A Sure Fire Way to Figure Out if You Have a Thyroid Problem.

If you have been taking thyroid medication, and are not feeling better, and in fact, are feeling worse, here is one sure fire way to figure out that you may have a Reverse T3 problem, or some other malfunction of the thyroid gland.

It’s called the Basal body Temperature test, or BBT.

One of the main jobs of the thyroid gland is to control all metabolic processes, thereby controlling your temperature. Having a consistent low body temperature is an excellent indication that something could be very amiss with your thyroid gland.

We all know that a healthy body temperature is 98.6. Many people deviate from this with their temperatures either running a bit low or a bit high. However, if your basal body temperature consistently runs  below 97.7farenheit, it’s time to take a closer look at your thyroid gland.

Here is what you do.

Get yourself an old-fashioned mercury thermometer. Why? Because digital and infrared thermometers tend to under record body temperature.  And this is crucial. Under recorded temperatures could lead to a mis-diagnosis of thyroid problems.

Mercury based thermometers might not be easy to find. When researching this blog, I tried going to my local Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, with no luck. Eventually, I ended up ordering a mercury- based thermometer online. No worries, mercury-based thermometers are readily available online, and cheap!

Once you have your thermometer, take your temperature first thing in the morning while you’re still in bed , preferably with your covers thrown back, as to not create extra heat. Take your temperature NOT IN YOUR MOUTH, BUT IN YOUR ARMPIT. Give it 10 minutes. Do this for three days, recording each day’s temperature. If your temperature is below 97.7, it’s a good indication along with other symptoms that something is up with your thyroid gland.

If your collective three-day temperature readings are below 96.8, then it’s a serious signal that your thyroid gland is not doing it's job, and you need to seek out qualified, yet enlightened medical help.

Note: It’s extremely important that you re-set your thermometer the night before by shaking down the thermometer under the mercury column is below the 95.0f mark.

Also, if you are menstruating, do this test only on the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th day of your cycle,

Other factors that cause you to produce too much T3.

1.     Adrenal fatigue

2.     Iron deficiency

3.     Vitamin D deficiency

4.     Deficient in other minerals such as selenium, Zinc, Iodine, and Copper

5.     Vitamin B5 and B12 deficiency

6.     Deficient in Tyrosine, a particular amino acid found in chicken, turkey, fish, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, peanuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, soy products, Lima beans and banannas

      Certain drugs such as:

a.     Betablockers

b.     Certain radiographic dyes that cause the suppression of iodine

c.      Dexamethasone

d.     Amiodarone

e.     Lithium

f.      Aspirin

Other types of toxins such as:

a.     Fluoride

b.   Mercury as in silver or  amalgam fillings – either implanted or improperly removed

If you suspect you have Reverse T3 problem, consider doing the following:

   
A.   Find a doctor who thoroughly understands thyroid problems

B.     Test for Adrenal Fatigue

C.     Test for the above mentioned vitamin and mineral deficiencies

D.    Test for mercury toxicity

E.     Consider taking a Selenium supplement – known to reduce RT3 levels

F.     In consultation with your doctor, consider a quality liver cleanse, and an overall body cleanse.

G.     REDUCE STRESS – wherever you can.

The Other Big Thing That Might Be Wrong With Your Thyroid

After All of That, Still Something’s Wrong!

So, let’s say you’ve been brave, and went ahead and had your thyroid tested using the criteria stated in my previous blogs. For more information on how to understand a thyroid test, go to:

http://thyroid.about.com/library/howto/htthyroid-test.htm.

Let’s say you were diagnosed as being hypothyroid and began taking some type of thyroid

medication, and for a while you felt better. But then, you started slipping into the same yukky sick fog of hypothyroidism again. What could be wrong?

It could be a problem with Reverse T3.

What the heck is Reverse T3? And what is it doing in my body?

