{"id":1351,"date":"2025-07-15T11:57:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/?p=1351"},"modified":"2025-07-15T11:57:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:57:34","slug":"new-publication-higher-resting-metabolism-is-associated-with-increased-free-triiodothyronine-among-female-reindeer-herders-in-northern-finland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/2025\/07\/15\/new-publication-higher-resting-metabolism-is-associated-with-increased-free-triiodothyronine-among-female-reindeer-herders-in-northern-finland\/","title":{"rendered":"New Publication: Higher Resting Metabolism Is Associated With Increased Free Triiodothyronine Among Female Reindeer Herders in\u00a0Northern Finland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We have a new publication out in the American Journal of Human Biology looking at the relationship between resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones (TSH, fT<sub>3<\/sub>, and fT<sub>4<\/sub>) among reindeer herders and office workers in Northern Finland. It is open access and can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1002\/ajhb.70092\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We found that female reindeer herders exhibit a pattern different from all other participants in this study such that they had higher than expected RMRs, significantly higher free T<sub>3<\/sub>\u00a0and TSH, and a positive correlation between free T<sub>4<\/sub>\u00a0and RMR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"905\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3-1024x905.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3-1024x905.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3-300x265.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3-768x679.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3-1536x1357.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/T3.jpg 1727w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">fT<sub>3<\/sub> levels of participant groups &#8211; female herders had significantly higher fT<sub>3<\/sub> than other groups. Female herders also had higher resting metabolic rates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH-1024x810.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH-1024x810.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH-768x607.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH-1536x1215.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/files\/2025\/07\/TSH.jpg 1947w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">TSH levels for all participating groups. Female reindeer herders had significantly higher TSH (though not outside of typical normal values) than all other groups. Though there were no significant differences in fT<sub>4<\/sub> levels for all participating groups, only female herders had a significant, positive correlation between resting metabolic rate and fT<sub>4<\/sub>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These results demonstrate that female reindeer herders are remaining physiologically resilient, potentially to protect reproductive capacity, in response to a drastically warming climate. We are also potentially witnessing a transition among male reindeer herders who are physiologically responding to the rapidly warming climate, as demonstrated by their highly variable RMRs. Finally, this work highlights the complex interaction between THs and the environment as demonstrated by the numerous environmental inputs (temperature, climate change, selenium levels, and local policy) experienced by the participants in this study. Future work will examine seasonal differences in RMR and TH dynamics as well as the impact of the menstrual cycle among herders and office workers providing greater insight into cold climate physiology and the metabolic response to climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have a new publication out in the American Journal of Human Biology looking at the relationship between resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones (TSH, fT3, and fT4) among reindeer herders and office workers in Northern Finland. It is open access and can be found here. We found that female reindeer herders exhibit a pattern &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/2025\/07\/15\/new-publication-higher-resting-metabolism-is-associated-with-increased-free-triiodothyronine-among-female-reindeer-herders-in-northern-finland\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;New Publication: Higher Resting Metabolism Is Associated With Increased Free Triiodothyronine Among Female Reindeer Herders in\u00a0Northern Finland&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11838,24899,161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-publications","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1354,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/cara-ocobock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}