Why Isnt My Thyroid Medication Working

Hashimoto S Thyroiditis Diet Why Isnt My Thyroid Medication Working.

If you have symptoms of a hypothyroid or a combination of hypo and hyperthyroid symptoms and your lab tests came back normal, or your medication is not working, it may not be your thyroid that's responsible for your problems. Your doctor typically runs only one or two thyroid panels to determine whether or not you have the thyroid problem. And even if they run the whole gamut of thyroid panels it may not give them the true cause of the problem.

Symptoms of hypothyroidism:

• fatigue


• weight loss even when dieting


• depression


• constipation


• sensitivity to cold


• poor circulation and numbness in hands and feet


• muscle cramps


• catch colds easily


• have slow wound healing


• require excess amount of sleep


• G.I. disturbances


• dry, itchy skin


• dry or brittle hair


• dry skin


• low body temperature


• edema, especially in the face


• loss of cutter most portion of eyebrows

Symptoms of hypothyroidism:

• heart palpitations


• inward trembling


• increased pulse rate, even at rest


• feelings of nervousness or emotional distress


• insomnia


• night sweats


• difficulty gaining weight

There are many things that can cause the symptoms that you are experiencing, your own immune system could be attacking your thyroid (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) or the enzymes that help process or facilitate the use of thyroid hormones. A poor blood sugar metabolism could also be causing your symptoms as well as gut infections, adrenal problem, and hormonal imbalances can all depress thyroid function. So if you are on Synthroid, Armor, or Levoxyl and your symptoms aren't getting any better it might be time to run more tests.

If you been to an alternative healthcare professional they may have recommended iodine, thyroid glandulars or tyrosine but if your thyroid symptoms aren't being caused by your thyroid this will offer little to no help and can actually make your condition worse.

So what's the answer to your thyroid symptoms if your thyroid isn't actually causing the problem?

The only way to find out is to run tests, otherwise you're just guessing. If you've already been to an endocrinologist or alternative health care professional and they were unable to help you then chances are you have something that may not be caused by primary hypothyroidism. There are many different things that can cause the symptoms that you're experience and you have to rule them all out. You may have more than one underlying cause. Even if you find a positive test which indicates one of the possible causes, and you stop testing, you may have missed something.

There 12 cups on the table turned upside down, you can't see what's underneath the cup. The rules of the game are this...there is at least one ball under the cups, there may be more than one ball under the cups. To win the game you must find all of the balls. If you find one ball but there are more balls and you didn't find them, you lose. How many cups would you like to look under? The obvious answer is you would like to look under all 12 because you want to win.

The best way is to look everywhere the problem or problems may be.

The 4 Deal Breakers

The 4 deal breakers in every difficult chronic health condition are anemia, blood sugar metabolism, gut issues and liver and gallbladder issues. If you have a problem with any of these you have to handle them first, otherwise you're just spinning your wheels.

After you have dealt with the 4 deal breakers above, you can proceed on to the other possible causes.

A Good Word Picture

Patients typically don't understand exactly how they can have thyroid symptoms and it not be a thyroid problem. So instead of going into all the physiological processes and using medical terminology that you may not understand, We can simplify the explanation by comparing the inter-workings of the thyroid to ordering something online.

Most of us have at one time or another ordered something online. You go online, find something that you want, and place your order. If you haven't received your item within a reasonable amount of time you contact the person you placed your order with. The person that you're talking to verifies on their computer that you have indeed placed an order. This is much like running a TSH panel because a TSH panel is simply verifying that your thyroid gland received an order to ship out thyroid hormone to your body.

If that is the only test that is checked, to see if our order was received, it doesn't solve your problem because your real problem is that you haven't received your item. But there are many other places where the problem may have occurred.

The second most obvious place is the thyroid gland itself. It's like the warehouse where the item that you ordered is being stored. If the warehouse is damaged you may not get your package at all. This is a good case for using thyroid hormones.

If the worker who actually places your item into the package and hands it off to delivery person, doesn't show up for work or is unable to work it will affect you getting your package. If, when the delivery person arrives to picks up the package, there are more boxes than he can fit in his truck, that will delay you from receiving a package. If, when the delivery person takes your package to their central hub or warehouse for rerouting to its final destination, that warehouse is backed up that can delay your package. Once your package is handed off to the delivery person who is responsible for delivering it to your home, if you're not there to receive it, you don't get your package.

