Thank you so much for the time it took to research and write this article. Very informative and so aligned with what I suspected. Since the symptoms of hypothyroidism are quite ubiquitous amongst many adults, it’s easy to see why medicine throws a pill at it to feel like something is being done. The harder work is do all the things you suggest, ie healthy living, sleeping, eating and loving.
You’re an amazing resource and we’re lucky to have you helping us to understand the complexity of our health.
I'm so glad you grasped the major point of this article. Exactly as you wrote, the symptoms of hypothyroidism are ubiquitous in our societies (I wonder whether anthropologists have ever taken a hypothyroid symptom checklist to a 'primitive' culture to see how many report these symptoms), because most of them are symptoms of living an unhealthy life. It's so much easier to write a prescription for levothyroxine than to work with people to identify and correct all the things they're doing that are making them unwell.
Since moving to the Shoalhaven region in NSW in 2015 it has horrified me to meet so many women mostly between mid 30's to may be late 40's who have had their thyroid destroyed by radiation then forced onto Synthoid as a substitute for then rest of their lives. My sample is by no means representative and as an older male most women are not going to blab to me about their Thyroid condition. My blood boils though when I do hear this story as some medico's are making a fortune doing this to these women and I seriously doubt that it is either required or an effective treatment for whatever prompted the women to seek medical advice in the first place. There is a LOT of accounting to be done one way or another, someday and somewhere.
I don't know when that accounting is going to happen, but in the mean time, people need to get themselves informed about health, and stop blindly taking the advice of doctors without doing some investigation for themselves.
Exactly. Who has the greatest interest in your health? YOU, and do not expect or require anyone else to do so - only children are dependent and that is because they are children.
... and that's why governments (and the puppet-masters who pull their strings) are enacting policies that increase the general public's dependence on them.
Referring to last week’s post regarding iodine, what are your thoughts on putting iodine(such as lugol’s) on your skin(back of the hand or forearm), letting it sit for a while to see if it leaves a stain? If it does you have sufficient iodine. If not you’re deficient. I remember you saying iodine levels vary day to day.
Unfortunately, this test is not a reliable indicator of iodine status. It doesn't take into account the factors that can affect iodine evaporation rate and patch colour intensity in the skin, such as individual differences in skin moisture levels, ambient temperature, and atmospheric pressure. If you did it and found that the patch disappeared very quickly (i.e. within a couple of hours), that would be a prompt to investigate iodine status more diligently e.g. with a 24-hour urinary iodine collection, although that too has its limits as I discussed in the previous post.
an incredibly interesting article Robyn. Noted about Functional Medicine folks being very keen on testing and treating. It is a standard baseline test in the Bredesen Protocol, so will keep this article in mind and suggest participants read it and discuss with the doctor overseeing the protocol. However, Dr Bredesen is always mentioning to get the basics of health (diet, exercise, sleep etc) fixed first before going down any other treatment rabbit holes.
I'm sure our wonderful, independent regulatory bodies would have this in the centre of their radar though and will be jumping on any overprescribing with much vigour. haha !
I can understand why Bredesen practitioners would be interested in thyroid hormone status, because of its impact on cognition. The problem is that if you're trying to adjust thyroid hormone levels with hopes of optimising cognition, you could end up shortening lifespan. Bummer, eh?
This subject has always been so confusing to me. I have left side swollen thyroid, I can feel and see it.
Apparently no sign in bloods( dr says)
He said when it gets bad we will just give you the meds.
I have the fatigue and weight issue. Currently working on dr Brooke Goldners hyper nourish protocol. I’m curious as to what you think is better, the lid one supplement or dulse flakes daily.
Why would your thyroid be swollen. What’s the best course of action!
Goitre (thyroid swelling) is actually one of the hardest symptoms to pin down, because you can get it with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, nodules or even postviral thyroiditis (e.g. de Quervain’s thyroiditis). How long has your thyroid been swollen? And have you been tested for thyroid antibodies, or just for TSH, T4 and T3?
For most people I would recommend dulse flakes over iodine supplements, but for someone with a pre-existing thyroid problem, the supplements have the advantage of more precise dosing. The amount of iodine in seaweeds is quite variable, even from one batch to the next, and that can be a problem e.g. if you have thyroid nodules from long-term low iodine intake, and then you suddenly increase your iodine intake, the nodules can grow rapidly; also if you have an autoimmune thyroid condition, an increase in iodine intake can make it worse.
