DrJoe

Hypothyroidism

Has anyone been through this?

Hey Gerri, I have never heard of throzine, but be very careful of what you take. Your doctor took TSH and it fell into normal. What does that mean? Say the average American shovles 10 pounds of snow per week (which I just made up). I live in Florida and never shoveled snow in my life, am I abnormal? If you live in Alaska, maybe some shovel 100 pounds of snow per week. Or maybe don't shovel any at all because it would be a worthless task since it snows all the time. Are both abnormal. I would guess that most americans shovel more snow during the winter than summer, so are they normal only when the weather is just right to shovel 10 pounds of snow per week. Lab analysis is a snapshot in time. It is also based on averages of a large group of people and has only minimal relivance to you the individual. By your explanation of your symptoms and presentation, there is something going on. While many of the issues point to some sort of problem with your thyroid or thyroid hormones, that may be secondary problems that are being influenced by some other problem. So while treatment for your thyroid (in this hypothetical case) may very well be warranted, you would also need to address the underlying problem. Bottom lineis this: there is something going on that needs to be addressed. You need to get educated yourself, as well as find a doctor that is capable of solving the problem and giving the appropriate treatment. Using limited testing to find a problem is a poor way to locate the problem. Throwing one specific drug or nutrient at a lable (also known as a diagnosis) is a very poor way to treat. You need to find the problem, then do everything that is needed to solve that problem.  (Nov 1, 2007 | post #5)

Hypothyroidism

Low thyroid hormone but TSH level okay?

Great question...and it is not a rare occurrence. Here are some things you need to first know, and then better assess your situation. What was the level of your TSH? Normal means different things for different doctors, and labs have different ranges for "normal" as well. Also remember that "normal" is based on averages from a large population of people and abnormal is people that are a certain percentage outside of that. What really matters is what is normal for you...those other numbers are just a good guideline. There are internal and external influences that can affect your hormone levels. For instance, woman begin to get worse symptoms when they have a flux in their estrogen (menstrual cycle) which influences their thyroid hormone production and utilization. The same can be said for people during winter months, or if they have a problem with their detoxification system, or if they are eating a lot of soy (there are tons of "or ifs"). The key to remember is this: Lab test are a snapshot of how your body was doing at that specific point in time. It can be completely different hours, days, and weeks later. And you are right, going just by TSH is a very poor way to asses the situation. Even if it is low, it is still a poor way to asses the situation. There are too many questions that need to be answered to make a confident diagnosis and treat one way or another. I would find another doctor (you should thank your original doctor for referring you once s/he realized it was out of his/her realm), but go into it prepared. There are plenty of studies that show a person who understands their condition will have significantly greater improvements over those who do not. If you know ahead of time, you can sort of "interview " your doctor to make sure s/he knows how to properly manage the situation. You will be surprised at who knows what.  (Nov 1, 2007 | post #3)

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is taking over my life please help!

I have different thoughts on this one. For autoimmune type diseases, there is a totally opposite end of the spectrum approaches being applied. Western medicine stops the attack by giving immune suppressants. Your body becomes weak enough that it can't muster a good enough attack against the targeted organ (thyroid gland). Then there is functional medicine that tries to figure out why the body is attacking itself in the first place, and address that issue. There are a number of things that you can do with testing, diet and nutrition that can address this issue. Here's the thought on this one. If there is something foreign in the body (virus, bacteria, etc) then your body does its job to fight it off. It does this first by "tagging " it, then sending in the troops to destroy everything tagged. Sometimes these foreign invaders can have a similar protein structure to things in your body, so those things get tagged as foreign as well. Your body then starts to attack itself (AKA autoimmune disease). What is it that is causing the problem? How did they get there? Can we prevent anymore from getting there? Well, if you are drinking pond water with bacteria in it...then stop drinking the pond water. People usually have a harder time pointing the finger at something like that. The list is long of how it got there, but here's an example. If you have a gut problem where things cross into the blood stream before its broken down into smaller pieces (AKA leaky gut), then your body sees the proteins that it is not used to seeing (proteins should be broken down into amino acids, that's what your body is used to seeing) and tags them and similar protein structures. WOW! That means that it was the gut lining that was the problem, not the thyroid gland itself. The thyroid gland was the innocent victim. Treat the gut and the thyroid gland gets better (in this hypothetical example). Might Armour help restore the beat up thyroid...sure. I would consider that a nice adjunct to the main therapy of fixing the gut/problem. Once the thyroid is functioning better, my next goal would to get them off of the Armour. This is functional medicine. Most diseases are caused because of some type of break down. That means a diagnosis is a good starting point...but not even essential in order to help you out. Sorry for the long rant...I hope I didn't lose the point of my post in all of that. Dr.Joe  (Oct 25, 2007 | post #38)

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is taking over my life please help!

The simple answer is yes. Much of people's success is due to what they are NOT doing. I don't know that system, but if there is soy products in it, then it was not very well thought out (or it was and decided that making it cheaper is more important than effective). I would pass on something like that alone, personally.  (Oct 25, 2007 | post #37)

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is taking over my life please help!