Remember from my previous blogs that the main storage thyroid hormone is called T4, and that the active hormone is called T3. T4 is converted mainly by the liver to T3. Sometimes your body makes too much T4, and the unneeded part gets converted to another hormone called Reverse T3. Reverse T3 is the inactive form of regular active T3. The problem arises when under certain circumstances too much T4 gets converted to Reverse T3. This is a problem because Reverse T3 docks at the same receptor sites as T3, and when that happens your body is not getting enough active T3, and you start feeling sick again. What causes your body to convert T4 to Reverse T3?

STRESS! (Aren’t you tired of hearing that word?) But, sadly, it’s true.  When your body feels that for the health of your system, you need to slow down, it will convert T4 to Reverse T3 in order to slow down your metabolism. Some of these physical stressors might include:

1.     Chronic or acute illness

2.     After surgery

3.     Physical trauma, i.e. car accident

4.     Extreme Cold

5.     Chronic inflammation

6.     Low iron

7.     Prolonged un diagnosed or under diagnosed thyroid treatment

One of the ways our bodies compensate for not enough thyroid hormone is for the adrenal glands to produce more cortisol. Excess cortisol inhibits the conversion of T4 to regular active T3. After a time, your adrenal glands can become “fatigued,” and your cortisol levels drop. Some of the symptoms of chronic adrenal fatigue are:

1.     Chronic anxiety

2.     Poor coping skills

3.     Paranoia

4.     Nausea

5.     Sensitivity to light or sounds

6.     Other psychological problems

Chronic emotional stress, even low level stress, can also chemically trigger your system into converting T4 into Reverse T3. If you want to know more about Reverse T3, and how it can significantly impact your health, check out this website. This woman knows everything about the thyroid gland.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/reverse-t3/

How can you discover if you have a problem with too much Reverse T3, and what you can do about it?

Stay tuned…..to my next blog.

How Iodine Deficieny messes with your thyroid gland

 

One Reason Your Thyroid Might Not Be Working Properly

So, I thought I had done everything right. I had switched from just synthetic T4, to natural desiccated thyroid extract containing, T3 and T4. Three months after making these changes, I went back to my doc for the results of my blood test, and all my hormones, not just my thyroid were just where they needed to be. I felt great!

Then, something began to change. Over the next several months I started to feel more tired, achy, depressed and bitchy. Then the anxiety started. Around that time I went in for another blood test review, and lo and behold, my thyroid levels had completely bottomed out, along with my estrogen and testosterone levels. My doc was stunned! He asked me about dosage, and was I taking my morning dose on an empty stomach etc. With nothing more to offer, he suggested I take both doses in the morning, thinking that the afternoon dose was being absorbed by food.

 It was just my shear fortune that on my way home I stopped to see my awesome chiropractor. Dr. Barry Goldberg, (my absolute hero!) did some muscle testing, and after a few tests Dr. Goldberg concluded that I was completely deficient in iodine.

If you want to learn more about Muscle Testing, go to this web site.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART03410/Applied-Kinesiology.html

Iodine deficiency! For the love of Pete! Who would have thought?

Since that day, here is what I have learned.

1.     Your thyroid needs iodine to make the various thyroid hormones.

2.     Most people do not get enough iodine from their diet. Iodine is found mainly in sea vegetables such as kelp and seaweed, and in Scallops and Cod.

3.     Don’t count on iodized salt because:

a.     Most of the iodine “evaporates” from the salt container

b.     Our bodies do not absorb this particular form of iodine well

c.      Chlorine, fluoride and bromine are all in the same chemical family as iodine and can displace iodine in your thyroid gland. In this blog, I will just speak to the bromine problem.

What the heck does that mean?

Here’s the deal. Bromine is in a ton of processed foods and sodas. Bromine is used as an anti-fungal pesticide and is sprayed directly onto strawberries. Bromine is in our swimming pools, hot tubs, and in many of the medications we take. Bromine is also found in most commercial bakery items and many types of flour. And here is my favorite. Bromine is used in many types of asthma inhalers. And since, I have asthma, and use my inhaler a few times a day, I was breathing bromine right into my system!

