Your thyroid gland - And how evil (ignorant) doctors and not asking questions can seriously wreck your health

In this blog, I was going to discuss the connection between mental illness and your thyroid gland. However, I think we first need to understand some basic fundamentals about the thyroid gland.

These are the main thyroid hormones.

1.     TSH – Thyroid Stimulating Hormone- The pituitary gland sends this hormone to the thyroid gland to figure out how much thyroid hormone your thyroid gland is producing.  If you are hypothyroid because your thyroid gland is not producing enough thyroid hormone, TSH senses this, and stimulates your thyroid gland to produce more thyroid hormone. However, if you are hyperthyroid, and producing too much thyroid hormone, the pituitary gland will slow down the production of TSH.

2.     T3 -  Triiodothyronine– One of the many types of thyroid hormone made by your thyroid gland. T3 is an active thyroid hormone, meaning that it doesn’t need to be converted in order to work in your body.

3.     T4 – Thyroxine – This is the major thyroid hormone in the blood. T4 is considered the “storage” form of thyroid hormone and is converted in the cells to T3.

When you are prescribed thyroid hormone from a conventional doctor, you are normally prescribed a synthetic form of T4 hormone. Most doctors believe this is adequate, because your body will convert the T4 to T3, and conventional doctors think synthetic hormones are more consistent than natural thyroid extracts.

 However, a big problem here is that many people CANNOT, or have a difficult time converting the synthetic form of T4 to T3. So, although you may get some initial relief from taking synthetic hormones, eventually you will start feeling crappy again. Then, you will go back to your doctor, and they will do a blood test, and probably up your dose of thyroid hormone.

See where I am going with this?

In the next couple of blogs I will discuss other reasons why you might think you need to increase the dosage of thyroid hormone, but for now let me tell you that during the 14 years I took synthetic thyroid medication, my dosage increased at least eight times!

Why is this important?

It is important, because when you take synthetic thyroid medication, as opposed to natural thyroid extract, the synthetic thyroid medication does all the work, and your own thyroid begins to do less. The more medication, the less your thyroid gland works. Over time, this can mean that your thyroid gland is not putting out ANY thyroid hormone on its own, leaving you totally dependent on synthetic thyroid medication for the rest of your life!

That’s where I am right now. Although I no long take synthetic thyroid medication, my own thyroid gland barely produces any thyroid hormone on it’s own. That means, if there were no thyroid medication available, or if for some reason, my body stopped absorbing the thyroid medication I was taking, I would get really sick.

 

And that is exactly what happened.

In my next blog, I will discuss the differences between synthetic and natural thyroid hormones.

What I really want to stress here, is the absolute necessity for all of us to take more responsibility for our health. Don’t just do what your doctor suggests until your read, study, ask questions, and then ask more questions. 

I look back over my life now, and realize how my life might have been different if I hadn’t just blindly followed my doctor’s advice, thereby handing control of my health over to someone else.

Read! Research!  Make educated decisions! Take control of your health!

Till next time…….