Now that's a very simplified explanation to the process but I think it helps to see that there are many places where things can go wrong that have nothing to do with the thyroid itself.

Taking the above example you represent the brain, you send an order via your computer (hypothalamus), the message is forwarded to the operator (pituitary), who then relays the message to the warehouse (thyroid) where a worker (TPO enzyme) puts your item in a box and hands the box over to a delivery person (TBG, a protein that transports thyroid hormones in your body) who delivers the package to the central hub or warehouse (liver, which can be sluggish, delaying your package). The next delivery person (TBG, again) delivers your package to it's final destination (gut, reversed T-3 and the peripheral tissue).

If you don't have normal gut flora 20% of the thyroid hormone can't be utilized, it's like not being home when the delivery person attempts to deliver your package.

There are several other places where things can go wrong that were not mentioned in the story above. For example, you can have too many TBG proteins. It may not seem like a problem to have too many transport vehicles but when there is not enough of the thyroid hormone these proteins will not release their package. You may have a case where you have too much of one thyroid hormone (T3, T4) and not enough of the other( over conversion or under conversion). You also have a situation where the thyroid hormone is delivered to the cell but the cell cannot accept it because of damage to the cell wall caused by inflammation or infections.

Another problem can occur when your body's 5'deiodinase, an enzyme responsible for converting T4 to T3 in the heart, muscle and nerve cells, isn't working properly. This can happen for a variety of reasons, you can have a deficiency of cofactors, you can have gut dysbiosis, elevated cytokines, elevated cortisol, deficiencies of serotonin, deficiencies of dopamine or elevated testosterone (even in women).

As you can see there are many places where things can go wrong that have nothing to do with the thyroid itself. So if you're still suffering from thyroid symptoms in your medication continually needs to be adjusted or isn't working at all you may need to have further testing to find the underlying cause of your problem.

hashimoto s thyroiditis diet.

What Kind of Autoimmune Disorders Can Cause Hair Loss, Shedding, Or Thinning Ill Tell You

Hashimoto S Thyroiditis Diet What Kind of Autoimmune Disorders Can Cause Hair Loss, Shedding, Or Thinning Ill Tell You.

I sometimes get emails from folks who have had a positive ANA (antinuclear antibody test) from blood work or suspect that they have an autoimmune disorder which has contributed to changes in their hair including loss, shedding, thinning, and changes in color and texture. In the following article, I'll go over some well know and not so well known autoimmune conditions that commonly contribute to hair changes or loss and tell you how they often affect the hair and scalp.

Alopecia Areata (AA): When most people think of autoimmune hair loss, AA is typically the first thing that comes to their mind. This condition is known as the reason that Princess Caroline of Monaco temporarily lost her hair. The condition most often presents itself in hair loss that is defined by bald spots that are round and patchy. Often, the hair around the patches is totally normal, but the round patchy areas are smooth and sometimes completely bald.

Another condition that goes hand in hand with AA is alopecia areata universalis. In this case, you will often have hair loss over the entire body including the whole head (often total baldness) as well as other areas like eye lashes, eyebrows, pubic hair, the beard area, the under arms, etc. Sometimes when this process is ongoing, you'll see "exclamation point hairs." These are hairs that are broken off and are tapered so that they are much narrower the closer you get the scalp. They flare out on the broken ends.

There is a lot of controversy over what actually causes AA. Most agree that it is autoimmune in nature, but some believe that it is aggravated by stress, allergies, or viruses. Treatment is often oral steroids, corticosteroid injections, or experimental stimulation of the scalp with herbs like rosemary and lavender.

Lupus And Hair Loss: Probably the second most common autoimmune disorder known to cause hair issues is lupus or systemic lupus erythematosus. Often folks with this condition are affected with a malar rash that can affect the scalp, and cause scarring which can lead to temporary or permanent hair loss. You can see exclamation point hairs with lupus as well.

