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.

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Underactive Thyroid and Depression - Missing This Diagnosis is Just Sad

It is well established that an underactive thyroid can cause depression. In a 1993 study entitled Subclinical hypothyroidism: a modifiable risk factor for depression?, the authors reported a significantly higher lifetime frequency of depression if subclinical hypothyroidism is present compared to those without subclinical hypothyroidism (56% compared to 20%).

In a previous post about how a low thyroid can make you feel depressed, I wrote about possible causes of the depression.

So if it is so well understood that an underactive thyroid can cause depression, why are so many doctors missing it and so many people not sticking up for themselves when they know something is not right?

First, it is not always easy to pinpoint an underactive thyroid. While there is usually some other clues that point to an underactive thyroid (family history, stubborn weight gain, thinning hair, etc.), it is not always the case.

Second, very dated information still is erroneously used. For instance, a doctor that excludes an underactive thyroid as a diagnosis because they do not live in the goiter belt will miss tons of underactive thyroid problems in his/her office.

Third, many rely on lab test as gospel. These lab test mean very little when they are interpreted without comparing the results to the individual (as this study on subclinical hypothyroidism demonstrated).

Lastly, depression is easy for a doctor. "Take these and come back in 3 months." No need to dig further or spend much time with the patient. It's an easy buck.

In cases of depression, an underactive thyroid should be considered till proven otherwise. Missing this diagnosis is just...well sad.

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Hypothyroidism and Water Weight...What's the Link?

In my last post about hypothyroidism and water weight, I showed how retaining water can cause health problems. I think that those looking to really understand what is going on with their hypothyroidism want to know "Why?"

In a lot of cases, if you know "Why," then you know how to manage it.

So here we go...

First, people with hypothyroidism have problems polymerizing certain tissue structures into usable glycoproteins.

Translation: Your body makes different types of connective tissue by combining short strands into longer ones. People with hypothyroidism have problems doing this. You end up with more of these smaller strands that aren't linked together.

Theses smaller strands have a greater cumulative hydrophilic (water loving) charge, so they attract more water.

End result is an increase water weight.

Secondly, some people with hypothyroidism have problems with both allergens and toxic metals (which can be the actual reason for the hypothyroidism). These pollutant can really cause havoc in multiple areas in the body, including the thyroid.

Your body can handle a small amount of these toxins, but struggles when the amount gets past its breaking point. Your body needs to do something to defend against these toxins.

Your body's solution to pollution is dilution.

Let's say you had very tart lemonade, what would you do? Add water.

Your body does the same thing, by adding water (retaining water) to try to lower the effects of the toxins (it dilutes it).

End result is an increase in water weight.


So there are 2 reasons for retaining water in people with hypothyroidism. One cause of water weight is due to a shift in elcertochemical charge, and the other is a defense mechanism of the body.

(And yes, both can happen in the same person)

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Retaining Water? Learn Why So Many Can't Drop The Water Weight.

Have you noticed that some people just look puffy? They have puffy eyes, their ankles look swollen, their skin looks stretched...these people are just retaining water, known as water weight.

How does water weight cause problems in those with hypothyroidism?

Cells need to maintain a certain amount of water in order to function. As a matter of fact, cells need enough water inside in order to survive.

Retaining water means that the water is not in the cells where it should be. Something has caused the water to be sucked out of the cell and it's now outside the cell (in the extracellular matrix).

Retaining water weight is a very common occurrence in hypothyroidism. Here are a couple of things you may have noticed due to it:

1. You retain more water, looking puffy or swollen all over


2. You may have some numbness and tingling in your hands and feet as the swollen tissue puts pressure on nerves


3. You have lowered blood pressure, since the water is sucked out from your blood and causes low blood volume


4. You are always cold, since you have a low blood volume


5. You are anemic despite supplementing with iron. This can happen because retaining water creates a lower blood volume, as well as the fact that hypothyroidism causes a lower production of red blood cells due to lower body temperature.


6. You are more prone to Alzheimer's disease and stroke, since you have poor blood supply to the brain.
   

Just like thinning hair, cold hands and stubborn weight loss, water weight is a sign of hypothyroidism.

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Graves' Disease Caused by a Tummy Ache?

If you are like most people (and even most doctors), you may have a hard time wrapping your mind around the fact that a problem in your gut can cause a problem in your thyroid (which is way up in your neck). There is strong evidence that proves that this just might be the underlying issue in many cases of Graves' disease.