I've seen some very impressive results from Dr Goldner's protocol.
It was found around 6 months ago, during a CT for checking my ears and nose, deviated septum check!
From a blood test done last June,
It’s says
TSH 2.50 and previous year 3.20
Free TS4 15.3
I have no idea what these mean.
How long it’s been there for is questionable, I’ve always been a tired person, but I also have three kids, homeschool 😬. So it could have been there a longtime if symptoms are anything to go by.
Your T4 is perfectly normal; TSH is a little high for your age (I'm assuming you're somewhere in your 30s or 40s) but nothing too drastic. Have your thyroid antibodies been checked?
I’m 44. I don’t believe I’ve had antibodies checked. Do I need to get those checked? Or what would make TSH high? Or is it a case of it could be so many things!
I don't think levothyroxine is dangerous in itself, as thyroxine is a relatively simple hormone (just a tyrosine with some iodines stuck to it), and the only difference between thyroxine and levothyoxine is the position of one of the iodine atoms. You can see the atomic diagrams of both at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levothyroxine and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormones.
Again, no comparison whatsoever. Levothyroxine has kept people alive who would otherwise have died because their thyroid disease was so advanced. The issue is whether it's overprescribed, not whether it's inherently toxic.
I have a friend who had her thyroid destroyed because she had hyperthyroidism. She had to swallow some radioactive chemical. So I am interested in the over active thyroid.
Thank you so much for the time it took to research and write this article. Very informative and so aligned with what I suspected. Since the symptoms of hypothyroidism are quite ubiquitous amongst many adults, it’s easy to see why medicine throws a pill at it to feel like something is being done. The harder work is do all the things you suggest, ie healthy living, sleeping, eating and loving.
You’re an amazing resource and we’re lucky to have you helping us to understand the complexity of our health.
I'm so glad you grasped the major point of this article. Exactly as you wrote, the symptoms of hypothyroidism are ubiquitous in our societies (I wonder whether anthropologists have ever taken a hypothyroid symptom checklist to a 'primitive' culture to see how many report these symptoms), because most of them are symptoms of living an unhealthy life. It's so much easier to write a prescription for levothyroxine than to work with people to identify and correct all the things they're doing that are making them unwell.
Since moving to the Shoalhaven region in NSW in 2015 it has horrified me to meet so many women mostly between mid 30's to may be late 40's who have had their thyroid destroyed by radiation then forced onto Synthoid as a substitute for then rest of their lives. My sample is by no means representative and as an older male most women are not going to blab to me about their Thyroid condition. My blood boils though when I do hear this story as some medico's are making a fortune doing this to these women and I seriously doubt that it is either required or an effective treatment for whatever prompted the women to seek medical advice in the first place. There is a LOT of accounting to be done one way or another, someday and somewhere.
I don't know when that accounting is going to happen, but in the mean time, people need to get themselves informed about health, and stop blindly taking the advice of doctors without doing some investigation for themselves.
Exactly. Who has the greatest interest in your health? YOU, and do not expect or require anyone else to do so - only children are dependent and that is because they are children.
... and that's why governments (and the puppet-masters who pull their strings) are enacting policies that increase the general public's dependence on them.
Referring to last week’s post regarding iodine, what are your thoughts on putting iodine(such as lugol’s) on your skin(back of the hand or forearm), letting it sit for a while to see if it leaves a stain? If it does you have sufficient iodine. If not you’re deficient. I remember you saying iodine levels vary day to day.
Unfortunately, this test is not a reliable indicator of iodine status. It doesn't take into account the factors that can affect iodine evaporation rate and patch colour intensity in the skin, such as individual differences in skin moisture levels, ambient temperature, and atmospheric pressure. If you did it and found that the patch disappeared very quickly (i.e. within a couple of hours), that would be a prompt to investigate iodine status more diligently e.g. with a 24-hour urinary iodine collection, although that too has its limits as I discussed in the previous post.
good point Michael. I had forgotten this. Have you tried it yet?
