Re: A little advice please

[Guest guest]

Hi

Wow - this rant sounds soooo familiar!!!!

I used to work fulltime mum of 3 gran of 2 but slowly got to end up in bed - I do have psoriatic arthritis and a few other things (x rays etc prove it all) but once docs diagnosed one thing it seems they dont want to rock the boat and find anything else! I was on thyroxine for 12 years but it didnt make any difference at all. Once I found this site I got a life back - not as it used to be admittedly, but a hell of a lot more than the docs were willing to give me.

I listened to Sheila, got Dr P's book, had all my blood tests done (Vit D was extremely low) so take all the supplements I can get and then started on NDT also over a year ago.

I read so often on hear that GPs wont listen. I printed off and showed my GP info but they are not interested-just keep giving me levo which I dont use but I dont want to upset them too much as I get so much other meds from them for my arthritis etc and 2 of the docs are still really nice-just wont listen!

Maybe you need to take this into your own hands if you can afford the meds and supplements. There are lots of people on here who can offer advice - not me unfortunately, I just take it too! - but good luck. At least you have started in the right direction by coming here and it can only get better! It doesnt happen overnight but going slowly step by step it will happen.

Love

Colleen x

From: lindasherman88 <lindasherman1967@...>thyroid treatment Sent: Saturday, 3 March 2012, 2:06Subject: A little advice please

Would appreciate any advice please.Afraid this is going to be a bit of a rant, and I apologise in advance. prWas once a healthy, full of life, constantly on the go, mum of six, and nothing seemed a problem. However, I have felt unwell for the last four years, and don't seem to be getting to the bottom of the problem.

[Guest guest]

Hi

Your story is so similar to many of the people on here. The first thing you need

to know is you are not alone. I joined this group at the end of last year after

so many years of feeling on my own and being convinced by doctors that my

problems were in my head. Take time to read though the information which you can

find on the web site.

First thing I did was to have all the tests recommended including the Adrenal

stress test, What a surprise I was deficient in many of the vitamins, including

D, dont let doctors tell you just to get more sun, I live in Dubai where it is

sunny almost every day of the year. With all my test results in hand I have made

an appointment with DR P and feel positive that this year my health will

improve.

I have also read Dr Ps book it helps amny questions fall into place. You can buy

this on Amazon via the TPA link on the web site.

Other people will also answer who have more experiance, but I wanted to let you

know that you are in the right place and if you listen to the advice you can

start on the right road to better health and understanding of your issues, the

information you get from here will hopefully empower you.

Just know you are not alone.

Love Nicola

> Hi

> Wow - this rant sounds soooo familiar!!!!

> I listened to Sheila, got Dr P's book, had all my blood tests done (Vit D

was extremely low) so take all the supplements I can get and then started on NDT

also over a year ago. >  

> Would appreciate any advice please.

>

> Afraid this is going to be a bit of a rant, and I apologise in advance.

>  pr

> Was once a healthy, full of life, constantly on the go, mum of six, and

nothing seemed a problem. However, I have felt unwell for the last four years,

and don't seem to be getting to the bottom of the problem.

>

[Guest guest]

" When I asked him if there was a possibility of seeing

an endo, he asked me what was that! "

Well - what can one say - there really is no answer to that!

This is quite unbelievable.

, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a symptom of hypothyroidism

and is treated with the active thyroid hormone T3. Thyroxine is a mainly

INACTIVE thyroid hormone that has to convert through thyroid hormone receptors

throughout the body into the ACTIVE T3. It is T3 that every cell in your body

and brain needs to make them function. With having such an extremely ignorant

doctor, and with possibly no choice of seeing anybody else in such a remote

area, you many well have no option other than to go down the self treatment

route, and here at TPA, we can point you in the right direction of doing this

very safely and very effectively. Many of us have had to do this. However,

first, you need to go through the following to find if any of these associated

conditions with hypothyroidism, could be actually stopping your thyroid hormone

from working.