Graves thyroiditis, also known as Graves' disease, is an autoimmune disorder that attacks the thyroid gland. While there can be acute attacks of thyroiditis, Graves' disease is usually a more slow acting autoimmune disorder.

There is evidence that a specific strand of pathogen (though there can be many different kinds not as well documented) called Yersinia enterocolitica that has been shown to cause Graves thyroiditis.

A common medical treatment for Graves thyroiditis is radiation or surgical removal of the thyroid gland. The thought is that if you remove the overactive thyroid gland, then you remove the problem. This line of thinking ignores the fact that there is still the underlying problem of the Yersinia enterocolitica.

If the treatment was aimed in addressing the pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica instead of the thyroid, you may have been able to forgo the ablating of the thyroid gland.

So how did Yersinia enterocolitica even get into the bloodstream to cause Graves' disease?

Most likely in cases of dysbiosis (or overgrowth of unhealthy bugs within your gut lining), there is an overgrowth of Yersinia enterocolitica within the gut. When this pathogen is allowed to flourish in the gut lining, changes to the gut lining may enable Yersinia enterocolitica to pass through when it should not.

Once Yersinia enterocolitica is in the bloodstream, your immune system recognizes it, tags it is a foreign invader, and then attacks it.

It is believed that the protein makeup of Yersinia enterocolitica is similar to that of the protein structures on the thyroid. What happens is your immune system gets "tag happy" and tags your thyroid gland as well. Now your body cannot decipher a difference between Yersinia enterocolitica and your thyroid gland. You now have what is known as an autoimmune disease.

There are many natural treatments that will help rid the body of Yersinia enterocolitica overgrowth, such as: probiotics, oil of oregano, tree tea oil, garlic, olive oil, aloe, glutamine, high fiber diet, exclusion of trans fats, avoidance of chronic use of antibiotics, etc.

So I hope that now you can see how treating a tummy ache can prevent an autoimmune disease and save you from cutting out or destroying a gland essential to life.

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How Having Hypothyroidism Actually Skews Thyroid Lab Testing: Part I

If you ask the majority of people who were diagnosed with hypothyroidism how they got their diagnosis, I bet their answer will be "because I had a high TSH."

Many more people are being misdiagnosed as not having hypothyroidism because of a "normal" TSH. They are being missed and aren't getting the help they need.

Using TSH testing by itself is a very flawed way of thinking. I've posted before on some of the problems with TSH testing...here's one more.

Hypothyroidism causes a person to make more mucin, which in turn holds onto water. It gets this water from sucking it out of areas that normally need it (like inside of every cell in the body). This is why people with hypothyroidism have a "swollen" look to them. They are retaining water.

So what does this have to do with TSH testing?

Well, one of the structures that swells is the pituitary gland. This is the gland that actually produces TSH to stimulate the thyroid to make thyroid hormones.

When the pituitary swells, it actually blunts the production of TSH.

So when a doctor goes to look at the results of the blood work, the blunted TSH production now falls lower and into the "normal" range. It is the symptoms of hypothyroidism (water retention) that is causing the labs to tell your doctor that according to this test, you do not have hypothyroidism.

Ironic, isn't it?

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How Having Hypothyroidism Actually Skews Thyroid Lab Testing: Part II

In a previous post, I talked about how hypothyroidism causes you to hold onto water and can give you a false reading of thyroid hormone levels. Your doctor could look at these skewed levels on the thyroid lab testing and misdiagnose you as falling into normal ranges in the thyroid hormone levels.

To continue that conversation, we are going to look at another portion of the thyroid panel that doctors often look at that give a false presentation: T4 and T3.

T4 and T3 lab test shows how much T4 and T3 are present in the blood at that instant in time. It does this by looking at the amount of T4 and T3 per volume of blood. Since hypothyroidism causes you to retain water by causing an increased production in mucin, water is sucked out of the blood and into the extracellular matrix.

Now there is a lowered blood volume, but still the same amount of T4 and T3 in the blood stream. This gives you a false reading of the thyroid hormone levels by making the T4 and T3 value seem more elevated than what is actually the case. This might even push the numbers into the normal range, making your doctor believe that everything is normal.

This is one more example that demonstrates the point that thyroid hormone levels through lab analysis need to be interpreted by comparing the results to the additional testing (like for sex hormones, adrenal stress test, nutrient levels, etc), family history, symptoms and physical presentation. This is the only way that the lab results gives any pertinent information.

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