If someone with an overactive thyroid is taking a heart medication called propranolol, their T3 hormone levels might tell us how well the drug is working—but we’re not sure yet and need better studies to find out.

If someone has an overactive thyroid, taking the heart medication propranolol might lower certain thyroid hormone levels, and how much it blocks the body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ system could be linked to how strong this effect is.

Even in people with healthy thyroids, taking the heart medication propranolol might change how their body processes thyroid hormones — raising some levels, lowering others.

If someone has an overactive thyroid, taking the heart medication propranolol might help lower certain thyroid hormone levels in their blood — possibly because the drug affects how the body converts one hormone into another.

In rats, taking the blood pressure drug propranolol seems to lower a key thyroid hormone, which might mean this type of medication affects how the body processes thyroid hormones.

When people have an overactive thyroid, a drug called propranolol lowers a bone breakdown marker in their urine — but it doesn’t do this by changing levels of a key thyroid hormone.