Did Santa Bring Me Hypothyroidism This Year?

Have you ever heard the holiday story of low thyroid hormone? The story is slightly different depending on who is telling it, but it goes something like this:

You intentionally did not stuff yourself this holiday season, yet you still gained weight.

You can afford to buy all your holiday gifts because of a great bonus, yet you still feel depressed.

You rub Ben Gay all over your hands and knees, but your joint still hurt.

As you scratch your head and wonder why, your body is screaming out to you for some much needed attention. If your body language could speak, it would be saying "I have low thyroid hormone...HELP!"

But why is low thyroid hormone commonly a holiday treat?

Unless you are living somewhere near the equator, it gets cold during the holiday seasons. Your body responds by doing what it needs to stay warm.

One way your body accomplishes this is by cranking up your metabolism. Thyroid hormone is what revs up your body's engine.

If you are one of millions that is gradually developing hypothyroidism, symptoms of low thyroid hormone may not pop up till a time when it is really needed, like winter.

Your body sees 2 options, either freeze to death or use more thyroid hormone to increase your body temperature. If you are already at low levels of thyroid hormone, other areas that use thyroid hormone may begin to suffer.

You may have had low thyroid problems for quite some time, but it is only now being fully recognized. You too can then tell of your story about why you feel fat, fatigued, depressed with achy joints all winter long, or tell them how you used to feel like that till you addressed your hypothyroidism.

technorati tags: hypothyroidism low thyroid hormone

Underactive Thyroid: How Many Symptoms of Thyroid Problems Do You Have?

While an underactive thyroid is not known to end your life, it is known make your life seem slow. Thyroid hormone gives every cell in your body that extra little umph when needed. When you have low thyroid hormone, that lack of extra umph makes those cells under perform.

Symptoms of thyroid problems can be seen from head to toe. Some people with low thyroid hormone have cold feet as a symptom, while others with an underactive thyroid have thin, straw-like hair.

So here is a short version of my checklist to see if you have symptoms of thyroid problems:

1. Always feeling cold, or may need extra cloths to stay warm
2. Thinning hair, balding or straw-like hair
3. Aching in muscles and joints that had no physical trauma to explain it
4. Eating a reasonable amount of calories, but still gain weight or can't lose weight
5. Feelings of depression or anxiety
6. Mental sluggishness or brain fog
7. Chronic problems with infection, like a sinus infection, vaginal infection or ear infection
8. Muscle weakness, especially in the back, hips and shoulders
9. Feeling fatigued, tired or exhausted even without doing physical exercise
10. Soreness in throat or neck
11. Constipation or decreased bowel function
12. Infertility, miscarriages and low libido or sex drive
13. High cholesterol, heart flutters or low or high blood pressure
14. Poor digestion or heart burn
15. Increase in water weight or water retention
16. History of some other autoimmune disorder
17. Family history of thyroid problems
18. Family history of autoimmune disorders

If you have 3 or more of the above, you may be one of the millions who suffer from an underactive thyroid.

If you continue reading pages in this thyroid blog, you will see that symptoms of thyroid problems are just as or even more important in diagnosing low thyroid hormone than thyroid lab analysis. Check out this post on how testing thyroid hormone levels can be very inaccurate.

technorati tags: underactive thyroid low thyroid hormone symptoms of thyroid problems

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."

technorati tags: normal TSH Low thyroid hormone

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.

technorati tags: feel depressed low thyroid hormone thyroid problems

Just TSH and T4? You've Been Shortchanged!

And the verdict is...Kernel Mustard, in the study, with the lead pipe. Ah, one of my favorite games, Clue. The object of the game is to assemble all the pertinent information to know what's going on without using too many turns. Everyone should hope that their doctor played this as a kid. They will be more likely to run enough test to find out what's going on without running up an unnecessary bill. A doctor that just test TSH and T4 for thyroid function may not have played Clue as a child.

TSH and T4 are lab markers that almost every doctor uses to assess the function of the thyroid and its ability to produce thyroid hormone. Unfortunately, this not only does not give you enough information to make an informed decision, it may lead you to believe things that are completely wrong.

TSH (or thyroid stimulating hormone) can be high when low thyroid hormone (T4 and T3) appears in the report. This is your classic hypothyroid presentation. TSH raises in response to the low thyroid hormone so that it can make more to be used by the body.

Here's the catch. There are other things that can affect the overproduction of TSH. Changes in the weather, time of day, type of foods you eat, amount of exercise you do, amount of toxins exposed to, nutrient depletion, etc. all can change the numbers from the lab. Those numbers can end up all over the place, even if they are taken just hours apart. Here's what that means:

1. Abnormal levels may be temporarily abnormal in order to deal with what's going on at that moment. This is called a false positive.
2. Levels that may be abnormal may dip into the "normal" range in order to deal with what's going on at that moment. This is called a false negative.
3. "Normal" levels may be misleading. What's normal for one is not normal for another. Not to mention that "normal" levels change every so often and from lab to lab. "Normal" is a nice place to start, but is not meant to be set in stone.

The TSH and T4 levels need to be compared to other test (free T3, free T4, reverse T3, reverse T4, axillary body temperature, iodine testing, hormone testing, adrenal testing, toxicity testing, detoxification testing, insulin sensitivity, neurotransmitter levels, nutrient concentration, serum ferritin levels, physical exam findings, physical presentation, pertinent history, family history, symptom survey, or anything else that is relevant...but not anyone in particular or all of them either).

Not everyone needs tons of testing, but there are clues to look for that will help you find more clues as to what is going on. You'll never know who did it, with what and where with just the bare minimal testing, or TSH and T4.

technorati tags: low thyroid hormone TSH and T4 thyroid stimulating hormone