More in our series of posts on the Thyroid: Last week we covered the thyroid and its functions, this week, T3 and T4: There are two major thyroid hormones Thyroxine (T4): This is the most abundant thyroid hormone of the blood. It is approximately 65 times more abundant in the blood than T3. It is mainly a precursor hormone that must be broken down to T3 to become fully active in the cells. Triiodothyronine (T3): This is the most active thyroid hormone and the most widely distributed thyroid hormone in the body. It is the main thyroid hormone in the target cells. Most of the T3 comes from conversion of T4 into T3. Primarily this occurs in the liver. Thyroid Hormones decrease with age. T4 decreases approximately 10-20% from age 25 to 75. T3 decreases by 25%, which is enough to cause symptoms of low thyroid because it is the hormone that is needed to get into the cells. NEXT WEEK: Symptoms of a low thyroid, and ways to improve thyroid production.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:05:46 +0000
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