Have you seen those commercials where there is a married couple, who happen to be turtles? These turtles like their dial-up and hate fast connecting Internet access...they like it slow.
People with problems with hypothyroidism have bodies that like it slow, although one of the signs is a problematic thyroid and fast thinning hair.
What causes thinning hair in someone with thyroid problems?
A thyroid that is not producing enough thyroid hormone (or more commonly if there is a problem with the conversion and utilization of the hormone itself) will cause almost every cell in the body to slow down. Tissues that have a high turnover rate (hair, skin, lining of your gut) will suffer the most.
This sets up a couple of problems.
First, your hair is in one of three phases: growth (anagen), rest (catagen) or shedding (telogen). Different hairs are in different stages at all time. As long as everything is normal, you will not notice any signs of hair loss (which is a normal, daily occurrence, just check your pillow). When there is a problem with the thyroid and fast thinning hair, it is due to the slow reproduction of new hairs. Now you can start seeing some gaps, but not in one specific location as seen in other forms of hair loss.
Second, other problems associated with hypothyroidism (low volume of blood, dehydration, constipation, toxic overload and malabsorption) can lead to poor physical makeup of the hair itself and lower levels of oils to keep the hair healthy. The hair may seem brittle and unmanageable.
While this is not the only cause for thinning hair, it should always be pursued as a possible cause when the pattern is not a local bald spot. Many men and women are chalking it up to bad genes when they are actually seeing a problem with the thyroid and fast thinning hair.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Problems With Your Thyroid and Fast Thinning Hair
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Symptoms of Thyroid Problems: The Ultimate Yardstick
What's really important when it comes to diagnosing thyroid problems? Is it the symptoms of thyroid problems, family history and physical presentation, or should more weight be given to TSH, T3, T4?
Before we answer that, let's look at both the patients and the doctor's points of view.
In order for a patient to tell their doctor about their symptoms of thyroid problems, the doctor has to actually spend time with them, as well as actually listen to them.
Well, the #1 problem people have with their doctor is that they do neither, and doctors know it.
So if you go to the doctor and s/he doesn't listen, it must not be important, right?
A patient may subconsciously be persuaded to feel that maybe it isn't that important and take the doctor's word or their actions as reasonable.
What about the doctor. They have to listen to people tell them all their problems all day long. Some are very real, some are blown out of proportion and some are just lies (for money, drugs, sympathy, etc).
Doctors are actually trained that people are liars, so they rely heavily on lab testing (because lab test never lie, right?).
So we end up with both parties feeling that maybe the lab work is the way to go. Not good.
This has huge implications for those with symptoms of thyroid problems. A huge problem of under diagnosis exist for those with thyroid problems when a doctor relies on abnormal or normal TSH as the only marker for thyroid problems. Truth be told, these labs are very inaccurate and serve better as secondary markers for the diagnosis of thyroid problems.
What are far superior ways to assess thyroid problems?
- symptoms of thyroid problems such as: unexplained weight gain, unmanageable hair or hair loss, depression, fatigue, chronic pain, always being cold, neuropathy, etc.? These are all things that point the finger at thyroid problems.
- Are these problems common in your family (especially your mother)?
- Is your body temperature low upon waking?
- If you do an iodine test, does it show that you are deficient?
Once the diagnosis is made, it is again the symptoms of thyroid problems and physical presentation that are the ultimate marker of improvement. Lab test are still unreliable and should serve as secondary markers (they do still have a purpose, don't get me wrong).
So here the challenge: changing our current way of thinking. Lab testing is modern, its sexy. Patient history and physical presentation is old school, its blah. Don't be swayed, go with what really works.
Friday, November 2, 2007
10 Activities That Will Slow Down Weight Loss In Someone With Hypothroidism
In another post I wrote in my squidoo.com account, I wrote about a patient with a missed case of hypothyroidism that was doing what she thought was right to lose weight. Check out her work out regiment to lose weight (which is all too common) despite having hypothyroidism to see if it something you are doing too.
Here is the lessons she (and maybe you) needed to learn to turn it around and being to lose weight permanently:
- Skipping breakfast: Look at the word breakfast. It is "break" the "fast" by eating food 30 minutes after waking. If you don't, your body goes into starvation mode and stores extra fat in order to survive.
