Why is my thyroid not working? Part 1
I want to talk to you about a topic that is very common for many women to be suffering from and men, but mostly women. A lot of misconceptions around this topic. The statistics are staggering. The problems that these individuals who are suffering from this condition are very detrimental can be potentially life-threatening, but also very problematic with their day to day activities. Most of the time they traditionally get worse with time and not get better. This condition is hypothyroidism, or thyroid cases, in general. We work with a lot of patients in our office that have thyroid issues, hypothyroidism, and many of the individuals that we work with, they’ve been diagnosed with the condition, given a pharmaceutical drug, usually a hormone, like levothyroxine, or Synthroid or something like that and left to do things on their own, and love to kind of suffer and get worse with time. Most people who are dealing with thyroid conditions, they tend to get worse with time, and they don’t get better. And every single time they go and see their healthcare practitioner, they’re being told the same thing, “There’s nothing we can find, there are no issues,” sometimes being told they need a psychiatric appointment, or maybe there’s some kind of psychiatric issue going on, and maybe given depression medications. When they hear this over and over again, a lot of times they just start to believe it. Maybe they truly do have an issue with their thyroid, or with their mindset, maybe it’s their hypochondriac or some other issue going on here.
What I want to talk to you about are some of the common things that are being missed. Right, I call this situation, the thyroid epidemic. I’ve written a book about it. So in the book, I talked about some of the common things that individuals will be dealing with, with their thyroid condition that their doctors oftentimes are missing or not analyzing, which can be contributing to their underlying problems and why they get worse with time. We see women continue losing hair, they’re continually having digestive issues, anxiety, depression, weight gain, fatigue, sleep issues, that they are associated with a thyroid condition. And even though their doctor is telling them that your thyroid is normal, and I use the air quotes there, most of the time it is not normal. They’re just not being analyzed appropriately. There are many things that could be going on in regard to the thyroid.
I want to focus on just one thing that you could be doing right now. Or you could be asking for right now that if you’re in a situation where your doctor is telling you that there’s nothing wrong, that your thyroid is normal, and even though you don’t feel like it’s normal, that there’s something still going on. One of the common things is that when you go get a test done by your doctor, he or she is going to be analyzing a hormone in your body called TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone. They’re going to regulate your thyroid by using a pharmaceutical drug or hormone-like levothyroxine or Synthroid or some of the medication that’s involved with hormones for your thyroid. The reason why that’s important is that by giving you the medication that will help balance your TSH, but many times, will not address the underlying reason or the mechanism of why your thyroid is not working properly. So when you look at a full thyroid analysis, there’s a really broad spectrum that needs to be looked into. There are 10 markers that you should be looking at. But traditionally, in a medical model, you’re going to be analyzed by one, maybe two if you’re lucky. So oftentimes, they’ll look at the TSH. And if that is within range, they’re going to say, “Oh, your thyroid is normal, there are no issues.” In reality, there can be other problems that are going on within the thyroid, and the actions of the thyroid, beyond the thyroid in different areas of your body. So let’s go over those 10 markers. But if you’re in a situation right now, and you have a thyroid condition, you’re taking a pharmaceutical drug like levothyroxine, Synthroid or maybe even a more natural medication, like WP thyroid or nature, thyroid or armor, something like that, and you’re taking these medications, and you’re still having symptoms, you still don’t feel right, there are still problems going on, it’s probably a good idea for you to start expanding the panel and looking at other things that could be going on there. So let’s go over those.
Obviously, you should be having run every single time:
1. TSH, a very important marker that should be analyzed. This is traditionally going to be analyzed by your doctor. So that’s usually not the issue.
2. Thyroxine also should be analyzed on a regular basis. That might be being analyzed, but usually not.
3. Free T4 should also be analyzed.
4. T3
5. Free T3. These are looking at different ways of how the hormones are being utilized in your body, the total amounts of it. When it says it’s free, that means it is beyond the bloodstream, it’s acting upon your body.
6. Free Thyroxine Index (FTI) is another way of analyzing.
7. T3 uptake.
8. Reverse t three.
And then there are two additional markers that should be analyzed that are very important. I’m not going to go over each one of these markers today but I will give you an opportunity to get a little more information as we get a little further in this article. But the two other markers are:
9. Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO).
10. And the last one is going to be Anti-thyroglobulin Antibody.
So these are the markers that should be done. So if you’re in a situation, as I mentioned, and you don’t feel good, and your doctor is telling you that your thyroid is “normal”, then these other markers need to be analyzed, you either need to find someone who can do it, someone like myself or another type of health care practitioner or beg and plead and borrow to have your doctor run these types of tests. Now, oftentimes, the reason why your doctor will not run these tests because if these other markers come back, and there are problems going on, there’s really not much they can do in the medical model in regards to pharmaceutical drugs. So that’s why they usually won’t run those types of tests. But there’s a lot of things that can be done. And the type of model that we do here in the practice, which is referred to as functional medicine. Our goal is to analyze your body in the situation, analyze the thyroid to see what area, what level the thyroid is not working appropriately, and to see what needs to be done and how we can restore function to get the thyroid working better. And many times a lot of our patients are actually able to get off medications, they’re actually able to live their life back to where they were pre taking the medication they’re using. So those types of things, those types of markers should be analyzed. So you can expand upon the analysis to really see exactly what is going on with your body.
Even though you may have a thyroid problem, the thyroid may not be the problem, right? The underlying problem could be something else going on inside your body. You can have other issues that are happening there that are creating a thyroid symptom, and the treatment only is being done for the thyroid. So it may look good on paper if you will get normal on paper. But the reality is there’s still a problem there going on. And unless you look at the full expansiveness of what’s going on in regards to the thyroid, and specific examples, you’re going to miss it. Hence, the reason why I call it the thyroid epidemic. Because there’s a major epidemic on our hands. There are many individuals who are dealing with this problem that are having thyroid issues that are being missed. They’re being stepped over, they’re not being listened to, which is the reason why we help so many patients with their thyroid conditions, most of the patients that we work with, we are able to figure out exactly what the problem is, what’s going on with them, and come up with a customized treatment approach to address their underlying issues that are creating the symptoms.
So here’s the deal. If this information is useful for you, if this information is something you’re looking for, and you’re thinking to yourself, “I’ve always thought I had a thyroid issue or an issue, and my doctor says, my thyroid is normal, but I still don’t feel good.” Well, I am going to be holding a webinar. And that webinar is going to go more into detail of what I know about the thyroid, the potential underlying problems, the concerns that can be going on in the body, the mechanisms if you will, that could be contributing to your thyroid symptoms or your thyroid issue. It’s going to be an expanded webinar that we’ll be doing. And if you’re interested in attending that webinar, all you have to do is just put your email in the comments there, what I’ll do is I’ll have one of my staff send the link for the webinar. So you all can go on there and sign up for the webinar, and be a part of that. If there are other things that you want me to discuss or your concerns with, maybe you are having specific symptoms, maybe there are problems you’re experiencing that I didn’t go over today, let me know and I’ll make sure to help you out any way possible.