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 stuff, but as each new member

joins us, they need to know about these.

The main condition responsible for stopping thyroid hormone from

working is, quite simply, a patient’s thyroid hormone 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:

1. You 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. You can check for

such a possibility by going to the FILES SECTION of our forum http://health.grouops//thyroid treatment/files/

and scroll down to the folder entitled 'Medical Questionnaires' and complete

the Adrenal one. Let us know how you score. You can also get the 24 hour

salivary adrenal profile from Genova Diagnostics. See the File entitled

'Discounts on Tests and Supplements'. When ordering, write that Thyroid Patient

Advocacy is your medical practitioner. They will send out a kit to you and the

results will be sent direct to you. When you receive these, post the results on

the forum with the reference ranges and we will help with their interpretation.

2. Then, we have systemic candidiasis. This is

where candida albicans, 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. As above,

do the 'Candida Questionnaire' and let us know how you score, and again, you

can be tested by Genova Diagnostics to give you diagnosis.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Then, there is the possibility of mercury

poisoning, caused through amalgam fillings - these might need to be removed but

you need to seek a Dentist who specialises in the removal of amalgam fillings.

7. One of the main reasons why thyroid hormone

is not being utilised at the cellular level is because you might be suffering

with low levels of iron, transferring saturation%, ferritin, vitamin B12,

vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and zinc - these have to be tested

for, and treated. It might be best under the circumstances if you write a

letter to your GP setting out why you need these tests if he is awkward, and

ask that your letter of requests be placed into your medical notes. Always keep

copies of all correspondence from yourself or any responses. We can give you a

draft of what you may need to ask after you have checked through all of these

possible causes.

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 very carefully.

Ask your doctor to work with you to help you find the cause. The

balancing of these variables is as much up to you as to your doctor –

which is why a check of morning, day and evening temperatures and pulse rates,

together with symptoms, good and bad, can be so helpful. To this end, check out

Dr Rind's Metabolic Metabolic Temperature Graph http://www.drrind.com/therapies/metabolic-temperature-graph

If your doctor tries to tell you that low levels of the above

mentioned nutrients have nothing to do with your low thyroid state, copy out

the following of just a few references to the research/studies that have been

done to show that there is a very big connection. Doctors are not taught about

this at medical school, so we have to help them where we can - so they, in

turn, can help their other patients.

Low iron/ferritin: Iron deficiency is shown to significantly

reduce T4 to T3 conversion, increase reverse T3 levels, and block the

thermogenic (metabolism boosting) properties of thyroid hormone (1-4). Thus,

iron deficiency, as indicated by an iron saturation below 25 or a ferritin

below 70, will result in diminished intracellular T3 levels. Additionally, T4

should not be considered adequate thyroid replacement if iron deficiency is

present (1-4)).

1. Dillman E, Gale C, Green W, et al.

Hypothermia in iron deficiency due to altered triiodithyroidine metabolism.

Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 1980;239(5):377-R381.

2. SM, PE, Lukaski HC. In vitro

hepatic thyroid hormone deiodination in iron-deficient rats: effect of dietary

fat. Life Sci 1993;53(8):603-9.

3. Zimmermann MB, Köhrle J. The Impact of Iron

and Selenium Deficiencies on Iodine and Thyroid Metabolism: Biochemistry and

Relevance to Public Health. Thyroid 2002;12(10): 867-78.

4. Beard J, tobin B, Green W. Evidence for

Thyroid Hormone Deficiency in Iron-Deficient Anemic Rats. J. Nutr.

1989;119:772-778.