Thank you I will get onto it asap😊
an incredibly interesting article Robyn. Noted about Functional Medicine folks being very keen on testing and treating. It is a standard baseline test in the Bredesen Protocol, so will keep this article in mind and suggest participants read it and discuss with the doctor overseeing the protocol. However, Dr Bredesen is always mentioning to get the basics of health (diet, exercise, sleep etc) fixed first before going down any other treatment rabbit holes.
I'm sure our wonderful, independent regulatory bodies would have this in the centre of their radar though and will be jumping on any overprescribing with much vigour. haha !
I can understand why Bredesen practitioners would be interested in thyroid hormone status, because of its impact on cognition. The problem is that if you're trying to adjust thyroid hormone levels with hopes of optimising cognition, you could end up shortening lifespan. Bummer, eh?
This subject has always been so confusing to me. I have left side swollen thyroid, I can feel and see it.
Apparently no sign in bloods( dr says)
He said when it gets bad we will just give you the meds.
I have the fatigue and weight issue. Currently working on dr Brooke Goldners hyper nourish protocol. I’m curious as to what you think is better, the lid one supplement or dulse flakes daily.
Why would your thyroid be swollen. What’s the best course of action!
Goitre (thyroid swelling) is actually one of the hardest symptoms to pin down, because you can get it with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, nodules or even postviral thyroiditis (e.g. de Quervain’s thyroiditis). How long has your thyroid been swollen? And have you been tested for thyroid antibodies, or just for TSH, T4 and T3?
For most people I would recommend dulse flakes over iodine supplements, but for someone with a pre-existing thyroid problem, the supplements have the advantage of more precise dosing. The amount of iodine in seaweeds is quite variable, even from one batch to the next, and that can be a problem e.g. if you have thyroid nodules from long-term low iodine intake, and then you suddenly increase your iodine intake, the nodules can grow rapidly; also if you have an autoimmune thyroid condition, an increase in iodine intake can make it worse.
I've seen some very impressive results from Dr Goldner's protocol.
Thank you so much for your reply.
It was found around 6 months ago, during a CT for checking my ears and nose, deviated septum check!
From a blood test done last June,
It’s says
TSH 2.50 and previous year 3.20
Free TS4 15.3
I have no idea what these mean.
How long it’s been there for is questionable, I’ve always been a tired person, but I also have three kids, homeschool 😬. So it could have been there a longtime if symptoms are anything to go by.
Your T4 is perfectly normal; TSH is a little high for your age (I'm assuming you're somewhere in your 30s or 40s) but nothing too drastic. Have your thyroid antibodies been checked?
I’m 44. I don’t believe I’ve had antibodies checked. Do I need to get those checked? Or what would make TSH high? Or is it a case of it could be so many things!
😊
Yes, get them checked. It will help to narrow down the cause.
So got my blood results back!
My
TSH -2.22
Free t4 16.5
Tpo ab 59.0
Thyroglobulin ab <1.3
TSH-r ab <0.10
Other findings are my liver function has gone from 18 -41
Doctor has freaked me out saying it can mean liver tumors and cancer. I don’t drink, but was taking a liver and lymph supplement to cleanse it.
And I did a parasite cleanse recently with wormwood.
I’m so fused to why this might happen!
My cholesterol has come down amazing, no sign of diabetes
Iron is low at 22
It stands to reason that a synthetic hormone would be dangerous. No surprise there. Has anybody done a study on use of bioidentical thyroid hormones?
I don't think levothyroxine is dangerous in itself, as thyroxine is a relatively simple hormone (just a tyrosine with some iodines stuck to it), and the only difference between thyroxine and levothyoxine is the position of one of the iodine atoms. You can see the atomic diagrams of both at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levothyroxine and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormones.
Kind of like thalidomide?
In what sense? There's absolutely no comparison between thalidomide and levothyroxine.
In the sense that one molecule can make the difference between safe and effective versus very harmful.
Again, no comparison whatsoever. Levothyroxine has kept people alive who would otherwise have died because their thyroid disease was so advanced. The issue is whether it's overprescribed, not whether it's inherently toxic.
How about ingesting H2O versus H2O2. One molecule does make a difference.
Hi Robyn,
I have a friend who had her thyroid destroyed because she had hyperthyroidism. She had to swallow some radioactive chemical. So I am interested in the over active thyroid.
OK, will put it on the list on topics to cover!
Hope your friend is doing OK now.