- Cut calories: If you cut them too low, back into starvation mode.
- Exercise just after waking: Your cortisol levels are too high in the morning (or they should be), because you first need to "break the fast." It is better to wait till after noon-2:00 to work out. Utilize your hormones, don't do things to disrupt their normal levels.
- 1 hour of intense exercise: This is too much for intense exercise. You deplete your growth hormone, which is needed to build muscle, which is needed to make your metabolism an efficient burning machine. The extra stress of the exercise increase stress hormone, which also place fat around your abdominal area as a survival mechanism.
- Purified water: Water is essential to life. Purification gets rid of most of the toxin...which is a good thing, since those things can disrupt thyroid hormone utilization. Unfortunately, it does not filter out fluoride. Fluoride binds to the thyroid hormone where iodine should be bound (in order to convert T4 to T3).
- Soy: This increases thyroid hormone binding with certain proteins, making the hormone useless. They have also been shown to stimulate goiter formation and antibodies against the thyroid gland (autoimmune disease).
- High protein diet: Animals are fed chemicals in their food to keep it fresher (blocks thyroid receptors), given soy as food because it is cheap (see #6) and pumped with estrogens in order to beef up (estrogen blocks conversion of T4 to T3)...which is all given to you when you eat those meats.
- Bottled water: plastics have chemicals that mimic estrogens and can block the conversion of T4 to T3. These are given off from the bottle into the water, especially if it is heated.
- Salmon: What should be a super food, high levels of mercury and other toxins are bound to the fat in these fish. These toxins block conversion of T4 to T3 and disrupts the thyroid receptors.
- Broccoli: another super food, but is often times sprayed with pesticides. It also has goitrogens if it is eaten raw, which are known to block the conversion of T4 to T3.
There you go. 10 common mistakes that may actually be hindering your goal of weight loss (and all other symptoms of hypothyroidism), even though many professionals may be telling you that is how to lose weight.
Lifestyle changes, when done correctly, can be some of the most powerful solutions to your problems.Thursday, November 1, 2007
Caution. Armour Thyroid Is Not 100% Safe
I am all for using Armour Thyroid when it is appropriate in hypothyroid cases. When looking to go the medical route, my suggestion would be to start there (but do not rely on this solely...you need to get aggressively conservative as well).
Please note: whenever you are using a hormone replacement, your body is going to react in ways that are not always desired (AKA side effects of Armour Thyroid).
Some of the side effects of Armour Thyroid are not so pleasant...and they aren't that obvious to pick up on till it's usually too late.
With that being said, people are getting amazing results with Armour Thyroid when they are hypothyroid. Knowing about the possible side effects of Armour Thyroid and how to manage them will make the treatment that much more successful, as well as cut down on the risk greatly.
I let one person on a hypothyroid forum know about this in much greater detail, so I figured I would share it with you as well. Click on the link to find out more.
Normal TSH, Low Thyroid Hormone. Is This Rare?
On a recent forum post, there was a question about a normal TSH and low thyroid hormone. This person wanted to know if this is common and should they go to another doctor. Here was my reply:
"Great question...and it is not a rare occurrence.
Here are some things you need to first know, and then better assess your situation.
What was the level of your TSH? Normal TSH means different things for different doctors, and labs have different ranges for "normal" as well. Also remember that "normal" is based on averages from a large population of people and abnormal is people that are a certain percentage outside of that. What really matters is what is normal TSH is for you...those other numbers are just a good guideline.
There are internal and external influences that can affect your hormone levels. For instance, woman begin to get worse symptoms when they have a flux in their estrogen (menstrual cycle) which influences their thyroid hormone production and utilization. The same can be said for people during winter months, or if they have a problem with their detoxification system, or if they are eating a lot of soy (there are tons of "or ifs"). The key to remember is this: Lab test are a snapshot of how your body was doing at that specific point in time. It can be completely different hours, days, and weeks later.
And you are right, going just by TSH is a very poor way to asses the situation. Even if it is low, it is still a poor way to asses the situation. There are too many questions that need to be answered to make a confident diagnosis and treat one way or another.