What to do?

Dr. Goldberg immediately suggest I begin taking an iodine/iodide supplement called Iodizyme-HP, a product manufactured by Biotics. I began taking one tablet a day, which was 6.25 mg a day.

It took two weeks for me to get well from this. During that time, I still woke up with panic attacks and horrible anxiety. During the day, all I could do is sit around like a slob and watch stupid TV shows. After two weeks though, my brain began to clear, the panic attacks and anxiety went away, and I began to feel much better. Over the next couple months I have increased my dose to four tablets a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. 

Now I am back to living my life, writing, being a wife and mother and doing the things I love to do the most.

For more information on the effect of bromine on your thyroid gland. Check out this article.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/05/another-poison-hiding-in-your-environment.aspx

Although it is outside the scope of this particular blog on the thyroid gland, I feel it is necessary to mention that Iodine deficiency also plays a critical role in breast cancer. For more information, refer to this article.

http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/iodine.html

In my next and final blog regarding the thyroid gland, I will be discussing the role of Reverse T3, Cortisol,  and other mineral deficiencies in hypothyroidism.

Stay tuned.

Thyroid Tests - Know what they mean!

 Before you start reading this blog, please understand that you don’t have to know what all these terms mean. All you need to know right now is what the ranges are for the tests, and what that means. So relax. If you want to research this more, and if you have thyroid problems, I really think you should, toward the end of this blog, I have included a wonderful website as a great place to start.

Okay, so let’s say you you’ve done some research, or seen your doctor, and you have decided to have your thyroid tested. If you go to a conventional physician, here is what probably will happen.

Your doctor will have the following tested:

1.     TSH – TSH is short for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. TSH is produced by your pituitary gland. TSH stimulates your thyroid gland to make several different thyroid hormones.

2.     Free T4 – This test measures the amount of T4 that is not bound by proteins.

3.     Free T3 – This test measures the amount of T3 that is not bound by proteins.

A naturopath will definitely perform the same tests, but will probably test a couple of other things:

1.     Antibodies – If you have an thyroid autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (hypothyroidism) or Graves Disease, (Hyperthyroidism), you will most likely have anti bodies present in your blood.

2.     Reverse T3 – RT3 is made when T4 is converted to RT3. This happens for a ton of reasons.

3.     TSH – using the new updated range factor.

So this is how this works out.

TSH Old Range 0.5-5.0 New Range .3-3	FT4 Range 0.7-2.0	FT3 Range 2.3-4.2	Antibodies	RT3 Ratio Divide T3 by RT3 A good number is 23 – 24.	What’s probably Happening
High	High	Low			Hyperthyroidism –  pituitary problems
Low	Low	Low			Secondary  hypothyroidism
High	Normal	Normal			Very mild hypothyroidism
High	Low	Low			Classic hypothyroidism
Very low	High	High			Over medicated with thyroid hormone  or hyperthyroidism
Low	Normal	Normal			Mild hyperthyroidism
High	Normal	Low			Possible secondary  hypothyroidism
			Antibodies present		High likelihood of some type of thyroid disease such as Hashimoto’s or Grave’s Disease
	High	Low		Number is lower than 23 or 24	Secondary hypothyroidism

Here is where many conventional doctors mess up.

1.     They only test TSH – and many labs still use the outdated range of 0.5-5.0. This causes far too many people to go undiagnosed.

2.     They don’t test for the presence of anti bodies, thus they miss diagnosing a pretty significant autoimmune disease, which can partially treated using other methods along with hormone medication.

3.     They don’t test for RT3 – Secondary Thyroidism is a whole different issue, and can be greatly treated using methods other than just hormone replacement.

When you go to see your doctor regarding your thyroid test, take this paper and discuss the results with your doctor. This way, you look and sound like you care enough about your health to be taken seriously.