Low vitamin B12: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18655403

Low vitamin D3: http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/3/329

and http://www.goodhormonehealth.com/VitaminD.pdf

Low magnesium: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292768/pdf/jcinvest00264-0105.pdf

Low folate: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/9/1738

and http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.1999.9.1163

Low copper http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm

http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.rjpbcs.com/pdf/2011_2(2)/68.pdf

http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/171/3/652.extract

Low zinc:http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/ffdbiyo/current4/07%20Iham%20AM%C4%B0R.pdf

and http://articles.webraydian.com/article1648-Role_of_Zinc_and_Copper_in_Effective_Thyroid_Function.html

· NOTE: When

your blood tests come back, ask your doctor for a copy of these and remember to

always get the reference range and post them on the forum. This is because

doctors will often tell you that there is not a problem because blood tests

have come back within the reference range. You need to know where about in the

reference range they are. We will again, help with their interpretation.

Vitamin B12 levels for both men and women need to be at the top

of the range in a reference interval of around 175 -900.

Ferritin levels need to be somewhere in the region of 90 to 130 for

women in a reference interval of around 20 to 200

Vitamin D3 levels need to be about 50.

Magnesium levels need to be at the top of the range.

Hope this helps .

Meanwhile, I have sent you a list of doctors who are happy to

prescribe or recommend treatment using synthetic T3 in combination with T4, T3

alone or natural desiccated porcine thyroid extract. You are entitled to a

second opinion, and the fact that your GP is not even aware that there are consultants

called 'Endocrinologists' because their speciality is in the field of endocrine

disease, proves conclusively that this is what is needed, and as a matter of

urgency. He sounds positively dangerous to me, having such little knowledge.

Luv - Sheila

Was once a healthy, full of life, constantly on the go, mum of six, and nothing

seemed a problem. However, I have felt unwell for the last four years, and

don't seem to be getting to the bottom of the problem.

First complaint to my GP resulted in him saying I was borderline Hypothyroid

and didn't need any treatment. Results from bloods were TSH 7.10 (0.35 - 3.30),

and free T4 - 13 (10 - 25). Saw another GP who did eventually prescribe

Levothyroxine, 25mg. He then left the practice, and so I began to see another

GP. He increased the dosage, and low and behold, he left practice. Am now on GP

number 4, and numerous blood tests later, am now on a dosage of 200mg

levothyroxine, but feel worse than ever. Extreme fatigue, muscles and joints

ache. Cant get out of bed in the morning, after 8 hours undisturbed sleep, and

afternoon naps, there is a film over gritty eyes, tingling tongue, can't think

straight, moody, put on about 4 stone in weight, the list is endless.

My family think I'm lazy and a hypochondriac, and my partner, as wonderful as

he is, I can see, is beginning to get a little tired of it all!

Last visit to the GP this week was about the straw that broke the camels back.

I have asked him several times to look in to the possibility of using T3 and he

seems to be totally disinterested. He has now told me that he thinks its

chronic fatige that I have, and told me to take vitamin D and get out in the

sun more! Well, for one, I live in the north of Scotland, and in February,

there's not much chance of seeing much sunshine. He has also suggested that anti-depressants

may be an option. Therefore, I am now thinking, if it is chronic fatigue that

is the problem, what is the use of thyroxine, and why is the TSH level still

outside the range?

Last bloods I had done were:

TSH - 4.12 (0.35 -3.30)

Free T4 18 (10 - 25)

Everything else that was tested for seem to be normal, but a couple of others,

(don't know exactly what they mean) showed as abnormal. They were:

Serum Chloride 108 (98 - 106)

Serum creatinine 67 (84 - 116)

Gamma - GT level 37 (4 - 35)

If anyone can shed some light, and point me in the right direction, it would be

much appreciated.

No

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[Guest guest]

My story is much like yours , and the others who have replied to you, but

over the past year I have slowly improved and am now virtually symptom-free and

feel that I have my life back. Sheila and others will give you the technical

info on what to do etc. I believe what is important to know is that recovery

will take time and you will improve and then feel you have dropped back a bit

and maybe get disheartened. This is part of the process - two steps forward and

one back and sometimes two steps back, but with support from this site and

reading Dr P's book you will get there.