Thyroid Issues: Graves Disease And Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Many people who think of thyroid issues and hair loss are aware of hypothyroidism, but many are not aware of the autoimmune thyroid issues. The first of these is graves disease where you will generally see the hair become much more fine and you'll see more pronounced loss. The texture just becomes a lot more limp and unable to hold a style. The stands can become lighter in color also. The opposite is true with Hashimoto's. In this instance, the hair becomes very coarse and dry, but hair loss is accelerated none the less.

Less Well Known Autoimmune Disorders That May Affect The Hair: In truth, almost any disorder that has an autoimmune component can affect the hair or cause thinning, shedding, or loss. This includes things like rheumatoid arthritis, intestinal cystitis and fibromyalgia, (although not every one agrees that these two fall into this category), celiac disease, and guillain-barre syndrome, to name only a few.

Inflammation Lessening Drugs And Hair Loss: Many of the drugs that are given for these disorders are given to reduce the inflammatory process and this actually seems to fit quite nicely with hair loss treatment, as there is almost always an inflammation component to it. However, many of the steroids often used have the unfortunate side effect of more shedding or loss, so often the patient is left wondering if it's the disorder that is affecting their hair or the medication that is being used to treat it. It's often prudent to focus on a healthy diet and healthy, natural ways to support a healthy scalp and reduce inflammation while stimulating healthy regrowth.

hashimoto s thyroiditis diet.

What is Hypothyroidism Disease and What Can Be Done About It

Hashimoto S Thyroiditis Diet What is Hypothyroidism Disease and What Can Be Done About It.

Hypothyroidism is a disease that affects the thyroid gland. It occurs when the thyroid gland, located at the base of the neck, produces too little thyroid hormone. It may even produce no thyroid hormone at all. Why does this happen?

This can happen for any number of reasons. Some people produce low levels of thyroid hormones, or their thyroid gland may be damaged from a surgery or accident. Other individuals may have an illness that causes their thyroid gland to become underactive. Still others may take medications that cause their thyroid gland to produce too little thyroid hormones.

In some cases, people have an autoimmune condition where the body's own immune system attacks the thyroid gland causing hypothyroidism. This often results in a condition known as Hashimoto's hypothyroidism.

What Are The Thyroid Hormones?

What is thyroid hormone and why should you worry about it? Thyroid hormones are a group of hormones that regulate certain body processes including fat metabolism, breathing, heart rate, body temperature regulation, and may other processes including things related to our nervous system and mood.

If our thyroid hormones are not functioning properly we may gain weight and have trouble losing it. Thyroid hormones including thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), T3, T4, reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies. If any of these is underactive or overactive, you are not likely to feel your best.

What Are Symptoms Of Hypothyroid Disease?

There are many symptoms of hypothyroid disease. The disease often mimics common feelings of general malaise, so doctors often miss diagnosing the condition. This is dangerous, because if hypothyroidism is left untreated for too long a patient can risk serious, life threatening issues including coma and death.

Some common signs and symptoms of thyroid disease include:

- Fatigue

- Mental fog

- Feeling too cold or intolerance to cold

- Mood changes

- Depression

- Brittle hair and nails

- Weight gain or inability to lose weight

- Constipation

- Heart rate changes

- Difficulty concentrating

Of course there are many other symptoms. Anyone can become affected by hypothyroidism, although it affects women more often than men. Even some children can develop or be born with hypothyroidism.

Diagnosis And Treatment For Hypothyroidism

Diagnosis and treatment for the disease is straightforward for most patients, although this is not always the case. Many healthcare providers do not think to test for thyroid disease when a patient complains of fatigue or weight gain, because these symptoms are so common today and so many people have these complaints. Unfortunately untreated hypothyroidism is very dangerous. Testing for thyroid disease should become a more standard practice, because so many lives could be changed by treatment.

Diagnosis is simple. All a health provider needs to do is take a simple blood test which measures levels of thyroid hormones. Sometimes a patient may have borderline thyroid disease meaning their lab values are almost normal or just at the lowest level of the normal ranges for the disease.

When this happens, a health provider must decide whether or not to monitor or treat a patient. If a patient has all of the symptoms or complains of many symptoms of hypothyroidism a health provider may choose to treat the patient rather than elect a wait and see approach, because some sub clinical patients benefit from treatment in these instances.