This is just a bare bones explanation of thyroid blood tests. For a deeper explanation into all things thyroid, check out the website, www.stopthethyroidmadness.com. The book of the same name is an excellent read for anyone who has thyroid problems, or knows someone with thyroid problems.

If your doctor is using the old test range for TSH, I recommend that you go get tested somewhere else where they use the updated range for TSH.

If you’re doctor insists that your tests are normal, and there is NO PROBLEM with your thyroid gland, AND YOUR SYMPTOMS PERSIST, I high suggest you consider seeing a health professional who practices medicine holistically.

Next blog, I will discuss some other reasons, other than thyroid hormones that your thyroid gland might not be working.

So, next time, stay tuned.

The difference between synthetic and natural thyroid medication, and how you can get totally messed up if you don't know the difference.

Currently, there are two types of thyroid medication available to those of us who are hypothyroid. These are the synthetic and natural forms of thyroid hormones

On the synthetic side there are:

Synthetic Thyroxine – (T4) – Levothyroxine –

T4 is the “storage,” and most abundant form of thyroid hormone in your body. Most conventional doctors prescribe only Levothyroxine to their patients.

They do this because they say T4 is more stable, lasts longer in the body and that the body is able to convert T4 to T3, the active form of thyroid hormone.

The only problem is that many people do not convert T4 to T3, and so people who only take T4 are under treated, and many of their symptoms do not diminish. As a matter of fact, for many people who take just T4, as they get older their symptoms often get worse.

And, because their doctor tells them they are being adequately treated for thyroid issues because their blood tests come back just fine (we’ll get into this in a later blog) these poor people head down that long, lonely, expensive and often futile highway of trying to figure out what the heck could be wrong with them.

2.     Synthetic Triiodothyronine (T3) – Liothyronine -  T3 is the “active” form of thyroid hormone. It is not stored in your cells, but is converted from T4 to T3 by your body. Depending on who you talk to, T3 is three to five times more powerful than T4. One of the reasons that some doctors don’t like to prescribe T3, is that unlike T4 that stays in your system for days, T3 clears your system within several hours, requiring patients to take a pill twice a day.

On the natural side of the thyroid hormone equation is Desiccated Natural Thyroid. There are different brands available such as, Nature-Throid, Wes-Throid, Armour Thyroid, and a Canadian brand from the manufacturer Erfa.

Desiccated Natural Thyroid is made from the thyroid gland of pigs. Yes, that's right, pigs. Unlike the synthetic form, Desiccated Natural Thyroid includes both T4 and T3, as well as the other less talked about thyroid hormones, T2,T1 and calcitonin.

Folks on the conventional side of medicine will tell you that you can’t trust the purity and consistency of Desiccated Natural Thyroid. However, that is a bunch of BS, because Desiccated Natural Thyroid is produced under very strict guidelines and is tested again and again for consistency and purity. In fact, before synthetic thyroid hormones were produced back in the 1950’s, patients were effectively treated for hypothyroid issues using Desiccated Natural Thyroid.

What happened? Big Pharma and money got involved! There was a lot of money to be made, billions and billions of dollars in fact, in the production and sale of synthetic thyroid hormone. So, a smear campaign ensued, and Desiccated Natural Thyroid fell out of favor. However, it is making a comeback, and more health professionals, particularly naturopath’s, and those physicians who practice integrative and functional medicine are prescribing Desiccated Natural Thyroid.

This is very important to those who suffer from thyroid issues. The body was never meant to function on only one type of thyroid storage hormone. The body needs the complete package, and Desiccated Natural Thyroid hormone is all that.

In my next blog I will discuss the different types of thyroid tests, and how the conventional medical guidelines for reading these tests leaving millions of people to fall through the cracks and never get the help they need.

Till then, don't just do what doctor's tell you! Read! Research! Ask Questions! It's your body! Own it!