Everyone knows that a slow metabolism and low thyroid function
can lead to weight gain and make weight loss extremely difficult.
Practically any time patients go to the doctor complaining of
fatigue, easy weight gain, and difficulty losing weight, low thyroid
function will be the first thing to cross doctors' minds. The
problem is that doctors have been trained to think they can rule
out low thyroid function with thyroid blood tests. But thyroid
blood tests can only rule out glandular causes of low thyroid
function. They can't rule out peripheral causes. They can't rule
out Wilson's Temperature Syndrome. Wilson's Temperature Syndrome is undiagnosable
with thyroid blood tests.
Patients with normal thyroid blood tests can still have low body
temperatures, and all the classic symptoms of low thyroid function.
And their symptoms can respond dramatically well to proper T3
therapy for Wilson's Temperature Syndrome.
Dr. Wilson had one patient that lost 34 pounds (all the weight
she needed to lose) in one month without changing her diet. She
hadn't been eating too much in the first place. Her problem was
that she had a low temperature and symptoms of low thyroid function.
When her temperature climbed to normal and her low thyroid symptoms
went away, so did her excess weight. She had no complaints or
side effects with treatment, and she was literally unrecognizable
in one month, both in appearance, disposition, and outlook. It
was amazing. That was the most dramatic case.
In other cases, Dr. Wilson has had patients lose over 100 pounds
over time when the patients weren't able to lose weight with other
approaches, even stomach stapling. One patient who had had a stomach
stapling procedure couldn't eat more than 600 to 1,000 calories
a day because her stomach was so small. If she ate more than that
she'd vomit. And yet she was still gaining weight! Her metabolism
had apparently slowed down to a crawl to compensate for the stomach
stapling. When her temperature came up she was finally able to
start losing weight.
But the weight doesn't always come off so easily even when patients
are benefitting from the T3 therapy for Wilson's Temperature Syndrome.
Some patients go through a stress and develop WTS. Their temperatures
drop, they get a lot of symptoms of low thyroid function, and
they gain a lot of weight. When their temperatures and symptoms
resolve with T3 therapy, one would expect their excess weight
would disappear also. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the
patients still have trouble losing the weight when it appears
quite obvious that a metabolic problem caused the weight gain
in the first place.
One possible explanation Dr. Wilson gives comes from physics.
There is a concept in physics known as the Surface Area / Volume
ratio of an object. The more surface area and object has for the
same amount of volume the easier it is for that object to transfer
heat to or from its surroundings. For example, let's suppose 2
inches of snow falls on the fields and streets of a city. And
let's suppose that a snow plow comes along and plows the snow
off a street piling it up on the side of the road. Here's the
interesting part. When the sun comes out and the snow begins to
melt, the piles of snow on the side of the road is the last to
melt! Those piles can remain for days even after all the snow
in the fields and the unplowed streets has melted. The piled up
snow would have melted sooner had it been left spread out on the
street (although it would've made driving harder)! Why does it
take so much longer for the snow to melt when it's been piled
up? What's changed? The surface area / volume ratio! This one
change can make a huge difference.
When the snow is spread out, there is more exposed surface area
for the snow to absorb the heat from the sun. But when the snow
is balled up in a pile, there is less surface area to absorb the
heat. This is the same principle people use when they spread out
their corn or mashed potatoes on their plates so that they'll
cool faster. With more surface area, and with the heat closer
to the surface, the heat can escape the food more easily escape.
This same principle irrefutably occurs in people as well. It's
physics. The more people are shaped like balls, the harder it
is for them to dissipate calories. The more they look like sticks
the easier it is for them to lose calories.
So what happens is that when people develop low thyroid function
and then gain weight, they look less like sticks and more like
balls. That alone will make it harder for them to lose weight
because it will be harder for them to dissipate calories. So when
people get symptoms of low thyroid function and gain weight without
changing their diets, one would expect that when their temperatures
are corrected, they'd also lose the weight without changing their
diets. That would be expected just as people would expect 2 inches
of snow to melt in the same amount of time whether it is plowed
into piles, or not. But that's not necessarily the case because
of changes in the surface area / volume ratios.
There is no question that this plays a role. The only question
is how much of a role? It probably plays a very big role. If people
wearing T-shirts and shorts were accidently locked inside a walk-in
freezer, after a while they'd probably all draw their arms and
legs in as closely as possible to their bodies (they'd ball up)
in oder to conserve body heat. People ball up in cold weather
for a reason. It decreases their surface area/ volume ratio and
helps them retain their heat, or calories.
Of course, there are many factors that can affect weight. Body
temperature, metabolism, and surface area / volume ratio are not
the only ones. But they can be critically important.
As explained in the book Wilson's Temperature Syndrome -- A Reversible
Thyroid Problem, T3 therapy appears to be able to protect the
metabolism from slowing down during dieting in many cases. Normally,
the metabolism slows down when people start to diet in order to
conserve energy. Studies suggest that people can cause persistent
slowing of their metabolisms with excessive dieting. The metabolism
slows down by decreasing the conversion of T4-T3. This doesn't
occur as readily when patients are on T3 therapy because they
are being given the T3 directly and T4 levels are lower.
There can be a very big difference in terms of results and the
effects on the metabolism between dieting with a low temperature,
and dieting with a normal temperature supported with T3 therapy.
Without T3 therapy, the metabolism can end up slower than it was,
with T3 therapy it can end up faster. Rather than patients temperatures
being lower during and after a diet, they can be normal. Rather
than patients' symptoms getting worse with dieting, they can get
better, and the temperatures and symptoms can remain improved
even after the T3 therapy for Wilson's Temperature Syndrome has been
discontinued.