutic doses will not work to induce weight loss.
