Thyroid Antibodies and Your Health
So, what makes thyroid antibodies so important?
Antibodies are key in showing if someone has Hashimoto’s disease. Moreover, tracking and thinking about the nature of antibodies, and thinking about what controls them, can give us some great insight into our health.
For today, I want to focus on the particular nuances of thyroid antibodies. There are some things you might not expect. So, allow me to walk you through them so that you’re never surprised when it comes to your health.
Here are some of the things about your thyroid antibodies that you might not have seen coming:
#1: Not Everyone with Hashimoto’s Has Thyroid Antibodies
In fact, 40 – 50% of people do not have thyroid antibodies during any point of testing.
Even more than that, though, will not have them at any point – ever. It can happen that if you are tested at one point, they may be negative, even when they are positive at other points of testing1.
This can result in a false positive test, because of the random nature of thyroid antibodies. While the presence of thyroid antibodies can confirm that you have Hashimoto’s disease (Read: How do I know if I have Hashimotos), lacking them does not rule out Hashimoto’s entirely.
If you have heard this before from your doctor, it might be that they are not operating as extensively as they should be.