I would find another doctor (you should thank your original doctor for referring you once s/he realized it was out of his/her realm), but go into it prepared. There are plenty of studies that show a person who understands their condition will have significantly greater improvements over those who do not. If you know ahead of time the right questions to ask, you can sort of "interview" your doctor to make sure s/he knows how to properly manage the situation. You will be surprised at who knows what."
So You Have a Normal TSH, SO WHAT!
I found a question in a forum about hypothyroidism that the person was having issues with their hair, blood pressure, triglycerides, irregular menstrual cycles, dry skin, fatigue, low sex drive, and weight gain. They were told that it was not a thyroid issue since ther was a normal TSH. Here was my response:
"Your doctor found a normal TSH. What does that mean?
Say the average American shovels 10 pounds of snow per week (which I just made up). I live in Florida and never shoveled snow in my life, am I abnormal? If you live
in Alaska, maybe some shovel 100 pounds of snow per week. Or maybe don't shovel
any at all because it would be a worthless task since it snows all the time. Are
both abnormal? I would guess that most Americans shovel more snow during the
winter than summer, so are they normal only when the weather is just right to
shovel 10 pounds of snow per week.
Lab analysis is a snapshot in time. You may show as borderline hypothyroid one day, normal the next. There are many factors that can influence your lab results.Many people get a diagnosis of a normal TSH when they are actually borderline
hypothyroid, but because of the test they get no treatment. Well some
doctor's borderline hypothyroid is well into another doctors definate
hypothyroid. Why? Because some doctors have such a broad spectru of
what they consider normal TSH.It would be similar to trying to chose a NBA center for your basketball team,
but saying anyone from 4 feet tall to 8 feet tall would be OK, or anything
between .3 and 5 is normal TSH and is OK. That's just not so.TSH is a useful marker, but is limited in what it tells you about the
person's thyroid gland, hormone production, conversion and
utilization. It is only a piece of the puzzle.By your explanation of your symptoms and presentation, there is something
going on. While many of the issues point to some sort of problem with your
thyroid or thyroid hormones, they may be secondary problems that are being
influenced by some other problem. So while treatment for your borderline hypothyroid (in this hypothetical case) may very well be warranted, you would also need to address the underlying problem.
Bottom line is this: there is something going on that needs to be addressed. You need to get educated yourself, as well as find a doctor that is capable of solving the problem and giving the appropriate treatment.
Using limited testing to find a problem is a poor way to locate the problem. Get more than a "normal TSH" for testing.
Also, throwing one specific drug or nutrient at a label (also known as a diagnosis) is a very poor way to treat.
You need to find the problem, and then do everything that is needed to solve that
problem."
Do You Feel Depressed Because of a Depressed Thyroid?
"I just had my heart broke"
"I can't get my head right"
"I can feel it in the pit of my stomach"
"My low thyroid hormone has got me down?"
It's well accepted that when you feel depressed, it can affect your body in a way that you can just feel. But what is a little less known is that parts of your body can affect your level of depression.
One example is when you have thyroid problems or low thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland is found in your neck and releases hormones that affect every cell in your body. Its main purpose is to control the rate at which the cell works. When there are thyroid problems and low thyroid hormone output is the result, there may not be enough hormone to crank up the cells in your brain. Those cells then act a little sluggish.
How does a sluggish brain make me feel depressed?
There is an area of your brain called your prefrontal cortex. From an evolutionary standpoint, this is a relatively "new" part of the brain. It is the area that makes us human.
One of the jobs of the prefrontal cortex is to suppress our animalistic portion of our brain (limbic system). If this part of the brain is not working as well as it should, your animalistic brain is allowed to take over. This is why some people with low thyroid hormone feel depressed, agitated, anxious, aggressive or feel like they are in a brain fog.
While doing brain specific exercises, eating brain friendly foods and supplementing brain supporting nutrients are all excellent ideas for treating depression (and should be implemented as part of your aggressively conservative plan of attack), you need to address the root of the problem in order to achieve long term success. Identifying where the breakdown in the thyroid hormone production and utilization is absolutely necessary to effectively treat a person with thyroid problems or low thyroid hormone.
