Dr. Westin Childs Podcast: Thyroid | Weight Loss | Hormones

If levothyroxine contains thyroid hormones and thyroid hormones control metabolism, shouldn’t taking levothyroxine help with weight loss? You would think so, but that’s not what happens in the real world. Instead, we have studies and anecdotal experience that show that patients taking levothyroxine experience no positive benefits to their weight. And worse than this, some actually experience weight GAIN. But how can this occur? It has everything to do with the type of thyroid hormone found in levothyroxine and what that thyroid hormone means for the body. Levothyroxine and Synthroid contain the thyroid hormone T4, which is inactive by itself. It’s not until the body converts it into the active thyroid hormone T3 that it becomes usable. In a perfect world, everyone would be able to convert this hormone readily but that’s not the world we live in. Which is why studies show that people who take other more active thyroid hormones do experience the weight loss you’d expect to see from levothyroxine (but