Treatment often involves supplementation with synthetic or natural thyroid hormone. A health provider will determine how much thyroid hormone and what types of thyroid hormone a patient requires to achieve optimal health.

Some patients may require supplementation with other vitamins and minerals to achieve ideal health. There are trace minerals that can benefit patients with thyroid disease. Some patients are deficient in certain trace minerals that can result in thyroid symptoms.

Other patients may require supplementation with iodine. All patients require proper diet and exercise to maintain ideal health. Your health provider will make the recommendations necessary to ensure ideal health and wellness. It is good to know that if you do discover that you have hypothyroidism, there are options for treatment. If you do not want to take synthetic hormones there are a wide variety of herbal and nutritional supplements available that can help to permanently balance your thyroid hormones and heal your thyroid.

hashimoto s thyroiditis diet.

What is Hypothyroidism and What Are The Symptoms of Hypothyroidism

Hashimoto S Thyroiditis Diet What is Hypothyroidism and What Are The Symptoms of Hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism is a nasty condition that is becoming more and more common as time goes on. So, what is hypothyroidism and what are the symptoms of hypothyroidism?

Hypothyroidism is simply when the thyroid is producing an abnormally low amount of thyroid hormone, which can cause a multitude of complications and symptoms.

The reason this is bad news for someone's health is because this hormone helps regulate the metabolism in the body, as well as help in the digestive process. It makes perfect sense then, that one of the most obvious symptoms that is associated with hypothyroidism is a slower than normal metabolism.

It is thought that somewhere around five million or so Americans have hypothyroidism, but the numbers world-wide are unknown. The condition hits women more than men, and it is thought that as much as ten percent of women may suffer with the condition, even if it is only in a mild form, however the exact numbers are unknown.

There are a number of potential causes of hypothyroidism, which include iodine deficiency and where the problem is caused by autoimmune abnormalities.

It is unusual for hypothyroidism to be caused if the diet has sufficient iodine, and many people in industrialized nations will gain iodine from salt (it is added when salt is manufactured) and vegetables. So the majority of cases are likely to come from "autoimmune hypothyroidism".

Autoimmune hypothyroidism is when the bodies own defences attack and destroy thyroid gland cells, which stops the thyroid producing the normal amount of thyroid hormone.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a condition that is associated with autoimmune hypothyroidism and one of the symptoms is a goitre, which is a swelling of the thyroid gland, which can eventually be seen as a lump on the neck.

Another common cause of hypothyroidism is the removal of the entire thyroid gland during surgery. If you were having other problems with your thyroid gland, you might need to have it removed, or partially removed, and although that may cure other medical conditions.

The thyroid is a common spot for cancer to grow therefore forced hypothyroidism can be a better option than dealing with a malignant cancerous growth.

Sometimes, the doctor will only need to remove part of the thyroid if he suspects cancer, and the part of the thyroid that's left will be able to make enough hormones to stave off the onset of hypothyroidism, but not always.

Another way for a doctor to help treat and kill suspected cancer in the thyroid is with what is called radioactive iodine therapy. The doctor will inject the thyroid with iodine to kill part of the thyroid that's thought to be cancerous, but sometimes it will kill too much of the thyroid and hypothyroidism can occur.

A final cause of hypothyroidism that is less well known is when the thyroid gland is perfectly healthy but the pituitary gland isn't making enough hormone to instruct the thyroid to make more thyroid hormones. This can also result in hypothyroidism in some patients.

This article has answered the questions, what is Hypothyroidism?

Further information about the symptoms of Hypothyroidism can be learned by signing up for our free newsletter below.

hashimoto s thyroiditis diet.

What is Homocysteine

Hashimoto S Thyroiditis Diet What is Homocysteine.

Here's the science bit in a nutshell. Homocysteine is made from the amino acid motioning, which you find in dietary protein. HMST in itself is not a problem, as the body converts it into one of two substances, which are both beneficial to the body. These two substances are called glutathione and SAMe (s-adenosyl methionine).

Glutathione

Glutathione is a tripeptide amino acid derivative that protects red blood cells from oxidative damage and, in the from of the enzyme glutathione peroxide, plays an important role in detoxifying hydrogen peroxide and organ peroxides produced in the body. A deficiency of glutathione speeds up ageing and onset of Alzheimer's and damages the liver. Glutathione is the bodies most potent anti ageing antioxidant and detoxifier.