My improvements in health came with high dose vits and mins, changing from Levo

to NDT and then to T3, using adrenal support and progesterone cream, removing

coffee and wheat from my diet and in the future I will probably have to tackle

some candida overgrowth. It has to be taken in small steps, and as we are all

different, slightly different combinations of supplements and thyroid supports.

I was totally overwhelmed by all the information when I first found a thyroid

support site and didn't go back to it for a while as the quantity of 'what I

should do or take' made me feel worse.

So my advice to you is just pick away at it, start with what seems easiest to do

and read up on everything if that helps. When I took my recovery into my own

hands I began to get better, my GP was pretty clueless and whatever she

suggested made me more ill, but it was still a bit scary to take that step

outside of her 'care'. It now seems to me that, apart from some notable and

noble exceptions, the medical machine is not geared towards making people

healthier it seems focussed on maintaining dependence and ignorance in the

population.

I buy what I need on the net - looking for the cheapest place for the best

quality and I utilise the info on this excellent site.

Take your time and get better steadily and carefully.

Sorry for my rant above but I do feel that at many levels in our society we are

being herded like cattle - given enough information to keep us happy in thinking

we know what's going on but not enough to enable us to make real informed

choices.

My best wishes to you

Finola

[Guest guest]

> Meanwhile, I have sent you a list of doctors who are happy to prescribe or

> recommend treatment using synthetic T3 in combination with T4, T3 alone or

> natural desiccated porcine thyroid extract. You are entitled to a second

> opinion, and the fact that your GP is not even aware that there are

> consultants called 'Endocrinologists' because their speciality is in the

> field of endocrine disease, proves conclusively that this is what is needed,

> and as a matter of urgency. He sounds positively dangerous to me, having

> such little knowledge.

>

> Luv - Sheila

Hi Sheila and everyone that answered my post. First of all, many thanks for

that.

All your words have been very encouraging, and I am now working my way through a

mine of information.

Have done the adrenal and candida questionnaires, and the results were

Adrenal - total points 161, severity index 2.4 and asterisk total 8

Candida - 253

So if I was to ask my GP to test for candida and adrenal, what would I ask for?

Also is it possible sheila, to resend the list of doctors that is happy to

prescribe T3, I haven't been able to locate the one you sent?

Many thanks again

Kind Regards

[Guest guest]

I

very much doubt the doctor will test either for adrenal fatigue or for candida,

however, you lost nothing by asking. If the NHS refuses to test for these (they

usually only ever test to see whether you might be suffering with 's

Disease or Cushing's Syndrome (the two extremes of adrenal problems) and

discount any of the stages leading up to these. You may need to get the 24 hour

salivary adrenal profile done to see the levels of cortisol and DHEA at four

specific times during the day and also the test to see whether you do have

candida antibodies. Both must be treated before thyroid hormone can be fully

utilised in the cells.

However,

with adrenal results such as yours, if money is a problem, I would just get the

Candida test, and go ahead and order the Nutri Adrenal Extra and start treating

this problem yourself. Go to our FILES section thyroid treatment/files/

and scroll down to the folder entitled 'Discounts on Tests and Supplements. Open

the one entitled 'Nutri Ltd' and following the ordering instructions from there

to claim the 33% discount that TPA members are entitled to. Remember to quote

the reference number when you telephone . He will send these out first

class.

Start

by taking 1 tablet with breakfast and in 10 days, add another tablet with lunch

(don't take them after 1.00p.m.). After another 10 days, if symptoms still

persist, take another tablet with breakfast. You can take up to 6 tablets of

Nutri Adrenal Extra, but if this is still not doing the trick, this is often an

indication you need something more potent such as Isocort or hydrocortisone,

but most people do fine on 2 to 3.

I have sent you the list of doctors again to you

privately.

Luv

- Sheila

Have done the adrenal and candida questionnaires, and the results were

Adrenal - total points 161, severity index 2.4 and asterisk total 8

Candida - 253