Great to see you found something that worked. Just thought that I would mention a few things that might help you even more! Make sure that you are taking your Armour on an empty stomach. Also, do not take your iron supplements with the Armour (or calcium supplements if you take them). These all compete for absorption. Also, even though the Armour is natural (pig hormone), it is not created by the body. Your body has a natural tendency to down regulate what ever normally makes that hormone (like when men get smaller testes when taking steroids). This could make a low functioning thyroid function lower, or suppress the conversion of T4 to T3. It also has secondary attempts to slow down the hormone at the receptor sites (like when drug addicts need to keep upping their doses in order to get their fix). It is a checks and balance system that many people do not take into consideration. With that being said, I always feel it is better to do everything else to get your body functioning so it doesn't need the external source of hormones...if that is not possible, try to get it in as small of a dose as possible. You don't want this to kind of snow ball out of control (if you read other's post about how things "used to work" and now its not, that's all the proof you need). No matter what anyone tells you, no one truly understands the complete ramifications of using external hormone...it is actually very risky stuff (though very necessary in some cases). Lastly, excess thyroid hormone (from taking the Armour or because your body has to kick in as well if just the conversion or receptor binding slows down) can lead to hardening of the arteries and dementia. Make sure that you are having your homocysteine levels measured (high thyroid hormone increases homocysteine). You want your Homocysteine levels <9.0 umol/L (ideal<5.0). Make sure you supplement appropriately if it is elevated. You might already be doing these things and didn't mean to single you out. It was really a post for everyone to see. But with 4 kids you need to be on top of your game.  (Oct 25, 2007 | post #36)

Hypothyroidism

Can I stop my under active thyroid?

Hi Tiffany, I hope all is well with the cancer treatment. I just posted about asking good questions to get good answers. So your questions should look something like: "Since I do not have the capability to make as much thyroid hormone as I did before the surgery, what can I do to stack the chips in my favor of not letting this be problematic the rest of my life?" "Is there something that I can substitute for my natural hormone?" "Can I do things to make sure my hormones are getting converted as efficient as possible?" "Can I do things to make sure that the receptors are binding to that converted hormone in order to get utilized efficiently?" "Can I do things that prevent down regulation of my own thyroid production, conversion and utilization?" Of course the answer is yes, and of course this goes beyond using medication (though that may be a part of the puzzle). Getting those answers isn't even the toughest part. Doing them is much harder (but can be done).  (Oct 24, 2007 | post #80)

Hypothyroidism

Can I stop my under active thyroid?

Hey Annie. If you ask the right questions, you'll get better answers. That's the exact place you need to start in order to get maximum results. Once you realize that this is not an "if A, then do B" problem, then you can start ruling in things you need to do, things you need to stop doing and things you don't need to worry so much about. If losing weight was just a matter of cutting carbs, would more than half of Americans still be overweight? Could it be that your body is a little more complex than that? How about the fact that thyroid hormones are very influential over your rate of metabolism? How about the fact that thyroid hormone has a strong influence over your entire body...including your thyroid gland. If you weren't converting your hormone to a useful form, or if receptors were no longer binding with the hormone (rendering it useless), would targeting the thyroid gland itself make sense in this instance? The fact is that you are dealing with a problem with neuroendocrine system. This is one of the most complex systems that have many, many factors involved. Things like caloric intake, stress reducing techniques, vitamin/mineral/nu trient intake, sleep, exercise, acupuncture, chiropractic, medication, etc. are all outside influences that we use to try to make changes for the better. Which works best...go back to the original question of "what is the cause?" and you can pick which one's best serve that need. So statements like "if you have hypothyroid problems...take X." That is rolling the dice. Maybe it helps, maybe not. There is no one size fits all.  (Oct 24, 2007 | post #79)

Hypothyroidism

Losing Weight With Hypothyroid

Hi. It looks like some of you are on the right tract. Wherever Francilia got advice was an excellent source. Understanding why you should do those things shows you understand what is going on with your "hypothyroidi sm." Unfortunately, that advice may not work well for everyone. For example, there is evidence that low levels of iodine can cause problems with the thyroid gland and thyroid hormones...but so has excessive levels of iodine. If you were having "hypothyroid " problems b/c of excessive iodine levels, eating those iodine rich foods might make things worse. Someone else might be taking in too much of certain elements that "chemically mimic" iodine, thereby blocking it at the receptor sites and rendering it useless. Tricky stuff. The only way you will know is through testing (and that's not 100% accurate). If everyone here hasn't been told so already, there are several places in the production, conversion and utilization of thyroid hormone that can break down to cause "hypothyroidi sm." That's why I keep putting it in "". It is not always a problem with the thyroid gland itself. There are MANY causes that can have similar symptoms. (Autoimmune disorders affecting the thyroid gland is a whole other can of worms.)  (Oct 24, 2007 | post #40)