How Do You Know if You Have a Thyroid Problem?

Today, this article is gonna be about your thyroid. And a common question that I get is how do you know if you have a thyroid problem? I just got done with a webinar. And these are common questions that I get at my webinars and at my initial consultation, so we’re going to talk about some of the things you should be looking for, and potentially analyzing on your own, or asking your doctor and analyze as well, to see if you truly have a thyroid problem or not. So, many times I have individuals come into my office who are really confused, they’re not really sure if some people are telling me it sounds like you have a thyroid issue, or maybe their doctor told them they have a thyroid issue. And they’re not really sure what that really means. So there are a couple of things you can really look for on your own to really understand potentially if you have a thyroid condition or not. So the first one that I would say is do you have specific symptoms that are associated with thyroid conditions? So what are some of those symptoms that are associated with thyroid conditions? Well, let’s talk about a few that I’ve written down here. And we can see some of these symptoms like fatigue. So do you have a loss of energy? Are you at a place where you’re struggling to get by throughout the day? Are you tired all the time? Are there specific times that you’re tired? Sometimes we may have fatigue in the morning, but we have great energy in the afternoons or vice versa? good energy in the mornings and fatigued in the afternoon? So do you have a lot of decrease in energy? Are you needing to take naps, you just don’t feel like you have the youthfulness and energy you used to have in the past? Is that a symptom you have? Do you have weight gain, not only weight gain, maybe you’ve gained weight. Not because you’ve had a poor diet, you’re not exercising, but you’re not able to lose weight, right, you’re exercising, you’re eating well, it does not make any sense whatsoever while you’re gaining this weight. And there’s something really going on under the surface. Another one is sleep problems very common to seem individuals with thyroid problems having sleep issues, they can’t get to sleep, their brain is going it takes them multiple hours to get to sleep, maybe they can’t get to sleep, but they’re waking up multiple times at night, not able to go back to sleep. And they’re having a lot of issues with their sleeping patterns, maybe taking some sleep aids, or even worst-case scenario taking pharmaceuticals to help them sleep. Hair loss, a very common symptom that we see associated with thyroid problems is hair loss, not only are you losing some of your hair but is it coming out in patches Is it coming off when you’re brushing your hair when you’re washing your hair Do you see a lot in the shower, it’s clogging the drain, those sort of things, you’re noticing that there’s like patches of hair that look it’s thinning on the top of your head. These are common things that we can see that potentially could be associated with a thyroid condition, constipation, or GI issues in general, maybe there’s bloating, there’s gas, there’s indigestion, you’re noticing that your stools are loose, or maybe they’re harder. But you’re having constipation, you’re needing things, I’m trying to find alternative things to help you with constipation. A very, very common symptom we see with a thyroid condition, depression, we know that the thyroid can impact the brain, and the person can have more of a feeling blue for no real reason to feel blue, just not just feeling good. And then oftentimes may need to be put on antidepressants, brittle nails, another one that’s very common, the nails beds start to get very thin, they’re breaking more often. I didn’t write this long here, but also hair loss on the outside of the eyebrows. These things are very commonly associated with thyroid symptoms. So if you’re having one or more of these symptoms, it potentially could be due to a thyroid problem. Now, just because you have the symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you have a thyroid problem, there’s one more step that has to happen. So if you’re having one or more of those symptoms, it may be a good idea for you to have an analysis done to see if you have the next thing we’re gonna be talking about. And that is we run blood work and we test for something called TSH. So we’re looking for this marker. It’s a very common marker run on blood work with what’s called TSH Or thyroid-stimulating hormone. If this marker is increased, it’s telling us that you have hypothyroidism. Probably the most common thing that we see within revolve in regards to the thyroid is hypothyroidism or low thyroid. If this marker is decreased, it’s telling us you have hyperthyroidism. Now, this marker right here is the definitive answer if there’s truly a thyroid condition or not. Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have a thyroid problem, because normally, it just means that there’s not enough information yet to truly diagnose if it’s a thyroid condition. Sometimes it could be another six months a year, a couple of years down the road before enough of the problem is developed, that we can finally diagnose it. Now, we don’t want to wait because we want to capture these things early. That’s why we do what’s called functional medicine in practice because we want to see where your body’s last function is. And oftentimes we can do advanced type analysis before this becomes an issue, addressing the underlying problems preventing this from ever becoming an issue. So again, if you’re having symptoms, and you’ve had this test done for TSH, and it’s normal, it doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods for a couple of different reasons. Number one, as I mentioned, it could just be that you haven’t had enough of the problem developed yet that you’re finally starting to see it show up on bloodwork. But the other thing is maybe it’s not a thyroid condition at all. There are other problems that can happen inside the body, other tissues, organs, glands that can start to become problematic, that can create the similar symptoms that we just talked about. Things like the adrenal gland, the intestinal tract, you know, and immunological problems, there are a multitude of other issues and problems in the body that can be going on metabolic dysfunction, that can create these symptoms, even though you don’t have it if you don’t have a thyroid problem directly. So again, looking at these symptoms, and really understanding what’s really going on to the surface is really important. So maybe you don’t have a thyroid problem, but you have the symptoms of a thyroid problem that needs to be addressed, understood of what is causing it. Anytime you ever have a symptom, it’s massively important that we understand what is causing your symptoms, we don’t just want to address the symptom, because it’s not really different from taking a pharmaceutical, once we understand what’s causing the symptom, then we can customize the proper approach to help your body get into a better state of health to help it get into an environment that you are unable to heal. Our body is the most important smartest doctor you’ll ever come in contact with. If you can get the body into a healthier state or a better state of health, it will function more optimally reducing your risk of future problems, diseases, and sickness. Because if you have a strong body, a strong health system, it’s going to function that much better. I mean, it’s just the same thing in anything else you look at if your car’s function optimally, it’s going to work optimally if your refrigerators function optimally, your washing machine, whatever it might be, that’s where we’re talking about. If your electrics are working well on your house, your lights are going to turn on, right. So we want to make sure we’re doing the same thing within our bodies. And there are different steps that can be done. There’s a different analysis that can be done to really understand what the true underlying issue is. So if you’re having problems right now, if you’re having one or more of these symptoms right now, maybe it’s time you start looking elsewhere, maybe it’s time to start understanding what’s really causing these. Don’t wait until it gets worse. Don’t wait until a full-blown disease process or you’re getting sicker and you’re at a play workplace. We’re now in an emergency to try to figure this out. Take action now. If this is where you’re at, please reach out to us, reach out to us. I’ll put my phone number, the office phone number, in the comments below. We’ll be more than happy to set up a virtual consultation with you. So that we can sit down and have a conversation about what’s going on with your situation. And I can evaluate your case very thoroughly to see if you can get the help that we’ve helped thousands of other patients and our office over the years, get that quality of life back, get their life back on track, and not have the potential risk factors of future diseases or other common problems that could happen when we don’t take these things seriously. If you’re at a place right now where you’re not happy with your overall health, reach out and we can help out. If there are any specific questions that you have regarding these symptoms, the thyroid please comment below. ask the questions, I will make sure I’ll respond to those as quickly as possible. Or if there’s a specific situation that you’re dealing with, make sure you put it in the comments as well. So I can do a video in the future to give you this value. And hopefully, we can continue to give you this value that we’re trying to achieve and give you guys here. So again, if there’s anything that I can do for you in the future, please reach out, we’ll put the phone number in there, you can reach out via Facebook or other social media avenues, or you can email us directly through our website. We’re always here to help in any way possible. And if there’s anything that specifically you’d like me to do videos for in the future, please make sure you comment below. I hope today was worth your time and energy and you got some good value out of this video here. And if there’s anything that I can do in the future, please reach out. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll talk to you soon.