14 Comments
User's avatar
Ministry of Truth's avatar

Preaching to the choir, eh?

Expand full comment
Chuck Remes's avatar

Tenor, baritone, or bass? My assumption is that, like most men, you are a tenor.

Good pitch. Pun intended.

Expand full comment
Scott Anderson's avatar

But are not the LA peroxides toxic to the thyroid?

Expand full comment
John Lawrence Aspden's avatar

Possibly slightly? I wouldn't know. But if that was the main problem the TSH test would catch it and we would know.

Expand full comment
Scott Anderson's avatar

Interested in that thought. How would we know based on TSH?

Expand full comment
John Lawrence Aspden's avatar

So, if the thyroid is damaged and produces less hormone, the thyrotrophs (a little homestat in the hypothalamus) should notice the blood hormone levels are too low and crank up the TSH level to stimulate the thyroid to produce more hormone.

That elevated TSH level is detectable.

That's how you test for/rule out primary hypothyroidism. Any GP should run that test in any case of unexplained fatigue.

Expand full comment
Scott Anderson's avatar

ok, so Barnes' hypothesis that the majority of the population is hypothyroid (undiagnosed) is consistent with the contention that the same pop is WAY over-consuming seed oils (various forms). If the seed oils are thyro-toxic (Ray Peat) then we'd expect to see it show up in higher levels of TSH throughout the population. That the 'normal' range is 0.5 - 5.0 (mid-point of 2.75) implies just that. No?

Expand full comment
John Lawrence Aspden's avatar

I don't know! What would the normal range look like if seed oils weren't thyro-toxic?

Expand full comment
Scott Anderson's avatar

well, metaphysical certitude is likely beyond us. however, if healthy thyroid is reflected by a low TSH (< 1?) then back when the population was not largely hypothyroid (body temp ~ 98.6F) it seems a reasonable surmise that we'd have also seen a low TSH throughout the population - not this 2+ that is 'normal' today. . .idk, just spit-ballin' here. . .

Expand full comment
Tracy Adair's avatar

The “normal” range has been changed to a broader scale. Dr. Peat mentions this.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea, it's a complex idea and doesn't lend itself to elevators. That makes it hard to communicate outside of funny memes, but it also makes it fit better to the data points we need for a valid hypothesis.

Expand full comment