hyperthyroidism

I want to talk to you about a topic which is very common for women. The problems are very detrimental and can be potentially life-threatening. This condition is hypothyroidism. We work with a lot of patients in our office that have thyroid issues – hypothyroidism. Many of the individuals have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism but only have been given a pharmaceutical drug, left to do things on their own, and get worse with time. Most people who are dealing with hypothyroidism tend to get worse and they don’t get better. Every single time they go and see their healthcare practitioner, they’re being told the same thing, “There’s nothing we can find, there are no issues.” Sometimes they’re being told that there’s some kind of psychiatric issue going on and give depression medications. When they hear this repetitively, they just start to believe it. 

Hypothyroidism – “The Thyroid Epidemic”

I want to talk to you about some of the common things that are being missed. I call this situation “the thyroid epidemic”. I’ve written a book about it. So in the book, I talked about some of the common things that individuals will be dealing with, with their thyroid condition that their doctors oftentimes are missing or not analyzing, which can be contributing to their underlying problems and why they get worse with time. We see women continue losing hair, they’re continually having digestive issues, anxiety, depression, weight gain, fatigue, sleep issues, that are associated with a thyroid condition. And even though their doctor is telling them that your thyroid is normal, and I use the air quotes there, most of the time it is not normal. They’re just not being analyzed appropriately. There are many things that could be going on in regards to the thyroid.

I want to focus on just one thing that you could be doing right now or you could be asking for right now. If you’re in a situation where your doctor is telling you that there’s nothing wrong, that your thyroid is normal, and even though you don’t feel like it’s normal, that there’s something still going on. One of the common things is that when you go, get a test done by your doctor, he or she is going to be analyzing a hormone in your body called TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone). They’re going to regulate your thyroid by using a pharmaceutical drug or hormone-like levothyroxine or Synthroid. The reason why that’s important is that giving you the medication that will help balance your TSH, but many times, will not address the underlying reason or the mechanism of why your thyroid is not working properly.  

The 10 markers that you should be having run for hypothyroidism:

So when you look at a full thyroid analysis, there’s a really broad spectrum that needs to be looked into. There are 10 markers that you should be looking at. But traditionally, in a medical model, you’re going to be analyzed by one, maybe two if you’re lucky. So oftentimes, they’ll look at the TSH. And if that is within range, they’re going to say, “Oh, your thyroid is normal, there are no issues.” In reality, there can be other problems that are going on within and beyond the thyroid. So let’s go over those 10 markers. But if you have a thyroid condition right now and you’re taking a pharmaceutical drug like Levothyroxine, Synthroid, or maybe natural medication, and you’re still having symptoms, it’s probably a good idea for you to start looking at other things that could be going on there. So let’s go over those: 

1. TSH. It is a very important marker that should be analyzed. This is traditionally going to be analyzed by your doctor. So that’s usually not the issue. 
2. Thyroxine also should be analyzed on a regular basis. That might be being analyzed, but usually not. 
3. Free T4.
4. T3
5. Free T3. These are looking at different ways of how the hormones are being utilized in your body, the total amounts of it.  When it says it’s free, that means it is beyond the bloodstream, it’s acting upon your body. 
6. Free Thyroxine Index (FTI) is another way of analyzing. 
7. T3 uptake.
8. Reverse t three. 
9. Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO). 
10. Anti-thyroglobulin Antibody. 

What are the next steps?

If you’re in a situation that you don’t feel good but your doctor is telling you that your thyroid is “normal”, these other markers need to be analyzed. You either need to find someone who can do it, someone like myself or another type of health care practitioner, or beg and plead with your doctor to run these types of tests. Oftentimes, the reason why your doctor will not run these tests is if these other markers come back and there are problems going on, there’s really not much they can do in the medical model in regards to pharmaceutical drugs. But there’s a lot of things that can be done. Our goal is to analyze your body and the thyroid to see what area and level the thyroid is not working appropriately, what needs to be done, and how we can restore function to get the thyroid working better. 

Many times, a lot of our patients are actually able to get off medications, they’re actually able to live their life back to where they were pre-taking the medication they’re using. So those types of markers should be analyzed. Even though you may have a thyroid problem, the thyroid may not be the problem, right? The underlying problem could be something else going on inside your body. You can have other issues that are happening there that are creating a thyroid symptom but the treatment only is being done for the thyroid. So it may look good on paper if you will get normal on paper. But the reality is there’s still a problem going on. Unless you look at the full expansiveness of what’s going on and specific examples, you’re going to miss it. 

Conclusion

Hence, the reason why I call it the thyroid epidemic is there’s a major epidemic on our hands. There are many individuals who are dealing with thyroid issues that are being missed. They’re being stepped over and not being listened to, which is the reason why we help so many patients with their thyroid conditions. For most of the patients that we work with, we are able to figure out exactly what the problem is. Also, we are able to see what’s going on with them and come up with a customized treatment approach. Like our page for more!

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