FW: Two Questions - Not simple

[Guest guest]

There are

many associated conditions that go along with having the symptoms of

hypothyroidism that may need to be addressed before either natural thyroid

extract or synthetic thyroxine is able to be fully utilised at cellular level.

First, read the following information to see whether any of these conditions

could apply to you:

There are

MANY reasons and many medical conditions associated with thyroid disease that

stop thyroid hormone from getting into the cells, where it does its work. I

mention these over and over and over again - ad nauseum - people must be bored

with the same old, same old but as each new member joins us, they need to know.

The main

condition responsible for stopping thyroid hormone from working, is, quite

simply, a patients thyroxine dose is too low because the doctor or consultant

refuses to increase it, because the serum thyroid function test results appear

OK. Sometimes, the thyroxine dose is too high, yet patients still don't feel

well. They continue to suffer. Some reasons for this:

They may

be suffering with low adrenal reserve. The production of T4, its conversion to

T3, and the receptor uptake requires a normal amount of adrenal hormones,

notably, of course, cortisone. (Excess cortisone can shut production down,

however.) This is what happens if the adrenals are not responding properly, and

provision of cortisone usually switches it on again. But sometimes it

doesn’t. If the illness has been going on for a long time, the

enzyme seems to fail. This conversion failure (inexplicably denied by

many endocrinologists) means the thyroxine builds up, unconverted. So it

doesn’t work, and T4 toxicosis results. This makes the patient feel quite

unwell, toxic, often with palpitations and chest pain. If provision of adrenal

support doesn’t remedy the situation, the final solution is the use of

the active thyroid hormone, already converted, T3 - either synthetic or

natural.

Then, we

have systemic candidiasis. This is where candida albicans, a yeast, which

causes skin infections almost anywhere in the body, invades the lining of the

lower part of the small intestine and the large intestine. Here, the

candida sets up residence in the warmth and the dark, and demands to be

fed. Loving sugars and starches, candida can make you suffer terrible

sweet cravings. Candida can produce toxins which can cause very many

symptoms of exhaustion, headache, general illness, and which interfere with the

uptake of thyroid and adrenal treatment. Sometimes the levels - which we

usually test for - can be very high, and make successful treatment difficult to

achieve until adequately treated.

Then there

is receptor resistance which could be a culprit. Being hypothyroid for some

considerable time may mean the biochemical mechanisms which permit the binding

of T3 to the receptors, is downgraded - so the T3 won’t go in. With

slow build up of T3, with full adrenal support and adequate vitamins and

minerals, the receptors do come on line again. But this can be quite a

slow process, and care has to be taken to build the dose up gradually.

And then

there are Food allergies. The most common food allergy is allergy to gluten,

the protein fraction of wheat. The antibody generated by the body, by a process

of molecular mimicry, cross reacts with the thyroperoxidase enzyme, (which

makes thyroxine) and shuts it down. So allergy to bread can make you

hypothyroid. There may be other food allergies with this kind of effect, but

information on these is scanty. Certainly allergic response to certain

foods can affect adrenal function and imperil thyroid production and uptake.

Then we

have hormone imbalances. The whole of the endocrine system is linked; each part

of it needs the other parts to be operating normally to work properly. An

example of this we have seen already, with cortisone. But another example

is the operation of sex hormones. The imbalance that occurs at the

menopause with progesterone running down, and a relative dominance of oestrogen

is a further case in point – oestrogen dominance downgrades production,

transportation and uptake of thyroid hormones. This is why hypothyroidism

may first appear at the menopause; the symptoms ascribed to this alone, which

is then treated – often with extra oestrogen, making the whole thing

worse. Deficiency in progesterone most especially needs to be dealt with,

since it reverses oestrogen dominance, improves many menopausal symptoms like

sweats and mood swings, and reverses osteoporosis. Happily natural

progesterone cream is easily obtained: when used it has the added benefit of

helping to stabilise adrenal function.

Then, we

must never forget the possibility of mercury poisoning (through amalgam

fillings) - low levels of ferritin, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate,

copper and zinc - all of which, if low, stop the thyroid hormone from being

utilised by the cells - these have to be treated.

As Dr

Peatfield says " When you have been quite unwell for a long time, all these

problems have to be dealt with; and since each may affect the other, it all has

to be done rather carefully.

Contrary

to cherished beliefs by much of the medical establishment, the correction of a

thyroid deficiency state has a number of complexities and variables, which make

the treatment usually quite specific for each person. The balancing of

these variables is as much up to you as to me – which is why a check of

morning, day and evening temperatures and pulse rates, together with symptoms,

good and bad, can be so helpful.

Many of

you have been ill for a long time, either because you have not been diagnosed,

or the treatment leaves you still quite unwell. Those of you who have

relatively mild hypothyroidism, and have been diagnosed relatively quickly, may

well respond to synthetic thyroxine, the standard treatment. I am

therefore unlikely to see you; since if the thyroxine proves satisfactory in

use, it is merely a question of dosage.

