What is the appropriate dose of thyroid hormone as you age? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02 — 1.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

If you’re taking thyroid hormone, it’s important to both measure your level yearly and modify the dose as you age. That’s according to Jennifer Mammen, an endocrinologist and one author of a recent Johns Hopkins study showing that many people are taking too much thyroid hormone, with consequences for cognition. 

We just recently did a study in the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging showing that on average adults in their 70s need a weight based dose that's about 2/3 of what younger adults typically are found to need. We do think that with aging we need to make sure that we're doing that appropriate dose reduction. If you were put on thyroid hormone in your 40s as you go through menopause, as you get older it is important to make sure that you're continuing to monitor it with your primary care doctor and that you are making those dose reductions to stay on target.  :34

Just make it part of your regular check-up, Mammen recommends. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.