Thyroid

My sister just had hers checked and found out that it was the source of all her heath problems. I was wondering how many people out there know that if to high it can cause restless legs,paranoia,depression, overpowering fears of common tasks, anxiety and even a coma. Many times it gets misdiagnosed or over looked.

I wanted to let people know that if you have a combination of these symptoms that you should get your thyroid checked. All it is is a simple blood test. One pill a day could change and save your life!

 

I heard that the thyroid controls all the chemicals in your body and can be the source of almost any ailment under the sun.

 

Do I Have a Low Thyroid?

The thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped gland in your neck. It controls your rate of metabolism and has powerful effects in the functioning of your body.
The effects of a low thyroid are felt in almost every part of your body because every cell in your body has a receptor on it's cell membrane for the thyroid hormones.
So, everything you can think of that your body does, has a thyroid involvement.
The symptoms of low thyroid function, then, can be wide spread. The two most common symptoms are fatigue and depression. Since these are pretty general symptoms, low thyroid is often misdiagnosed as a female hormonal problem or a neurotransmitter serotonin problem.
The other symptoms that are classic for low thyroid are: loss of hair, hair thinning, dry rough skin, intolerance to cold, feeling abnormally cold, constipation, morning headaches, lack of motivation, low libido, and brain fog.
Not much fun.
The most common way to confirm the diagnosis of low thyroid or hypothyroid as it is called in the medical community, is an elevated TSH. TSH stands for thyroid stimulating hormone and is a hormone that is sent out from the brain to the thyroid to tell it to make thyroid hormones. So, if your thyroid is not working the way it should, and the amount of thyroid hormones being pumped out is low, the brain will increase the message to the thyroid gland and it will manifest as a high TSH.
How high? Well, the standard lab ranges are.5-4.5, but I consider anything above 3 to be suspicious. I actually saw a person with hardly any symptoms have a TSH of 128! So you can not always determine the severity of the hypothyroid by the symptoms.
The first step is diagnosis, the second step treatment. For most people, going to a doctor with the above symptoms will result in a blood test and a confirmation of low thyroid output. Because doctors are trained in a certain way, the treatment is almost certainly going to be.... thyroid hormone replacement. That is to say, if a hormone is low, add more hormone to the body. While this can help alleviate symptoms, it often overlooks the reason the hormones are low in the first place.
It is extremely useful to find a health care practitioner that is experienced in managing thyroid disorders. A person that can encourage the thyroid to make the thyroid hormones rather than just replace them. However, some times the low thyroid state has gone on so long, the thyroid is incapable of producing more hormones because so much thyroid tissue is lost. Hormone replacement in this case makes a lot of sense.
Regardless of the therapy used to prove that the TSH- Thyroid-Brain hormone loop is normalized, it is important to realize that there are many other global effects of having a low thyroid. One of the most important questions is:" how long after the appearance of symptoms did you get treated for a low thyroid? " The longer that period of time, the more degeneration has occurred and the more body systems you need to support.
I talked with a woman this afternoon who told me that 15 years had elapsed before she got diagnosed and treated for low thyroid. Yikes!
The most important issue is to seek help if you have the symptoms I listed above and get the proper diagnosis.
Treatment can range from thyroid hormone replacement, to iodine and selenium supplementation, thyroid glandular tissue supplement, homeopathic treatments or quieting down an overzealous immune system and improving liver, gut and brain function.
All have their place depending on the person, their symptoms and their lab tests.

 

A VERY interesting article. Thanks for posting.