SAMe

SAMe is a natural anti depressant, anti arthritic, liver protecting agent in your body

Cholesterol, blood pressure: these are just some of the things that we are always being told are the important conditions we need to keep tabs on.

But in all honesty the level of these things are not as important as you may have been led to believe, your HMST level however is a very different story. This is the thing that you need to keep an eye on, because it is the main indicator of if you are going to live a long healthy life or if you are going to die at a young age.

Your homocysteine level is 40% more accurate at predicting heart attacks than your cholesterol levels. There have been people who have had heart attacks and had low cholesterol, but the ones that have been tested have all had high HMST levels. It is also the main indicator for up to 100 different diseases and conditions, including the big 5 killers (heart attacks, strokes, cancers, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

One in two people have high levels, and it makes no difference if you are fat, thin, big, small, male or female, although the over weight have a higher chance, you may think you are super fit and can easily run a marathon, but trust me it makes no difference, you could have just as much chance of high levels as someone who is obese!.

I am not trying to scare people, but you must realise how important this is.

The good news however is, although having high levels almost guarantees to knock years off of your life expectancy, it can be reduced to safe healthy levels within a matter of months by following a homocysteine lowering and supplement diet.

There are over 100 diseases and conditions related to high homocysteine, here are just some of them:

abortion

accelerated aging

alzheimers disease

anemia's

angina pectoris

ankylosing spondylitis (inflammation of the synovial joint)

apoptosis of brain cells (cell death due to a lack of dna repair)

arteriosclerosis

arthritis

atherosclerosis

atrial fibrillation (chaotic electrical activity in the heart chamber)

atrophic gastritis (atrophy of the stomach lining)

auto immune diseases (spondylitis, hypothyroidism/hashimoto's thyroiditis)

behcet's disease (ulcers in the mouth and genitalia)

birth defects

bonemarrow myelody splasia (myelodysplastic syndromes)

brain atrophy

breast cancer

cancers

cervical dysplasia

elevated cholesterol

cirrosis

cleft palate

cobalt deficiency

coeliac disease

colon cancer

copper deficiency

coronary artery atherosclerosis

coronary vasospasm

crohn's disease

deep vein thrombosis

dementia

depression (especially women)

diabetes

down's syndrome (high homocysteine levels are found in mothers of down's syndrome children, although down's children themselves have low levels)

epilepsy

fibromalagia

folate deficiency (which can lead to spina bifida and other pregnancy problems, anaemia, cervical dysplasia and poor memory)

glutathione deficiency (in the liver and brain, speeds up ageing and the onset of alzheimers and damages the liver onlong with many other problems)

heart abnormalities

heart attacks

hiv/aids (speeds up the rate at which the virus developes)

hypothyroidism (especially hashimoto's thyroiditis)

leukemias

memory decline

mental retardation

miscarriage

oestrogen deficiency and post menopausal symptoms

osteoporosis

parkinson's

penile dysfunction

polycystic ovary disease

premature death

psoriasis

pulmonary embolism

rheumatoid arthritis

schizophrenia

strokes

throid cancer

ulcerative colitis

vasospasm (cerebral arteries, causing strokes, associated with magnesium deficiency)

plus many more

Homocysteine has been studied now for a few years now by a handful of people, but has been widely disregarded by the medical and scientific community. In fact one of the main pioneers in the discovery of this life threatening component in the body was shunned by the scientific community for decades and only recently have they begun to come round and accept his research. It is only a mater of time before this will be regarded as the major factor in health.

Basically how it works is HMST is measured in units and falls into various categories:

Very healthy Below 6 units

Low risk 6 - 9 units

Medium risk 9 - 12 units

High risk 12 - 15 units

Very high risk 15 - 20 units

Dangerously high above 20 units

In simple terms, the higher the score, the higher the risk

Lowering homocysteine levels should become top priority in peoples lives, as once it is significantly lower your chances of living much longer and much healthier are dramatically increased, for example:

Lowering your score sufficiently can:

- half your risk of heart disease.

- a high level increases your risk of strokes by 80%.

- cuts the risk of cancers by a third.

hashimoto s thyroiditis diet.