For many

of you, the outstanding problem is not that the diagnosis has not been made

– although, extraordinarily, this is disgracefully common – but

that is has, and the thyroxine treatment doesn’t work. The dose has

been altered up and down, and clinical improvement is variable and

doesn’t last, in spite of blood tests, which say you are perfectly all

right (and therefore you are actually depressed and need this fine

antidepressant).

The above

problems must be eliminated if thyroid hormone isn't working for you.

Losing

eyebrows, eyelashes, body and cranial hair can be SIGNS of hypothyroidism.

(SIGNS are things you can see) and can include:

Dry skin

Thick,

scaling skin

Coarse

skin

Fineness

of hair

Dry,

course, brittle hair

Sparse

eyebrows, especially outer ends

Hair loss

Brittle

nails

Dry ridges

down nails

Swelling

of face (oedema)

Swelling

around the eyes (oedema)

Swelling

of eyelids (oedema)

No pitting

oedema of ankles

Fluid accumulation

in abdomen (ascitis)

Thick

tongue

Swelling

of ankles

Paleness

of skin

Paleness

of lips

Bluish or

purplish colour of skin, nail beds, lips or mucous membrane

Unexplained

weight gain

Hoarseness

Low basal

and activity level temperature

Protrusion

of one or both eyeballs (exophthalmos)

Slow

speech

Slow pulse

rate

Slow

thinking

Sluggish

movement

Slow

relaxation phase of the knee and/or ankle reflex

Listless,

dull look to eyes

Wasting of

tongue

Nervousness

Rapid

heart rate with weak force of contraction

Slow heart

rate despite low aerobic fitness

Pounding

heart beat

Cardiac

enlargement on X-ray

Indistinct

or faint heart tones

Low QRS

voltage on ECG

Long

normal intervals on ECG

Fluid

around heart (pericardial effusion)

Changes at

the back of the eye (at fundus oculi) .

Your TSH

of 5.27 is far too high and your free T4 being at the bottom of the reference

range shows you are hypothyroid and need thyroid hormone replacement. Your TSH

should be around 1.0 for a 'normal' person and your free T4 should be above the

middle of the reference range in a person who is untreated, and for those on

thyroid hormone replacement it should be in the upper third of the reference

range.

Some

common and often undiagnosed symptoms and dangerous consequences of low thyroid

include: serious mental problems, seizures, heart disease, diabetes including

misdiagnosis and complications, constipation resulting in colon cancer, all

female problems (due to high amounts of dangerous forms of oestrogen),

including: tumours, fibroids, ovarian cysts, PMS, endometriosis, breast cancer,

miscarriage, heavy periods and cramps, bladder problems leading to infections,

anaemia, elevated CPK, elevated creatinine, elevated transaminases,

hypercapnia, hyperlipidaemia, hypoglycaemia, hyponatraemia, hypoxia,

leukopaenia respiratory acidosis and others....

Before

you decide to take iodine, please be sure to get your GP to test your level of

iodine first.

If

you are being denied proper treatment by the NHS, then write a letter to your

GP sending a copy to the Head of Practice. List all of your symptoms and signs

(check those against the one's in our web site www.tpa-uk.org.uk

under 'Hypothyroidism'.

Take

your temperature for 4 or 5 days before getting out of bed in a morning and

list these. Low temperature means your metabolism is running too low. List

these in your letter.

Next,

list the blood tests you would like done, and you need a full thyroid function

test that includes Free T3 and also a test to see whether you have antibodies

to your thyroid. List also the following blood tests you would like done to see

whether any of these are low in the reference range. These are ferritin,

vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and zinc. If any ARE low,

they will need supplementing before thyroid hormone can be fully utilised at

cellular level.Ask that the results be sent to you, together with the reference

range, and post the results (with the ref. range) onto the forum so we can help

with interpretation.

Next,

list all members of your family who have a thyroid or autoimmune disease.

Next,

ask for a referral to an endocrinologist of your choice - you do not have to

see the one your GP picks. You will find that most NHS endocrinologists are

specialists in diabetes and not thyroid. I will send you a list of doctors

recommended by our members so choose one of them.

Next,

ask for your letter of requests to be placed into your Medical Notices and send

a copy to Head of Practice, always remembering, of course, to keep a copy

yourself.

Believe

me, doctors pay a lot more attention to the written word because they know

copies can be kept, but when you have a private discussion behind closed doors,

doctors can deny such discussions or requests ever took place.

Good

luck.

Luv

- Sheila

1. If unable to metabolize Armour & Thyroxine for

hypothyroidism, what are the alternatives?

2. Loosing eyebrows, and recently noted, loosing

eyelashes, is this caused by the hypo?

My most recent test results show:

Serum TSH 5.27 ref rge 0.4-5

Serum Free T4 11.8 re rge (10-23)